Gene Wolfe

The Claw of the Conciliator: Volume 2 of The Book of the New Sun

Gene Wolfe

• 1981 Nebula winner
• 1982 Hugo-Novel nominee
• 1982 Mythopoeic-Adult finalist
• 1982 WFA–Novel nominee
• Score: 28.31

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.

The Shadow of the Torturer: Volume 1 of The Book of the New Sun

Gene Wolfe

• 1981 WFA–Novel winner
• 1981 Campbell 3rd
• 1980 Nebula nominee
• Score: 22.31

The Shadow of the Torturer is the tale of young Severian, an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession—showing mercy toward his victim.

Ursula K. Le Guin said, “Magic stuff…a masterpiece…the best science fiction I’ve read in years!”

The Sword of the Lictor: Volume 3 of The Book of the New Sun

Gene Wolfe

• 1983 Hugo-Novel nominee
• 1983 WFA–Novel nominee
• 1982 Nebula nominee
• Score: 18.33

The Sword of the Lictor is the third volume in Wolfe’s remarkable epic, chronicling the odyssey of the wandering pilgrim called Severian, driven by a powerful and unfathomable destiny, as he carries out a dark mission far from his home.

The Citadel of the Autarch: Volume 4 of The Book of the New Sun

Gene Wolfe

• 1984 Campbell 1st
• 1983 Nebula nominee
• Score: 16.34

The Citadel of the Autarch brings The Book of the New Sun to its harrowing conclusion, as Severian clashes in a final reckoning with the dread Autarch, fulfilling an ancient prophecy that will forever alter the realm known as Urth.

The Wizard Knight

Gene Wolfe

• 2005 Mythopoeic-Adult finalist
• 2005 WFA–Novel nominee
• Score: 12.55

A novel in two volumes, The Wizard Knight is in the rare company of those works which move past the surface of fantasy and drink from the wellspring of myth. Magic swords, dragons, giants, quests, love, honor, nobility-all the familiar features of fantasy come to fresh life in this masterful work.

Gene Wolfe is one of the most widely praised masters of SF and fantasy. He is the winner of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Nebula Award, twice, the World Fantasy Award, twice, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the British Fantasy Award, and France’s Prix Apollo. His popular successes include the four-volume classic The Book of the New Sun.

With this new series, Wolfe not only surpasses all the most popular genre writers of the last three decades, he takes on the legends of the past century, in a work that will be favorably compared with the best of J. R. R. Tolkien, E. R. Eddison, Mervyn Peake, and T. H. White. This is a series for the ages, from perhaps the greatest living writer in (or outside) the fantasy genre.

The Urth of the New Sun: Volume 5 of The Book of the New Sun

Gene Wolfe

• 1988 Hugo-Novel nominee
• 1988 Nebula nominee
• Score: 12.38

Essential reading for any fan of the four-volume Book of the New Sun. Severian, now the Autarch of Urth, leaves the planet on the huge spaceship of the Heirodules to travel across space and time to face his greatest test—to become the New Sun or be destroyed.

Soldier of the Mist

Gene Wolfe

• 1987 Nebula nominee
• 1987 WFA–Novel nominee
• Score: 12.37

“A marvelously fluent, evocative historical…glowing, fascinating intricate work, full of gods and ghosts and magical metamorphoses, set forth in a modern prose that agreeably captures the rhythm and spirit of the period.” —Kirkus Reviews.

Soldier of Sidon

Gene Wolfe

• 2007 WFA–Novel winner
• Score: 10.57

Latro forgets everything when he sleeps. Writing down his experiences every day and reading his journal anew each morning gives him a poignantly tenuous hold on himself, but his story’s hold on readers is powerful indeed. The two previous novels, combined in Latro in the Mist (Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Areté) are generally considered classics of contemporary fantasy. Latro now finds himself in Egypt, a land of singing girls, of spiteful and conniving deities. Without his memory, his is unsure of everything, except for his desire to be free of the curse that causes him to forget.

The visions Gene Wolfe conjures, of the wonders of Egypt, and of the adventures of Latro as he and his companions journey up the great Nile south into unknown or legendary territory, are unique and compelling. Soldier of Sidon is a thrilling and magical fantasy novel, and yet another masterpiece from Gene Wolfe.

Storeys from the Old Hotel

Gene Wolfe

• 1989 WFA–Collection winner
• Score: 10.39

Hailed as “one of the literary giants of science fiction” by The Denver Post, Gene Wolfe is universally acknowledged as one of the most brilliant writers the field has ever produced. Winner of the World Fantasy Award for best fiction collection, Storeys from the Old Hotel contains thirty-one remarkable gems of Wolfe’s short fiction from the past two decades, most unavailable in any other form.

Storeys from the Old Hotel includes many of Gene Wolfe’s most appealing and engaging works, from short-shorts that can be read in single setting to whimsical fantasy and even Sherlock Holmes pastiches. It is a literary feast for anyone interested in the best science fiction has to offer.

An Evil Guest

Gene Wolfe

• 2009 Mythopoeic-Adult finalist
• Score: 6.59

Lovecraft mets Blade Runner. This is a stand-alone supernatural horror novel with a 30s noir atmosphere. Gene Wolfe can write in whatever genre he wants—and always with superb style and profound depth. Now following his World Fantasy Award winner, Soldier of Sidon, and his stunning Pirate Freedom, Wolfe turns to the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and the weird science tale of supernatural horror.

Set a hundred years in the future, An Evil Guest is a story of an actress who becomes the lover of both a mysterious sorcerer and private detective, and an even more mysterious and powerful rich man, who has been to the human colony on an alien planet and learned strange things there. Her loyalties are divided—perhaps she loves them both. The detective helps her to release her inner beauty and become a star overnight. And the rich man is the benefactor of a play she stars in. But something is very wrong. Money can be an evil guest, but there are other evils. As Lovecraft said, “That is not dead which can eternal lie.”