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)

great writing, won't appeal to everyone

There was a time when the fantasy genre didn't just exist to entertain, but sometimes aspired to a higher level of artfulness. The Shadow of the Torturer is such a book. Set in a far distant future, when Earth's sun is fading and human society has lost much of its technological aptitude, Wolfe's novel has a haunting, elegiac quality. It's written in a voice reminiscent of 19th century writers like Poe or Dickens, which adds to the melancholy beauty. Fortunately for the squeamish, though torture is part of the story, it's not described in much detail.

In terms of plot, The Shadow of the Torturer isn't a complex novel. The protagonist grows up under the protection of a strange, cloistered society, learns a few things about the outside world, betrays his guardians, and is thrown out to seek his own fortune -- familiar fantasy stuff. But what sets the book apart from standard swords-and-sorcery fare is the richness of its language and the great imagination in its details; the difference is like comparing a fine oil painting to a crude computer graphic rendering. It has subtlety that forces the reader to pay attention. Wolfe messes with time and space, contemplates philosophical ideas, writes long exchanges whose import isn't immediately clear, and relies on the audience to make sense of the strange, slightly dreamlike events that unfold in the story, rather than spelling out how they're connected.

Without a doubt, this is a book that will absorb some readers and alienate others. Wolfe's ornate, college-level English, though not difficult, is not for everyone. Nor will everyone relate to the protagonist's detached, clinical voice. Basically, if you're looking for a light, Harry Potter-style book with instantly charismatic characters, you're better off going elsewhere. But, for readers who appreciate sophisticated writing and atmospheric, textured imaginary worlds, this is a great read.

"All of you are torturers, one way or another"

The Shadow of the Torturer (1980), the first of the four books that comprise Gene Wolfe's science fiction masterpiece The Book of the New Sun, is a rich, moving, and challenging novel. Just in the first few chapters we learn that narrator Severian (who is writing his life story) was an orphan apprentice of the guild of torturers (the Seekers for Truth and Penitence) in the Citadel of sprawling Nessus (the City Imperishable) in the far future of Urth (earth?), under a dying sun; that the towers of the Citadel are long-derelict spaceships; that Severian has an eidetic memory; and that his youthful encounter with the rebel leader Vodalus set in motion events that will lead him to betray his guild, become an exile, and sit on the throne.

The novel is disturbing! There are glimpses of the appalling "excruciations" the guild performs upon its "clients," and many characters are afflicted with grief, including Severian, who is cursed to remember every detail of his sad experiences. But it is also funny, as in the eccentric and grotesque characters like Dr. Talos and Baldanders and the banter between Severian and Agia.

Severian's history is a demanding read. As in novels like A Voyage to Arcturus, everything seems to bear symbolic as well as narrative meaning. And Severian is not a completely reliable narrator, for he often lies and may be insane, and although he remembers everything, he selectively tells his story, at times eliding painful things and alluding to them later while narrating different events. And some things he recounts question the reality of his world (and ours).

Severian has much to say about reality, memory, history, story, art, culture, justice, religion, meaning, and love. Provocative lines punctuate his text. Symbols "invent us, we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." Or "time turns our lies to truths." Or "the charm of words … reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us."

Additionally, the richness of the novel's language, the elegance of its style, and the fertility of its imagination require slow savoring. In Severian's text common words rub shoulders with archaic or obscure ones, evoking the exotic texture of his world, as in names for officials (autarch, archon, castellan, chiliarch, lochage) and beasts of burden (dromedaries, oxen, metamynodons, onagers, hackneys).

Numerous descriptions yield shivers of pleasure: "She sighed, and all the gladness went out of her face, as the sunlight leaves the stone where a beggar seeks to warm himself." Or "Behind the altar rose a wonderful mosaic of blue, but it was blank, as if a fragment of sky without cloud or star had been torn away and spread upon the curving wall." Or "(A spell there was, surely, in this garden. I could almost hear it humming over the water, voices chanting in a language I did not know but understood.)"

Numerous scenes impress themselves on mind and heart, as when Severian visits the blind caretaker of the Borgesian library, finds a horribly wounded fighting dog, connects Thecla to the revolutionary, receives the black sword Terminus Est, falls into the Lake of Birds in the Garden of Everlasting Sleep, performs for the first time the mysteries of his guild's art, or witnesses a miracle with Dorcas.

