book 3 of The Book of the New Sun

by Gene Wolfe

isbn: 0671454501
subject: SF, Fiction and Literature
finished: 7/3/2001

The third Book of the New Sun, in which Severian betrays another employer and flees north towards the Pelerines and the war with the Ascians, contains some of the most surreal episodes in the Book, such as Severian's encounter with Typhon, a two-headed tyrant from the distant past. It also provides a setup for Severian's trials in the fourth book: towards the end of Sword he is stripped of his most powerful possessions -- Terminus Est and the Claw. Wolfe's prose is polished and flowing, and this is a great book.