Shadow & Claw The First Half of The Book of the New Sun

It's kind of odd to read a book that will only make sense when you read it again, that'sif you ever do. But after I read the first two books a couple of years ago, they've been living in my head rent free and really wanted to return to the world.  I must say I like the early chapters of the first book the best, and I still didn't pick up on anything - here's my original thoughts on Shadow Of The Torturer:  "Thought this was great. Well written, dreamlike, a bit weird, things hinted at that I'm excited to find out about - the old sun being a bit rubbish so they're getting an upgrade, trees on the moon, travel between worlds done with like, mirrors or something, I don't know. A real Gormenghast feel to the early chapters of the book and anyone who knows me knows I LOVE that. Took it all at face value - I believe what happened is what the words in the book said what happened. To this day I don't have an English GCSE because I never actually fully understood what subtext was, and I thought it was a bit strange to assume what the author meant, outside of the words on the page. Well, I mean, that's not the only reason, I didn't do any coursework either but you see what I'm getting at here. Maybe later books will reveal something more obvious. If so, I can't wait to find out! I'm very excited to read the next entry in the series. " And I have to say, I STILL didn't really pick up on anything not-obvious really so far, although I literally went down every line with a bookmark, as my ADHD/other learning difficulties make me skip over things and scan-read a lot. My mind really doesn't make connections in that way - I'm no good at puzzles or logic, for instant. Guy wearing armour in a brown desert holding a strange banner? To me, that's a guy in armour. The citadel has metal walls? That's weird! Cool though. Metal IS a thing you can build things from. Some guy's lost his wife? How sad, hope she gets found. Googling things, it's interesting seeing what these things apparently mean and watching others make links I can't make. I'm enjoying the book just for itself. The play was an absolute fuckin' snoozefest though. Hope that's not important cause I had to skip that, I'm sorry. The story in the brown book I kind of struggled through.

I liked book 1 a lot and book 2 a lot less. I've got 3 and 4 on my nightstand and hope they tend more toward the qualities I liked in book 1, which had so much neat world building. Although this is billed as science fiction by many who I suppose ought to know science fiction from fantasy, it read a lot more like fantasy to me, if fantasy with some sci-fi elements.