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The Book of the Long Sun #4
Exodus from the Long Sun
In the final volume in the series, the Whorl, the huge generation starship sent out from Urth, is discovered to have already reached its destination, and now Patera Silk and the other inhabitants are confronted by an alien race.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
85 people are currently reading
1277 people want to read
About the author
Gene Wolfe
506 books3,570 followersGene Wolfe was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying a Catholic. He was a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the field.
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for ‘lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.’ Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Connie Willis, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013.
While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
A frequent Hugo nominee without a win, Wolfe has nevertheless picked up several Nebula and Locus Awards, among others, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. He is also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
The Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is given by SFWA for ‘lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.’ Wolfe joins the Grand Master ranks alongside such legends as Connie Willis, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. The award will be presented at the 48th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, CA, May 16-19, 2013.
While attending Texas A&M University Wolfe published his first speculative fiction in The Commentator, a student literary journal. Wolfe dropped out during his junior year, and was drafted to fight in the Korean War. After returning to the United States he earned a degree from the University of Houston and became an industrial engineer. He edited the journal Plant Engineering for many years before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make Pringles potato crisps. He lived in Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
A frequent Hugo nominee without a win, Wolfe has nevertheless picked up several Nebula and Locus Awards, among others, including the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. He is also a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/genewolfe
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
July 25, 2020
Veliki je pisac Dzin Volf. Vreba svoje citaoce onako iz prikrajka, nenametljiv je i na granici zanimljivog.
Medjutim kada ga krenete citati njegova dela i njihova monumentalnost ce vas odmah obuzeti.
Retko ko govori o obicnim zivotnim stvarima i dilemam na tako jak i surovo istinit nacin, i to sve tamo negde medju zvezdama gde se odlucuje sudbina ljudske rase!
Medjutim kada ga krenete citati njegova dela i njihova monumentalnost ce vas odmah obuzeti.
Retko ko govori o obicnim zivotnim stvarima i dilemam na tako jak i surovo istinit nacin, i to sve tamo negde medju zvezdama gde se odlucuje sudbina ljudske rase!
October 8, 2022
Read this years ago. I love nearly everything Gene Wolfe wrote. He was an under appreciated genius, IMHO. RIP, Gene.
January 28, 2012
I've now read two separate, four-part series by Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun, and The Book of the Long Sun (of which this novel is the last part). And while I should have faced the truth earlier, I think I really dislike his writing style.
His universes are not bad. There's something I like about the quasi-medieval future societies with traces of high technology. They suggest the future will be far from Utopian, and we'll always stray from Enlightenment ideals in the way we govern ourselves, but there's something reassuringly realistic about that assertion and I like the way he guides the reader through what looks like a backwards society only the reveal that -- wow! -- the world is on the inside of a cylinder, and some of the nuns are robots. That, and his prose is structurally excellent, almost a joy to read ... almost ... but unfortunately the clarity of his storytelling is just not there. And it ruins the books.
For one thing, Wolfe is obsessed with dialogue. I can think of writers who avoid dialogue to a fault, focus way too much on description and action, but in Wolfe's books (especially this one) dialogue is almost the driver of the story. Wolfe will sloppily throw a very ambiguous action sequence at his reader, a passage that should be clearly written due to its great importance (a character might be getting killed!), but at the end I have no idea what happened. As a reader, I leaf back a page and read it all a second time, to little avail. Then, ten pages later, I learn what happened because two characters decide to mention it during a five-page dialogue.
It's dizzying, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, because while these characters are chatting away endlessly the reader is left in exile, outside the moment. Wolfe provides fully-realized, often admirable characterization in his dialogue, with each speaker showing his or her own recognizable quirks. Yet I ask myself as I read: Where are these people while they're talking? What are they doing? I don't know, because Wolfe hasn't specified. Maybe they're in a bar, or a house of worship, or a mansion, or a tunnel. Or amid smoke in a terrible battle, with bombs falling around them. Wolfe doesn't seem to care.
And I need to get this off my chest. The following are the names of some select characters in this book: Silk, Sand, Shale, Saba, Siyuf, Sard, Schist, Sciathan, Shell, Shrike, Scleroderma, Skate, Slake, Spider. Really, I'm not making that list up. There are also some gods, of which two are Scylla and Sphigx. You might be wondering if Wolfe can generate any characters with names that don't start with S, and yes, fortunately he can, but the plentitude of these S-characters is hyper-Dostoyevskian. I wonder if he actually hates his readers.
His universes are not bad. There's something I like about the quasi-medieval future societies with traces of high technology. They suggest the future will be far from Utopian, and we'll always stray from Enlightenment ideals in the way we govern ourselves, but there's something reassuringly realistic about that assertion and I like the way he guides the reader through what looks like a backwards society only the reveal that -- wow! -- the world is on the inside of a cylinder, and some of the nuns are robots. That, and his prose is structurally excellent, almost a joy to read ... almost ... but unfortunately the clarity of his storytelling is just not there. And it ruins the books.
For one thing, Wolfe is obsessed with dialogue. I can think of writers who avoid dialogue to a fault, focus way too much on description and action, but in Wolfe's books (especially this one) dialogue is almost the driver of the story. Wolfe will sloppily throw a very ambiguous action sequence at his reader, a passage that should be clearly written due to its great importance (a character might be getting killed!), but at the end I have no idea what happened. As a reader, I leaf back a page and read it all a second time, to little avail. Then, ten pages later, I learn what happened because two characters decide to mention it during a five-page dialogue.
