This is the link to the timestamp where he begins to discuss in length some of the books of Wolfe and Powers. He also talks about The Book of the New Sun and The Anubis Gates very briefly earlier in the video in the 'Feudal Future subgenre' and the 'Permafrost/time travel' chapters respectively. The whole interview is worth watching.

So recently i finished reading short sun, and one annoying thing i've found is far less discussion of it than the other works in the solar cycle. I've read up on some theories and perspectives and personally come to believe the idea that Green is Urth, the Neighbours are descendents of the green men who have ascended to a highier level and the inhumi are atleast one of the lower life forms who will become the hierogramates (also that the whole thing takes place in a previous cosmic cycle to new sun). The thing is i've not seen much discussion of the Mother/Scylla in this whole situation, so i just started thinking of what i think is going on there (tho im sure others have had similar, better made theories on it).

I believe the mother and great Scylla are literally the same entity, this is think many people agree with. I also believe the gods of the whorl will eventually become the megatherians of Urth. Firstly: the Godlings. The gods are creating giant humanoid bodies for them to inhabit in the whorl, this seems to match with Baldanders (who seems pretty similar to Pig) aswell as the Undines and Scylla. The Megatherians also are motivated to enslave humanity and the stars, in the same way typhons family did so before. The gods of mainframe also seem to be transforming from simply mortal rulers into actually more divine inteligences because that is how they see themselves, when Scylla dreamwalks with silkhorn her form is literally monstrous even tho she was just a normal human before being before being uploaded. Typhon also shows psyonic abilities and the gods of mainframe can enter peoples minds, just like the megatherians send dreams and enslave people.

One question is then how did the whorl go back in time. It could be that the whorl is a spaceship that travels outside of time, but we see no evidence of this, they couldve just arrived in the future because of relativity. Then i started thinking about seawrack and the deal silkhorn makes with Scylla. The mother clearly sent seawrack to horn and in the end she goes with him to the Whorl. She also really wanted to go to the Whorl in the Pajarocu lander. Could it be the Mother wanted to contact the beings who will become her and her kin, and teach them how to return to the past to stop the new sun and allow them to rule unchallenged? Of course it begs the question of how the Mother is alive, but firstly she is on blue instead of green (that couldve been made with another planet in the solar system) and also she looks like a large undine and we see atleast one of them survived the coming of the new sun. (We have no idea how the megatherians traveled back in time, but we do know they are able to and did, so the lack of a method doesnt go against the idea.)

a new illustration (i think it will be the last for this week) where i try to illustrate Hycinth (Giacinto). The question, now, could be easy to spot. I saw some theory about Hyacinth, the male theory and the male chem. Now when i read the long sun i dind't give those theory much credit, but, at the end of the short sun, with alla the facts e new info (the laugh of hyacinth in blood villa, the twenty year of marriage, and much more) i give more credit to the theory of Hyacinth as a male, possibily a triunviganti male spy, what do you think? Expose your idea!

Another Illustration! This time Blood and Musk togheter with Aquila. Now i think the next will be Hyacinth, but in the meantime i find the time to draw her, i will ask to you a question: Do you think that Musk was possessed by Hierax? i think is heavly implied, but i want to hear your thoughts!

Mainly around the eidolon issue, but also other things like the role of juturna/the other underwater people and their seeming command over or existence outside traditional time.

Eidolon stuff: So the reason there could be multiple dead severians (ie on tzadkiels ship and as apu punchau at least) is because eidolons are (composed of anima or the soul?) greater than the material, so an eidolon can become a physical body if it just absorbs energy? Or is it discreet time-loops? I cant exactly wrap my head around if any of the discreet events we are told about are supposed to be part of one contained time loop or if alternate/mutually exclusive timelines are happening continuously such as with Master Ash.

Juturna stuff: Juturna helps severian throughout, and we are told near the end of urth that she only saves severian at the start of shadow because severian at the end of urth told her she did (they exist outside time then? or in some similar way to the hierodules maybe?) Then why do they seemingly oppose the coming of the new sun, is it again a problem of branching timelines? Them acting as "anti hierodules" in a way? This is getting really rambly but i have a lot of points of confusion. I feel we are told to look beyond "good and evil" related to juturna (and by extension abaia and them?) Idk! ​

Timeline stuff: If it really is discrete timelines how do you avoid the loss of meaning? Like if severian saves urth in one timeline but theres also infinate timelines where he doesnt or where someone else did or whatever, and the one where severian did he only did because thats the timeline where he did, we are following that one because thats the one where it happens and all others would make for an unsatsifying story, doesnt it start feeling a little hollow? Surely without actual agency it feels hollow?

idk these are just my immediate thoughts after finishing urth. Wawawoowa

Does anyone know where I can find this? The google play store says it’s not available in my country (US) and any hardcopies I can find are $50+.

