I have found my new favorite book and it's all
thanks to Elder Ring's predecessor Demon Souls initially I was just looking for a novel similar
to the lore of demon souls the kingdom of bataria has been cut off from the outside world with a
mysterious fog the residents have gone mad there are some monsters and demons of foot some
survivors have brought back the previously banished art of Soul magic instead I found a
narrative more similar to a character-driven role-playing game with some of
that Souls born
vague of mystery sprinkled in I say RPG cuz this reminds me how role playing video games such as
Final Fantasy 7 balers Gate 3 Dragon Age origins The Witcher series how they give you an end goal
but it's really about the journey and all of the side quests along the way any and every town or
new city you enter is just filled with new things to do if you play games you know the scenario
a giant meteor is coming to destroy the Earth but right now I really have to find this kid'
s
cat meet Jean wolf the book of the new son a science fantasy tetrology originally written as
one large novel but published as four separate volumes between 1980 and 1983 the shadow of the
torturer the claw of the conciliator the sword of the lictor and the Citadel of the utar the
book of the new Sun tells the story of searan through Jean Wolf's found translation of his
Memoir starting as an apprentice and later journeyman of the order of the Seekers for truth
and pestilence more commonly
known as The Guild of torturers those who have been trained their whole
life to dish out the corporal punishment mandated by the ortar or others in power the utar is the
supreme leader of the Commonwealth in this future version of Earth with a u far future because the
sun has been described as dying and red and dim I personally have not yet read Jack Vance's dying
Earth series which genan wolf was heavily influen Ed by let me sell you on the book of the new Sun
here there are two ways to g
o about this the first way is to be as vague as Jean wolf is with the
book of the new sun or I guess technically sarian is when describing his experiences on Earth I
will tell you that it is a deep thought-provoking science fantasy Adventure one full of mystery
and Magic it's a bit dense with wonderful yet thought-provoking Pros with a plot that sort
of unravels like a large large knotted ball of yarn sometimes quickly and exciting and other
times you hit a knot and can't go any further so
you have to start at the other end and you
keep going until you hit knots and going back and forth that's kind of how I felt while I was
reading the book of the new Sun for some of you that might be enough to just go and read so you
can stop here but I know you're probably like me and if you clicked on this video you want to know
more about this series so technically I guess the rest of the video may include some spoilers but
honestly I don't think you can be spoiled by the book of the new
Sun without the context of what's
going on it's more about saran's Journey than the destination as cliche as that sounds you know
without context the plot points themselves I don't feel are too much of spoilers cuz I could tell you
that X happens to this character and this scenario happens but there's really a deeper meaning
behind all of that so knowing that a certain situ ation happens doesn't really spoil anything
in my opinion I would say that the extent of my spoilers wouldn't be more
than knowing the fact
that tour the publisher originally released the book of the new Sun under its fantasy Masterworks
line and later in its science fiction Masterworks line but regardless you have been warned searan
is a young man in his 20s a bit younger actually at the begin of the shadow of the torturer in
the first chapter and he is exiled from his Guild's headquarters because he shows compassion
to one of their clients Thea a woman he falls in love with being unable to cast judgment
themselves
the leader of the torturers guild simply banishes sarian to the city of thrax to work as a Lor
of the city basically one who will dle out punishment in name of the guilt with his newly
acquired sword Terminus EST the plot of the book of the new Sun really shines when we accompany
sarian on his journey to and Beyond thrax allies lovers duels magical artifacts hell saaran even
performs in a play from a traveling play Riot the deeper the reader goes into the book of the new
Su the
weirder things start to get remember this is a firstperson memoir searan has never been
outside of his Guild before he's never seen the greater world and there are a lot of weird things
out there not just creatures in Magic but customs of how people live this is a far future world
and sarian does his best to explain what he's seeing to the reader think of him as a medieval
peasant who stumbles upon a submarine now this peasant will try to describe what he's seeing not
only just the in but t
he technology that's inside with his limited vocabulary of what the hell
a screen might be or you know powered lights this might be part of the reason why people sort
of consider the book of the new Sun a difficult read because you're trying to decipher what
sarian is actually saying and describing but I think that's part of the whole fun of reading
the whole book and since this is a firstperson narrative descriptions of it typically give searan
the tag of the unreliable narrator and I get
it sarian is a torturer someone that hurts people
for a living He inflicts pain and Punishment and sometimes even death by beheading those when he
needs some coin on the road he's able to do this because he's technically an emissary of Justice
because he is a lictor being banished from his Guild doesn't relieve him of his duties but this
makes sense to me to leave certain things out that may paint Sean in a negative light because it is
revealed build pretty early LA on that he is the curren
