Book eight of a twelve book series if you count the later prequels, but book one in a four taken in publication order, this book throws you right in the deep end immediately. The language in this novel is archaic and esoteric feeling, and Gene Wolfe plays at the pretense that he is merely a translator of some sort of foreign tongue in an foreign land. This fantasy novel begins with Severian sneaking into a Necropolis, being chased, and earning his way into the ranks […]