Talk:The Shadow of the Torturer

Justification and summary of recent changes
I made a number of changes to the summary and I'll summarize them right now incase anyone disagrees: Dynamic1 (talk) 00:34, 1 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Severian is not rescued. The popular theory is that he dies and is revived. However, even if the reader does not grasp that, I don't think a rescue seems probable here. I've heard people say that the woman's face is that of Abaia, but I really don't understand why jump to this conlusion. Certainly "barely surviving a swim" is how it appears to read, literally, if taken at face value, so theories (mine or yours) shouldn't enter into it here anyway.
 * Severian's "occupation" is never directly stated, and this is a very important fact to make clear.
 * The Citadel deserves at least a passing mention. In fact, I added a bunch of "missing scenes" here. Triskele, the masoleum, and Valeria are all important to the series.
 * The wording that Severian was "unable to bear [Thecla's] suffering" is a poor choice of words, in my opinion. I substituted "takes pity on" and clarified that his actions were breaking an oath to his guild.
 * Removed carnifex -- seems to me like this word weighs down the summary, even if it is the one used by Wolfe.
 * The inn was full (booked), not crowded
 * Made clear that Severian left Talos/Baldanders not intending to return to them
 * Reworded akward phrasing regarding Terminus Est negotiations with Agilus
 * Named Agia clearly earlier in the summary
 * The Pelerines never suspected nor searched Severian, knowing him to be truthful.
 * Gave mroe details about the Botanic Gardens. Debated on adding some description of the two gardens they visit before the lake of the dead. Still, this was a good spot to bring Father Inire into the summary, who palys an important role throughout the series.
 * Made clear the "lake" was a burial ground
 * Made clear Dorcas's confused state
 * Linking challenger back to Agia incase reader forgot
 * Clarified the event of stumbling back into Talos/Baldanders.

Triskele and valeria are not mentioned as stated above.Has someone erased your notes? Jakescows (talk) 19:28, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Science fantasy?
1. (summarize "Awards") For "year's best" of 1980, The Shadow of the Torturer won one major award, and was a finalist for another, in both Fantasy and SF competition

Does anyone understand for any particular award which "science fantasy" books tend to qualify?

2. (quote lead) In 1987, Locus magazine ranked The Shadow of the Torturer number four among the 33 "All-Time Best Fantasy Novels", based on a poll of subscribers.[2][a] further: all four original New Sun books either won or ranked second for the annual Locus Award, Fantasy Novel.

The Urth of the New Sun (1987) ranked third for the Locus, SF novel

In the next sub-series (Long Sun), the third book Caldé of the Long Sun (1994) won the Locus, Fantasy novel

Does anyone know a rationale or other explanation for the category shift? For example, does interstellar preclude "fantasy", or even preclude "science fantasy"? should it? --P64 (talk) 22:15, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on The Shadow of the Torturer. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20110827224604/http://www.onipress.com:80/creator/3 to http://www.onipress.com/creator/3

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 19:39, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on The Shadow of the Torturer. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080314072831/http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit153.html to http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit153.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 19:11, 8 January 2018 (UTC)