Epiphany of the Long Sun: Calde of the Long Sun and Exodus from the Long Sun (Book of the Long Sun, Books 3 and 4)

A couple decades ago, I remember tuning into a panel discussion show on TV because it featured Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison, two authors who I really enjoyed reading. There was also a third author on this program, who for many years, I essentially thought of as "the other guy." It would take till just a couple years ago for me to figure out that this other guy, namely Gene Wolfe, was also worth reading, in ways completely different than either Asimov or Ellison.Epiphany of the Long Sun is the concluding half of Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. Like the previous volume, Litany of the Long Sun, Epiphany is actually an omnibus of two books in the Long Sun tetralogy: Calde of the Long Sun and Exodus of the Long Sun. Altogether, the four books are over 1200 pages of complex plotting. (The Long Sun books themselves fit into the middle of a larger sequence including the Book of the New Sun and the Book of the Short Sun.)As Litany had concluded, the protagonist Silk had been elevated, almost against his will, into the position of Calde, a high-ranking position that is half administration, half monarchy. In Calde of the Long Sun, civil war erupts in the city-state of Viron, as not all people are happy with Silk's promotion. By Exodus, things stabilize a bit (although not all is settled) and the focus is more on the nature and destiny of the Whorl itself.The Whorl is the space colony/generation ship that Silk's people have inhabited for centuries. The societies that exist within this Whorl are both advanced and rather medieval, with both high-end technology alongside more primitive devices. Silk, who also acts as a kind of priest known as a patera and as an augur who sees the future in animal entrails, has become something of a prophet as well. In the Whorl, gods are worshipped and occasionally even seen, but Silk is driven primarily by an outsider god known, quite naturally, as the Outsider.I can only scratch the surface of this densely plotted story, and there's too much to really summarize well. Wolfe is a good writer, but this is not always an easy read. The Book of the Long Sun is ambitious and has a certain artistic merit to it, but for all its admirable qualities, I personally find it to not be great but merely very good, worthy of a high four stars. There isn't really anything wrong with it, but it never completely won me over either (I guess it's a chemistry thing).Do not start this book without having read Litany of the Long Sun. The two volumes are really one long story and the breaks between volumes (and the books within) are more arbitrary than conclusive. With that caveat, if you are a fan of science fiction, this is a worthwhile read.

By the conclusion of the second book in the LONG SUN series, our hero -- brave, naive, clever, wise, reverent, young Patera Silk -- had been granted a vision by the god called the Outsider and conversed with other gods; had begun consorting with thieves and prostitutes; had committed robbery and attempted murder and had killed in self-defense; had fallen in love, been badly injured, acquired a sentient talking bird, and found that he had a natural knack for swordfighting; had discovered that the doctor caring for him was a spy from the matriarchal city of Trivigaunte; had learned that the ruling Ayuntamiento (city council) of his native city of Viron was run by insane, power-hungry robots (more or less); and had been popularly acclaimed Calde (mayor) in opposition to the Ayuntamiento.Having subjected Silk and his compatriots to all of these wild and improbable events and revelations over the space of a few days, Wolfe could have chosen to settle things down in the third book of the series, CALDE OF THE LONG SUN. Instead, he ramps up the civil war that was developing at the end of book two, introduces a huge army of women from Trivigaunte, nominally on Silk's side, and practically doubles the already-large cast of significant characters. This is not a positive development, as I found keeping track of who's who, what's what, and why's that to be beyond my meager mental capabilities. Worse, there's little payoff to the additional complexitly; most of the book is spent in pointless dithering, blathering, bantering, and rumination.This continues in EXODUS FROM THE LONG SUN. Early on, however, we learn that the gods (or at least one of them) want people to begin abandoning the "whorl" and exploring nearby planets. As we learned in the first three books, the whorl is falling apart and many of the supplies intended to support colonization of a new world have been foolishly squandered. Mounting a planetary excursion is going to be no small feat in a spaceship where nineteenth century technology rules. This effort could be interesting, but Wolfe doesn't seem to care about it very much. Thus, EXODUS becomes increasingly disconnected and disjointed towards the end. It's very like a film that was edited together after a quarter of the scenes were lost through careless handling.The good: Wolfe's sharp, thoughtful, satirical treatment of religion, religious faith, and religious and political corruption remains provocative, even if it does not add much to what he achieved in the first two books. There are enough twists and turns in the plot to sustain the reader's interest.The bad: Wolfe can't hold his focus in the second half of THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN; there's too much going on, most of it pointless. Readers who were hoping for big revelations about the whorl, its mission, and its objectives will be disappointed. The journey is ... the only reward you're going to get. How's that for an epiphany?The verdict: Sigh. Good enough to buy, disappointing enough to kvetch about at length.

Gene Wolfe is my favorite author so any review I give is glowing. But, he's my favorite author for a very good reason. Too deep, too complex and too moving on so many levels to give a detailed description here. But I think The Long Sun series is wonderful.

If your familiar with Mister Wolfe, these two books are further evidence of his masterful use of the language of the "whorl". He invents and uses words to fit every situation and he uses the language to paint some of the most believable environments in science fiction. I must admit to being completely taken in by the "Maytera's", the "sacred windows" and the azoth. Wolfe books are not the " can't put this down" variety - rather they almost demand you put them down and contemplate what you just read and what the words actually meant. If you're a patient reader and fascinated by incredibly detailed descriptions of "new whorls" and their inhabitants, you will thoroughly enjoy these.

very good

I have read a LOT of sci-fi and IMO Gene Wolfe's Short and Long sun series are as good as it gets, certainly good as any sci-fi book I have ever read, I enjoyed them more than any other , but thats hard to say possibly as if you are reading a really absorbing, immersively written book then that;s the one you rmemeber best, still, its a long time since I fell into another world so convincingly.yes some of them require a bit of work or patience on the part of the reader, perhaps this one more than the others but that's a game you realise you have entered into with the writer, he is watching you as you read, or his spirit feels like it might be, it's a little challenge he might have set us, but I love that - sink into it, go along with it, you will be rewarded by being transported to an environment you never want to leave, because as an observer, you are safe.absolutely loved this (and the rest) and was sad when I had finished them.I went on to read everything I could find by him after but these are his best

Typical Gene Wolfe book - very good but you'll have to work at it. The structure of the book does not lend itself to easy reading and is hard going. If you are prepared to put the effort in, you'll find an amazing intelligent novel. Like most of GW's work what the book is about is not obvious and many questions will be left unanswered.The book is not perfect by any means, there are a large number of character and keeping track of them can be hard (the who's who at start of the book is probably there by the publishers request, this does help somewhat); the book does jump ahead at points (you only find this out several pages later); lots of technical stuff is missed out (in reflection a good thing as the book is about people not so much about technology).All in all a work of epic proportions, that does not take the easy way out.Should this be your first GW book? - maybe not, "The Fifth Head Of Cerberus" might be a better place to start and the books of the New Sun are worth reading before hand to give you some grounding in this universe (but the connection between the stories is so loose that you don't have to read the books of the New Sun to understand these)The story does continue with the books of the Short Sun...

The sequels to book of the new sun get significantly fewer accolades than the first series, but I found these to be a delight. Gene Wolfe at probably his most accessible, still genius. There are some great lines in these books, and some subtle profundities. I enjoyed the first half better though, I think

have only read intro but loved Gene Wolfe's other work The New Sun

5 Stars for Gene Wolfe. 1 Star for Amazon's packing abilities. Miraculously the books arrived without serious damage.