Severian, wygnany z konfraterni katów za złamanie zasad, dotarł do Thraxu. Obejmuje stanowisko liktora i sumiennie wypełnia obowiązki strzegąc więźniów i ścinając skazańców. Mimo poszukiwań nie zdołał zwrócić Pazura Łagodziciela — klejnot o uzdrawiającej mocy zaczyna mu ciążyć, odbierając spokój i sen. Severian wyczuwa coraz bardziej mrok gromadzący się nad światem, zaczyna wątpić w swoje powołanie, aż wreszcie wbrew rozkazowi archonta daruje życie kobiecie skazanej na uduszenie. Musi uciekać z Thraxu i udaje się na północ, w góry zamieszkane przez istoty, które odrzuciły człowieczeństwo. Rozpoczyna niebezpieczną podróż, która wyjaśni wiele kłębiących się wokół niego tajemnic.

Zanim Severian, wygnaniec z konfraterni katów, dotrze do miejsca swego zesłania, Thraxu, musi pokonać licznych wrogów i wiele czyhających na niego niebezpieczeństw. Prześladowany przez okrutne wspomnienia i straszne wizje nie wie, czy zawdzięcza je swej absolutnej pamięci czy ogarniającemu świat mrokowi. Zawraca z obranej drogi, aby zwrócić skradziony klejnot, Pazur Łagodziciela, który przypadkiem znalazł się w jego posiadaniu. Zaatakowany przez dziwne istoty odkrywa, że klejnot nie tylko emanuje błękitnym blaskiem, ale ma też niesamowitą, magiczną moc. ?Lubię Wolfe’a. Szczególnie rozsmakowałem się właśnie w Księdze Nowego Słońca.

Otrzymała nagrodę Nebula w 1981.

Otrzymała nagrodę Locus w 1981.

Nominowana do nagrody Hugo w 1982.

Powieść można porównać do tkaniny o skomplikowanym, fascynującym wzorze, misternie utkanej z wątków trzech, pozornie odrębnych, mikropowieści. Każda z nich stanowi pasjonującą lekturę, razem tworzą natomiast zupełnie nową jakość; dopiero przewróciwszy ostatnią kartkę czytelnik zaczyna sobie uświadamiać jak wielkie znaczenie miały pozornie mało istotne wzmianki rozrzucone w tekście i natychmiast zaczyna czytać książkę od nowa, by móc w pełni docenić mistrzostwo Gene Wolfe'a, jednego z najbardziej oryginalnych i fascynujących twórców współczesnej science fiction.

Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, on an Earth transformed in mysterious and wonderful ways. Severian is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and now journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner’s sword, Terminus Est.

Won Nebula Award for Best novel in 1981.

Won Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1982.

Nominated for Hugo and World Fantasy Awards in 1982.

Far from Earth two sister planets, Sainte Anne and Sainte Croix, circle each other. It is said that a race of shapeshifting aliens once lived here, only to become extinct when human colonists arrived. But one man believes they still exist, somewhere out in the wilderness. In , Gene Wolfe brilliantly interweaves three tales: a scientist’s son gradual discovery of the bizarre secret of his heritage; a young man’s mythic dreamquest for his darker half; the mystifying chronicle of an anthropologist’s seemingly-arbitrary imprisonment. Gradually, a mesmerising pattern emerges.

Recently voted the greatest fantasy of all time after and , Gene Wolfe’s is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, on an Earth transformed in mysterious and wonderful ways. Severian is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims, and now journeying to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner’s sword, Terminus Est.

Won BSFA Award and World Fantasy Award in 1981.

Nominated for Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1981.

Banished for the sin of mercy, Severian, one of the ancient guild of Torturers, flees from exile. In a mountain wilderness he meets the Alzabo, in whom those eaten seem to live on, adopts as son only to lose him in battle, discharges an old debt to vengeance, encounters fanged aliens who hide behind masks of beauty, and helps the people of the floating islands in their unending battle for freedom.

Won British Fantasy Award in 1983.

Won Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1983.

Nominated for BSFA Award in 1982.

Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1982.

Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1983.

Nominated for World Fantasy Award in 1983.

The final volume of  series.