It's dizzying, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, because while these characters are chatting away endlessly the reader is left in exile, outside the moment. Wolfe provides fully-realized, often admirable characterization in his dialogue, with each speaker showing his or her own recognizable quirks. Yet I ask myself as I read: Where are these people while they're talking? What are they doing? I don't know, because Wolfe hasn't specified. Maybe they're in a bar, or a house of worship, or a mansion, or a tunnel. Or amid smoke in a terrible battle, with bombs falling around them. Wolfe doesn't seem to care.
And I need to get this off my chest. The following are the names of some select characters in this book: Silk, Sand, Shale, Saba, Siyuf, Sard, Schist, Sciathan, Shell, Shrike, Scleroderma, Skate, Slake, Spider. Really, I'm not making that list up. There are also some gods, of which two are Scylla and Sphigx. You might be wondering if Wolfe can generate any characters with names that don't start with S, and yes, fortunately he can, but the plentitude of these S-characters is hyper-Dostoyevskian. I wonder if he actually hates his readers.
July 8, 2025
Just in case I ever forgot the pain and pleasure of reading a Gene Wolfe book.
July 17, 2023
I’ll be using this space to write my review for the Book of the Long Sun in its entirety.
As I’ve made a deep dive into the work of Gene Wolfe after being introduced to him via the Book of the New Sun, I knew I was in for a long, wonderful ride. Though New Sun remains my favorite work of Wolfe’s to this day, what I wasn’t expecting was a maturation in his writing— this isn’t to say New Sun isn’t beautiful, it absolutely is, but Long Sun takes on a bit of a stylistic change of pace that immediately separated it as its own thing. Perhaps the best way I can describe Wolfe’s work from this era is that it’s more conversational in tone than New Sun was.
I’ve always found the intersection of SFF and religion to be a deeply fascinating thing, and this might be the apex of that— a dense SFF story that deals with the complexities of religion as a power structure, full of its own inconsistencies in how it defines what is indeed moral… and how being a staunch practitioner, let alone a figure of relative authority within that hierarchy (like our hero, Patera Silk) has both beneficial (community-oriented, routine-oriented, selflessness) and detrimental qualities (tunnel-vision, repression, extreme piety). It’s a saga that does not seek to condemn, but be critical of those very power structures in how they transform people (some for the better, some for the worse). In contrast to New Sun’s Severian (a character often worthy of utter contempt), Silk is a character that displays a profound sense of selflessness throughout much of the book and his nuances solidify him as one of the greatest protagonists in all of SFF— a label I also associate with Severian, though in a notably oppositional fashion.
Beyond the subtleties of the narrative and characterization, how Wolfe manages to combine so many strange, esoteric and disparate SFF elements so well is beyond me— Long Sun is part science-fantasy, part detective story and arguably part ghost story containing talking animals, exorcisms, giant androids, robot nuns, generation ships and mythological figures, all wrapped up in a simultaneously very humanistic and dreamlike manner that also has the ability to inject a subtle, wry and well-timed sense of humor at its best moments. Like much of Wolfe’s catalogue, I think it’s a miracle of a book and his nuance/sensitivity is on full display here. A masterpiece.
As I’ve made a deep dive into the work of Gene Wolfe after being introduced to him via the Book of the New Sun, I knew I was in for a long, wonderful ride. Though New Sun remains my favorite work of Wolfe’s to this day, what I wasn’t expecting was a maturation in his writing— this isn’t to say New Sun isn’t beautiful, it absolutely is, but Long Sun takes on a bit of a stylistic change of pace that immediately separated it as its own thing. Perhaps the best way I can describe Wolfe’s work from this era is that it’s more conversational in tone than New Sun was.
I’ve always found the intersection of SFF and religion to be a deeply fascinating thing, and this might be the apex of that— a dense SFF story that deals with the complexities of religion as a power structure, full of its own inconsistencies in how it defines what is indeed moral… and how being a staunch practitioner, let alone a figure of relative authority within that hierarchy (like our hero, Patera Silk) has both beneficial (community-oriented, routine-oriented, selflessness) and detrimental qualities (tunnel-vision, repression, extreme piety). It’s a saga that does not seek to condemn, but be critical of those very power structures in how they transform people (some for the better, some for the worse). In contrast to New Sun’s Severian (a character often worthy of utter contempt), Silk is a character that displays a profound sense of selflessness throughout much of the book and his nuances solidify him as one of the greatest protagonists in all of SFF— a label I also associate with Severian, though in a notably oppositional fashion.
Beyond the subtleties of the narrative and characterization, how Wolfe manages to combine so many strange, esoteric and disparate SFF elements so well is beyond me— Long Sun is part science-fantasy, part detective story and arguably part ghost story containing talking animals, exorcisms, giant androids, robot nuns, generation ships and mythological figures, all wrapped up in a simultaneously very humanistic and dreamlike manner that also has the ability to inject a subtle, wry and well-timed sense of humor at its best moments. Like much of Wolfe’s catalogue, I think it’s a miracle of a book and his nuance/sensitivity is on full display here. A masterpiece.
