The books cover several weighty themes, such as what it means to be human, and how some people choose to give up their humanity. He departs into the mountains, joins a military battalion to fight in the war against the Ascians in the North, and ultimately returns again to where he started – The Citadel in Nessus.
Severian finally reaches Thrax, the City of Crooked Knives, but it is not long before he must flee for, once again, showing mercy. The use of the relic and Severian’s attempt to return it to its proper owners, the Pelerines, takes up a large portion of the tale, but this is only one of many plots and subplots. Early on in the story Severian inadvertently acquires the Claw of the Conciliator. In order to earn money during his travels, Severian continues to carry out the functions of his profession, performing executions and tortures as required, all the while continuing to question his place and role in society. Along his journey he meets a diverse range of companions, including a doctor and his giant who enlist him in their traveling theater troupe, a sailor from another planet made half of flesh and half of metal, and a mysterious young woman, many years dead, who he pulls up from the bottom of a lake. After leaving the Citadel, where his Guild is located, he travels from the city of Nessus to the city of Thrax to take up the post of Lictor. The narrative follows Severian as he progresses from Apprentice to Journeyman, and his subsequent banishment from his Guild. Told in the first person, and interjected here and there with the narrator’s own philosophical and theological musings, the book recounts Severian’s journey through the far future world of Urth. The series is made up of four books, The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch, which follow the undertakings of Severian, an apprentice of The Seekers of Truth and Penitence (otherwise known as the Guild of Torturers), who is eventually exiled for showing mercy to a client. Lewis, and is often ranked in the top ten fantasy and science fiction novels of the past century. Published from 1980 to 1983, the series has been compared to the great works of J.R.R. These are all elements that can be found in Gene Wolfe’s highly acclaimed science fiction series, The Book of the New Sun. Time travel and cloning have become commonplace. Technology, or what is left of it, resides in the hands of a chosen, elite few the rest are forced to adopt an almost preindustrial existence. Raw materials and fuels have been exhausted. Imagine Earth in the far future at a time when the sun is dying, giving off its last beams of light.
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