Jonathan Davis adds so much to the novel with his witty and compassionate reading, modifying his voice to enhance each character without drawing attention to himself. And it's a pleasure to hear him relish Wolfe's beautiful prose or say words like anacreontic, carnifex, epopt, fuligin, fulgurator, hipparch, paracoita, and psychopomp. (Though it does help to have the text handy!)

At the end of The Shadow of the Torturer, Severian says he cannot blame his reader for refusing to follow him any more through his life, for "It is no easy road." Nevertheless, the next three novels reward the effort to read them manifold.

Original, Difficult and Well-Crafted.

I am almost anti-fantasy. I find most derivative at best and banal to the extreme. Wolfe's first book in his famous The Book of the New Sun tetralogy, however, is genre fiction at its finest. Original, difficult and well-crafted, it is easy to see how Wolfe is regarded as a writer's writer.

Great reading of an intellectual masterpiece

Thought-provoking, image-rich and intricately plotted. This series has had a prized place on my bookshelf for years and I was thrilled to see it available as an audiobook. Even better, Jonathan Davis as narrator has a moderately slow (but not too slow) pace, great voice characterization, and handles the author's challenging and singular vocabular with ease.
Wolfe is subtle, profound writer and demands close attention from his readers/ listeners; this is not a surf-along novel. If your attention is distracted for a minute, you could miss something vital, and need to rewind -- I sometimes have had to do that as I listen. But most of the time I am completely engrossed. This is one of the best finds I've made, ever.
I hope to see more Wolfe audiobooks- beginning with this series' sequel/ continuance, "The Urth of the New Sun".

Not for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

This is maybe one of the saddest books I've read. An overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness pours out of each line. It is deeply emotional book, and I don't think such a book is for everyone.

If you need constant action, hope, a quest, a hero with a purpose, and so on, this is not the book for you. There isn't even the hope of redemption for the protagonist and he really could use it. The story really is something quite dark and often times aimless.

Now, I completely enjoyed the book and found myself easily lost in the story. I don't doubt it is due a good deal to the excellent narration. The random wandering, discoveries, and encounters keep the story moving along and interesting. It is a very dream-like tale.

The only issue I had was that the author does ramble more than once, even to the point of being annoying in a few instances. Once during the book, I did sigh and think, "Can we get on with it?" However, this did not spoil my overall enjoyment.

In short, it's a great story if you can appreciate a great setting where hope isn't offered as the protagonist wanders aimlessly into exile.

The character Jonathan Davis was born to play!

This book is the first part in a five part series, and only the first four books are available on Audible. I would say that this series is the story of the torturer's apprentice Severian, and his journey from lowest and most despised member of society to the throne, set in a far future Earth in which civilization and society are on a slow decline. I would say that, except that this is less a story and more a multi-dimensional mental jigsaw puzzle. The series requires that you, the listener, pay a great deal of attention to the plot, characters and vocabulary, and then listen to the whole thing all over again, possibly a few times, to get the richness, complexity and beauty of Gene Wolfe's vision. If you are prepared to make that kind of commitment, this is a great bargain as it will repay you in many hours of listening pleasure, getting better each time you listen again.

If you are not familiar with Gene Wolfe's work, you would probably be surprised to hear this series compared to Lord of the Rings. After all, how many stories can live up to that kind of comparison? Amazingly The Book of the New Sun series does, and in some ways exceeds it, as these are more adult stories with some added layers of complexity.

Audible really outdid themselves with this production. I can't imagine a finer narrator for this series than Jonathon Davis. His pacing, emphasis, vocal expressions and various character renderings are flawless. The pacing is particularly important, as nearly every sentence contains some clue to solving the final puzzle.

I hope the final book in the series, The Urth of the New Sun, will be available at some point. Although written a few years after the first four in the series, it fits in so well with the rest of the story and solves so many unanswered questions that it appears to have been planned all along.

Worthy

I am so glad I have found another author that I can trust to deliver a worthwhile experience. It is really a bad deal to take a gamble on a new writer and feel you 'wasted' your credits.

When the reviews are skimpy, I run to other review sites to see what others say. It appears that the titles have been changed a bit from the original works. At first, I thought the book left off in a ridiculous place until I realized that I only d/l'ed the first of 2 parts. I have already d/l'ed the 2nd book so there will be no waiting.

I rarely write reviews but since there are so few, I thought I would say a word or two to others who spend their credits cautiously. This writer is sophisticated and dark. I think of Robin Hobb's strong character development mixed with Robert Jordan's poetic skill. Any would be writers would do well to humble yourself observing this writers mastery.