January 20, 2023
“It is that love forgets injuries. I know that Hyacinth would never betray me, just as you know that Nettle would never betray you; but if she did—if she did a thousand times—I would still love her.”
I loved this. Slower in pace for sure than BotNS and at times it does feel like some of the things Wolfe puts in this series is unnecessary at times but I genuinely loved the characters and mythology of Pas and gods on the Long Son Whorl. Silk was such an enjoyable character and seeing his change from Nightside to now is very remarkable because he still retains his roundabout way of speaking and lecturing Horn but he starts to move away from being as devout as he was after the theopany and starts being more himself. Auk was a character I wasn’t expecting to get too much out of but his presence in the middle books was really good, especially in Caldé.
“I felt that I understood you, just as I felt I understood myself. In the past ten days or so you’ve become somebody else, somebody I don’t understand at all, and so have I. ”
It was so great seeing Silk’s change over the course of these four novels. Seeing him being so pious to a false religion and being very diligent in his teachings and practice, to his becoming more loose in his faith and driving force after the Outsider’s theopany. His character was brilliant and I think having him as the main character was a treat, especially coming from the viewpoint of Horn.
“Street, foolish people used to ask me why Pas or Scylla permitted some action that they regarded as evil, as if a god had to sign a paper before a man could be struck or a child fall ill. On my wedding night, the Outsider explained why it is that he permits what people call evil at all—not this theft or that uncleanness, but the thing itself. It serves him, you see. It hates him, yet it serves him, too.”
Throughout the tetralogy we see people performing “evil” acts and seeking penance in the form of attending and bringing sacrifices, listening to the gods and their chosen disciples and also being shriven by augurs and confessing. I love this because it coincides with every religion as to their gods being so great that they would never fear rebellions, because they know that will only drive them back to the devotion in the end. It may be this isn’t exactly what the gods want or teach, but it serves a purpose for them all in all to guide them back with their wandering faith. I know Gene Wolfe is a very religious person, as we see from his using Severian as a Christ-like figure and Silk most certainly being an allegory to Moses, he is phenomenal when it comes to his religious themes, man. I really want to see what he brings to the table in Short Sun with Horn.
“It would not have been such a bad thing, perhaps, to have fallen. If one did not dread death, it would be an experience of unparalleled interest”
I loved this. Slower in pace for sure than BotNS and at times it does feel like some of the things Wolfe puts in this series is unnecessary at times but I genuinely loved the characters and mythology of Pas and gods on the Long Son Whorl. Silk was such an enjoyable character and seeing his change from Nightside to now is very remarkable because he still retains his roundabout way of speaking and lecturing Horn but he starts to move away from being as devout as he was after the theopany and starts being more himself. Auk was a character I wasn’t expecting to get too much out of but his presence in the middle books was really good, especially in Caldé.
“I felt that I understood you, just as I felt I understood myself. In the past ten days or so you’ve become somebody else, somebody I don’t understand at all, and so have I. ”
It was so great seeing Silk’s change over the course of these four novels. Seeing him being so pious to a false religion and being very diligent in his teachings and practice, to his becoming more loose in his faith and driving force after the Outsider’s theopany. His character was brilliant and I think having him as the main character was a treat, especially coming from the viewpoint of Horn.
“Street, foolish people used to ask me why Pas or Scylla permitted some action that they regarded as evil, as if a god had to sign a paper before a man could be struck or a child fall ill. On my wedding night, the Outsider explained why it is that he permits what people call evil at all—not this theft or that uncleanness, but the thing itself. It serves him, you see. It hates him, yet it serves him, too.”
Throughout the tetralogy we see people performing “evil” acts and seeking penance in the form of attending and bringing sacrifices, listening to the gods and their chosen disciples and also being shriven by augurs and confessing. I love this because it coincides with every religion as to their gods being so great that they would never fear rebellions, because they know that will only drive them back to the devotion in the end. It may be this isn’t exactly what the gods want or teach, but it serves a purpose for them all in all to guide them back with their wandering faith. I know Gene Wolfe is a very religious person, as we see from his using Severian as a Christ-like figure and Silk most certainly being an allegory to Moses, he is phenomenal when it comes to his religious themes, man. I really want to see what he brings to the table in Short Sun with Horn.
“It would not have been such a bad thing, perhaps, to have fallen. If one did not dread death, it would be an experience of unparalleled interest”
August 1, 2015
It's hard to escape the frustrating feeling that these books were just ~1400 pages of prologue to The Book of the Short Sun.
May 23, 2022
It’s easy to see why people find the back half of Book Of The Long Sun frustrating. A story which appeared tightly focused on one man’s divinely inspired quest grows and grows in scope, fractures into a multitude of voices and subplots and deliberately avoids offering satisfying conclusions to most of them. To add to the frustration, this four book series ends with a coda which is plainly designed as a bridge to the next three book one.
But I still loved it. Exodus From The Long Sun might have been written as a deliberate rebuke to the utilitarian trend in storytelling that insists every scene must clearly work for its place in the book. The central issue of the previous novel is even more pronounced in this one: we are reading an account of the deeds of Silk, who is now the head of state in his home city. But Silk’s own grasp on what matters is highly erratic. He is utterly distracted by his romantic life, and is a better leader than he is a politician. The allies that have manipulated his ascent have their own agendas and Silk’s well-meaning pursuit of peace seems no match for them.
