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The narrator Severian recalls that when he was younger, he only desired “high things” like justice and for the Torturers guild to regain the high regard it once had. He then writes, “I am wise now, if not much older, and I know it is better to have all things, high and low, than to have the high only.” The flanking volunteers ran toward him, but he had held onto his weapon. I saw the bright blade flash up, though its owner was still on the ground. I remember thinking what a fine thing it would have been to have had such a sword on the day Drotte became captain of apprentices, and then likening Vodalus to myself. Severian the future narrator pauses in his recitation to wonder aloud if he is providing too much detail for these scenes. But he has “spent weary days in reading the histories of my predecessors” (prior Autarchs) and they consist of abridged accounts which are open to multiple interpretations of motivations and causes. He philosophizes that one’s actions are influenced by both external and internal forces. The external is embodied in “those figures who wait beyond the void of death…Rightly we feel our lives guided by them, and rightly too we feel how little we matter to them, the builders of the unimaginable, the fighters of wars beyond the totality of existence.” However there are forces within us equally great – like Severian’s unexplainable desire for the shopkeeper’s daughter. Those forces “waken within us and we are ridden like beasts, though the rider is but some hitherto unguessed part of ourselves.” This occasions Severian to recall a tale of Father Inire he heard from Thecla. When she was 13, she had a friend Domnina who looked several years younger. She says that there are two large mirrors in the Hall of Meaning which are 3-4 ells wide (10 to 13 feet) and extend to the ceiling. Thecla and Domnina enjoyed playing there because their images were infinitely multiplied. One day Father Inire approached them; he was wearing iridescent robes (having colors like the rainbow) that faded into gray and was only slightly taller than them. He told them to be wary because there was an imp hiding in the mirror who creeps into the eyes of those who look at it. Domnina asked if he was shaped like a gleaming tear and Father Inire said that was someone else. But he offered to take her to his “presence chamber” tomorrow to show him to Domnina. When finally Thecla is put to torture, Severian takes pity on her and helps her commit suicide, by smuggling a knife into her cell, thus breaking an oath to his guild.
Cliffhanger Copout: The novel was originally published as four separate volumes. Each of the first three volumes ended with a cliffhanger. In each case, the next book begins some time after the resolution of the cliffhanger with the resolution never explained in detail. But with the coming of Thecla, a beautiful and intelligent woman whose indiscretions have lost her her place in the inner circle of concubines of the House Absolute, life changes for Severian, as he disobeys the rules he has been raised to follow. The young torturer expects to be killed for his crime; instead he is exiled from the city to serve as a simple executioner in distant Thrax ,the City of Windowless Rooms. As he leaves, his master gifts him with the ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est, the Line of Division. The Book of the New Sun is a lengthy Science Fantasy novel by Gene Wolfe, originally published as four separate books. Wolfe, and this novel in particular, have a cult following for its deceptively engaging Worldbuilding couched in Science Fiction trappings that take the form of the narrator's memoirs. I looked down the street. Lanterns swung there among the fog-muffled sounds of feet and voices. I would have hidden, but Roche held me, saying, "Wait, I see pikes." Severian mentions that he practiced his craft during his journey, but attempts to avoid details of his profession in his story. What little is described is only what is necessary to make sense of the plot.Severian and Dorcas walk about the city and then return to their room. Although Dorcas cannot remember being with a man, she knows she is not a virgin and is not hesitant in her desire for Severian. They make love and Dorcas says, “I’m glad. I’m so glad.” Severian falls asleep afterward and again dreams of the great face he has seen in his prior dream of Gyoll, “a portent of coral and white seen in the sky, smiling with needle teeth.”
Dueling Messiahs: Though it may not be apparent to the protagonist, there are two apparent candidates for the messiah figure known as the Conciliator, namely Baldanders and Serverian himself. Naturally they end up fighting - the trigger being the science-driven former destroying a relic belonging to the faith-driven latter. Master Malrubius in his post-death appearances is not a ghost or hallucination, but a construct based on Severian's memories. Dorcas eats some bread while she is recounting the prior evening and mentions that she thinks this is the first food she has had in a long, long time. She then says they encountered some soldiers and once she told them Severian was a torturer, they created a makeshift stretcher and transported him to the lazaret. The words were no sooner out of his mouth than I heard someone shout. Three of the volunteers were coming down the path over the rim of the dale. "Hold them off, Liege," the heavy man growled, shouldering the corpse. "I'll take care of this, and get Madame to safety."Deus ex Machina: In Book 4, The Citadel of the Autarch, when Severian is rescued by aliens in a spaceship (who had been introduced earlier). His rescuers explicitly state that they are pulling a Deus Ex Machina. However, it is likely that this is a subversion rather than simply lampshading an unsatisfying plot development. The thoughtful reader is supposed to connect this with the puppet imagery earlier in the narrative, and wonder what else the 'powers from above the stage' have been doing during the story. The fact that Severian relates this Deus Ex Machina conversation but still doesn't understand how he's being manipulated, is one of the clearest examples of his status as Unreliable Narrator. The old man tells Severian that he cannot find his wife because the bodies move due to an underwater conduit; indeed, some have been seen out in the distant sea. He has been searching for his wife’s body for over 15 years and is convinced she is now wandering and may return to him because he has pulled up all the bodies in the lake in that time. He has been looking for her because when she was put under the water, her eyes opened and he dreams of it every night. He needs to find her end the dream and his belief that she may return.
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