I definitely recommend reading the whole series. Agreed that some passages are slow or just obscure due to the style, but I found it quite enriching. I think this is one of these where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, though.

I like to fancy myself an appreciator of good writing, but man, Gene Wolfe just didn't quite do it for me. Felt pretty ponderous and self-important, like a Ralph Bakshi animated film meets Frank Herbert meets J.D. Salinger meets the Old Testament, and it was all just too much. I think Wolfe had ambition and intention and was a stylist in a genre that doesn't often reward stylists, but it was all just just... off somehow, and left me feeling yucky. I finished The Shadow of the Torturer and had no desire to deal with Severian or his world ever again.

It's definitely weird, but I did enjoy reading it. I feel like it would make more sense if I read it again, but at the same time, I'm not sure I really enjoyed it enough to read it all again.

I loved it, but it is definitely very weird and kinda slow sometimes. I'd say you should keep going!