Book Review: The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading this bizarre SF/Fantasy novel — it’s technically science fiction, but it conforms to the conventions of a fantasy adventure novel — and it’s rather fascinating. It was written back in the early 80s when Lord of the Rings and Star Wars had yet to completely overwhelm the genre. It was a time when SF was still a niche pastime in which only weirdos indulged. The Shadow of the Torturer is remarkably weird.

It takes place in a far future Earth (called Urth). The moon is green being shrouded in forests, the mid-day sky is indigo blue as the sun has grown dim, and the characters live in a vast city full of ancient technology and fantastic structures which no one understands or fully comprehends and which may as well be magic.

There are two main parts to the novel. The first is a detailed description of our protagonist Severian as he studies to become a journeyman torturer. This part of the novel is a very involved exploration of the world Severian inhabits. It’s important because the world he lives in is very foreign. It also sets the tone, which is dark. Everything from the sky to what little humor exists is dark. The torturers wear clothes of the color fugilin, which is described as being darker than black. The narrative voice is as dense and oppressive as the scenarios being described.

The second part of the novel, when Severian has started his quest to travel beyond the city, wastes much of that initial world building, unfortunately. It takes Severian the last half of the book just to get to the city’s borders (it’s a very big city) and his adventures seem haphazardly constructed, episodic, and random after the fashion of a mediocre sword and sorcery novel. This was a big letdown after the fantastic build up of the first half.

The book ends on a cliffhanger and the prose and the setting are sufficiently intoxicating that I’m going to give the sequel a try. Despite the missteps in the second half of the novel, there’s really nothing like The Shadow of the Torturer.