“80s anime botns” is a fun vibe to think about
September 28, 2026 at 3:19 AM
“80s anime botns” is a fun vibe to think about
Swordtember 27: Lily
The Nenuphars of the River Gyoll
(Taking some artistic liberties with BotNS symbology)
#swordtember #lily #waterlillies #terminusest #thebookofthenewsun #nenuphar #severian #genewolfe #wolfe
The Nenuphars of the River Gyoll
(Taking some artistic liberties with BotNS symbology)
#swordtember #lily #waterlillies #terminusest #thebookofthenewsun #nenuphar #severian #genewolfe #wolfe
September 27, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Swordtember 27: Lily
The Nenuphars of the River Gyoll
(Taking some artistic liberties with BotNS symbology)
#swordtember #lily #waterlillies #terminusest #thebookofthenewsun #nenuphar #severian #genewolfe #wolfe
The Nenuphars of the River Gyoll
(Taking some artistic liberties with BotNS symbology)
#swordtember #lily #waterlillies #terminusest #thebookofthenewsun #nenuphar #severian #genewolfe #wolfe
If you’re tired of the Standard Fantasy setting of d&d you can make your crazy Morrowind-BotNS-Caves of Qud setting where everyone is a walking plant that rides around on giant crabs OR you can read about the real medieval period, which was a very strange place, and put that in your game.
September 27, 2026 at 3:17 PM
If you’re tired of the Standard Fantasy setting of d&d you can make your crazy Morrowind-BotNS-Caves of Qud setting where everyone is a walking plant that rides around on giant crabs OR you can read about the real medieval period, which was a very strange place, and put that in your game.
Hell yeah for BotNS and Fort Bragg Cartel!! I'm sure the other two are great but I am not familiar
September 26, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Hell yeah for BotNS and Fort Bragg Cartel!! I'm sure the other two are great but I am not familiar
AFAIK he never talked about the actual (imaginary) work of translation of a language that "has not yet achieved existence". And honestly BotNS is more English-centric than Milton's Paradise Lost, with puns and analogies from Latin letters. I'm always amazed that it's been translated OUT of English
September 24, 2026 at 4:43 PM
AFAIK he never talked about the actual (imaginary) work of translation of a language that "has not yet achieved existence". And honestly BotNS is more English-centric than Milton's Paradise Lost, with puns and analogies from Latin letters. I'm always amazed that it's been translated OUT of English
Gene Wolfe in BOTNS has a universe that is believed to have been preceded by an effectively infinite sequence of universes and concludes that God, as absolute / infinite remains invisible, unknowable, uncertain; but arbitrarily powerful servants of his must perforce exist, how could they not.
September 24, 2026 at 12:46 AM
Gene Wolfe in BOTNS has a universe that is believed to have been preceded by an effectively infinite sequence of universes and concludes that God, as absolute / infinite remains invisible, unknowable, uncertain; but arbitrarily powerful servants of his must perforce exist, how could they not.
It’s the first book I’ve read since BotNS that made me go, “Wait, wtf did I just read???”
September 19, 2026 at 3:35 PM
It’s the first book I’ve read since BotNS that made me go, “Wait, wtf did I just read???”
If you work out an angle where papal succession works like it does for the Autarch in BotNS I'm down. It could give the reader a plot-relevant reason for why the church keeps all those bits of saints around.
Rat infestation in the archives? Better chug this alzabo and eat a bit of Saint Gertrude.
Rat infestation in the archives? Better chug this alzabo and eat a bit of Saint Gertrude.
September 18, 2026 at 5:12 PM
If you work out an angle where papal succession works like it does for the Autarch in BotNS I'm down. It could give the reader a plot-relevant reason for why the church keeps all those bits of saints around.
Rat infestation in the archives? Better chug this alzabo and eat a bit of Saint Gertrude.
Rat infestation in the archives? Better chug this alzabo and eat a bit of Saint Gertrude.
a unifying cause that humanity could work together to achieve. I feel probes like Voyager 1 (and its golden disc) and the expansion of our ability to understand the cosmos are some of the most important and meaningful things humans have ever done, and BOTNS was being written at around that time, etc
September 18, 2026 at 5:39 AM
a unifying cause that humanity could work together to achieve. I feel probes like Voyager 1 (and its golden disc) and the expansion of our ability to understand the cosmos are some of the most important and meaningful things humans have ever done, and BOTNS was being written at around that time, etc
This is similar to how I interpret Wolfe's intent with Severian in BotNS.