t autar of Earth often chapters or volumes
end on Cliffhangers and pick up completely in a different scenario days weeks down the line sarian
doesn't want the intended reader of this book that he wrote this Memoir of his this autobiography to
know certain things I don't particularly love the unreliable narrator tag that sarian gets because
he's just interpreting the things that he's seeing I also don't think he's really the sharpest tool
in the shed he's definitely not a great person but he
may be using this to redeem himself a bit
regardless I found myself liking him enough that I was rooting for his success you know you have
to understand that the world of Earth is not all sunshine and rainbows one thing I have to mention
is that very early on sarian mentions to the reader that he possesses A Perfect Memory where
he is able to remember everything that that's ever happened to him in his life but he will
M make mistakes sometimes pages in between you will see one character ho
lding a spear and then
he says it's another character that was holding it little things like that that are easy to miss
but he kind of hammers this over your head that he has a perfect memory and everything all the events
have happened exactly as he writing it but he will makes make mistakes that you can definitely pick
out so yeah searan doesn't know everything that's going on in this world and he will contradict
himself there's a quote from Neil Gaiman The more deeply you delve into the b
ook of the new son the
more it will repay the delving I see many hesitant to recommend the book of the new sun because it's
a hard dense read it's painfully slow because it's filled with difficult and archaic words and I
think we should unpack this a bit here first off yes the book of the new son I found to be a
slow read it took me 4 months to read granted I was not trying to rip through it and and I took
breaks here and there because there's kind of a lot going on but there were absolutel
y times where
I could not put the book down where I just want to stay up even at 1 2 a.m. to just read a few more
pages or another chapter cuz I was excited to see what happened but often I would be stopped in
my tracks because you would come across a word such as destrier instead of warhorse or Smilodon
instead of just saying like a large sabertooth cat in between volumes wolf does kind of write to you
the reader that he's doing his best to interpret this Found book of sarian and many time
s there are
not words that exist for what sarian is describing so genene kind of looks into the books of History
to to find words that are similar to help you the reader understand what sarian is claiming to
have seen now why sometimes Jean just doesn't say riding a horse or warhorse there might be reasons
maybe it's not actually a horse as we know it that that's something I've come to start thinking
about since I finished the book but there are some archaic terms for different Weaponry wha
t I found
helpful actually was reading on Kindle because you can very easily just hold on a word and a
description will pop up a definition so because of that I recommend reading the book of the new
son your first time through and yes you will want to read this multiple times but read the first
time through if you can on a Kindle now because there are so many of these archaic words there are
some books that serve you with chapter guides I think there's two authors that have chapter guides
and there's also a book called lexicon Earth this by Michael Andre drissy that is a dictionary for
all of these archaic words and some of the madeup words by Jean wolf in the story or sarian but
please do do not feel the need to buy these books for your first time through especially lexicon
Earth I'm excited to use that for my second read through but for a first readr it will explain
words unfortunately with massive spoilers for events and I don't think it's necessary for the
first time thr
ough and to be honest most of the time that I looked up words was in the first book
The Shadow of the torturer just because there was so much that searan is running into to animals and
items and weaponry but after a while I honestly started to just get the gist of what jean wolf was
saying and understood that okay he's talking about a sword I don't need to stop reading to look up
exactly what it looks like sometimes I did but I don't know sometimes it's just fine to skip ahead
like I get it
he's talking about a giant animal or he's talking about some type of house or a dagger
like you just kind of go on you fall into a good Groove and you get the gist of what jean or sarian
is trying to say the pros is very descriptive but often dreamlike and I never found that I really
had a problem understanding what was going on with those archaic words non withstanding and it's
interesting thinking about it that the stance that the book of the new son or maybe Gene Wolf's
writing in gener
al I've only read these four volumes so far that he's difficult to read maybe
says something more about the product that authors are putting out today and what we're reading and
consuming in general but maybe that's probably a video for another time if I had one complaint it
would be that these page- turning chapters were often halted by other stories themselves inside
the book of the Newan what I mean is that saran actually carries around with him an ancient book
that he wound up acquir in
g there are stories ancient stories and multiple times throughout
the whole series he reads from them to another character and for a whole chapter so obviously
these stories have a reason to be there whether they be allegory or symbolism some even say that
very literally you need to read the words because it explains things earlier or later on in the book
I just found them difficult to decipher a bit you know there there's even I mentioned earlier
that sarian runs into multiple times he run
s into a playwright a traveling troop and performs