So much of the action of Exodus turns out to be a fine catch of red herrings. Silk and his friends spend a lot of the book preparing for or manoeuvring in a conflict which is not the one that is actually coming. And that conflict itself isn’t relevant to the wider force driving the story - as the title suggests, it’s time to head out to the promised land, which isn’t easy when most people don’t know it was promised in the first place.
The stuff that feels unimportant often (but not always) is, but so is the stuff that feels important. In the penultimate chapter, Silk is given an astonishing offer, one which on the surface feels like it should be the culmination of his spiritual journey. But the issues it raises have already been settled in all meaningful ways along the course of Silk’s religious development. We never find out Silk’s choice, because the character has already grown, quietly, in ways which make it irrelevant.
Exodus makes it clear, sometimes gently, sometimes starkly, that almost everything (or at least everything material) that its characters have been worrying about is pointless. The risk it takes as a novel is that we as readers have been worrying about all those things too, and we have to leave behind a lot just as the characters do. This isn’t misdirection or not playing fair on Wolfe’s part: even on first read, and the book is designed for more, the stakes are clear halfway through.
This doesn’t sound like a 5 star book, I admit, and it’s one that asks for a lot of trust. Fortunately the journey remains as elegant and intriguing as ever - full of tiny mysteries which are often pleasingly resolved, fascinating characters, several genuine laughs and the tantalising feeling that the next paragraph might always feature some casually dropped phrase which - if properly interpreted - tilts existing understandings. Long Sun overall isn’t the dazzling accomplishment New Sun is in prose or ideas, but its pleasures are warmer and ultimately almost as rewarding.
But I still loved it. Exodus From The Long Sun might have been written as a deliberate rebuke to the utilitarian trend in storytelling that insists every scene must clearly work for its place in the book. The central issue of the previous novel is even more pronounced in this one: we are reading an account of the deeds of Silk, who is now the head of state in his home city. But Silk’s own grasp on what matters is highly erratic. He is utterly distracted by his romantic life, and is a better leader than he is a politician. The allies that have manipulated his ascent have their own agendas and Silk’s well-meaning pursuit of peace seems no match for them.
So much of the action of Exodus turns out to be a fine catch of red herrings. Silk and his friends spend a lot of the book preparing for or manoeuvring in a conflict which is not the one that is actually coming. And that conflict itself isn’t relevant to the wider force driving the story - as the title suggests, it’s time to head out to the promised land, which isn’t easy when most people don’t know it was promised in the first place.
The stuff that feels unimportant often (but not always) is, but so is the stuff that feels important. In the penultimate chapter, Silk is given an astonishing offer, one which on the surface feels like it should be the culmination of his spiritual journey. But the issues it raises have already been settled in all meaningful ways along the course of Silk’s religious development. We never find out Silk’s choice, because the character has already grown, quietly, in ways which make it irrelevant.
Exodus makes it clear, sometimes gently, sometimes starkly, that almost everything (or at least everything material) that its characters have been worrying about is pointless. The risk it takes as a novel is that we as readers have been worrying about all those things too, and we have to leave behind a lot just as the characters do. This isn’t misdirection or not playing fair on Wolfe’s part: even on first read, and the book is designed for more, the stakes are clear halfway through.
This doesn’t sound like a 5 star book, I admit, and it’s one that asks for a lot of trust. Fortunately the journey remains as elegant and intriguing as ever - full of tiny mysteries which are often pleasingly resolved, fascinating characters, several genuine laughs and the tantalising feeling that the next paragraph might always feature some casually dropped phrase which - if properly interpreted - tilts existing understandings. Long Sun overall isn’t the dazzling accomplishment New Sun is in prose or ideas, but its pleasures are warmer and ultimately almost as rewarding.
May 26, 2011
This series really petered out for me. The first volume sucked me in, and then I steadily became less and less enamored with the progression of the story and character development over the course of the next three books. I got 100 pages into this volume, after being very diligent with the first thousand or so pages of the tale, and realized that the wheels were spinning, the characters were spending huge amounts of time talking unrealistically to each other, the story itself had become hopelessly convoluted, that I wasn't willing any longer to see if there was going to be any clarifications or payoff, and that I was just getting pissed at the whole thing. So I did the old speed-read/scan for the rest of the story, grabbed a few of the bigger events, and was immensely gratified as I did so that I wasn't spending another twenty hours wading through a quagmire of Patera speech patterns, armies and soldiers spying on and lynching each other, being told who is who repeatedly through circular references that are little help, gods and councillors who may or may not be alive or possessing someone or having a live double or on and on and on. Just, blech, and very disappointing after how much I enjoyed the previous New Sun tetrology.
By the way, these two series are supposedly related to each other. Did the last 300 pages reveal this connection? I did not read the add-on fifth volume of the New Sun books, so maybe it's there.
I might still give Gene Wolfe some more time--I'm still curious about the Short Sun books and his other stand alone works.
By the way, these two series are supposedly related to each other. Did the last 300 pages reveal this connection? I did not read the add-on fifth volume of the New Sun books, so maybe it's there.
I might still give Gene Wolfe some more time--I'm still curious about the Short Sun books and his other stand alone works.
