Good, Deep, Fantasy/Sci-Fi Series (for Older Readers)

[Georgia Avenue]

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Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun - Amazon Link to the first two books.

Smart, nuanced literary science fiction/fantasy, definitely geared towards adults. It's a first-person narrative of an apprentice torturer exiled for showing mercy to a "client;" the torturer eventually becomes the sole ruler of a far-future Earth whose sun is dying. (No spoiler; the fact of his future rule is announced early in the first book.)

The writing is a little stiff and self-conscious (it's supposedly translated from a future language into present-day English, and Wolfe uses outdated words to show the difficulties in translation), and the first-person narration is often unreliable and frequently assumes knowledge the reader doesn't have.

So in some ways it's a demanding read; but on balance, it's worth it.

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I came into this thread to post this. Gene Wolfe is my favorite author, and arguably the best sci-fi writer of all time. Seriously everyone needs to read these books.

Start with the Fifth Head of Cerebus, then skip to the Long Sun books, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Long_Sun) then go back and read the first series, the book of the new sun.

Stop reading oot and go to the library, NOW
--GA