I can understand why people rave about this book, and I can see why people hate it, too. I thoroughly enjoyed most of it, though there were a few factors that churned my stomach a bit.

First the positive: This was a dense, intense, vividly written and imagined universe. It's Earth, a long time in the future, as we're approaching the death of the sun. A mythology has grown up around the dying sun, in fact, complete with prophecies of a New Sun that will herald the dawn of a newer and brighter era, hence the name of the tetrology. The world is rich and well-rendered. Wolfe has managed to capture the atmosphere just right, using lovely archaic words and hinting at aspects he never fully fleshes out. However, the reader is able to glean (from geography, some of the legends, and a glorious glimpse of a maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus, the first I've ever encountered in a novel) that the story takes place (or at least begins) somewhere in South America, near the Amazon River.

The story follows an apprentice torturer, Severian, as he makes a series of decisions that drastically change his life. In the process, he has a series of remarkable adventures, but he's certainly no assistant pig keeper. This book is much darker than your average hero quest. Of course, given Severian's vocation, this isn't a surprise. All the sex and the blatant sexism was a bit of a surprise (though it's hardly the first overtly sexist SF classic).

Here is a list of all the females, above the age of puberty, that Severian met on his travels and did not immediately fall in love with/lust after: . There you go. That says a lot. All the women are beautiful, though of course in different ways, and Severian spends a lot of time ruminating over how their beauty differs and what different feelings each woman engenders in him. I get the feeling these are meant to be deep, insightful inner monologues, but they're shockingly sexist, shallow, and they really alienated me from Severian, who I otherwise pretty much liked. He has sex (sometimes quite upsetting, only questionably-consensual sex) with as many women as possible, as quickly after meeting them as plausible. All this coupling got in the way of the otherwise engaging story and plot.

People have complained about the vocabulary and, while I understand their complaint, I don't agree with it. I loved all the old words, looking them up was fun, and they went along way to creating the haunting, alien, dissonant atmosphere that made the book so intense.

Occasionally, the plot would take an inexplicable turn that seemed to make sense to Severian, but never really did to me. However, I'm fine being a little lost at points in a book. I rather enjoy it. Someone said this wasn't a good beach book; I completely disagree. The perfect beach book is one that is dense, absorbing, intense, and fully transports you to a completely alien world where you have to puzzle out everything that's going on around you.

I will certainly read the next two books, though I hope Severian maybe begins to interact with women as if they are actual human beings at some point.