June 2, 2022
Book of the Long Sun, divided into 4 separate books, isn't the whole story!!
Now; I have to read the Short Sun immediately or give up on all these burning questions I have.
I had two issues with the Exodus:
1. The pacing is slow, numerous pov shifts and it's full of events which (at least, for the Long Sun itself) seem trivial and were in no consequences for what we've read. They probably have a role in the overall story and the Short Sun, which brings me to the second point.
2. This book was no finale! I substracted a star just because of it being presented as such.
After finishing the Exodus, you'll be tripping on one leg, hopelessly groping for a ground to stand on and there's none, unless you start the Short Sun. The story seems half finished and it really is!
When I start a series, in my mind it's like: "I'm going to get my answers in four books". The fourth book though, is more of a chapter break more than anything else. Usually, I get mad over this but I trust Wolfe and I know he will deliver. Still, my point stands.
Long Sun and Short Sun are in fact one story, just by reading the Long Sun you'll be left hanging and that's a big issue.
Now before starting the Short Sun, I'm not as optimistic as I was when I started the Long Sun. I've heard nothing but praises for it and I'm going to go over it critically.
Wolfe is better to redeem himself.
Now; I have to read the Short Sun immediately or give up on all these burning questions I have.
I had two issues with the Exodus:
1. The pacing is slow, numerous pov shifts and it's full of events which (at least, for the Long Sun itself) seem trivial and were in no consequences for what we've read. They probably have a role in the overall story and the Short Sun, which brings me to the second point.
2. This book was no finale! I substracted a star just because of it being presented as such.
After finishing the Exodus, you'll be tripping on one leg, hopelessly groping for a ground to stand on and there's none, unless you start the Short Sun. The story seems half finished and it really is!
When I start a series, in my mind it's like: "I'm going to get my answers in four books". The fourth book though, is more of a chapter break more than anything else. Usually, I get mad over this but I trust Wolfe and I know he will deliver. Still, my point stands.
Long Sun and Short Sun are in fact one story, just by reading the Long Sun you'll be left hanging and that's a big issue.
Now before starting the Short Sun, I'm not as optimistic as I was when I started the Long Sun. I've heard nothing but praises for it and I'm going to go over it critically.
Wolfe is better to redeem himself.
June 7, 2019
As war rages all around him Patera Silk, the calde of Viron, goes in search of love; the thief Auk becomes a prophet of Tartaros and receives a theophany from Pas himself; the Trivigaunti troops arrive in a great host as the insurgent leadership begin to realize that their presence may not be entirely benign; and the mysterious Flyers are sent to Viron on a mission from Mainframe.
Thus begins the final part of Wolfe's generation ship series, the Book of the Long Sun, a baffling, brilliant, meandering work of mythic proportions about a saintly hero in a manufactured world of false gods, where enlightenment comes from outside.
This review, like my others of the preceding three volumes in the series, comes only after a second reading. After the first reading I remember being left in a state of near mystification about what was even happening in the story let alone the implications, so skillful a stylist is Wolfe, with more narrative tricks up his sleeves than a conjuring octopus.
This time around I could follow everything that took place, elliptical and unresolved though much of it was, but after a few days of thinking it through I still can't seem to work out exactly why it happened as it happened.
Or to put it another way, why has Wolfe spent so much time and energy on creating a highly unconventional hero like Silk, a pacifist, guilt-ridden do-gooder of saintly proportions, just to do the things he did to him in this concluding chapter?
Many possibilities suggest themselves, but I fancy that his love for the beautiful yet utterly sluttish prostitute Hyacinth holds the key, though I can't quite unlock it. Forget the fact that she is a prostitute -Chenille is too, but she has many commendable characteristics- it's her shallowness and ingratitude towards Silk that left me cold.
I found it impossible that Silk would love her as he does, yet he rejects everything else for her.
There is something highly significant in this that I can't quite fathom, yet I desperately want to. The answer may be in the following admission from Silk, a difficult one for a Christian, for whom faith is usually presented as something implicit, not to be won through endeavor:
"The faith I had, I had learned as one learns other lessons - from reading and lectures and my mother's example and conversation. I'm in the process, I believe, of replacing it with new faith gained from experience".
I should actually be disappointed with this book. Certainly no book I have enjoyed so much has frustrated me for so many reasons before.
The fractured nature of storytelling that started to hamper Calde of the Long Sun, Wolfe's tendency to walk out on a moment of action, opting instead to explain it posthumously via conversations between various characters, was positively rampant here.
Also, all the overladen politenesses about hospitality (particularly about when to sit down as a host) became infuriating at times, as did the dull engineering discussions about some of the machinery of the Whorl (particularly the Talus) and too much time on circling back to minor puzzles, such as a hiding place taken by some soldiers in one of the tunnels.
Add to that an extraordinary revelation near the end that has no where to go in this story (though it does pave the way for the next Short Sun series), and a complete non-ending that managed to top anything from a writer with a rare ability for that (think An Evil Guest or Soldier of Sidon) and there was more than enough to aggravate the staunchest of fans.
And yet I really liked it. How does he do that?
