Shadow Claw: The First Half of The Book of the New Sun [Paperback]

A major work of twentieth-century American literature...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 TimesonThe Book of the New Sun

Gene Wolfe has been called the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced by the Washington Post.

THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is unanimously acclaimed as Wolfes 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 & Science Fiction.

The Shadow of the Tortureris the first volume in this four-volume epic, the tale of young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession- showing mercy toward his victim.

The Claw of the Conciliatorcontinues 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.

A masterpiece...the best science fiction I've read in years! --Ursula K. Le Guin

This new Tor Essentials edition ofShadow & Clawcontains a new introduction by historian and novelist Ada Palmer, author of the award-winning Too Like the Lightning.

Gene Wolfe(1931-2019) was the Nebula Award-winning author of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy in the Solar Cycle, as well as the World Fantasy Award winnersThe Shadow of the TorturerandSoldier of Sidon. He was also a prolific writer of distinguished short fiction, which has been collected in such award-winning volumes asStoreys from the Old HotelandThe Best of Gene Wolfe.

A recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Edward E. Smith Melc-