Also I am pretty sure Wolfe's New Sun tetralogy was required reading for everyone working on it.
@DialMforMara there is a lot of stuff and half of it is told very obliquely! It’s no surprise it’s hard to remember.
I re-read it... last year, I think? The year before? Over the course of about a half a year with a lot of breaks for other stuff, too, I think. Can’t be bothered to get the Books of the Long and Short Suns that follow it and slowly wade through them, though. I read about half of each in the past and really don’t feel like trying to return.
@anthracite I read that when my dad taught it in his science fiction class. It was more fun than Lord of the Rings, but I'll be damned if I could tell you anything that happened in it.