The Solar Cycle
Also known as "The Briah Cycle," this is a sequence of novels and short stories taking place in the same fictional universe.
Texts in the Solar Cycle
The novels comprising the Solar Cycle include:
- The Book of the New Sun
- The Shadow of the Torturer (1980)
- The Claw of the Conciliator (1980)
- The Sword of the Lictor (1981)
- The Citadel of the Autarch (1982)
- The Urth of the New Sun (1987)
- The Book Of The Long Sun
- Nightside the Long Sun (1993)
- Lake of the Long Sun (1993)
- Caldé of the Long Sun (1994)
- Exodus from the Long Sun (1996)
- The Book of the Short Sun
- On Blue's Waters (1999)
- In Green's Jungles (2000)
- Return to the Whorl (2001)
The following short stories also take place in the Solar Cycle universe:
- The Cat
- The Map
- The Night Chough
- Stories from the brown book, The book of the Wonders of Urth and Sky
- Empires of Foliage and Flower
- The Boy Who Hooked the Sun
- The Tale of the Dwarf and the Children of the Sphinx, from From the Cradle
- The Tale of Prince Know-Nothing, from From the Cradle
- The Tale of the Boy and the Bookshop, from From the Cradle
- The God and His Man
Additional texts
- Though Wolfe has said that it is not set in the same universe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972) shares a great deal of imagery, thematics, and other concerns with the Solar Cycle, to the extent that some Wolfe critics consider it a prelude or a sort of "dress rehearsal" for the larger cycle.
- The Castle of the Otter: A Book about the Book of the New Sun (1982) -- now incorporated into Castle of Days (1992) -- is a collection of essays about The Book of the New Sun, written while and shortly after Wolfe was completing that sequence.
- Shadows of the New Sun: Essays (2002) is another collection of essays, in which Wolfe, among other things, comments extensively upon the Solar Cycle.