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SPOILER ALERT. I'm reading the first volume of The Book of The New Sun right now for the first time, so was surprised that Neil introduced a spoiler in the first paragraph of the linked article so I had to stop reading it...

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It’s a spoiler for a completely different and unrelated novel. All he really says about New Sun is that despite his claims to remember everything, Severian is an unreliable narrator, that it may be useful to look up the older stories connected with the names of characters (especially if they share names with Catholic saints) and that "things returning to life" is a recurring theme in the book, which is worth paying attention to.

He also says that Wolfe told him who Severian's mother is, but leaves that undisclosed.

I did not stick around to read it all, the first hint of a spoiler sent me back here to warn others. Neil knows the material really well, he wrote the introduction to the recent limited edition of The Book of the New Sun for the Folio Society for example, so I should have trusted him not to blow it.

This article is that introduction.

Ah good, then I have already read it as I own that edition from the Folio Society :-)

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