To use an analogy which might drive all 3 authors mad with rage it reminds me of Moorcocks Eternal Champion as well
To use an analogy which might drive all 3 authors mad with rage it reminds me of Moorcocks Eternal Champion as well
September 17, 2026 at 10:30 PM
This is similar to how I interpret Wolfe's intent with Severian in BotNS.
To use an analogy which might drive all 3 authors mad with rage it reminds me of Moorcocks Eternal Champion as well
To use an analogy which might drive all 3 authors mad with rage it reminds me of Moorcocks Eternal Champion as well
on close read BOTNS very much seems to be a direct response to LOTR for sure - CK
September 17, 2026 at 12:31 PM
on close read BOTNS very much seems to be a direct response to LOTR for sure - CK
BotNS is so funny because half its fans are straight up Deus Vult motherfuckers and the other half are the queerest trans women you can imagine
Book of the New Sun. Look I'm a superfan but Gene Wolfe was more catholic than most popes and a Korean war vet, if we started talking politics we would probably get into a fistfight
[discourse voice] what’s the best conservative work of art
September 16, 2026 at 8:11 PM
BotNS is so funny because half its fans are straight up Deus Vult motherfuckers and the other half are the queerest trans women you can imagine
really you could pick any of Dune, LotR, or BotNS
[discourse voice] what’s the best conservative work of art
Trying to do a daily dumb little prompt to not think about The Horrors
September 15, 2026 at 11:07 PM
really you could pick any of Dune, LotR, or BotNS
I mean, it's huge in Wolfe as well, which is one reason that I find BotNS so compelling. There's a great line in one of the afterwords that if you're a peasant bound to the land, getting on a ship to another continent may as well be the same as getting on an interstellar ship.
September 15, 2026 at 5:10 PM
I mean, it's huge in Wolfe as well, which is one reason that I find BotNS so compelling. There's a great line in one of the afterwords that if you're a peasant bound to the land, getting on a ship to another continent may as well be the same as getting on an interstellar ship.
This was May 1975 and BOTNS began in 1976, so… let’s just say they shot a pilot for the show the next day? I like this scenario.
September 13, 2026 at 9:29 PM
This was May 1975 and BOTNS began in 1976, so… let’s just say they shot a pilot for the show the next day? I like this scenario.
86. The Citadel of the Autarch (1983, Novel)
I'll get to Urth at some later point, but for now, this is my end. And what an ending! As just a book it is kind of bizarrely structured, but who cares, that first part owns. I was sold on BotNS as "Xenogears before Xenogears" and boy did it deliver
I'll get to Urth at some later point, but for now, this is my end. And what an ending! As just a book it is kind of bizarrely structured, but who cares, that first part owns. I was sold on BotNS as "Xenogears before Xenogears" and boy did it deliver
September 13, 2026 at 5:09 PM
86. The Citadel of the Autarch (1983, Novel)
I'll get to Urth at some later point, but for now, this is my end. And what an ending! As just a book it is kind of bizarrely structured, but who cares, that first part owns. I was sold on BotNS as "Xenogears before Xenogears" and boy did it deliver
I'll get to Urth at some later point, but for now, this is my end. And what an ending! As just a book it is kind of bizarrely structured, but who cares, that first part owns. I was sold on BotNS as "Xenogears before Xenogears" and boy did it deliver
Á hættu slóðum?
Kannski ekki, en ég kem mjög reglulega þarna á þær slóðir þar sem Jón Þröstur sást síðast fyrir rúmum 7 árum.
Ótrúlegt mál sem enginn hefur náð að komast til botns í.
Kannski ekki, en ég kem mjög reglulega þarna á þær slóðir þar sem Jón Þröstur sást síðast fyrir rúmum 7 árum.
Ótrúlegt mál sem enginn hefur náð að komast til botns í.
September 11, 2026 at 9:17 AM
Á hættu slóðum?
Kannski ekki, en ég kem mjög reglulega þarna á þær slóðir þar sem Jón Þröstur sást síðast fyrir rúmum 7 árum.
