Collecting Gene Wolf's The Book of the New Sun Trilogy

 

Amazing books, if you can afford them

     Gene Wolf was born on May 7th 1931 (we share a birthday) and unfortunately he passed in April of 2019 at the ripe old age of 87 years old. He was one of the strongest story tellers and fantasy authors of the 20th century. He is most known for the books above, known to most as the Torturer Trilogy, or the Book of the New Sun Trilogy officially. The Shadow of the Torturer is one of the best books ever written in the genre, winning all of the prestigious awards available, and netting Wolf the highest honor of Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

The Best.

The trilogy itself is nothing short of amazing. It's gripping and world building, explains violence in a poetic and passive way, and sets the tone for a whole new breed of author that develops character-in-world assuming that you know that this world exists. Shadow, the first book in the series is considered one of the best Fantasy books ever written.

Classics in their own right.

     In the last 3-5 years and since Wolf's death, the value of the books have increased pretty considerably. Timescape- The series that this book trilogy was released under, was not really something people went out of their way for in the 80's. I would pass on these books knowing they are rereleases of popular novels on the cheap. The greatness of the book, with the small amount of releases back then, was the perfect storm of increasing value to the whole series. A poor condition example of Shadow for instance, goes for around $25 on any given day. The trilogy can go for as much as $80 bundled together, or more depending on condition. I have had a lot of luck just finding these copies at paperback exchanges for $1, so people really don't know how rare they are, or how much they cost, or how great the books are. To be safe, pick up all Timescape books going forward for sure.