Matthew Chiarello - The Book of the New Sun: A Solar Cycle Chapter Guide

The Book of the New Sun

A Solar Cycle Chapter Guide

The Shadow of the Torturer The Claw of the ConciliatorThe Sword of the Lictor The Citadel of the Autarch Matthew Chiarello

Copyright 2021 by Matthew P. Chiarello All Rights Reserved

First Edition

F

A Note

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No guide to the Book of the New Sun is definitive.

This book is no exception.

What follows is a chapter-by-chapter summary of the tetralogy that is as spoiler-free as possible.

This guide is merely a companion to, and not a substitute for, Gene Wolfes oblique, beautiful, and mystical text.

And now, the pelagic argosy sights land!

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everian, Drotte, Roche, and Eata are returning home from a swim in the River Gyoll. The path leads through S a necropolis but the gate to the graveyard is locked.

Several men approach Severian and his friends and identify themselves as volunteer protectors of the buried dead.

Although they open the gate, the volunteers will not permit the boys to pass. Nevertheless, Eata slips through the entry and into the necropolis. Several volunteers give chase. Meanwhile, Drotte tells the remaining volunteers that he and his companions are physicians assistants sent to collect medicinal herbs from the graves. This lie does not convince the volunteers, one of whom asks the boys to retrieve Eata.

Once inside the graveyard, a laser weapon is fired and everyone scatters into the fog. In the confusion, Severian bumps into a man, who is one of three graverobbers. The man, and his compatriots, Vodalus and Thea, are removing a corpse from the ground. A fight between the graverobbers and the volunteers ensues and Vodalus is knocked to the ground. One of the volunteers attempts to kill Vodalus with an ax, but Severian grabs the weapon. The skirmish ends with several volunteers dead and the graverobbers unharmed.

Vodalus and Severian meet, with Severian dedicating himself as a supporter of Vodalus. As thanks for saving his life, Vodalus gives Severian a coin. The graverobbers escape into the mist and leave the necropolis in a flying machine. Severian indicates that this incident set in motion his journey to becoming autarch.

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s an apprentice of the Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence, Severian describes the A practices of the torturers guild. In particular, Severian indicates that the guild does not accept volunteers. Instead, it draws its recruits from its pregnant prisoners or from orphans who arrive at the Matachin Tower. Severian notes that in its prime the guild was large and staffed by both men and women. Now, the Order is in decline with only two masters and twenty journeymen, all men.

Severian describes a mausoleum near the Matachin Tower that he claims as his own and in which he spends some of his leisure time.