In Gene Wolfe’s “The Book of the New Sun,” the protagonist and former torturer is Severian. He narrates the series as a member of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence, a guild whose formal profession is torture and execution.
Severian begins as an apprentice in the guild’s Citadel in the ancient city of Nessus. He is exiled after showing mercy to Thecla, a prisoner with whom he has formed a close bond. Instead of receiving the punishment he expects, Severian is sent north to the city of Thrax to serve as its lictor, or official executioner, and is given the execution sword Terminus Est.
The four main volumes follow Severian’s journey through a distant, dying future Earth, where the Sun has dimmed and the Commonwealth is locked in conflict with neighboring powers. He later becomes entangled with political revolutions, ancient technology, religious symbolism, and the mysterious Claw of the Conciliator.
The wrong options are important characters or figures, but not the protagonist: Baldanders is a powerful giant, Jonas becomes Severian’s companion, and Thecla is the prisoner who profoundly affects his life. Severian’s role as narrator also makes him deliberately difficult to interpret, since his claims of perfect memory coexist with possible unreliability.