"A major work of twentieth-century American literature...Wolfe creates a truly alien social order that the reader comes to experience from within...once into it, there is no stopping." ---The New York Times on The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe has been called "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced" by the Washington Post. THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is unanimously acclaimed as Wolfe's most remarkable work, hailed as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" by Publishers Weekly and "one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century" by the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in this four-volume epic, the tale of young Severian, an apprentice to the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession- showing mercy toward his victim. The Claw of the Conciliator continues the saga of Severian, banished from his home, as he undertakes a mythic quest to discover the awesome power of an ancient relic and learn the truth about his hidden destiny. "A masterpiece...the best science fiction I've read in years!" --Ursula K. Le Guin This new Tor Essentials edition of Shadow & Claw contains a new introduction by historian and novelist Ada Palmer, author of the award-winning Too Like the Lightning.