Book of the New Sun, The
Entry updated 11 August 2018. Tagged: Community.
Major sf work with a Far-Future, Dying Earth setting by Gene Wolfe (whom see for fuller discussion). The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983 4vols) was followed by the nonfiction commentary The Castle of the Otter: A Book About The Book of the New Sun (coll 1983), the direct sequel The Urth of the New Sun (1987), several shorter tales and two further series: the only loosely linked tetralogy The Book of the Long Sun (1993-1996) and its sequel trilogy The Book of the Short Sun (1991-2001), which briefly revisits the milieu of The Book of the New Sun itself. Michael Andre-Driussi's Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle (1994; exp 2008) is both a concordance and a useful guide to the nomenclature of Wolfe's creation; his Gate of Horn, Book of Silk: A Guide to Gene Wolfe's The Book of the Long Sun and The Book of the Short Sun (2012) deals similarly with the later sequences. Despite its title, the tribute anthology Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe (anth 2013) edited by J E Mooney and Bill Fawcett contains only two tales set in the New Sun universe: "In the Shadow of the Gate" by William C Dietz and "The Dreams of the Sea" by Jody Lynn Nye. [DRL]
see also: Series.
further reading
- Michael Andre-Driussi. Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle (Albany, California: Sirius Fiction, 1994) [nonfiction: see author's entry for addenda: Book of the New Sun: hb/Dave Granvold]
- Robert Borski. Solar Labyrinth: Exploring Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (New York: iUniverse, Inc, 2004) [nonfiction: Book of the New Sun: hb/Robert Borski]
- Michael Andre-Driussi. Gate of Horn, Book of Silk: A Guide to Gene Wolfe's The Book of the Long Sun and The Book of the Short Sun (Albany, California: Sirius Fiction, 2012) [nonfiction: hugely expanded from previous pamphlets: Book of the Long Sun and Book of the Short Sun: hb/Miroslav Boskov]
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