Hardcover (book club) edition of The Sword of the Lictor, by Gene Wolfe (Timescape, 1981). The third volume in Wolfe's masterpiece, The Book of the New Sun, this book follows Severian, disgraced former Torturer, as he settles down to life as a professional executioner in the mountain town of Thrax. The Book of the New Sun is widely considered one of the greatest series in the history of SF/F, partly because of the way Wolfe blends a high literary style with his speculative subject matter.