Book of the New Sun

Severian betrays his order by showing mercy…

picture of the covers of the two books that bundle the four parts.

Meest bizarre, moeilijke en toch (dus?) meeslepende boek dat ik tot nu toe gelezen heb zijn de vier delen van Book of the New Sun door Gene Wolfe.

For science-fiction readers, “The Book of the New Sun” is roughly what “Ulysses” is to fans of the modern novel: far more people own a copy than have read it all the way through. A surreal bildungsroman, the book centers on a character named Severian. Trained as a torturer on the planet Urth, where torturers are a feared and powerful guild, Severian betrays his order by showing mercy, allowing a prisoner to kill herself rather than be subjected to his terrible ministrations. He then wanders the land encountering giants, anarchists, and members of religious cults. He eventually meets and supplants the ruler of Urth, the Autarch.

(via The New Yorker)

Als ik ooit nog eens een megalomaan project zou beginnen dan is het dit werk te illustreren middels grafische technieken. Wat een wereld.