Laith
As I write this I've finished Player of Games, and I can say that this book has done its job of setting up what I expect are the core philosophical questions of the series, but I don't feel as though enough attention was given to the narrative of this specific entry. Characters feel flat, motivations are written out and grappled with but there's no catharsis, I didn't come away feeling as though I understood what the point was.
This is my introduction to The Culture, a far in the future symbiosis of human and intelligent machine, an ever expanding post-scarcity anarchist utopian society. I enjoyed this book, it's a fast paced pan-galactic heist that does a good job of introducing its larger world. I felt like I was reading a sci-fi adaptation of The Mummy. Our main character is a “changer” shapeshifter on a mission from his alien overlords, he gets his ass kicked six ways from Sunday as he and his makeshift crew galivant disastrously across temples and desolate ruins. No one safe, nothing is sacred, and the author isn't afraid to build up a trope just to yank the rug out from under us.
I came away positive on the series, but this book is a freshman effort; The female characters might as well be cardboard cut-outs and the rest of the cast has zero agency which is weird since the MC doesn't start running the show until nearly the half-way point. At certain points in the story MC himself appears to be railroaded into the narrative, and for all the political philosophy and high minded rhetoric of the warring factions, the character's motivations aren't explored in a meaningful way.
This book is the Coda to TBNS and in finishing it I feel as though I've completed a great labor, and I regret that I did not take the time to write out my thoughts for each volume of Severian's journey because I find it to have mirrored my own in reading through this series. From murky and confused beginnings, down winding steps filled with monster and mystery, to a clearing of understanding and repentance this series has engulfed me in its world.
At the same time I'm glad I waited to comment until I'd reached the story's conclusion as no single part of the series should be judged on its own merits. Even this book, very much separated from the tetralogy, is part of the larger whole and mainly serves to shed light on some of the questions that plagued its contemporary reader.
I can't credit Gene Wolfe's storytelling enough, and in reading Neil Gaiman's, “How to Read Gene Wolfe” I am inclined to agree despite having never met the man, that he is, “a ferocious intellect, vast and cool and serious, who created books and stories that were of genre but never limited by it. An explorer, who set out for uncharted territory and brought back maps, and if he said “Here There Be Dragons,” by God, you knew that was where the dragons were.”
This series, and its individual pieces, are far from perfect and problem free. Parts of the series are, from a modern viewpoint, dogged by conservative thought and generalizations, misogyny and religious zeal. Very much a Christ allegory it was interesting to read from the perspective of a man convinced of God or at least in the message of the Church. Fortunately this series is a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts; Wolfe's writing matures as the story goes on, and in so doing adds a layer of congeniality to what could have otherwise been a clumsy retelling of Jesus goes to Nazareth. Mixing science fiction, fantasy, and religion beautifully I can completely understand why this work is considered a masterpiece and a foundational text on the level of LoTR.