If you are looking for something after this, I strongly recommend R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series. Pretty much, most works pale in comparison to R.R. Martin's.

I hope this is helpful.

It's time to read it this epic!

The Shadow of the Torturer introduces Severian, an orphan who grew up in the torturer's guild. Severian is now sitting on a throne, but in this first installment of The Book of the New Sun, he tells us of key events in his boyhood and young adulthood. The knowledge that Severian will not only survive, but will become a ruler, doesn't at all detract from the suspense; it makes us even more curious about how he will get there and what he experiences on the way.

What makes Gene Wolfe's epic different from everything else on the SFF shelf is his unique, evocative storytelling style. The reader isn't given all of the history and religion lessons (etc.) that are often dumped on us at the beginning of a fantasy epic. Rather, Severian's story is episodic and seems like it's meandering lazily, taking regular scenic detours, as if there's nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there. Because the story isn't a straight narrative, we don't understand the purpose or meaning of everything Severian relates ??? we have to patch it together as we go. By the end of the book, we're still clueless about most of it and we're starting to realize that Severian is kind of clueless, too. Much of the power of this novel comes from the sense that there is world-building and symbolism on a massive scale here, but that explanations and revelations for the reader would just cheapen it and remove the pleasure that comes from the experience of discovery.

In addition to being unique in style, The Shadow of the Torturer is a gorgeous piece of work: passionate storytelling (heart-wrenching in places), fascinating insights into nature and the human condition, beautiful prose.

The Tortuered Reader

If you look at the ratings of this book you will see that people are all over the map on this book, as they are with this writer in general. GW has won high praises for this series, along with The Fifth Head of Cereberus and Seven American Nights.

It seems either you get him or you don't. I am afraid that I fall under the crowd that does not get him. Some have said it is the torture that turns people off to the book. No, it is the pretentious use of language that is the biggest problem for me. At times it seems that there is a good story here. A world where a guild of torturers is considered necessary. A young man who does not know his parents and knows nothing, but the life of torture. What a concept! Yet when you try to read it, the language is so annoying and unusual that your mind starts to wonder and you lose track of the story.

There where parts I liked. His compassion for the lady to be tortured, the dog he rescues, the tunnel under the city. There is an interesting plot twist involving a duel, only it is a duel with plants.

There are certain things that turn me off to a book, such as dream sequences like the one this book starts out with and the use of strange languages or made up language or sticking too many high fluent words together in one space, so that your mind gets lost. Some love this or pretend to love, so they don't seem stupid to others. I can admit I am stupid and say I don't enjoy such literature.

The narrator is rather slow and methodical and I found it helped to put the playback on fast.

Excellent Read!

This is a remarkable book. Well crafted, rich language, delicate narrative. Certainly not filled with slashing heroes or delicate heroines and certainly not for everyone, but then neither is 20 year old scotch. If you enjoy language and the magic of words you will love this book. The narrator does a beautiful job bringing the characters to life...perfection.

Gene Wolfe's classic masterwork

Gene Wolfe's 4-volume 'Book of the New Sun' (5 volumes, when you add 'The Urth of the New Sun') is arguably one of the finest works of 20th century fiction, not just SF/fantasy. Like Jack Vance's 'Dying Earth' series (to which it respectfully nods), Wolfe sets his story so far in the future that SF and fantasy meld. Our own and subsequent ages survive only in garbled myth and archaeology. The story is beautifully written, and brims with stunning ideas, literary influences and inventiveness. Once appreciated, it lingers forever in the memory. On one level it can be read simply as a superior SF/fantasy story. However, new readers should be aware that it's much more tricksy than it first seems. Every sentence is carefully and deliberately crafted, the narrator can not always be relied on for accuracy, characters are often much more than they seem, and what appear to be inconsequential details assume huge significance later in the work. It repays multiple re-readings in a way few works do. If you get to the end and have enjoyed it, track down 'Solar Labyrinth' by Robert Borski and 'Lexicon Urthus' by Michael Andre-Driussi, and prepare to be gob-smacked and delighted by what you've missed. Then re-read it from the beginning!

The narration is high quality and admirably serves the series. Just the right amount of voice characterisation without 'over acting'. Bravo audible!

Very, very good

I've been waiting and hoping that Wolfe's Book of the New Sun would get an audiobook version. In terms of the original text Wolfe's work stands alongside that of Tolkien and Herbert, among the greatest and most rewarding of authors, one whose profound work repays the reader in direct proportion to their own effort. Now we get to listen to this lengthy meditation on love, memory and identity...and what a listen it is!

