The Urth of the New Sun
core novel 1987 The Book of the New Sun
Record
| First published | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.06 (9,813 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780312863944 |
| Internal chronology | 5 |
Synopsis
The Urth of the New Sun serves as a coda to The Book of the New Sun tetralogy, picking up years after those events with Severian now ruling as Autarch of Urth. Restless in his new position, he sets out on a quest to find a new sun for the dying world, a mission that takes him almost entirely away from Urth itself. He boards a mysterious vessel bound for Yesod, a plane inhabited by godlike beings said to hold the power to renew Urth's fading star and the life it sustains. During the voyage he encounters a strange being named Zak, who gradually takes on human form and becomes entangled in Severian's fate.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Book of the New Sun
- Series: The Book of the New Sun core; position 5 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Gene Wolfe
Awards (verified)
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 1988: nominated
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 5 of 5: previous The Citadel of the Autarch (1983)
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.TheUrthOfTheNewSun
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urth_of_the_New_Sun
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