the long awaited sequel to gene wolfes fourvolume classic the book of the new sun we return to the world of severian now the autarch of urth as he leaves the planet on one of the huge spaceships of the alien hierodules to travel across time and space to face his greatest test to become the legendary new sun or die the strange rich original spaceship scenes give way to travels in time wherein severian revisits times and places which fill in parts of the background of the fourvolume work that will thrill and intrigue particularly all readers of the earlier books but the urth of the new sun is an independent structure all of a piece an integral masterpiece to shelve beside the classics one itself