Coolest thing abt Gene Wolfe's writing to me (new sun and long sun specifically) is how well he plays with form and convention. Like on a surface read both of these series are pretty straightforward scifi/fantasy (the play btw these two genres and ur perception of which type ur reading is also really cool in new sun) that use common conventions of the genre for the time they were written. but if your able to read into the subtext of the flowery and confusing language you start to understand how deep and interesting the narrative, world, and characters are.
and that's PART of Wolfe's genius to me. the fact he is able to squeeze in so much depth (4 the characters + world) and foreshadowing into these narratives that are, in this current day, played out and well known.
But! the best part is once you realize what level Wolfe is operating on you can see these books on a certain level ARE parodies of the genres they belong in. Like new sun takes LOTR's "return the magical jewelery to whence it came, jesus boy" and adds sooo much more to it (like: what if jesus was a torturer instead of a carpenter?). but you could also read the entire series and think its just a shitty lotr knockoff with a cop out ending.
same thing in Long Sun, hes like oh you guys like star wars now? check this out: youth pastor detective with a light saber and dope han solo blaster! Its a really cool technique. everything feels very serious in his novels, but once he sees that you can comprehend the story on a deep enough level he lets you in on sooo many jokes, which feels very rewarding as a reader.
but then at the same time he's not afraid of the casual reader, the stories ARE compelling enough on that surface level to carry you through to the end, where he explicitly tells you (at least in new sun) "hey go read this book again, i dont think you got everything you can from it"
