At the end of the third volume of The Book of the Long Sun, Caldé of the Long Sun, the eponymous Caldé, Patera Silk, is still negotiating his way between his own forces, the interventionist Trivigauntis, the representatives of his religious order and the remnants of the secret government of his city of Viron. One of the sibyls of Silk's manteion, Maytera (now General) Mint, is trapped in the tunnels under the city with various soldiers and another cleric. Other characters are in their own involvements.

And frankly, there they stay for what seems like two thirds of the book. Wolfe painted his characters into various corners, and it seems to take an inordinate amount of time to get them out. This is helped when a Flier enters the story. We learn much more about the role of the Fliers, where they come from and who they represent. And this is the point where the story takes its final turn. The Fliers announce that they come from Mainframe, which the inhabitants of the Whorl have always thought of as some sort of afterlife, but which really is the computer that runs the whole starship.

We also learn more about the nature of the Whorl and its mission. The characters in the story take this conceptual breakthrough with a fair degree of equanimity, which rather struck me as unlikely. The characters - especially Patera Silk - have been given clues about the nature of their world throughout the series, but their comprehension of these facts must of necessity be limited. When you have lived all your life on the inside of a giant cylinder, even if you were told that there was a whole universe on the outside, below your feet, these concepts would be generally incomprehensible.

The Whorl has reached its destination, and it will soon be time for the cargo - the humans who live in the ship or who have been in stasis for the voyage, to disembark for their new planetary homes. But the fates of our main protagonists are uncertain. Towards the end, we are re-introduced to Horn, one of Patera Silk's students who we briefly met in the first volume. His role is going to become grater in the story to come.

The ending of this novel is rather rushed, and if anyone was hoping for some good old-fashioned generation starship action, then I'm afraid there's going to be disappointment. Wolfe glosses over much of the nuts and bolts of the revelation, just as a lot of the exploration of the world of the Long Sun has been hinted at but never really brought to pass in the earlier books of the sequence. Throughout the books, for example, people have referred to the "skylands" which are clearly visible during the night cycle; but despite tantalising mentions, no-one ever consciously explores these lands. The Book of the New Sun involved its protagonist, Severian, travelling to many places on the dying Urth; but the focus in The Book of the Long Sun is resolutely local, even when Silk and his companions eventually travel by airship to Mainframe.

Personally, I found this something of a disappointment, almost seeming that Wolfe was trying to close off the story of the Whorl so he could move the action on to the next series in the Solar Cycle, The Book of the Short Sun. The way in which Horn is propelled back into the story quite late on, and the jarring change in style that Horn's narrative introduces, further suggests that. The reasons for the change may have been artistic, or contractual, or a mix of the two. Nonetheless, this book completes the story of Patera Silk, at least for the time being; and as such, it is essential - if ultimately unsatisfying - reading if you have come this far. ( )

Beautiful, but at the end of a Wolfe series I always feel an acceleration of uncertainty about what's going on. Like the last week or two of a class you've fallen behind in: every scene compounds something you already didn't understand, making you fall even further behind. You're expected to be drawing conclusions you don't feel capable of making. Then it ends, and Wolfe's like: "see? isn't it obvious? I gave you all the clues!"

But the coda in the tunnels is great. The narrator's revelation is great. As a setup for the next series, it's very special. ( )

The last book in Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. Although it was definitely good, I do feel that at times the story kind of got bogged down in the politics. It also ended on a rather unsatisfactory note, with the reader never finding out what happens to the main character, after a dramatic juncture. (Of course, having already read them, I know that the next three books rather deal with that question, although without answering it) – but it still makes for an odd ending, with issues that were brought up, especially regarding Silk and Hyacinth's relationship, unresolved. I also feel like the "afterward" in which it is explained that the entire preceding book was written by Patera Silk's student, Horn, was unconvincing (and added on because Wolfe had decided to write the following books from Horn's perspective.)
Ah well. It was still very enjoyable reading. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2013/09/review-of-book-of-long-sun-by-gene-wolf... ( )

SPOILER WARNING

Wolfe has a great slingshot ending in store for us, but he takes a bit too long getting to it. He continues to develop the characters, and many of them are fascinating. Silk has to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances, and he does so admirably, and without losing who he is at the center. He deals with revelations about the nature of the gods and the Whorl, the generation starship of which he is "cargo," as well as an invasion by a nearby city. He is released from his vow of chastity and marries his Magdalene. He rallies his manteion's populace to leave the Whorl for a new planet, but like Moses does not make the final journey. My primary complaint is that the first half of this final volume does little to advance the developing story; it serves to further illuminate several characters, but I believe it could have been accomplished more briefly.

The Book of the Long Sun lacks the metafictive emphasis that characterizes Wolfe's earlier Book of the New Sun. Long Sun gives us a more straightforward story, but retains the traits that make him one of our best writers: language that is a delight to read, including distinct voices for numerous characters; serious tangling with moral issues; a creative and surprising story, developed with hints along the way that enable the attentive reader to see more, at times, than the characters do; and finally, a wonderful cast of characters, led by Silk himself, one of the great characters of recent science fiction. Wolfe also gives us peeks into the future of the characters who will become colonists on the two planets in The Book of the Short Sun. ( )