The narration is smooth and measured and fits very well the tone and tempo of the book in my opinion. The complexity of Severian's character and the original text are well-served by Jonathon Davis and I would heartily recommend this to any fan of Wolfe. And if you're not already a fan of Wolfe this just might change your mind.

Fantastic

This is the first volume of the "Book of the New Sun". Wherever I read about this book before, I read that it is SF. I am not sure how to call it myself. There are a lot of surprising turns in the story. After listening to a third of it, I was convinced it is an unusual piece of fantasy; but then the story developed into something completely fantastic, full of symbolism, almost bizarre. For me, this book has more in common with the novels of E.T.A Hoffmann and the German romanticists of the early 19th century than with either SF or modern fantasy. The narration is excellent. Among the best I have listened to in the last year. If you have read something about Gene Wolfe, then you know about his frequent use of obscure words. But this was not as big a problem as I feared. My dictionary was not much help, though, and I had some opportunity to use the OED (unabridged) at my office. But this is extra fun, and you don't need to do this for following the story. I just downloaded the second volume of the series: "The Claw of the Conciliator".

Meandering and dull

Based on the reviews I had high expectations for this book. However it the narrative focuses often focuses on detail does not grip or engross you. Despite listening for 4 hours I just couldn't engage with this book and found my mind wandering. I have listened to a large number of audio books and this is if only 2 I have turned off. My advice would be to give this a wide hearth.
Very disappointed

Captivating - took me a while to get into the book

It took me a while to get into this book. I listen to audio-books while driving/walking/cleaning etc, and I found my attention drifting during the first hour (or so) of this book. However, once got to know Severian - once I gained a strong impression of who he was and the complications of his life - I was hooked. Every character is interesting, even the smallest peripheral characters are well developed. I strongly recommend this book and the rest of the series.

30hrs of trite, meaningless (well-acted) waffle

What would have made The Shadow of the Torturer better?

Imagine someone writing two dozen prompts in different universes with different tones, different characters and in divergent styles. Then imagine someone trying to piece together these half-stories into a narrative and this is what you end up with. The story is a set of disconnected impressions which meander without purpose. The author is EXTREMELY free in introducing imaginary words, and has a habit of reeling them off. An example: "This reminded me of the flargulburt, and the whoopy-di, and the crested hooplesnap. On the flinning of Voling, I often found myself gazing at the flargulburts before the hour of the Ydwan. " Each 'scene' of the story just vomits inconsequential characters burbling about nothing at all.

What will your next listen be?

I will be listening to work that has critical literary acclaim, rather than relying on cult success.

What does Jonathan Davis bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The narrator for this audiobook is literally the only redeeming feature; he is able to create discrete characters easily and memorably, and strides with aplomb through the made-up waffling of the author.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Shadow of the Torturer?

The book doesn't need anything cut, it needs to be slashed, gutted and reassembled into a cohesive narrative. We don't need 30 hours to go over literally two plot points - leaving his childhood home after a betrayal, and meeting some people on the way.

Any additional comments?

I was pointed towards this book as an interesting set of stories based in a dead and dying world, with superstition and suspicion among laymen. This is functionally correct: there sentences dotted around talking about 'space' or 'cells', or 'electricity' - but aside from that it might as well be set in a fairy-tale kingdom.I don't often write reviews like this, but I had such high hopes and NOTHING HAPPENS. The book is a TOTAL WASTE OF YOUR TIME.

Dark and dreamy

There are plenty of reviews to suggest the quality of this work but I would single out the narration as one of the best matched to the story I have come across in listening to 100+ Audiobooks.

darkly beautiful

This series has always been one of my all time favourites....a beautifully written saga set a million years in the future when our sun is dying and the eons of history preceding this story have faded beyond myth.Wolfe crafts a tale that works on numerous levels,indeed this novel has been voted a SF masterwork and its obvious why.just buy it,you wont be disappointed I promise...a magical experience

Regretfully disappointed.

Had been advised that this was one of those “Books you must read’” but never got round to I tried this. Sorry but disappointed, it comes across as a depressed reader/narrator and that drags the story, like something you really want to end.
I can’t recommend it.

Good, if a bit slow

overall thought this was a good book. really great world building and interesting characters. my only two slight criticisms are I think it was very slow to start, and I thought the actor sounded similar for a few of the male characters which made some dialogue sections hard to follow but got used to it.