Reddit reviews Solar Labyrinth: Exploring Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun"

There's a few resources out there, none perfect.

This is a short little bit by Gaiman on how to read Wolfe. Not specific to Book of the New Sun, and a little joking, but it's completely accurate. Approach Wolfe in that manner and you may get more from the books.

This is a dictionary/glossary that can be useful to link different parts of the series to eachother, and provides a lot of context as to the real world origins of words he uses. Wolfe invents a lot less words that it seems at first glance, almost every unfamiliar word is either just a really rare/archaic word, or is invented, but pulled from a real life reference. Sadly, it's a book and not freely available, but what can you do.

This is a wiki about Wolfe's works, kind of hit or miss, but the list of obscure words is useful, and some of the analysis/discussion is good.

This is the best regarded in-depth literary analysis of the series, but it's super dense and not a straightforward explanation by any means.

There's also a super long running mailing list about gene wolfe's work, but good luck digging anything useful out of it, it's just way too much with no organization.

If you are really intrigued, there is always, Lexicon Urthus and The Solar Labyrinth both of which explain many of the terms used and have a great deal of in depth analysis. Both are available as ebooks as well.

This will help a lot.

Here's a book of theories. Some are probably crazy, but some of the stuff in here is surely correct, such as how to tell if a character is human, robot, or alien from their names.

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For other tips for reading Wolfe, and general theories and whatnot, there are a few books well worth picking up.

Lexicon Urthus

Solar Labyrinth

The Long and the Short of It

The first book here is by Michael Andre-Driussi and has a foreword by Wolfe. This is mostly a dictionary and etymology-tracer of the words and names and theories in BotNS. Considering Wolfe's endorsement, it feels fairly official, even borderline cannon.

The last two are by Robert Borski and are absolutely great reads. Very imaginative, even if some of his theories seem too wild to be true.

But to assume it's a plot hole and not dig deeper is to miss out on the depth and detail of Wolfe's writing. I highly recommend reading Borski's "The Solar Labyrinth" ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0595317294 ) to help see some of these deeper connections and hidden details.

I happen to like Lexicon Urthus, which helps organize the material. I happen to hate the Solar Labyrinth, which I think is a lot of silly imagining of things that aren't there.

The truth is that there aren't a lot of straight-forward answers with Gene Wolfe. We want there to be; we want Dr. Talos's play to make perfect sense, if only we had the answer key. But Wolfe's work thrives in ambiguity, and while there are some clues hidden, I think there are far fewer clues, and far fewer real answers, than most people do. The point isn't to understand in a conventional sense; I think it's to experience a kind of wonder.

As for your spoiler question: [Spoiler](/s "The woman wasn't actually ever harmed during the festival, and there's no evidence she was a robot. Actually, this is one of the rare places where Wolfe leaves some pretty credible clues: there's good evidence that that lady is Severian's mother.")

You should, or you could cheat and buy Solar Labyrinth: Exploring Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun". I suspect a lot of the things it explains (or theorizes) will have eluded most readers, even in subsequent rereads.

Having read TBotNS twice, I'd also recommend the audiobook. The reader actually does a great job, especially with the "stage script" scenes, which I always found tedious reading. It goes by very quickly.

Also, Robert Borski's Solar Labrynth (http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Labyrinth-Exploring-Gene-Wolfes/dp/0595317294) has some good guiding essays on the books.

The fact that Borski is debated as being wrong about several conclusions just add to my interest in how various parts are interpreted. The Urth.net (http://www.urth.net/) mailing list also has a lot of interesting discussion.

In my mind, digging into TBotNS is as rewarding as Gravity's Rainbow or Infinite Jest. I first read it in high school and just enjoyed the story. As I've gotten older, I keep finding more to enjoy.

Be sure to check out some of the volumes (yes volumes) of literary review written about A Book of the New Sun.

I recommend Lexicon Urthus and Solar Labyrinth.

The essays therein really helped me reach a new appreciation for Wolfe's work and let me enjoy them on a new level.

It was deep enough that it inspired others to write their own. That does not happen too often.