Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide

by Michael Andre-Driussi

A chapter-by-chapter guide to Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun," its sequel "The Urth of the New Sun," and four shorter works.

Genres: Science Fiction, Reference, Fantasy, Literature, Fiction

157 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 11, 2019

Reviews

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're reading The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, I would definitely recommend purchasing this as a companion! It doesn't include anything and is sometimes shorter in explanation than I might like, but it's very helpful for catching many of the Biblical and literary references in the series, or small easter eggs and references to mythology. I'm sure this took a lot of efforts to compile and it's quite helpful! Note that I only read the portions for the first 4 books of the series, not the additional material.

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

At this point I think I’m reading these mostly out of a sense of obligation and completeness. Andre-Driussi’s chapter guides continue to come across as sparse for the most part and I’m left scratching my head a bit at who exactly is the target audience? Some entries are so banal they seem meant for readers who missed everything, others are so allusive they seem designed only for the hardcore Wolfe aficionado who has memorized entries from the old Urth list.

That’s not to say that there is nothing useful or interesting in here, but it does seem somewhat piecemeal and almost arbitrary. Much that is intriguing or suggestive is nothing more than a simple sentence with no clarification or explanation. The devil’s in the details and for the most part there seem to be precious few here.

Of course, I must be fair and note that this is more the case for the chapter guide portions of the text. There is also what Andre-Driussi calls ‘postludes’ at the end of the section covering each book which are far more fulsome. I’m not always sure, though, what prompted the specific topic chosen to be covered. In some cases they are central to the text, such as the ‘First Severian’ theory, while others seem to be incredibly minor and oblique, such as the timeline for the (very minor) character Eata’s life in the books and short stories covered. I’d say for the most part these sections, while intriguing, come across to me more like conversations Andre-Driussi is having with specific members of the Wolfe Industrial Complex of puzzlers and builders of byzantine literary constructs, and not so much for the average reader of Wolfe (if there is such a thing of course).

I’ll keep reading these…at least the ones I’ve purchased to this point, but I keep finding myself a bit baffled and disappointed by them.

[Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid, packed full of useful information for anyone attempting to decipher the New Sun portion (including Urth) of Wolfe's Solar Cycle.

The author seems to take the Single Severian Theory for granted, but after my most recent reading I'm personally pretty firmly in the Many Severians camp.

I'm looking at you Hethor.

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two caveats: First, I have read _The Book of the New Sun_ (tBotNS) several times. Second, I am mildly acquainted with Mr. Andre-Driussi, but I don't think that will affect my review tremendously.

Michael Andre-Driussi is the author of several previous books on Wolfe, and in particular of the _Lexicon Urthus_, a fundamental secondary text in Lupine studies. That book explicates most of the obscure words and names of tBotNS, as well as providing information geographical, thematic, interpretive (limited), and so on.

_This_ book is more limited in its ambitions. It is intended as a companion for a (first time?) reader of tBotNS who finds it challenging even to figure out, in places, what exactly is happening in the text. Andre-Driussi summarizes each chapter in a paragraph or three - carefully avoiding major spoilers in case the reader consults this book first - and provides some commentary on most of them, including topics like echoes from other points in the text, references (some a little iffy to my mind) to the work of other writers (Proust features heavily!), animal and floral references, including the "language of flowers", and - my favorite - evidence that either (a) the protagonist's memory isn't as perfect as he says it is, (b) the protagonist lies, or (c) ... something else.

It does the same things, also, for the sequel (_The Urth of the New Sun_) and for several short stories Wolfe wrote which are also set on Urth.



It does marvelously what it sets out to do. I would recommend it highly to anyone who struggles with tBotNS, which can be a rather puzzling book in places, and to anyone who wants some idea of what all the fuss is all about but isn't sure whether he or she wants to actually read it.

[ansible · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone intimately familiar with BotNS will enjoy this, as with each chapter comes with sources of allegory or reference - the Bible, Greek mythology, etc. The chapter guide itself is useful - I simply read it straight through - and also explains previous chapter summaries, and references the text. If confused about what happened in a chapter, this usually explains plainly.

There are also essay sections that deal with major thematic threads that run through the book, and it answers many questions that were hidden within BotNS. Although I don't agree with all of his conclusions, they are persuasive and well-supported by the text and and other texts.

Any well-written analysis of Wolfe's work must be approached from the right direction, and Andre-Druissi clearly has that in hand. A worthwhile read (and constant reference) for any Wolfe fanatic. If you just finished BotNS for the first time and are confused - wait, and reread! Then read this afterward. You will be richly rewarded.

[dlcc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not recommended. It only includes the most obvious plot points.

I was expecting something like the transcript of Alzabo Soup, but it's far from it. There's only one or two sentences to summarize each chapter. Instead of an in-depth analysis on the plot of every chapter, this "chapter guide" focused on finding obscure references that no one cares about.

This book really shouldn't be called "Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide" but "Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: All references that you miss because you do not care".

[Luke Dylan Ramsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as useful as I’d hoped. I feel like the chapter summaries could have been longer and the allusions and call backs the guide details could have been more much more in depth. Overall, it contained very little information that I felt I actually needed to help me comprehend the stranger parts of Wolfe’s opus. The discussions of the books as wholes were largely informative but again were not as useful as I’d initially hoped when picking this book up.

[Chuck Knudsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used this as a read-along to the series, but honestly it wasn't nearly as helpful as I wanted it to be. The summaries were useful but frequently quite sparse, and the references to other works seemed kind of scattershot and usually lacked any context that would have made them more helpful.

I do think this was helpful, but I was hoping for a Master Key and this was more of a paperclip lockpick.

[Hassan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For Wolfe fans only and not nearly as useful as Lexicon Urthus. The chapter by chapter notes often focus on minutiae or word meanings or the roots of myths, and won't help you (much) with unpacking the meaning of the narrative. If you want a coherent and comprehensive chapter by chapter analysis of BoTNS, listen to the Alzabo Soup podcast series. It's exceptional, although time-consuming.

[Frank Vasquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not always immediately the resource you need this to be, but it is quite frequently a surprising and stunning reference for when you want to keep exploring BotNS. Read this during a reread and after it, and I said “hm” to myself quite a lot while getting lost in hints I looked into or otherwise got taught in these pages.

[Hakim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand that it wasn't the author's intention to provide analysis of the story or some kind of thesis, but this chapter guide is very meager. It barely summarizes anything... and I didn't find it useful.

[Martin Crookall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking

A fascinating summary of The Book of the New Sun and it's related materials that will give me a lot to think about when next I read it.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

4

[Chad Norris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This chapter guide read almost as cryptic as The Book of the New Sun itself. However, I would most certainly recommend it along with the Lexicon Urthus for a deeper understanding of both.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book didn’t really provide me with what my expectations were when I bought this book. This is a brief description of each chapter along with livery and religious connections. Although I was really looking for a critical analysis of the Book of the New Sun, this book does provide some insights to the various books that make up the Book of the New Sun.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

hecka unsubstantiated assertions