Science Fiction Book Club January 1983 hardcover (copyright 1981 - "Timescape Books" on spine; SFBC #4948 at bottom of back cover.) 279 pages, jacket art by Don Maitz. Condition is near-Fine or better in a Fine dustjacket. The book is tight and very square; the usual light bumping at ends of spine; corners are sharp; minor dust scumbling to top edge of pages; no age tanning. No stamps, marks or writing - a very clean copy. Unclipped DJ is in great shape with no tears or wear to speak of. This was placed in a new Demco dustjacket protector 20 years ago, which has only a trace of wear.

The 3rd book of Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series: The Sword of the Lictor. Serverian has arrived at his assigned post as Lictor in Thrax, the City of Windowless Rooms, and seems prepared to settle into the life of a government functionary. Unsettling things begin to happen, however. His companion, Dorcas, leaves him and returns to the place where their journey began, the Lake of Birds, where the dead lie. Severian is pursued by a deadly beast. He has begun to question his role as Torturer and finally rejects his position and responsibility by letting a woman go free and fleeing the city himself. He heads into the mountains, surviving another encounter with Agia, who has been trailing him in her continuing effort to exact vengeance for the death of her brother, and continues his flight with a young boy, his namesake, orphaned in an attack by an alzabo. They travel deeper into the mountains, where they enter a vast, deserted city and accidentally revive a man whose body is inhabited by the soul of and ancient enemy of the Conciliator... [Like all the other books in this series, this was a Nebula-nominee.]