Severian, formerly a member of the Torturers’ Guild and now Autarch of Urth, travels beyond the boundaries of time and space aboard the Ship of Tzadkiel on a mission to bring the New Sun to his dying planet. Wolfe demonstrates his mastery of both style and content in this complex, multilayered story of one man’s eternal quest.

Nominated for Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards in 1988.

Naprawdę mam na imię Severian. Przyjaciele, których nigdy nie miałem zbyt wielu, nazwali mnie Severianem Kulawym. Żołnierze, których niegdyś miałem mnóstwo, choć nie aż tak wielu, jakbym chciał, nazywali mnie Severianem Wielkim. Nieprzyjaciele, którzy mnożyli się jak muchy na bitewnych polach zasłanych trupami, nazywali mnie Severianem Oprawcą. Byłem ostatnim Autarchą Wspólnoty, a tym samym jedynym prawowitym władcą planety znanej podówczas jako Urth.

SUMMARY: The Book of the New Sun is unanimously acclaimed as Gene Wolfe's most remarkable work, hailed as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" by "Publishers Weekly," and "one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century" by "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction." "Shadow & Claw "brings together the first two books of the tetralogy in one volume: "The Shadow of the Torturer" is 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. Ursula K. Le Guin said, "Magic stuff . . . a masterpiece . . . the best science fiction I've read in years!" "The Claw of the Conciliator "continues the saga of Severian, banished from his home, as he undertakes a mythic quest to discover the awesome power of an ancient relic, and learn the truth about his hidden destiny. "Arguably the finest piece of literature American science fiction has yet produced [is] the four-volume Book of the New Sun."--"Chicago Sun-Times" "The Book of the New Sun establishes his preeminence, pure and simple. . . . The Book of the New Sun contains elements of Spenserian allegory, Swiftian satire, Dickensian social consciousness and Wagnerian mythology. Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within . . . once into it, there is no stopping.""--The New York Times Book Review" 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. "The Book of the New Sun," a series of four novels, is unanimously acclaimed as Wolfe's most memorable work, hailed by "Publishers Weekly" as a "masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis"--and by "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction" as "one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century." "Shadow & Claw" collects the first two novels in this Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning tetralogy: "The Shadow of the Torturer" and "The Claw of the Conciliator." ""The Book of the New Sun" establishes [Wolfe's] pre-eminence, pure and simple . . . "The Book of the New Sun" contains elements of Spenserian allegory, Swiftian satire, Dickensian social consciousness, and Wagnerian mythology. Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within . . . Once into it, there is no stopping."--"The New York Times Book Review" "Arguably the best piece of literature American science fiction has yet produced."--"Chicago Sun-Times"

