The Book of the New Sun [03] Sword and Citadel

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The Book of the New Sun [03] Sword and Citadel Page 55

by Gene Wolfe


  I had feared I would have difficulty in squeezing through its narrow crevice, but if the present Severian was somewhat larger of bone, he was also leaner, so that when I had worked my shoulders through the rest followed easily enough.

  The snow I recalled was gone, but a chill had come into the air to say that it would soon return. A few dead leaves, which must have been carried in some updraft very high indeed, had come to rest here among the dying roses. The tilted dials still cast their crazy shadows, useless as the dead clocks beneath them, though not so unmoving. The carven animals stared at them, unwinking still. I crossed to the door and tapped on it. The timorous old woman who had served us appeared, and I, stepping into that musty room in which I had warmed myself before, told her to bring Valeria to me. She hurried away, but before she was out of sight, something had wakened in the time-worn walls, its disembodied voices, hundredtongued, demanding that Valeria report to some antiquely titled personage who I realized with a start must be myself. Here my pen shall halt, reader, though I do not. I have carried you from gate to gate—from the locked and fog-shrouded gate of the necropolis of Nessus to that cloud-racked gate we call the sky, the gate that shall lead me, as I hope, beyond the nearer stars. My pen halts, though I do not. Reader, you will walk no more with me. It is time we both take up our lives.

  To this account, I, Severian the Lame, Autarch, do set my hand in what shall be called the last year of the old sun.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Gene wolfe was born in New York City and raised in Houston, Texas. He spent two and a half years at Texas A&M, then dropped out and was drafted. As a private in the Seventh Division during the Korean War, he was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge. The GI Bill permitted him to attend the University of Houston after the war, where he earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently a senior editor on the staff of Plant Engineering Magazine. Although he has written a "mainstream" novel, a young-adult novel, and many magazine articles, Wolfe is best known as a science-fiction writer, the author of over a hundred science-fiction short stories and of The Fifth Head of Cerberus. In 1973 his The Death of Doctor Island won the Nebula Award (given by the Science Fiction Writers of America) for the best science-fiction novella of the year. His novel Peace won the Chicago Foundation for Literature Award in 1977, and his "The Computer Iterates the Greater Trumps" has been awarded the Rhysling for science-fiction poetry. The first volume of The Book of the New Sun, The Shadow of the Torturer, was nominated for the Nebula Award and has just received the award for Best Fantasy Novel of the Year from the World Fantasy Convention. Volume Two, The Claw of the Conciliator, has been nominated for the Nebula Award. Mr. Wolfe lives with his wife and children in Barrington, Illinois. Although The Citadel of the Autarch completes this narrative of Severian's, Mr. Wolfe is at work on an independent book, The Urth of the New Sun, which further illuminates this future history.

  Table of Contents

  THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN

  BOOK THREE - THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR

  APPENDIX

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  BOOK FOUR - THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH

  APPENDIX

  CHAPTER ONE - THE DEAD SOLDIER

  CHAPTER TWO - THE LIVING SOLDIER

  CHAPTER THREE - THROUGH DUST

  CHAPTER FOUR - FEVER

  CHAPTER FIVE - THE LAZARET

  CHAPTER SIX - MILES, FOILA, MELITO, AND HALLVARD

  CHAPTER SEVEN - HALLVARD'S STORY - THE TWO SEALERS

  CHAPTER EIGHT - THE PELERINE

  CHAPTER NINE - MELITO'S STORY - THE COCK, THE ANGEL, AND THE EAGLE

  CHAPTER TEN - AVA

  CHAPTER ELEVEN - LOYAL TO THE GROUP OF SEVENTEEN'S STORY - THE JUST MAN

  CHAPTER TWELVE - WINNOC

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN - FOILA'S STORY - THE ARMINGER'S DAUGHTER

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN - MANNEA

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN - THE LAST HOUSE

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN - THE ANCHORITE

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - RAGNAROK - THE FINAL WINTER

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - FOILA'S REQUEST

  CHAPTER NINETEEN - GUASACHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY - PATROL

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - DEPLOYMENT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - BATTLE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - THE PELAGIC ARGOSY SIGHTS LAND

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - THE FLIER

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - THE MERCY OF AGIA

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - ABOVE THE JUNGLE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - BEFORE VODALUS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - ON THE MARCH

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - AUTARCH OF THE COMMONWEALTH

  CHAPTER THIRTY - THE CORRIDORS OF TIME

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE - THE SAND GARDEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - THE SAMRU

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - THE KEY TO THE UNIVERSE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - FATHER INIRE'S LETTER

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX - OF BAD GOLD AND BURNING

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN - ACROSS THE RIVER AGAIN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT - RESURRECTION

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

 

 


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