The Sword of the Lictor is the third of Gene Wolfe's book of the New Sun. Severian is slowly maturing; near the start of the novel he helps an innocent escape instead of executing her.
This novel also has one of the most obvious Christian parallels, where Severian is taken up on high and offered dominion over the world, albeit in a science fictional context. At the same time, there's an interesting twist, in that Severian kills the Satan-figure with the equivalent of a karate move, something I don't think we see in the biblical version. I think this illustrates the complexity of the biblical parallels with BotNS -- Severian is not himself supposed to be Christ, he's merely a man trying to do good and bring light to a fallen world.
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