Contains 4 books in one volume: The Shadow of the Torturer (winner of the 1981 World Fantasy Award), The Claw of the Conciliator (winner of the 1982 Nebula Award), The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch. Blending the lyric extravagance of fantasy and the keen edge of science fiction, The Book of the New Sun weaves a powerful tapestry of awesome terror and dreamlike beauty. It begins in a future so distant our civilization is no longer even a memory, and the remnants of our science seem like magical forces. It is a time when the Sun is dying, and legend speaks of the return of the Conciliator, who will bring about the birth of the New Sun. It is an odyssey fraught with monsters and mysteries and woven about with strange portents.