Shadow & Claw

I picked this out to read because I read somewhere that it is one of Neil Gaiman's favorites and I wanted to know, since I'm a fan of Gaiman, what in turn is he a fan of?

Shadow and Claw is certainly unusual; I don't know if I've read anything like it. I may have read something with similar far-future/dying planet ideas, but it wasn't handled this way. It feels like high fantasy but hints are dropped everywhere that it is post-apocalyptic, built on the ashes of our society. The first person narration by Severin gives the reader only info that he knew at any given point in his tale and he only focuses on one element at a time. In other words, readers aren't getting quickly oriented to his world. There's no info-dumping. That could be a plus or minus, depending on your level of patience.

Severin doesn't know a whole lot in the beginning: he was raised in the torturer's guild and knows their lore and laws, and what he's been taught. It's clear every guild keeps things pretty close to the chest. When he does travel to different areas of the metropolis he's from as a messenger and so on, it's clear that every character exists in their little world and that is the sum of their knowledge. Even the librarians have an intellectually sheltered life.

Once Severin is excommunicated from his guild, things become less shadowy and mysterious, more adventurous. The majority of the story in two books consists of Severin and a few traveling companions getting into various dangers; there isn't a driving goal though he has some tasks that carry over from situation to situation. There is also a lot of storytelling within the story with supporting characters telling their stories, or Severin reading from a book, or plays that are performed. A story about stories.

Though Severin is a torturer and executioner we see little of the violence and horrific nature of his profession. Not that I really need a lot of details, but this almost makes light of his role, making him innocent and heroic when that doesn't fit his origins. He spends some time pondering the politics, morals, religion, and so on of the society he lives in, so he is a thoughtful character.

This is a smart book, very clever and entertaining at times. I'm going to have to think it over for a while, whether I want to move on to the next half or reread (which was highly recommended all over the place).

I had very mixed feelings about this book. At the beginning, I loved it. I'm a little sad that I went into already knowing the sci-fi background to this fantastic world. I can only imagine how mind-blowing it must be once the pieces start coming together on their own but even still it was so much fun watching the slow reveal. Really, I enjoyed Shadow of the Torturer a lot for both the vivid language and the slow-burn of the puzzle. It's so full of mysteries that I enjoyed solving or not solving as they came along.

Sometimes, the dreamy nature of the prose made me get a bit lost, and I often found myself having to go back and re-read. This didn't necessarily hurt my enjoyment, but I found myself attacking the book with a very analytic bent, and that made it harder to hold on to the story. There is so much to this world that I probably should have read it with a wiki open, but I was afraid of spoilers.

The world is without a doubt the best part of the book. It's intriguing and mystical, but there are layers upon layers for anyone paying attention. I think I really started paying attention when Jonas (probably my favorite character) starts taking stage in the second book. Jonas is a fantastic outside perspective, and his twist is the one that blew me away. I'm hoping he comes back in the next book. In any case, the Wolfe has such a clear concept of a dying Earth that the book deserves to rank in the top of fantasy charts for that alone.

This doesn't make it perfect, at least not for me. My issues come, as they so often do in classic works, with the treatment of women. Actually, with Severian's treatment of women. I started off really liking the guy, torturer or no. He was naïve, yes, but he had a way of thinking and an attitude which read very real to me. His relationship with Thecla is unique, confusing, and tragic. Actually, that can be said of his relationship with Vodalus, his guild, and many of the people he meets on his journey.

However, it can't be said for all of the women, save Thecla. His first foray outside the Citadel, and he meets Agia for whom he has almost uncontrollable lust. Then there's Dorcas, who despite being described as childlike in every way, he also has uninhibited desire for. Dorcas herself is a problem for me in that she just randomly pledges herself to Severian, and neither book explains who she is or why she does this. Hoping that gets clarified later in the series. Then there's Jolenta, whom he essentially rapes while she's unconscious even though he says again and again that he doesn't much like her and prefers Dorcas. He looks at every single woman as an object of desire first. I don't know yet whether to interpret this as an intentional characterization of Wolfe's 1st person narrator or as genuine failure in the treatment of women. Either way, my opinion of Severian kept plummeting as the story went on. I guess this is what happens when you lock a kid in a tower without exposing him to women until puberty, then buy him a prostitute.

Neither book really stands on its own, and I know they were intended to be one gigantic volume, so I think I'll just dive into the next one while I still remember who all the characters are. Maybe a few hundred more pages will either make Severian a better person or at least make one of the women slap some sense into him.