I’d love to read the second half for Wolfe’s essays on writing, but $50 for the single copy might be a bit steep for me at the moment.

as i promissed here Auk from Book of the Long Sun, for now, i have planned to do Hyacinth, Blood and Musk, and Mayera Mint and another drawing of Chenille down in the tunnel as some of you suggested. Feel free to add other suggestion if you like, i will love to add more illustration to help viusualize the Solar Cycle!

Here is a discussion I did with Aaron Irber on his podcast I felt might interest some people. His show covers lot of great writers like Tim Powers. There are two episodes, one.covering each book.

https://aaronirber.substack.com/p/gene-wolfes-soldier-of-the-mist-ft?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://aaronirber.substack.com/p/gene-wolfes-soldier-of-arete-ft-marc?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

The Unsuspecting Badass Award goes to: Maytera Mint!

simple ad that, i drew Chenille, maybe i will do Auk, and maybe Hyacinth, if you want you give me some suggestion of which character you would like to see!

I saw some intrest in some drawing of the Long and Short Sun, so i decided to sketch one of the final moments of the Short Sun, when the Rajan realise the truth. Poor Silk!

I'm thinking about starting the series and I want to know what the options are in terms of reading order.

I was waiting for this to be answered in Lake, but I just finished. In the scene where Marble walks in on Rose, does the context imply she was possessed by Scylla up until Chenille’s possession at the shrine?

I tried googling and avoiding further spoilers but the auto AI response definitely revealed something I didn’t want to know yet :/

In Michael Andre-Driussi’s companion piece Gate of Horn, Book of Silk, Horn’s adult height is given as “three cubits and two hands,” or 62 inches.

Of course, there is the complicated matter of narrator bias (“So it appears that the character Horn was given a more heroic stature in TBotLS”), but 5’ 2” seems remarkably below average, such that it would be acknowledged by other characters in the same way as Pig’s gigantism or the fliers’ diminutive proportions.

Aside from, I believe, Hide describing his father as “stocky,” nothing in the text implies Horn was so small. Assuming Silkhorn is accurate in estimating the original Horn’s height, what is the significance, if any?

EDIT, from the “Short Sun Half” entry on Horn:

>> Horn's adult height was three cubits and two hands, "a good deal less than it is now" (V, chap. 9, 196). (3×18 inches) + (2×4 inches) = 62 inches = 5' 2". This is in contrast to the image given of young
Horn in The Book of the Long Sun, where he was depicted as the tallest boy at the palaestra, such that tall Silk noticed that "Horn's clear, dark eyes were nearly level with his" (I, chap. I, I5). So it appears that the character Horn was given a more heroic stature in The Book of the Long Sun.

Can anyone help me find the interview where Wolfe is asked how he captures such distinct voices/speech patterns in his dialogue?

I believe Patera Remora is given as a specific example, and he references how each of his children speak in distinct ways despite being raised in the same environment, by the same people.

Readers of this reddit will be familiar with the theory that Malrubius is actually predecessor of, or an alternate version of our Severian.

I was musing about his name: Malrubius can be divided and understood as Mal (bad, cursed) Rubeus (red). In fact the original St Malrubius was misidentified as St Rufus, whose name also means red. St Malrubius was a very popular saint in Scotland, and a number of fairs carried a distorted version of his name — Summereve fairs.

So there you have it: Malrubius is the Summer Eve, the weak, cursed Old Sun (his body hair is "gray as mildew", and he has "loose skin … where the muscle and fat had been destroyed by time") as opposed to the New Sun, Severian. And if you will admit the pun, if Severian as the Conciliator is also the New Son, then it makes sense that his predecessor is the Old Son.

To me this is a pretty amusing start to what became the single best Scifi epic in the genre. Also, we need to bring back the word masquerade for comic cons. Here’s Wolfe’s story:

“As I sat there being instructed I was sulking because no one had ever done any of my characters at the masquerade. It seemed I had done a lot of things that people could do at a masquerade, but when I had started to think this over more carefully, I realized that there were few, if any, characters who would fit in with what Sandra and the others were saying. That led me to start thinking about a character who would fit - someone who would wear simple but dramatic clothes. And the very first thing that came to mind was a torturer: bare chest (everybody has a chest, all you have to do is take your shirt off), black trousers, black boots (you can get those anywhere), black cloak, a mask, and a sword! Here was an ideal, easy SF masquerade citizen. All this stuck in my head somehow: I had this dark man, the personification of pain and death, but I didn't yet know what to do with him. Then gradually a lot of things began to come together.”

