This is the first of Gene Wolfe's books that I have read and probably the last. I was hoping to find a new exciting story after reading many other science fiction and fantasy books, but rather I found this "masterpiece."The story starts out well enough, but rapidly goes downhill from there. There is so much imagery in the first book that there is little room for anything else, such as enjoyment. I found the writing in this book a little to heavy for me as well. I don't particularly like having to re-read every sentence again and again until I finally grasp the meaning. But maybe that's just me. While I was reading this book I felt like I was back in high school reading one of the boring literature pieces given by my professor. This book would have been much better if it were about 50 pages long.This isn't something I'll pick up again.