Between that and the odd, archaic terminology, the reader has to pay close attention to keep up with what's going on. Severian's recollections often have a dreamlike quality, with seemingly insignificant events described in detail, and important occurrences sometimes mentioned only in passing. Gifted (or cursed) with an exceptional memory, the older Severian recounts his experiences to readers with the assumption that we're from his own time. Set eons in the future, when the planet is covered in the remnants of long-forgotten civilizations and the sun is beginning to go out from some mysterious ailment, the cycle follows the journeys of Severian, the torturer's apprentice cast out of his guild for showing mercy to a captive.
Either way, Wolfe's creation is like nothing else in fantasy. To its admirers, it's one of the most brilliant, literary works in the genre to its detractors, it's frustrating and overly cryptic.
If ever there was a "marmite" series in fantasy, it would be Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.
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