The Claw of the Conciliator
core novel 1981 The Book of the New Sun
Record
| First published | 1981 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.00 (19,289 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780671416164 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
The Claw of the Conciliator, the second volume of The Book of the New Sun, continues the journey of Severian, the torturer exiled from his guild in Nessus for showing forbidden mercy to a prisoner. Carrying his ancient sword Terminus Est and a gem believed to be the Claw of the Conciliator, a relic linked to a legendary healer and miracle-worker, Severian travels onward toward Thrax, his appointed place of exile, accompanied for a time by a mysterious companion named Jonas. Along the road he encounters intelligent, apelike creatures with glowing bodies, takes part in a ritual that unexpectedly grants him fragments of the dead Thecla's memories, a woman he once loved, and passes through chambers lined with strange mirrors. He also seeks out a miraculous fountain said to offer knowledge of his own fate.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Book of the New Sun
- Series: The Book of the New Sun core; position 2 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Gene Wolfe
Awards (verified)
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 1981: won
Notes
- From the series record (The Book of the New Sun): Severian's story: a torturer exiled from his guild for mercy, who becomes Autarch of a far-future, dying Earth (Urth) under a fading sun. Classified by Wikipedia as 'science fantasy' in the 'Dying Earth' subgenre, with an explicit far-future SF setting, but critical consensus treats it as foundational within fantasy literature -- a 1998 Locus poll ranked it 3rd among 36 all-time best fantasy novels published before 1990, behind only The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and this database already admitted The Dying Earth on the same genre-boundary logic. Internal chronology equals publication order for the 4-volume tetralogy; The Urth of the New Sun is a direct continuation/coda.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Book of the New Sun: position 2 of 5: previous The Shadow of the Torturer (1980) · next The Sword of the Lictor (1982)
Sources
- The Book of the New Sun (Wikipedia)
- Gene Wolfe (Nebula Awards, SFWA)
- The Shadow of the Torturer (Worlds Without End)
- The Sword of the Lictor (Wikipedia)
- The Citadel of the Autarch (Wikipedia)
- https://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.TheClawOfTheConciliator
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