Litany of the Long Sun

Book of the Long Sun, Books 1 and 2

By: Gene Wolfe

Narrated by: Jason Culp

Litany of the Long Sun contains the full texts of Nightside the Long Sun and Lake of the Long Sun that together make up the first half of The Book of the Long Sun. This great work is set on a huge generation starship in the same future as the classic Book of the New Sun (also available in two volumes from Orb).

©1993, 1994 Gene Wolfe (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Good ideas, but...

Note: my review encompasses this and the next book (really they are both pairs of books) in this series.

I thought the idea(s) behind this book were really, really interesting. But for me, the story never paid off. The dialog is recursive and tangential; with lots of exposition. And certain details of the story don't really make sense; for example, how could a society that built a generation starship devolve into such a primitive medieval state after only 300 years, despite the presence of functioning futuristic technology in its midst?

This first book pair was more solid than the second; the second book pair created a lot more questions than answers, and introduced one other twist in the epilog that was just plain weird. The whole thing just never quite came together for me, and I don't plan on reading more in this series.

It is a great story

It took a couple of hours to get into it.
Ride out that first couple of hours and you’ll be happy.

Discovering the (supposed) truth of the setting

Gene wolfe is the master of worldbuilding for all time. Following Silk through his ignorant yet wise escapades makes me love him more than any protagonist

Finally a worthy audio version of this classic

Culp's performance of the many characters is distinct and consistent, and helps keep the reader's focus tight in the middle of what eventually becomes a fairly convoluted plot.

Let's be honest though, the performance succeeds or fails on one question, and the answer to that question is: yes, he nails the voice of Oreb the talking bird. Fish heads?

Worth the wait!

A long-awaited Audible version of Wolfe's classic that does the story justice. Worth listening to and listening again.

EXCELLENT!!!

So happy to listen to this in audio format many years after reading the series.
The narrator was awesome and the story was even more engaging than I had remembered.
Thank you audible for making this available.

A great story, and a fantastic bird

Oreb is one of my new favorite literary creations. Jason Culp brings Oreb and the myriad other characters to vivid life. Another great tale from Mr. Wolfe

Utterly brilliant in it’s tedium

Less baroque, wordy and seemingly postmodern than New Sun but no less rife with allegory. When Wolfe is ON, my is he ON. The bizarre mashing of Levantine and Mesoamerican traditions works even better in long sun than it did in new sun, and the pacing is quite unique. Cannot wait to finish the last two books in this series nor can I wait for the release of short sun. The solar cycle may be one of the best series I have ever encountered.

SPOILERS IN TITLE DESCRIPTION

The publishers description spoils major information that 5 chapters in hasn’t been revealed. One of the joys of reading Gene is figuring out his worlds from context clues alone. A joy spoiled by fools.

just terrible

bad post tech steam punk. Just goes on and on with weird transitions. main character is such a loser.