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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780312863944
ISBN number: 0312863942
Label: Orb Books
Manufacturer: Orb Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: November 15, 1997
Publishing house: Orb Books
Sale Popularity Level: 41930
Studio: Orb Books
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Product Description:
Gene Wolfe has been called 'the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced' by The Washington Post. A former engineer, he has written numerous books and won a variety of awards for his SF writing.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Ok, I love Gene Wolfe's work, and own most of it in hardcover because my paperbacks grew tattered and dog-eared; this one (still in paper) looks brand-new. This work just doesn't feel right; not because the prose isn't interesting, or because of the abrupt end. It just isn't compelling enough to pick up again. There's a weird "vibe" that you get when you read much of his work that stays with you, and it just feels missing from this one- and the abrupt end doesn't leave you wanting more, it's just irritating.
Rated by buyers 
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If you've read the very first 4 books of The New Sun series and enjoyed them, just buy this book right now. There's no point in reading a review, or spoilers or anything else, positive or negative. Just buy it and read it.
After you finish, you'll probably be intrigued enough at some of the hidden meanings to re-read the very first 4 books in the series. In fact, the last 4 times I've re-read the series, I started with this book very first as it lends itself well to being both the very first and last book, because Severian's adventure is somewhat cyclical, like Finnegans Wake or what Giambattista Vico would deem a 'storia ideale eterna'.
Rated by buyers -
The Urth of the New Sun: The sequel to 'The Book of the New Sun' (New Sun) isn't so much a book as a lengthy pontification on the nature of man. As compared to other beings, Severian, tells the reader his philosophies as if they are to become volumes in his gospel (which is what we are supposed to believe.)
This is told via travelogue, where we find out where Severian has gone, what he's done, but not why. He spends much of his time trying to work through the largest of all Why questions, without resolving that satisfactorily.
But, at the end of the book, Gene Wolfe stops writing. We never find out the answers to Severian's questions because it seems that the author tired of the internal socratic dialogue, realizing that others tried before and also didn't come up with definitive conclusions.
All that said, Wolfe is still a talented writer, and even with flaws the volume is worth a read. I didn't throw it in frustration, but instead I savored the words and only became perplexed after days pondering the plot and realizing that those errors came through retrospectively.
Enjoy it, and the whole series.
- CV Rick
Rated by buyers 
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The Urth of the New Sun is a coda to the Book of the New Sun, so going into it one has to expect a few things:
1) A story that builds heavily on what has gone before- this book is not for newcomers to this world! Read New Sun first.
2) Uncomplicated plots- this book is about half a story. Don't set your expectations too high.
However, if you can look at Urth of the New Sun getting past these very first two hurdles, this book is the key that unlocks the secrets of the Book of the New Sun. Insight is provided on many questions left unanswered in the original tetralogy, and especially we learn a lot about Severian's character.
This isn't quite the Severian of New Sun, but it's still someone who has grown from there; still questionably insane, still the product of his society. Some more information is provided on the world.
All in all, the book is enjoyable, especially if you feel like you missed some major element of the Book of the New Sun. Urth of the New Sun isn't an incredible read, but it definitely filled me with some flashes of insight that made it well worth reading.
Rated by buyers -
This book clarifies most of the mysteries surrounding the New Sun series, while tantalizing us with a classic open-ended and somewhat cryptic Wolfean ending, very much in the spirit of the work. A colossal masterpiece.
Wolfe gets himself far out on a limb for this sequel yet he is able to deal beautifully with the deepest philosophical and spiritual questions,
This is a work so far beyond the genre of 'fantasy fiction' that it is really ludicrous to speak of it as anything but great literature. In a tale of weighty concerns, the leavening humour of Wolfe deals with those sci-fi tropes by turning them completely inside out. Certainly the Nerw Sun series is the Book Of Gold, and explicates the Christian Ethos in the same way that Tolkien's great work Lord Of the Rings explicated the English Civilization.
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