SUMMARY: I Master of the House of Chains “It was in my hair, Severian,” Dorcas said. “So I stood under the waterfall in the hot stone room—I don’t know if the men’s side is arranged in the same way. And every time I stepped out, I could hear them talking about me. They called you the black butcher, and other things I don’t want to tell you about.”“That’s natural enough,” I said. “You were probably the first stranger to enter the place in a month, so it’s only to be expected that they would chatter about you, and that the few women who knew who you were would be proud of it and perhaps tell some tales. As for me, I’m used to it, and you must have heard such expressions on the way here many times; I know I did.”“Yes,” she admitted, and sat down on the sill of the embrasure. In the city below, the lamps of the swarming shops were beginning to fill the valley of the Acis with a yellow radiance like the petals of a jonquil, but she did not seem to see them.“Now you understand why the regulations of the guild forbid me from taking a wife—although I will break them for you, as I have told you many times, whenever you want me to.”“You mean that it would be better for me to live somewhere else, and only come to see you once or twice a week, or wait till you came to see me.”“That’s the way it’s usually done. And eventually the women who talked about us today will realize that sometime they, or their sons or husbands, may find themselves beneath my hand.”“But don’t you see, this is all beside the point. The thing is…” Here Dorcas fell silent, and then, when neither of us had spoken for some time, she rose and began to pace the room, one arm clasping the other. It was something I had never seen her do before, and I found it disturbing.“What is the point, then?” I asked.“That it wasn’t true then. That it is now.”“I practiced the Art whenever there was work to be had. Hired myself out to towns and country justices. Several times you watched me from a window, though you never liked to stand in the crowd—for which I hardly blame you.”“I didn’t watch,” she said.“I recall seeing you.”“I didn’t. Not when it was actually going on. You were intent on what you were doing, and didn’t see me when I went inside or covered my eyes. I used to watch, and wave to you, when you first vaulted onto the scaffold. You were so proud then, and stood just as straight as your sword, and looked so fine. You were honest. I remember watching once when there was an official of some sort up there with you, and the condemned man and a hieromonach. And yours was the only honest face.”“You couldn’t possibly have seen it. I must surely have been wearing my mask.”“Severian, I didn’t have to see it. I know what you look like.”“Don’t I look the same now?”“Yes,” she said reluctantly. “But I have been down below. I’ve seen the people chained in the tunnels. When we sleep tonight, you and I in our soft bed, we will be sleeping on top of them. How many did you say there were when you took me down?”“About sixteen hundred. Do you honestly believe those sixteen hundred would be free if I were no longer present to guard them? They were here, remember, when we came.”Dorcas would not look at me. “It’s like a mass grave,” she said. I could see her shoulders shake.“It should be,” I told her. “The archon could release them, but who could resurrect those they’ve killed? You’ve never lost anyone, have you?”She did not reply.“Ask the wives and the mothers and the sisters of the men our prisoners have left rotting in the high country whether Abdiesus should let them go.”“Only myself,” Dorcas said, and blew out the candle.* * *Thrax is a crooked dagger entering the heart of the mountains. It lies in a narrow defile of the valley of the Acis, and extends up it to Acies Castle. The harena, the pantheon, and the other public buildings occupy all the level land between the castle and the wall (called the Capulus) that closes the lower end of the narrow section of the valley. The private buildings of the city climb the cliffs to either side, and many are in large measure dug into the rock itself, from which practice Thrax gains one of its sobriquets—the City of Windowless Rooms.Its prosperity it owes to its position at the head of the navigable part of the river. At Thrax, all goods shipped north on the Acis (many of which have traversed nine tenths of the length of Gyoll before entering the mouth of the smaller river, which may indeed be Gyoll’s true source) must be unloaded and carried on the backs of animals if they are to travel farther. Conversely, the hetmans of the mountain tribes and the landowners of the region who wish to ship their wool and corn to the southern towns bring them to take boat at Thrax, below the cataract that roars through the arched spillway of Acies Castle.As must always be the case when a stronghold imposes the rule of law over a turbulent region, the administration of justice was the chief concern of the archon of the city. To impose his will on those without the walls who might otherwise have opposed it, he could call upon seven squadrons of dimarchi, each under its own commander. Court convened each month, from the first appearance of the new moon to the full, beginning with the second morning watch and continuing as long as necessary to clear the day’s docket. As chief executor of the archon’s sentences, I was required to attend these sessions, so that he might be assured that the punishments he decreed should be made neither softer nor more severe by those who might otherwise have been charged with transmitting them to me; and to oversee the operation of the Vincula, in which the prisoners were detained, in all its details. It was a responsibility equivalent on a lesser scale to that of Master Gurloes in our Citadel, and during the first few weeks I spent in Thrax it weighed heavily upon me.It was a maxim of Master Gurloes’s that no prison is ideally situated. Like most of the wise tags put forward for the edification of young men, it was inarguable and unhelpful. All escapes fall into three categories—that is, they are achieved by stealth, by violence, or by the treachery of those set as guards. A remote place does most to render escapes by stealth difficult, and for that reason has been favored by the majority of those who have thought long upon the subject.Unfortunately, deserts, mountaintops, and lone isles offer the most fertile fields for violent escape—if they are besieged by the prisoners’ friends, it is difficult to learn of the fact before it is too late, and next to impossible to reinforce their garrisons; and similarly, if the prisoners rise in rebellion, it is highly unlikely that troops can be rushed to the spot before the issue is decided.A facility in a well-populated and well-defended district avoids these difficulties, but incurs even more severe ones. In such places a prisoner needs, not a thousand friends, but one or two; and these need not be fighting men—a scrubwoman and a street vendor will do, if they possess intelligence and resolution. Furthermore, once the prisoner has escaped the walls, he mingles immediately with the faceless mob, so that his reapprehension is not a matter for huntsmen and dogs but for agents and informers.In our own case, a detached prison in a remote location w