I've gotten all the way through the first hundred pages... I'm such a slow reader, especially with the World Series on... anyway, this book is amazing so far. There is indeed a lot of Gene Wolfe here, not direct allusions, but themes. What's most Wolfean about it, I feel, is the way that themes revolving around archetype-given-form are woven so effortlessly into every element of the writing. This was a huge asset in Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, and it is here too. It's amazing to see this phenomenon manifesting itself through a fresh style. It's as if Abraham is channeling Wolfe through a style that's more like George R. R. Martin, but not quite the same. It's unique!
I’ve never read anything by Gene Wolfe, but it sounds like I should. Actually, The Shadow of the Torturer is on a list of books that usually migrates slowly over to my to-be-read list, usually when one of them goes on sale. The odds are good that I’ll get to it eventually.
Wolfe's style takes some getting used to, and most readers feel confused, to varying degrees, at the end of any of novels. But if you commit to digging out meaning and playing around with his riddles, you'll get a lot out of the experience... and then, when you read The Book of the New Sun for the second time, it's like the heavens open up and the ray of understanding shines down. :)
It also helps to find forums where people try to explain what's going on... which, I admit, I have done on a few occasions.
I’ve never read anything by Gene Wolfe, but it sounds like I should. Actually, The Shadow of the Torturer is on a list of books that usually migrates slowly over to my to-be-read list, usually when one of them goes on sale. The odds are good that I’ll get to it eventually.
It also helps to find forums where people try to explain what's going on... which, I admit, I have done on a few occasions.