Epiphany of the Long Sun

Book of the Long Sun, Books 3 and 4

By: Gene Wolfe

Narrated by: Jason Culp

The two novels combined in this omnibus (Caldé of the Long Sun and Exodus from the Long Sun) comprise the second half of Gene Wolfe's series The Book of the Long Sun.

©1994, 1996 Gene Wolfe (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

one of Wolfe's best

Gene Wolfe was not just an author. He was a magician spinning worlds out of fire. One of the greats, sorely missed.

Easy to enjoy but still a challenge

The mysteries are a little easier to unravel here than BotLS, but not a ton, takes just enough time where If you pay attention you can guess at a lot of things without giving this a second read. This made the book easier to enjoy it on face value and just absorb the story. Definitely worth the read.

Worth getting thru the slow parts

The book was worth finishing but could be a bit slow in parts. Well written either way

Better on audio!

I’d read this back in the day and it felt a bit tedious compared to the New and Short Sun stories. Revisiting as an audiobook was quite a treat!
Thanks audible for finally releasing these.
Good man!!

Simply Beautiful

The characters of the Long Sun Whorl are some of the noblest, most intriguing, and human ever put to paper. Gene Wolfe has one of the greatest catalogues of any author, and this may be his best work. You owe it to yourself to listen.

A truly amazing work of literature!

Amazing story and also amazing narration, able to capture and successfully differentiate all of the characters for the listener.

A great concept that fell apart

In reviews they write about Hyacinth being incredibly smart and scheming but at least in the audio version she comes off as a prostitute with brain damage. I kept restarting chapters because I didn't understand what happened to the characters from the first book. I have completely lost interest in anything by this author.

Stick to the New Sun

Wow, the long sun is finally over. Well, not really, since it actually bleeds into its conclusion in the short sun series. Yes, I will read that. Why? Because the book of the new son series was so damn good. Yes, it was frustrating not knowing what the heck was going on for so long, but the journey, the language, the writing, the characters, my mind trying to to make meaning out of it all. It was really brilliant and a lot of unique ways. I really enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately, this series of the long song which takes place in the same universe did not resonate with me. I know the way this author works is that you have to finish everything to really grab the gravity of it all, so I will definitely need to move into the short sun to fulfill that prerequisite. I may return to provide a more favorable and better review if the totality of the art resonates with me, or I may not, if it doesn't. There were elements that I did enjoy through this series, for example. I liked the biblical and Roman history nods, the moses-esque story elements, the Julius Caesar and the fall of the Republic elements etc. Still, I ask myself, why? ...and, is it worth it. If I was alone on an island or in prison and I had nothing else to read and I could reread this over and over again and start to get enamored with the world the author and his brilliance, perhaps I would fall in love with this side quest series - but for the average person interested in the genre, or a admirer of New Sun series, I would not recommend this series. On a separate note, now I know where the elder scrolls got some of its awesome out of this universe concepts from. Very cool inspirational material here for fantasy/sci-fi writers. I definitely recommend this series to that batch of folks.

Only read if you are a Solar Cycle completionist

All tell, no show. Not even remotely as good as Book of the New Sun. Like being witness to First Contact but only writing about the color of the draperies. Only redeeming quality is the excellent and immersive world-building.