I don't know for sure but I think a lot of it must be down to the amount of work Wolfe puts into his writing, and in this series in particular, to make you think. Sure, the little games he plays can sometimes irritate, but he is always playing the big games at the same time as well; semantically, structurally, philosophically and theologically.
p.s. the Trivigantis were reminiscent of the pseudo-Arabian Calorrmenes in the Narnia books, clearly disliked by their author, a fact that Wolfe exacerbated by having them governed by arrogant women. This seemed like bigotry and chauvinism rolled into one. Did anyone else think that, or am I being harsh on him?
Thus begins the final part of Wolfe's generation ship series, the Book of the Long Sun, a baffling, brilliant, meandering work of mythic proportions about a saintly hero in a manufactured world of false gods, where enlightenment comes from outside.
This review, like my others of the preceding three volumes in the series, comes only after a second reading. After the first reading I remember being left in a state of near mystification about what was even happening in the story let alone the implications, so skillful a stylist is Wolfe, with more narrative tricks up his sleeves than a conjuring octopus.
This time around I could follow everything that took place, elliptical and unresolved though much of it was, but after a few days of thinking it through I still can't seem to work out exactly why it happened as it happened.
Or to put it another way, why has Wolfe spent so much time and energy on creating a highly unconventional hero like Silk, a pacifist, guilt-ridden do-gooder of saintly proportions, just to do the things he did to him in this concluding chapter?
Many possibilities suggest themselves, but I fancy that his love for the beautiful yet utterly sluttish prostitute Hyacinth holds the key, though I can't quite unlock it. Forget the fact that she is a prostitute -Chenille is too, but she has many commendable characteristics- it's her shallowness and ingratitude towards Silk that left me cold.
I found it impossible that Silk would love her as he does, yet he rejects everything else for her.
There is something highly significant in this that I can't quite fathom, yet I desperately want to. The answer may be in the following admission from Silk, a difficult one for a Christian, for whom faith is usually presented as something implicit, not to be won through endeavor:
"The faith I had, I had learned as one learns other lessons - from reading and lectures and my mother's example and conversation. I'm in the process, I believe, of replacing it with new faith gained from experience".
I should actually be disappointed with this book. Certainly no book I have enjoyed so much has frustrated me for so many reasons before.
The fractured nature of storytelling that started to hamper Calde of the Long Sun, Wolfe's tendency to walk out on a moment of action, opting instead to explain it posthumously via conversations between various characters, was positively rampant here.
Also, all the overladen politenesses about hospitality (particularly about when to sit down as a host) became infuriating at times, as did the dull engineering discussions about some of the machinery of the Whorl (particularly the Talus) and too much time on circling back to minor puzzles, such as a hiding place taken by some soldiers in one of the tunnels.
Add to that an extraordinary revelation near the end that has no where to go in this story (though it does pave the way for the next Short Sun series), and a complete non-ending that managed to top anything from a writer with a rare ability for that (think An Evil Guest or Soldier of Sidon) and there was more than enough to aggravate the staunchest of fans.
And yet I really liked it. How does he do that?
I don't know for sure but I think a lot of it must be down to the amount of work Wolfe puts into his writing, and in this series in particular, to make you think. Sure, the little games he plays can sometimes irritate, but he is always playing the big games at the same time as well; semantically, structurally, philosophically and theologically.
p.s. the Trivigantis were reminiscent of the pseudo-Arabian Calorrmenes in the Narnia books, clearly disliked by their author, a fact that Wolfe exacerbated by having them governed by arrogant women. This seemed like bigotry and chauvinism rolled into one. Did anyone else think that, or am I being harsh on him?
November 19, 2025
4.5 stars
July 13, 2017
Not sure why I forced myself to read the whole series. Loved the first book and it was a crashing disappointment after that. I'll reread New Sun but I won't be thinking about Long Sun.
March 26, 2023
** 2.5 STARS **
The Book of the Long Sun started off great with Nightside the Long Sun. The second book, 'Lake', was a good continuation that just about kept my attention and assured that I was very interested in picking up the remaining books in the series. However, 'Calde', really dropped the ball. It was a pretty dull book that didn't really move the story forward. Unfortunately, after reading 'Exodus' I am deeply disappointed in how the later half of the series turned out. Irrespective of the clever hidden meanings Gene Wolfe loves to subtlety give his readers (in most cases he's great at this), Exodus was a boring book.
Ordinarily I really like a lot of dialogue in my books; I haven't seen this much dialogue in a book since Robert Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. Perhaps, as a consequence, I found it very difficult to visualise what was going on, and where it was happening; the sense of location was way off in 'Exodus'.
Ultimately, I am saddened by my lack of enthusiasm and love for this Gene Wolfe book. It won't stop me from delving deeper into Wolfe's writing, I just hope it's more engaging than my last two books by him.
The Book of the Long Sun started off great with Nightside the Long Sun. The second book, 'Lake', was a good continuation that just about kept my attention and assured that I was very interested in picking up the remaining books in the series. However, 'Calde', really dropped the ball. It was a pretty dull book that didn't really move the story forward. Unfortunately, after reading 'Exodus' I am deeply disappointed in how the later half of the series turned out. Irrespective of the clever hidden meanings Gene Wolfe loves to subtlety give his readers (in most cases he's great at this), Exodus was a boring book.
Ordinarily I really like a lot of dialogue in my books; I haven't seen this much dialogue in a book since Robert Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. Perhaps, as a consequence, I found it very difficult to visualise what was going on, and where it was happening; the sense of location was way off in 'Exodus'.
