The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe (American, 1980)

Summary:
The novel starts with Severian, the protagonist, falling into the river Gyoll and surviving. Severan is an apprentice in an organization called “The torturers’ guild”. After sneaking into a necropolis, Severian meets Vodalus, a legendary revolutionary, and saves his life. Vodalus gives him a gold coin. Afterwards, Severian is promoted to Journeyman and is given the task of torturing a young aristocrat named Thecla. Instead of finishing his job, he assists Thecla on her suicide, breaking an oath from his order. Instead of being tortured and executed (as he expected), he receives a special sword (Terminus Est) and is dispatched to the distant city.
 
 On his travels, Severian arrives at an inn where he meets a troupe of traveling Mountebanks who invite him to join their performance. Without intending to actually participate, Severian leaves the inn and eventually goes into a shop tended by twin Siblings. The brother is interested in Teminus Est, but Severian refuses to sell his sword. A short time afterwards, a masked armored stranger challenges Severian to a duel he cannot refuse. Thus, he departs (accompanied by the twin sister) in search of an Avern (a deadly plant used in duels).
 
 During their trip, their driver crashes into the altar of a religious order. Agia (the twin sister) is accused of stealing a religious idol from said altar. After searching her, she is released and they continue to the botanical gardens. Inside their gardens, while looking for the plant, Severian falls into a lake. When he emerges, a woman named Dorcas emerges as well. Confused, the woman follows Severan and Agia. After getting the plant, Severian finds accommodations in an inn next to the dueling grounds. During dinner, he receives a note warning him about one of the women. After dinner, Severian faces his challenger. He stabs him with the Avern, yet he survives. After defeating him, he discovers his challenger is Agia’s brother. After winning the duel, he is requested to perform an execution. The client is Agia’s brother, whom Severian promptly executes. Severian and Dorcas continue with their trip, and they encounter the performers again. They are almost ready to show the play. Severian assists them, and afterwards they go down the road together towards The Piteous Gate. The Gate leads through the Great Wall of Nessus. When they are at the gate, there is a weird commotion, and the book suddenly ends.

Another summary:
We find Severian, a torturer's apprentice, in the company of Roche, Drotte, and Eata, with whom he was about to die drowned in the Gyoll, after which they try to enter the Citadel, but they run into a necropolis that they can enter cheating the volunteers, who are there to take care of their dead people. Once inside, Severian meets Vodalus, who is there to plunder a grave with the help of Thea and another man. They are soon discovered by volunteers and Severian intervenes to help Vodalus. He thanks him by giving him a small coin and then fades into the fog. Severian continues with his work as a torturer, where sometimes clients that arrive are rummored to be supporters of Vodalus. Despite liking him, Severian treats them the same as any other prisoner. Severian finds a dog which he adopts and calls Triskele in the Bear Tower, later becoming a captain of apprentices. When it is his turn to bring food to the journeymen on duty in the oubliette, he meets the Chatelaine Thecla. They talk and agree to ask Drotte for Severian to be the one who will give Thecla her meals from then on. Through Master Gurloes, Severian learns that the Autarch keeps Thecla locked up like a pawn to catch Vodalus, since his lover, Thea, is Thecla's sister. Severian begins to bring food to Thecla and keep her company; eventually, he falls deeply in love with her. The longer she spends locked in, the greater is her hope of being released, until the time comes when she is tortured. Before that happens, Severian intends to help her escape, but the only way to do so would have been to kill his friends, so he doesn't. When he takes her to her cell after the torture, he gives her a knife so that she can commit suicide and does not have to continue to endure the torture. Then he looks for Gurloes and confesses what he did. As punishment, Master Palaemon sends him to Thrax as an executioner and gives him a Terminus Est sword before he leaves. During his trip he stops at an inn and is told that the only room available is one that he has to share with two other men; Baldanders and Dr. Talos. They invite him to be part of their play, but Severian has other plans, and separates from them with the excuse of going around the city. He arrives at a store in order to get something to help him hide his torturer's cloak The store is serviced by a woman and her brother who offer to buy his sword, which Severian refuses. Then he meets a hipparch who challenges him to a duel he has no choice but to accept and, in the company of Agia, the sister of the hipparch, he parts in search of the avern, a deadly plant necessary for the duel. On the way they have an accident and destroy a religious altar, and as soon as they get rid of the problem they continue to the Botanic Gardens in search of the avern. There they find a woman named Dorcas and take her with them. After finding the avern, Severian meets with his challenger to start the duel. He then discovers that the mysterious challenger was the owner of the store where he previously was. Ironically, Severian is later asked to execute a prisoner, who turns out to be his challenger. Then, along with Dorcas, he finds among his belongings a Claw stolen by Agia from the altar that they destroyed on their trip and that she hid there. Severian is still with Dorcas, whom he has fallen in love with, and they meet with Balanders and Dr. Talos, who are still in a hurry with the play they have been preparing. They help them with it and the next day, as they leave the city of Nessus, there is a disturbance between vehicles and the narrator decides to stop the story.

Another summary:
The story is set possibly in an alternate reality or a very distant future very akin to the medieval period and without explicitly pointing out the advantages or disadvantages of living in this world, whose name is Urth. The narration encompasses only a very general description of society, which is divided into guilds. There are a variety of these: torturers, curators, military, witches, and so on. Each guild is expected to live in a particular place while fulfilling their own tasks, for example, taking care of books and old materials. 
 The guild explored in more detail is the one of the torturers. The torturers have to enforce the sentences dictated by the authority without making any judgement of their clients. 
 
 Even though the way in which newcomers of the guilds are taken in would not be accepted by today's standards, it does not represent a thing to be criticized by the author, but a fact to help the development of the story; children may be kidnapped by the leaders of the guilds as an example. It has been technically unaltered: there is no existence of industry and the activities carried out by people have little effect on the environment, just as a medieval society. However, the suggestion of advanced technology could mean that it is a different planet or reality than Earth. Cities and guilds are ruled ultimately by the Autarch, a figure of authority similar to a king. However, there are few references to his role on his domains. On the other hand, the existence of noble houses is implied through the appearance of several characters. Similarly, these houses are of no big importance in the arch followed by the novel.
 
 The novel follows torturer apprentice Severian, who is put into exile by the masters of the torturer’s Guild after allowing the suicide of a client, which is a crime known as Crime of Mercy according to his laws. He is to arrive to Thrax, a city where he will have to serve as public executioner. However, during his journey he is challenged to a duel and in preparation for this, he is acquainted with locals of the city of Nessus and gets to know the ways of the people outside his previous city, the Citadel. Eventually, he is betrayed by some secondary characters and joins a group of people who are part of a theater company, departing to the world outside Nessus. The author tells the story through Severian using first person perspective and from the future.

World view: The world portrayed in the story is an hypothetical society which seems to be worse than the one the author lives in.
Future projections: Any hope or attempt for a better future is discarded. If there’s still a remaining trace, it ends up in a new kind of despair or loss of faith
Ideology: The majority is oppressed by a ruling elite or an individual powergroup that come to dominate society to their own interests.
Characters, plot and writing style: The story features a rebellion against the adverse circumstances (revolutionaries may exploit newer technologies for these ends).
Classification: Non-dystopia