The Shadow of the Torturer

The Book of the New Sun, Book 1

By: Gene Wolfe

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume epic, the tale of a young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession - showing mercy towards his victim.

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

©1980 Gene Wolfe (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The best science fiction novel of the last century." (Neil Gaiman)

• World Fantasy Award, Best Novel, 1981

• Favorite Audiobooks of 2010 (Fantasy Literature)

Become a Seeker for Truth and Penitence

TBNS Review

This is a review of the four volume THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN (TBNS) by Gene Wolfe; which traces the coming of age of Severian, once a member of The Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence.

In printed form the earlier works of Gene Wolfe can be quite challenging and this is the quintessential Wolfe novel. The esoteric language employed forces your eyes to slow down and read with great care. So many of the words, while supposedly all authentic English words, are unfamiliar that looking up at least a handful of them is necessary to understand the text. As a result, the reader’s mind has time to explore Severian’s world as the protagonist himself is doing. The printed books are heavy in the hand and the weight of the pages fore and aft serve as constant reminders of what has come before, and what is yet to be.

The most telling observation I can give about the audio book is that it transforms a massive tome into a much more personal narrative. As an audio book TBNS takes on a less intimidating, much more intimate and even more friendly character. The inexorable pacing of the narrator, Jonathan Davis, does not permit pauses for reflection, or speculation, the story plows on, without pausing to try to pronounce a word, without going back to regain the flow of the plot after a difficult flashback. And it is just fine.

Jonathan Davis is a most excellent narrator for TBNS. His voice has a deep calming quality that is well suited to recounting Severian’s story. He gives each character their own individual voice. He gives a fine performance ranking this among my favorite audio books. I can recommend all four of the volumes of TBNS here on Audible without reservation.

Note: The short afterwards that are part of each of the four volumes are not included in the audio versions. They should be read to get the full effect intended by the author Gene Wolfe.

dark and perfect

the type of book that any fan of dark souls would love. this series is confusing, interesting and mind capturing all at once. a must read.

Absolutely breathtaking!

At times equally harrowing, beautiful, shocking, and labrynthine, to say The Shadow of the Torturer—both separately and in conjunction with its counterpart sequels—is a masterpiece would be a vast understatement. Severian’s journey is refreshing and colossal, the perfect voyage for the eager Science Fantasy lover. A caveat: Wolfe’s use of the English language is a double-edged sword that, all at once, cuts through the veil of prose to reveal the deeply-buried foundation of an ancient, rich, and fully-realized world, while simultaneously catapulting the reader into a carefully contrived lexiconic maze, laden with ex cathedra passages that deliver, occasionally and with stunning clarity, a sensation of reading historical essay rather than fictional narrative. You’ll find, I think, that these parts read slower than others; however, I never felt that the author was being overtly verbose, or pontificating for the sake of confusion. There was always, in the end, a point to any long-winded exhibition or seemingly obtuse narrative digression. By far, Wolfe stands on a pillar alone and away from all modern writers of the fantastic—at least, the ones I’ve had the pleasure of reading—and joins instead an echelon reserved for timeless legends like Borges, Joyce, Melville, or (as a more modern stylistic comparison) McCarthy, who share at the very least a linguistic timbre, and irrefutably an unassailable intellectual prowess. Wolfe conceives in his Urth an otherworldliness rarely seen in contemporary fiction; so believable is it that you’ll feel the stone paths beneath your feet, hear the stamping of hooves and the bustling of voices in crowded markets, cringe at the letting of a guilty “client’s” blood, yet so alien too that commonplace occurrences and behaviors to those inhabitants of Nessus will disturb and delight you at every aweless step. Pay no mind to readers who dismiss this one as “too lengthy,” or “too cumbersome.” Instead, read each part of The Book of the New Sun with the reverence of a monk reading a sacred scroll of their Ancient Order. In this way, you’ll give service to the world Wolfe has created, and, hopefully, for your sake, find favor with the Autarch.

