The Shadow of the Torturer
Severian is a torturer, born to the guild and with an exceptionally promising career ahead of him . . . until he falls in love with one of his victims, a beautiful young noblewoman. Her excruciations are delayed for some months and, out of love, Severian helps her commit suicide and escape her...
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Severian is a torturer, born to the guild and with an exceptionally promising career ahead of him . . . until he falls in love with one of his victims, a beautiful young noblewoman. Her excruciations are delayed for some months and, out of love, Severian helps her commit suicide and escape her fate. For a torturer, there is no more unforgivable act. In punishment he is exiled from the guild and his home city to the distant metropolis of Thrax with little more than Terminus Est, a fabled sword, to his name. Along the way he has to learn to survive in a wider world without the guild - a world in which he has already made both allies and enemies. And a strange gem is about to fall into his possession, which will only make his enemies pursue him with ever-more determination . . .
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780671253257 (0671253255)
Publish date: May 1st 1980
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages no: 276
Edition language: English
Series: The Book of the New Sun -2 (#1)
Very dark chocolate. Blatantly part one of a quadrilogy (my copy is the SF Masterworks imprint which bundles ‘Shadow’ with ‘The Claw Of The Conciliator’) what we have here is low on action, high on characterisation, a through-the-roof central idea and much subtlety, particularly of prose. Probably a...
It took me a long time to read such a short book due to my work schedule. I often only managed to read for a few minutes at a time because I kept having to drop what I was doing at a moment’s notice. Today was supposed to be a day off (my first after 14 days), and I ended up working for most of it...
I'm abandoning this audiobook. I've read it before in print and although the narrator isn't bad, I'm bored by it. The print version was actually interesting. The audio one just doesn't work for me.
I really liked the ancient archaic feel of this book even though it is set in the far distant future. I can't wait to read the rest of the tetralogy.
The tale of young Severian, an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession -- showing mercy toward his victim -- and follows his subsequent journey out of his home city of Nessus. So this week may not have been the appropria...
7 years ago
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