The Folio Society has produced a limited edition four-volume set of Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun. The Folio Society had been working closely with Gene Wolfe and illustrator Sam Weber before Wolfe’s death earlier this year.
Featuring an introduction by Neil Gaiman, the Folio Society publication will be available in a signed limited edition of 750 copies worldwide.
See this video for more details of the edition.
Gene Wolfe’s epic series The Book of the New Sun is widely regarded as one of the great literary masterpieces of speculative fiction. A remarkable and multi-faceted work, once described as ‘the Ulysses of fantasy’, it deserved The Folio Society’s most lavish treatment as a fully illustrated limited edition. The Folio Society art director and editorial team worked with the author, prior to his passing, who approved each stage of illustration and production.
The strictly limited 750 hand numbered sets feature an exclusive limitation page signed by Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman and Sam Weber.
Each of the four volumes, in a single handmade slipcase, features a striking binding design by award-winning illustrator Sam Weber, who has also created an extraordinary sequence of haunting artworks, including double-page spreads and hand-drawn decorative initial letters at the start of each chapter. This edition includes a new introduction by modern master of fantasy and life-long fan of Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman.
Torturer
Regarded as a masterpiece of speculative fiction, the series The Book of the New Sun tells the story of Severian, a young torturer just learning his trade, who makes the mistake of falling in love with one of his victims. Unable to bear the sight of her pain, he offers his love the mercy of a sharp blade, and for this crime he is exiled from his home.
He is ordered to travel to the distant city of Thrax, there to take up the position of Executioner, but the journey will be longer and stranger than he can imagine. On the road Severian finds new friends and enemies, and discovers a strange jewel that seems to command power over life and death – a power that others will kill to obtain…
In his introduction Neil Gaiman writes: “I revisit The Book of the New Sun once a decade, and I learn more about the art and skill of reading it. And what I bring to reading it makes the reading experience deeper and more pleasurable, brings the story more precisely into focus, clarifies and delights. Gene Wolfe defined good literature once as ‘literature that could be read with pleasure by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure’, and this is so very true of The Book of the New Sun. Your first journey through brings pleasures, brings story, brings Severian. Future journeys only make it better.”
See this video for an introduction to the art by illustrator Sam Weber.
Edition details
Limited to 750 numbered copies; limitation page signed by Gene Wolfe, Sam Weber and Neil Gaiman. The four volumes are presented together in a handmade cloth-bound slipcase blocked on two sides in pale gold foil with designs by the illustrator and lined with silver mirrored paper. Each volume is three-quarter bound in black buckram with spines blocked in red foil and cloth front boards printed with designs by the illustrator.
Set in Jenson with Priori Serif display with decorative initial letters designed by the illustrator, printed on Abbey Pure Rough paper, 1,196 pages of text in total. Colour frontispiece and double-page illustration in each volume. Three black and white full-page plates in each volume. Printed in two colours throughout, black page edges, 10˝ x 6.˝
Price: UK £395 | US $595 | Can $795 | Aus $880
The Folio Society limited edition of Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun, introduced by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Sam Weber, is available exclusively from www.FolioSociety.com
See also:
Kahlil Gibran’s Best-seller The Prophet Issued in Folio Society Illustrated Edition
The Folio Society looks to sci-fi themes with luxuriously illustrated classic books
Neil Gaiman Portrait By Lorna May Wadsworth Unveiled As Good Omens Debuts on Amazon Prime