An Overlooked Gem!

I found this series in an obscure review that called it the "other Lord of the Rings." Pretty high praise. I got the first book and devoured them all in turn... By the end I realized what I enjoyed most was the gorgeous prose. The plot is more subtle than LOTR, with more ambiguity and less obvious division between good and evil. I recommend it!

Magnificent narration for a superb classic

Would you listen to The Shadow of the Torturer again? Why?

Yes, it is quite deep and merits another read/listen after completing the series

Who was your favorite character and why?

Severian. He is the main character in this first person narrative. Although, you can't always trust his descriptions...

A start of a confusing series

Any additional comments?

This is not the worse book I've heard, but it lacks so many elements that make a story good. There's no clear direction of where it's going. It gives these fantastical scenarios without explaining anything about them. The listener is left to try and puzzle things out long after the book is done, and it's not such a happy task. It leaves far too much to interpretation and then it ends abruptly.

Is there a point?

_The Shadow of the Torturer_ by Gene Wolfe receives three stars from me. While I enjoyed the reader of this audiobook, at one point I found myself asking--what's point of this book?

First the reader. Jonathan Davis read this novel. His voice is beautiful, deep, resonate. He reads well, has a good interpretation of the characters, and can do women's voices well. They are not too far from his normal voice, but distinguished enough for the listener to recognize it's a woman. I recommend him as a reader.

The Book.

What is done well; what I enjoyed. The world building. Wolfe creates a good clear world with this novel. The descriptions are over done, and the fantasy elements clearly stated. The main character Severian is interesting as he changes some (not a lot) but some. I enjoyed the moral delimma that Severian underwent in one small section of the novel, and I felt he made the right choice for himself.

What I didn't enjoy. For me the book has no central question that it is seeking to resolve. I think it wants to have a couple. However, since the character isn't seeking to resolve any dilemmas, or problems, the reader is left with what amounts to a meandering plot. Oh the plot has direction of a kind, but no driving force that pulls it all together. At one point, I thought--its possible that this is a fantasy modern version of the Odyssey. But it isn't. At the beginning a character is introduce. This character, I believe holds the central problem of the series (not this text).

Recommended: look, it has gotten good reviews, won awards, so I think people who love fantasy will enjoy it.

Aside: I enjoy fantasy. I do. I enjoyed this book. At the same time, I was also disappointed.

Very… odd.

This whole audiobook was just odd. The whole story only describes a few days in detail, with a one long time gap in the middle. There is extensive detail, but the majority of the time, it’s a challenge to keep track of what’s actually going on in the plot, and why.

Great World Creation…Otherwise, difficult.

I like Gene Wolfe’s short stories and really wanted to like this, but it was a difficult slog.
The story starts out great and Wolfe creates a vivid and interesting world.
About halfway through, however, he loses his way and gets bogged down in terrible minutiae.
I struggled continuing with it, but forced myself to the end.

Incredible narration for an incredible story

I'm not going to review BotNS, which has a strong (if somewhat obscure) case for being the best American novel since Moby-Dick.

Jonathan Davis' narration is perfect. It's well-known that Wolfe scatters obscure language throughout the text in order to bring an alien quality to the story. Because of this reason, and because so much of the story vacillates between absurd, fantastical images and deep spirituality, it's incredibly difficult to emote Severian's inner monologue as he goes on his journey.

Yet, with Davis reading, the text is alive. His cadence is excellent, not fearing a long pause where it's needed. Davis makes the — at times — unwieldy language sound conversational and effortlessly human. His voices for other characters are not affects, being (at best) spot-on and (at worst) inspired. [One of his most interesting tricks is how he blends certain voices together: a major plot point later in the story. IYKYK.]

Most importantly, Davis narrates like a storyteller for a book that has stories within stories within stories. I've read BotNS more times than I can count and I've now listened to Davis' narration in equal measure. As someone who generally dislikes audiobooks and would have a great deal of prejudice for any narrator attempting BotNS, this feat is no small thing.