Ultimately, I am saddened by my lack of enthusiasm and love for this Gene Wolfe book. It won't stop me from delving deeper into Wolfe's writing, I just hope it's more engaging than my last two books by him.
December 12, 2018
It took me forever to read this book.
"The Book of the New Sun" is one of my favorite series, and when I started this one, I was almost as enthralled, Wolfe's at times overly dense prose and not very modern views aside.
But this last book completely lost any sense of pace. It's just filled with neverending dialogues that don't seem to lead anywhere, and the ending feels a bit like I've been tricked.
In the end, Wolfe is a master craftsman of fantastical and mysterious worlds, but it feels like he should get a new, harsher editor.
"The Book of the New Sun" is one of my favorite series, and when I started this one, I was almost as enthralled, Wolfe's at times overly dense prose and not very modern views aside.
But this last book completely lost any sense of pace. It's just filled with neverending dialogues that don't seem to lead anywhere, and the ending feels a bit like I've been tricked.
In the end, Wolfe is a master craftsman of fantastical and mysterious worlds, but it feels like he should get a new, harsher editor.
October 31, 2024
I have finished with this the Book of The Long Sun. Quite a long Sun it was… Gene Wolfe’s pacing here feels off: Patera Silk’s development as a character could have been presented in a more page turning fashion, although it may have cheapened Wolfe.
Unless a reader is willing to reinforce their learning of the Whorl over tens of hours, they should abandon this endeavor. Wolfe classically lays allegory and illusion spread across thousands of pages with zero explanation. Unless you care to understand theopany, augury, and take note of brief nods to historically significant superstitions, you will find much of this book boring. However there will be some great moments of revelation such as Quetzal’s that reward the reader dearly.
Learning more about our set and setting as the long sun chronicle advances, we begin to finally arrive at answers rolling off of Wolfe’s tongue but stop short of any true satisfaction. Here we get glimpses of the actual gods of Wolfe’s universe. Clearly we have known that Tezcatlipoca and the conciliator have some reverent effect on reality and time, yet now we begin to learn exactly who Typhon became, what his actions resulted in, and the sheer power he held over the cosmos. Yet, despite all of this, it appears that the one father of them all is the Outsider. Forever left to us in mystery as Wolfe desired. Even more so now that Wolfe has passed.
Rest in peace Gene. You brought imagination and desire into the stuffy and pretentious void of literature; placing speculative fiction on countless shelves next to heady greats such as Pynchon, Camus, Borges, and many more. The world was a greater place for your presence.
Unless a reader is willing to reinforce their learning of the Whorl over tens of hours, they should abandon this endeavor. Wolfe classically lays allegory and illusion spread across thousands of pages with zero explanation. Unless you care to understand theopany, augury, and take note of brief nods to historically significant superstitions, you will find much of this book boring. However there will be some great moments of revelation such as Quetzal’s that reward the reader dearly.
Learning more about our set and setting as the long sun chronicle advances, we begin to finally arrive at answers rolling off of Wolfe’s tongue but stop short of any true satisfaction. Here we get glimpses of the actual gods of Wolfe’s universe. Clearly we have known that Tezcatlipoca and the conciliator have some reverent effect on reality and time, yet now we begin to learn exactly who Typhon became, what his actions resulted in, and the sheer power he held over the cosmos. Yet, despite all of this, it appears that the one father of them all is the Outsider. Forever left to us in mystery as Wolfe desired. Even more so now that Wolfe has passed.
Rest in peace Gene. You brought imagination and desire into the stuffy and pretentious void of literature; placing speculative fiction on countless shelves next to heady greats such as Pynchon, Camus, Borges, and many more. The world was a greater place for your presence.
August 31, 2025
The Book of the Long Sun, perhaps more compelling than the much more famous Book of the New Sun?! It's nearly impossible to discuss the final book in a series of four without serious spoilers which I don't intend to do. What I can say, the scope continues to grow in unexpected ways, secrets that have been right in from of your face since book one are magnificently revealed, and I am more excited than ever to continue onto the Book of the Short Sun. Gene Wolfe is a grandmaster of prose and storytelling. I don't know how to more highly recommend his writing, I've read 13 of his novels in less than two years. I feel compelled to start reading the authors that he enjoyed (which I've done to great success). The plan continues, I will read every piece of fiction he ever published.
January 29, 2023
Well, that ending will haunt me forever.
Like any of Wolfe's work, I have a difficult time summarizing the things that make it great because it is practically everything. It isn't an easy read by any means, but definitely a worthwhile one.
That said some highlights for me: The characters were amazingly wrought, the best so far in my Wolfe experience (and that's saying something). The entire setting was brilliantly crafted. The story was compelling. The shift not only in mood, but genre as the story progressed was a step beyond.
Like any of Wolfe's work, I have a difficult time summarizing the things that make it great because it is practically everything. It isn't an easy read by any means, but definitely a worthwhile one.
That said some highlights for me: The characters were amazingly wrought, the best so far in my Wolfe experience (and that's saying something). The entire setting was brilliantly crafted. The story was compelling. The shift not only in mood, but genre as the story progressed was a step beyond.
January 2, 2023
Welp.
