/lit/ - Literature

Finished sword of the lictor. Very good. It had the same meandering plot except instead of traveling to Thrax and getting sidetracked, Severian is searching for the Pelerines. I think I enjoyed it more than claw because most of the detours involved danger. The past 2 books it felt like a lot of his escapades ended with him meeting a new woman and telling her how much he loved them. In sword he meets dangerous animals and crazy people that often end up being dangerous as well, so it felt a lot more action oriented. The ending has me a little confused but as I understand it
At some point Baldanders (whose 3 lifetimes old) met the 3 cacogens (aliens) that occasionally gave him tips because they claim to want to help humans of Urth. He experiments on the lake people and created Dr. Talos to monitor his own growth which I assume he augmented quite a bit. He chucks the claw because he thinks it's superstitious nonsense and Severian gets pissed and they fight. Later Severian finds the actual claw and realizes the crystal was just a container.

>>14178075
No someone mentioned that in a previous thread but I must have missed the hints in the book. I know he compares the machines in Baldanders castle to those in the Matachin tower

Is this the best book in the tetralogy? It's the most introverted, philosophic, and scenic of the four with the most lucid storytelling. Some if the passages are absolute poetry, and the action carries a style and air of seriousness that is lost in the turbulence of the other 3 books.

Tell me I'm wrong, this is the best thing Wolfe wrote.