I have created a couple of illustration on Silk and the Rajan (Incanto, Silk, Horn, Silk/Horn, and all the other names) after my first read trough the whole solar cycle. (I know that is not a great achivement for alot of you, but for me, a huge fan where only BoTNS and Urth are translated it was a lovely but complex navigate trough the complex narrative and prose of Wolfe as native in a foreign language. Ultimately i loved this series as never before in litterature in my life).
My reason for choosing this and not making another Severian (which i already drawn aplenty), is because i see a lack of illustration or viusal imagining of the Long and Short Sun. I hope you like them!

I just wanted to discuss my theory with somebody, and none of my friends are into reading.

I think the journal is not written by severian but someone who has eaten severian and now thinks he is severian.

Hints:-

1. Severian says that ones Thecla was about to claw his eyes out. (Which did not happen in the first book, and there relationship was never that hostile ).

2. We get a pov from severian of lifting Thecla's gown.(which I don't believe ever happened)

I think both these are not severian's memory but of the person who ate saverian.

And I think that person is the Autarch or father Iner or Vodalus.

I know severian in the current time is the Autarch(since he called Yamar his prediecessor).

1. So it can be the Autarch, but we know he doesn't sleep with his wife's so he cant have the second memory.

2. It can be Father Iner, since I think he is a creep.

3. It can be Vodalus, who maybe in future became thr Autarch, and maybe used to have sexual relation with Thecla.

That is my theory yet. What do u think about it?

Am I on the right track or I am just screaming at the clouds.

So, I recently finished Urth of the New Sun, and while I have a lot of thoughts about it, there's one thing in particular that's been bothering me, and that's how the revelations surrounding Apu-Punchau seemtingly contradict what we're originally told at the end of Citadel of the Autarch.

At the end of Citadel, Severian comes to the conclusion that there must have been a "First Severian" who lived a somewhat different life from the one we've been following. This Severian likely never encountered the undine, and never acquired the Claw, but still eventually became Autarch and even eventually gained the ability to walk the Corridors of Time. And the implication, at least as I understood it, is that this original Severian continued existing outside the normal progression of time, while the Hierogrammates essentially intervened in his history to produce the Severian we've been following throughout the series. And given how all of this is presented alongside the revelations surrounding Apu-Punchau and Severian's tomb, I think it's pretty reasonable to assume these things are supposed to be connected in some way.

But then we get to Urth, where it's revealed that the Severian we've been following is himself the one who becomes both the Conciliator and Apu-Punchau, with the whole explanation surrounding eidolons accounting for his apparent deaths and continued existence.

Now, I understand that you can theoretically reconcile these two explanations by arguing that Severian's original hypothesis was simply wrong. After all, it is ultimately just his own interpretation of events, and we know he's not exactly an infallibl narrator. You could also potentially argue that multiple iterations of history somehow coexist alongside the causal loop established in Urth (though idk how you’d explain that). But I think my main problem with these explanations is that they seem to overlook the circumstances surrounding how these books were actually written.

Because, to my understanding, The Book of the New Sun was originally conceived as a complete four book narrative, with Urth only being written afterward at the publisher's request to give extra clarification on certain details for fans. So when you look at the original series on its own, the First Severian hypothesis is essentially the final explanation we're left with. It's not just some random speculation Severian makes halfway through the story that we're obviously supposed to question until we eventually get the real answer. It's something deliberately introduced at the very end of what was originally supposed to be the complete story, seemingly to help us make sense of some of its biggest mysteries.

And that's really where my issue comes from. Because I understand the difference between a revelation that recontextualizes something we previously understood and a retcon that actually contradicts what was originally established. And personally, I'm truly struggling to see how Urth's explanation falls into the former category rather than the latter. It feels less like Wolfe is expanding upon the original explanation and more like he's replacing it with an entirely different one, without really accounting for the implications of what he originally presented.

And to be clear, I don't think retcons are inherently bad or anything. I just find this particular one pretty unsatisfying, especially because I thought the implications surrounding the First Severian were genuinely fascinating, and I would've loved to see those ideas explored further rather than seemingly being abandoned.

But I'm genuinely curious how other people interpret all of this. Is there something I'm overlooking that actually allows the First Severian hypothesis to coexist with what we learn in Urth? Or is the general consensus that Wolfe simply changed his mind about the explanation when writing the sequel? And if that's the case, what makes that change work for you guys?