The Sword of the Lictor cover art

The Sword of the Lictor

Urth: Book of the New Sun, Book 3

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Sword of the Lictor

By: Gene Wolfe
Narrated by: James Lailey
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Banished for the sin of mercy, Severian, one of the ancient guild of Torturers, flees from exile. In a mountain wilderness.

Severian, the disgraced apprentice torturer, has reached his place of exile - Thrax, the city of Windowless Rooms, where he must take up his post as Lictor, executioner and torturer. However, he flees the city and heads into the mountains. There he meets the Alzabo, in whom those eaten seem to live on, adopts a son only to lose him in battle and discharges an old debt to vengeance. As his exile takes stranger and stranger turns, he encounters fanged aliens who hide behind masks of beauty, and meets the mysterious Dr Talos.

1983, World Fantasy Award, Short-listed

1983, BSFA Award, Short-listed

©2021 Gene Wolfe (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group Dark Fantasy Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Genre Fiction Hard Science Fiction Literary Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Litany of the Long Sun cover art
On Blue’s Waters cover art
The Knight cover art
A Canticle for Leibowitz cover art
The Golden Queen cover art
Elric of Melniboné cover art
Hyperion cover art
The Black Company cover art
The House of the Stag cover art
The Disfavored Hero cover art
Children of Time cover art
Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe cover art
Dancer's Lament cover art
New Suns cover art
The Pilgrim's Regress cover art
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Berserk may have inspired Miyazaki visually but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this was the English novel he read and half understood that inspired him narratively. An an incredible obtuse yet layered read that gets better and better the deeper you go. Philosophical depth in these books is also as much of a joy as the heady prose that effortlessly weave a dark whimsical tale of a torturer with a destiny far greater than he realises.

The dark souls of sci-fi/fantasy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.