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