It did not dawn on me exactly how much I loved the characters and world of Long Sun until I at least reached it's ending. As this long story comes to it's end (midpoint?) with a series of emotional climaxes and shocking revelations in the very closing moments I felt my breath taken away from me and sense of my life having been changed by a story in a way I hadn't felt since finishing New Sun and Urth.
Bravo. Cannot wait to revisit this masterpiece of a series time and time again.
It did not dawn on me exactly how much I loved the characters and world of Long Sun until I at least reached it's ending. As this long story comes to it's end (midpoint?) with a series of emotional climaxes and shocking revelations in the very closing moments I felt my breath taken away from me and sense of my life having been changed by a story in a way I hadn't felt since finishing New Sun and Urth.
Bravo. Cannot wait to revisit this masterpiece of a series time and time again.
May 1, 2022
This one lost me a little bit. I definitely will need to reread it. I loved the ending, however.
June 22, 2022
I can't stop reading these Gene Wolfe books!
September 4, 2024
A-/A
May write a review later.
May write a review later.
August 10, 2025
I just want to note that this book series has the best made-up slang I have ever heard, by far. It outshines every other book I've read.
I think Silk may be my favorite fictious character.
I think Silk may be my favorite fictious character.
October 3, 2025
What an astounding novel. The prose here is just beautiful. So many revelations and mind bending turns that really are what make me love Wolfe’s writing. I still have so many questions though! Can’t wait to read Book of the Short Sun.
March 1, 2025
Nothing is challenging the way that summarizing or reviewing a Gene Wolfe book is challenging. Telling you the plot won't mean anything. I don't completely understand what happened at the end, or the significance of it - that's three more books down the line and even then who can say if I'll have answers? There are puzzles - did I decipher them correctly? Will I ever understand even if I read the story a second or third time?
August 13, 2010
Though I had some trouble getting into it, by the third and fourth books I really enjoyed Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series, and "The Urth of the New Sun" that followed it. I really did want to like "The Book of the Long Sun" as well. The first book started off a bit slowly, but the second and third books began to reveal more of the world behind the books. However, the fourth book was a major disappointment. It felt like he was trying too hard to be oblique, to not satisfy his readers, to keep from having a satisfying conclusion. I remember skimming over a Locus review of one of his recent books, and the reviewer saying something about Wolfe's "contempt" for his readers. After this book, I can believe it.
Admittedly, there is an entire trilogy, "The Book of the Short Sun", which looks like it follows on from this one, and joins up with "New Sun" at the end. But at this point I don't know if I will ever bother.
Admittedly, there is an entire trilogy, "The Book of the Short Sun", which looks like it follows on from this one, and joins up with "New Sun" at the end. But at this point I don't know if I will ever bother.
August 28, 2012
A pretty solid ending to an absolutely epic series, going back to it paid dividends for me. One major reason for this is that the tale ends with many loose ends, with Father Silk guiding the members of his "whorl"("world", to us), a massive starship that nearly no one on it knows is a starship, onto landers that will lead them to actual planets. Silk has, by this point, realized that their "gods" were actually the powerful engineers who created the whorl back on Earth, and he has all but totally lost his faith in them. He has married a former prostitute and their relationship is as interesting as it is touching in many places. Since Wolfe, in his own words "writes not for readers, but RE-readers", it's no surprise that many things are not clearly spelled out by the end of everything. This is likely because Wolfe immediately started writing the trilogy of books that concludes the "Solar Cycle." That's next on my list.
July 25, 2025
Weird and obscure.
I read this ten years ago. I remember the series, but not so much this one book. The Book of the Long Sun is OK Science Fiction, but not as good as The Book of the New Sun. Wolfe's trademark obscureness is elevated to such an extent that I never quite figured out what was going on.
Blog review.
I read this ten years ago. I remember the series, but not so much this one book. The Book of the Long Sun is OK Science Fiction, but not as good as The Book of the New Sun. Wolfe's trademark obscureness is elevated to such an extent that I never quite figured out what was going on.
Blog review.
September 16, 2021
Laborious
I was excited to read this series a second time, and at first I felt that all of the issues I faced the first time were gone. Books 1 and 2 flew by, and were captivating in their turns and movements. But it all comes to a painful halt here in the second half of the series. Outright unnecessary characters and chapters, riddles whose answers aren't worth the effort.
Tedious, glacial conversations that add little and repeat themselves for dozens of pages. Wolfe is a master when he is firing on all cylinders, but Book of the Long Sun lacks focus and precision. Won't be reading this one again, and if I do it will be a very long time before making the attempt.
I was excited to read this series a second time, and at first I felt that all of the issues I faced the first time were gone. Books 1 and 2 flew by, and were captivating in their turns and movements. But it all comes to a painful halt here in the second half of the series. Outright unnecessary characters and chapters, riddles whose answers aren't worth the effort.
Tedious, glacial conversations that add little and repeat themselves for dozens of pages. Wolfe is a master when he is firing on all cylinders, but Book of the Long Sun lacks focus and precision. Won't be reading this one again, and if I do it will be a very long time before making the attempt.
September 18, 2012
What a mess of an ending to such a wonderful beginning. There were so many plot threads opening, that resolving them ended up in a giant frayed knot, with rough ends and exposition trying to tie it all up. There were too many characters, and I ended up not caring about any of them. The author needs to trash this work and rewrite the ending, with more clarity and simplicity.
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