#gene wolfe

[evelmiina]

This is the line of division / Terminus Est Thecla and Severian from The Book of the New Sun series, which I've been reading for the past couple of years.

I want to give a shout out to Shelved by Genre podcast, which has been excellent listening after reading each book, their long discussions about the chapters have been interesting and inspiring, and provided some context for lot of things I had no point of reference for at all. (Catholic lore, for one). Funnily enough they mentioned in fan art, there tends to be two camps for Severian - either the heavy metal-esque, ripped as hell muscle fantasy type, or, the jrpg protagonist. You can see which camp I am.

Digitally drawn in PS.

[a-dream-seeking-light]

gene wolfe’s the shadow of the torturer book cover illustrated by bruce pennington

[torpublishinggroup]

TOR WRAPPED 2023

Books for every Spotify Wrapped listener class! 

VAMPIRE

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Mordew by Alex Pheby

HYPNOTIST

The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu

Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald

Spring’s Arcana by Lilith Saintcrow

ALCHEMIST

The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller

The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

SHAPESHIFTER

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Warden by Daniel M. Ford

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

FANATIC

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

TIME TRAVELER

Kinning by Nisi Shawl

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

MASTERMIND

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow

Exadelic by Jon Evans

COLLECTOR

The Wolfe at the Door by Gene Wolfe

Cassiel’s Servant by Jacqueline Carey

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

[toffee32]

I love you, but you are another death, a death that has stayed with me and befriended me as the old death in the lake did, but death all the same.

Severian and Dorcas Sword of Lictor, Book of the New Sun

[ryonagiographie]

Stripping the philosophical importance of that scene to get to the sheer horror comedy

[where-your-eyes-dont-go]

*pacing around after finishing Dune Messiah* alright so Severian the Torturer is a Paul Atreides who gets roped into also being an Alia. Tenar is an Alia who got to stop being an Alia. Lisa Wilbourn is an Alia who hates being Alia even more than Alia hated being Alia, and lives in a world where everyone keeps trying to be Paul (badly). Harrowhark is an Alia who's trying to be a Paul (badly). This of course fits with Gideon Nav being a Duncan Idaho.

[slowthinkingreader]

Also I'm crossposting these Japanese variant covers of the first four books by Yoshitaka Amano— before I forget to talk about them on here. Struggling to think of an artist whose aesthetics are better suited to these books!

[galaxylaserteam]

The Mystery of the Guild

by Floating Disc