BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:8@sciencefictionbookclub.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20100809T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20100809T220000 DTSTAMP:20250902T112823Z URL:https://www.sciencefictionbookclub.org/events/13529389/ SUMMARY:August 9th - Shadow of the Torturer & Claw of the Conciliator - Gen e Wolf DESCRIPTION:Shadow of the Torturer & Claw of the Conciliator make up the fi rst half of The Book of the New Sun. Recently voted the greatest fantasy o f all time\, after The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit\, Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is an extraordinary epic\, set in a time when our pre sent culture is no longer even a memory.\n\nSeverian is a torturer\, born into the Guild of the Seekers for Truth & Penitence and with an exceptiona lly promising career ahead of him ...until he falls in love with one of hi s clients\, a beautiful young noblewoman. Out of love\, Severian helps her commit suicide and escape her fate - no more unforgivable act for a tortu rer.\n\nHe is exiled from the guild and his home city to a distant metropo lis with little more than his executioner sword to his name. Along the way he has to learn to survive in a wider world without the guild - a world i n which he has already made both allies and enemies. Welcome to a world in which nothing is quite as it seems\; to an unreliable narrator\; to extra ordinary\, vivid and evocative writing\; to one of the greatest genre clas sics of all time.\n\nPlease note\nTwo different editions are available fro m Amazon.co.uk.\nThe first contains all four parts of The Book of the New Sun series but has quite small print.https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.c om/images/I/518VDVCzT-L.SL180.jpg\nhttps://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com /images/G/02/buttons/buy-from-tan.gif\n\nWhile the second contains only Sh adow of the Torturer & Claw of the Conciliator but has a truly awful cover .">https://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/9/b/c/e/global_15159886.j peg\nhttps://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/02/buttons/buy-from- tan.gif\n\nLanguage in the books\nThe Book of the New Sun has been widely analysed for its deeper meanings\; some of these analyses have been publis hed\, such as Michael Andre-Druissi's Lexicon Urthus (https://www.amazon.c o.uk/dp/0964279517?tag=wimbbookclub-21&camp=2902&creative=19466&linkCode=a s4&creativeASIN=0964279517&adid=0VH6K01GGR80T9WNBP6V&) and Robert Borski's Solar Labyrinth (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0595317294?tag=wimbbookclub- 21&camp=2902&creative=19466&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0595317294&adid=1A3Y YK31Q1FE4MEBF4CH&). Wolfe makes extensive use of allegory within the serie s\, as Severian is identified as a Christ/Apollo figure: he is destined to revitalize the Sun while at the same time destroying it. Adding further t o the books' many riddles is Wolfe's usage of archaic\, obscure (but never invented) words to describe the world of the far future. Wolfe explains t hat this is one of the difficulties in translating Severian's writing into English. An example can be found in Severian's fuligin cloak ("the colour that is darker than black")\, probably derived from fuliginous\, an obscu re and archaic word meaning sooty. Other examples are optimates\, named fo r a political party in Republican Rome\, aquastor\, a spiritual being that appears in the works of Paracelsus\, and fiacre\, a small carriage (which is\, in fact\, a French word with that meaning). CATEGORIES:Book Discussion LOCATION:The Golden Lion\, 25 King Street\, St James\, London\, SW1Y 6QY\, United Kingdom GEO:51.506294;-0.137464 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=25 King Street\, St James\, London\, SW1Y 6QY\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=The Golden Lion:geo:51.506294,-0.137464 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20100328T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR