The Claw of the Conciliator

The Book of the New Sun, Book 2

By: Gene Wolfe

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

The Claw of the Conciliator continues the saga of Severian, banished from his home, as he undertakes a mythic quest to discover the awesome power of an ancient relic, and learn the truth about his hidden destiny.

Listen to more in the Book of the New Sun series.

©1982 Gene Wolfe (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1982

further down the rabbit hole

great follow up, sometimes in a fantasy or science fiction series the magic dies after book one because all of the world building has been revealed, Wolfe keeps you guessing and I'm sure I'll still be guessing when I finish the fourth book (but in a good way).

Brilliant Enought to Engage a NON Fantasy Reader.

While the plot continues with the story Wolfe started in The Shadow of the Torturer, structurally Wolfe gets a little funkier with his second book. I liked it a lot, even though understanding it is sorta like seeking clarity in a broken mirror floating down in swift-flowing river.

More engaging than the first book

Big uptick in pacing from the first book. slows down sometimes, but Claw redeemed Shadow of the Torturer for me

Absolute masterpiece paired with exceptional narration.

One of my favorite books of all time, the narrator does an exceptional job. Bring more Wolfe to audible please!!

Such an amazing book, series and voice!

This is the greatest sci-fy series written!
Jonathan-Davis Is the perfect orator for this collection!

Lacking drive

I loved the first book in this series. it was fantastical, and the narration if the story was from a solid PoV. Two plot devices from the first novel, a play, and a dreamlike quality in certain scenes, which were charming and worked to move the story forward, were grossly over used here, hampering the story for their own use' sake. Wolfe shot himself in the foot with this one.

Wolfe is unlike anything else in sci fi....

after devouring and absolutely loving book 1 I was a bit worried that book 2 might pale in comparison or not live up to my now very high expectations for the continuation of Severians story. any such worries were quickly abated... the journey continues to compel and captivate, unfolding with dark mystery and haunting beauty in Wolfe's incomparable style and genius storytelling. his imagination is unlike anything else I have ever read in sci fi or fantasy...

fascinating world

I read this series when it first came out and seeing it here as an audiobook gave me the perfect opportunity to listen to it again and was glad to have my original opinion fully supported. Wolfe creates such fascinating characters and such a vibrant, fully realized world that you get totally sucked in. Jonathan Davis also does an excellent job in making Wolfe's prose--very ornate--pop and come alive.

Strange and fascinating

If you read The Shadow of the Torturer and felt like you were lost (or drunk), and weren???t sure whether things would get clearer in the second book, I have to tell you that no, they don???t. But if you, like me, enjoy that dreamy I???m-not-sure-where-I-am-or-how-I-got-here-or-where-I???m-going-but-everything-sure-feels-fine literary experience, then read on, because Severian???s head is a strange and fascinating place to be.

The Book of the New Sun is one of those works that some people think is ingenious and others suspect is just drivel. This is not the series for a reader who wants a quick-paced action-filled story with a concrete beginning, middle and end. This is for someone who???s in the mood to be open-minded and has the time and patience for some experimentation with character, setting, and theme. (And, perhaps, some mind-altering drugs might help.)

Gene Wolfe doesn???t much care for a traditional fantasy setting and he also doesn???t respect the traditional mechanics of storytelling. Tight plot? Why bother? This story wanders ??? seemingly aimlessly ??? all across the country (or maybe not, because we may have ended up where we started, but who knows?). Characters, conversations, and events that appear to be significant may mean nothing. There are hints of lost races, species, technologies, knowledge, and allegorical meaning that may never be explained and connected for us at the end. There is plenty of bizarreness (even an Ames Room!), which is what I enjoy most.

Wolfe???s world is rich, most of what happens is unexpected, and the reader feels completely helpless to predict anything or even to be assured that things that will work out as they???re ???supposed to??? in a fantasy novel... But we???re in Gene Wolfe???s creative hands, so it???s not the destination; it???s the journey.

The strange world deepens

If ever there was a "marmite" series in fantasy, it would be Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. To its admirers, it's one of the most brilliant, literary works in the genre; to its detractors, it's frustrating and overly cryptic.

Either way, Wolfe's creation is like nothing else in fantasy. Set eons in the future, when the planet is covered in the remnants of long-forgotten civilizations and the sun is beginning to go out from some mysterious ailment, the cycle follows the journeys of Severian, the torturer's apprentice cast out of his guild for showing mercy to a captive. Gifted (or cursed) with an exceptional memory, the older Severian recounts his experiences to readers with the assumption that we're from his own time.

The style takes some getting used to. Severian's recollections often have a dreamlike quality, with seemingly insignificant events described in detail, and important occurrences sometimes mentioned only in passing. Between that and the odd, archaic terminology, the reader has to pay close attention to keep up with what's going on. The little background details have a way of becoming important later, and not everyone is what they seem at first -- even the protagonist.

Yet, Wolfe's world-creation rivals Tolkien's in its richness and color. Everything Severian glimpses seems infused with the half-forgotten history of a very old planet, where some technology remains but seems on a level akin to magic. I loved the strange, wondrous background and trying to guess at the significance of semi-familiar legends and encounters with odd beings or characters. In my opinion, too many contemporary fantasy writers hold their readers’ hands and *explain* everything -- Wolfe keeps a lot tantalizingly mysterious, and leaves us to make small connections ourselves. More of that, please.

This is the second book in the series, continuing the picaresque travels of Severian and his companions, including a new one, north from the city of Nessus. While the first volume explored his childhood and turned him loose in a world he didn’t fully understand, this one thrusts him into different dangers and intrigues, including several romantic liaisons. We learn more about the strange Doctor Talos and his ad hoc performance troupe, about the titular gemstone’s powers, about the rebel Vodalus, and about the autarch and his underground citadel. Thecla, from book one, returns in a way that’s quite original. There's even a story-within-a-story, a play that reveals a little about the mythology around the idea of a New Sun (though it’s somewhat confusing). As before, Wolfe's grasp of language is amazing, switching between horror, subtle humor, profound observation, and recognition of small, meaningful moments.

There are clearly multiple layers to this story, so don't expect to have fewer questions when you get to the end than you did after the last book. Which is to say, Wolfe answers some questions, but throws new puzzle pieces onto the table. At this point, I'm definitely hooked on Severian's tale, but I'm not sure if I can properly "review" any of these until I've grasped the entirety of this whole ambitious cycle.

Audiobook narrator Jonathan Davis, whose cool, ironic voice I'm already a big fan of, is very well-suited to Severian's detached written voice. He might even humanize him a little more.