Ótrúlegt mál sem enginn hefur náð að komast til botns í.
Kannski ekki, en ég kem mjög reglulega þarna á þær slóðir þar sem Jón Þröstur sást síðast fyrir rúmum 7 árum.
Ótrúlegt mál sem enginn hefur náð að komast til botns í.
Many such cases!
BotNS is a great canonical example of it. Stapledon's Star Maker is maybe the biggest example in SF history - it contains like 97% of the ideas in the field up to the New Wave or cyberpunk and was written in 1937 - stuff other authors mined for a trilogy gets a quick paragraph
BotNS is a great canonical example of it. Stapledon's Star Maker is maybe the biggest example in SF history - it contains like 97% of the ideas in the field up to the New Wave or cyberpunk and was written in 1937 - stuff other authors mined for a trilogy gets a quick paragraph
September 4, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Many such cases!
BotNS is a great canonical example of it. Stapledon's Star Maker is maybe the biggest example in SF history - it contains like 97% of the ideas in the field up to the New Wave or cyberpunk and was written in 1937 - stuff other authors mined for a trilogy gets a quick paragraph
BotNS is a great canonical example of it. Stapledon's Star Maker is maybe the biggest example in SF history - it contains like 97% of the ideas in the field up to the New Wave or cyberpunk and was written in 1937 - stuff other authors mined for a trilogy gets a quick paragraph
When I first read BotNS I DID NOT grasp that Wolfe was acting intentionally. Then I read The Fifth Head of Cerberus and it totally recontextualized “New Sun” and I started calling Wolfe the best SF writer period — vs all SF fiction in all time.
September 4, 2026 at 2:05 PM
When I first read BotNS I DID NOT grasp that Wolfe was acting intentionally. Then I read The Fifth Head of Cerberus and it totally recontextualized “New Sun” and I started calling Wolfe the best SF writer period — vs all SF fiction in all time.
When a book shop puts scifi and fantasy together it gives me an ick, they are so distinct esp when crime and thriller gets two whole sections, yet also... how would you place something like BOTNS - yet they already place vonnegut in both sff and literature...
September 4, 2026 at 2:02 PM
When a book shop puts scifi and fantasy together it gives me an ick, they are so distinct esp when crime and thriller gets two whole sections, yet also... how would you place something like BOTNS - yet they already place vonnegut in both sff and literature...
I love the high-tech metal retracting portal couched inside the stone of the mountain. The mix of extreme high-tech and low-tech is one of my favourite things throughout BOTNS, and this captures it perfectly.
September 4, 2026 at 9:48 AM
I love the high-tech metal retracting portal couched inside the stone of the mountain. The mix of extreme high-tech and low-tech is one of my favourite things throughout BOTNS, and this captures it perfectly.
theres definitely something about me that the first full frontal i repost is fucking. botns. but whatever.
September 3, 2026 at 8:22 PM
theres definitely something about me that the first full frontal i repost is fucking. botns. but whatever.
Ive long thought that it would be great to have a BotNS adaptation that was entirely about a troupe of actors putting on a play that was an in universe adaptation of the book that Severian wrote.
September 3, 2026 at 5:21 PM
Ive long thought that it would be great to have a BotNS adaptation that was entirely about a troupe of actors putting on a play that was an in universe adaptation of the book that Severian wrote.
I finished my latest reread of The Book of the Long Sun yesterday. Its a hell of a thing, if BotNS didnt exist it would absolutely be my favorite Wolfe series.
September 3, 2026 at 4:27 PM
I finished my latest reread of The Book of the Long Sun yesterday. Its a hell of a thing, if BotNS didnt exist it would absolutely be my favorite Wolfe series.
Personally I think the "BotNS Propaganda Theory" was originally born from and promulgated by someone with a misunderstanding of the concept of The Unreliable Narrator (which Ada Palmer's introduction to 'Shadow & Claw' did it's best to correct). We are ALL unreliable narrators.
September 2, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Personally I think the "BotNS Propaganda Theory" was originally born from and promulgated by someone with a misunderstanding of the concept of The Unreliable Narrator (which Ada Palmer's introduction to 'Shadow & Claw' did it's best to correct). We are ALL unreliable narrators.