The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001) is a series of three science fantasy novels or one three-volume novel by the American author Gene Wolfe. It continues The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996): they share a narrator and Short Sun recounts a search for Silk, the Long Sun hero. The two works are set in the same universe as The Book of the New Sun series that Wolfe inaugurated in 1980 and the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) catalogs all three as sub-series of the "Solar Cycle", along with some other writings.
Titles
The "Short Sun" of the title is an ordinary star, in contrast to the "Long Sun" of the Whorl where the narrator grew up. Most of the story takes place in a star system with two habitable planets, Blue and Green, which lend their names to the first two volumes. The Whorl of volume three's title is the generation ship setting of Long Sun.
The Tor hardcover editions (see table) were almost 1200 pages long in sum.
{| class=wikitable
|+ First editions (United States)
! Title, Imprint, Date || ISBN || Notes
|-
| On Blue's Waters<br/>
: Tor Books, 1999
|
| Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, rank 8
|-
| Return to the Whorl<br/>
: Tor Books, 2001
|
| Locus Fantasy Novel, rank 4
|-
|}
Science Fiction Book Club released a 752-page omnibus edition only two months after the third volume was published.