with them and at one point there's a chapter that is just the play rights play just out of nowhere
and we're reading the play the first time through I was kind of annoyed because personally I don't
like reading plays I was forced to read them in high school maybe some in college and I just don't
enjoy them I didn't really enjoy this one either but I kind of understand now that it was there for
a reason just know that there's a lot to find a
nd interpret genan wolf had a love for Classics and
folklore the Bible even there are many parallels in homage throughout the whole book of the new son
I picked up on a little bit of it those of you who are more well read than me I guess if you just
read a lot of Classics and know a lot you might actually have a better time finding some of these
parallels there's a quote that I found a few times from Gan wolf my definition of good literature
is that which can be read by an educated reader a
nd reread with increased pleasure so yes much of
it may have gone over my head it may go over your head if you haven't read it yet but I think
that's part of the point because as Jean wolf believes you should reread good literature and I'm
excited to do so it's not often or honestly ever have I thought while I'm still reading a book I
can't wait to reread this going back around to my opening statement about demon souls or Elden
ring the more I read the book of the new son the more I underst
ood the recommendation that I
found to read it because you're journeying with searan through this world and you're encountering
strange things and piecing it together one by one and it's pretty deep and starts to blow your
mind the more you figure out there's plenty to discover and I'm reminded a little bit of Mark
danieli House of leaves in my opinion that book is not worth reading not worth the hype wasn't
creepy more of an experiment but I digress what reminded me of it is that when I fi
nished House
of leaves I sort of started looking into some theories because there's a lot of hidden messages
and hidden elements throughout that whole book and I almost wanted to start digging in but I just
honestly thought that house of leaves wasn't good good enough to waste my time with that for Book
of the new Sun I definitely want to dig in deeper and find more and there's a lot out there to look
up but honestly i' I've kind of kept myself from that for the most part because I'm excite
d
to reread it for myself and see what I can pick up on the second time around so if extended
World building is your thing then genan wolf has you covered the book of the new sun is actually
part of the greater solar cycle which includes the sequel Earth of the new sun which is a sequel
or a fifth volume I've read that Jean wolf sort of wrote that to help tie up Loose Ends because
a lot of people were confused of what they read with the book of newon originally but after that
there is also
more works in the same universe the book of the Long Sun and its direct squel the
book of the short sun which both take place way before the events in the new Sun I'm personally
waiting to go and read Earth of the new Sun until I reread the first four four volumes of the book
of the new Sun then I'll move on to Long Sun and short sun and there are actually are some short
stories sprinkled in Jean Wolf's works that are in the solar cycle universe and if you're really
into everything sort of
with those extra books lexicon Earth those chapter summaries there's I
believe two podcasts that break down chapter by chapter or two chapters at a time each chapter of
the book of the new Sun as I think you can tell I love the book of the new son it is not perfect
but I think I have found my new favorite novel or series whatever you want to call it it really is
full of mind-blowing Revelations and just things I didn't expect I'm obviously left with tons of
questions but that's fine to giv
e it a rating I would give book of the new son a five out of five
the volumes themselves I think the two and three in the middle were the best those were five out
of fives for me and their book ended one and four I gave them fours out of fives not perfect mostly
because the first book included some stories which pulled me from the action of what was going on
and the fourth book while it had some amazing reveals there's a bunch of chapters about a war
that honestly wasn't the most interestin
g but I understand why it's there fantasy and science
fiction collide with truly terrifying monster encounters sword and sorcery time travel Elder
Gods Cults aliens robots and War to name a few now I did start reading the book of the new son
before Noel and I started this channel so I did not take extensive notes which is probably what
my second reading will be so whenever I do that I don't know if that's going to be anytime soon
maybe within the this year eventually expect some more videos
or maybe video essays on that just do
yourself a favor and if you enjoy fantasy Andor sci-fi read the book of the new Sun I'm two novels
past that and I'm still thinking about it pretty much every day I've never really encountered a
story like this before other than maybe Chrono Trigger or the Star Ocean series if you have any
recommendations for me that are maybe similar or sound similar to The Book of the Nisan or maybe
the lore of souls born games Elden ring blood born Dark Souls demon
souls please let me know another
novel that came up in my searches was Christopher bu's between two fires which I will read at some
point soon so let me know if you've read that I in my head I keep thinking between two fires is like
between two bonfires from Dark Souls I'm Billy and I'm going to leave you to ponder this quote from
the shadow of the torturer it is said that it is the peculiar quality of time to conserve fact and
that it does so by rendering our past falsehoods true
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