Viriconium

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Viriconium sits on the ruins of an ancient civilization that nobody remembers. The society that was technologically advanced enough to create crystal airships and lethal energy weapons is dead. These Afternoon Cultures depleted the world???s metal ores, leaving mounds of inscrutable rusted infrastructure with only a few odds and ends that still work. The current citizens of Viriconium are baffled by what they???ve dug up, but they have no idea what any of it is for.

The Pastel City, published in 1971, is the first part of M. John Harrison???s science fantasy epic VIRICONIUM which, according to sources, was inspired by Jack Vance???s DYING EARTH and the poetry of T.S. Eliot. Characterization and pacing are sometimes a bit weak, but the scenery in The Pastel City is grand, and I enjoyed the story. In many ways it reminded me of THE LORD OF THE RINGS ??? a group of comrades (including a dwarf) travel through beautiful and desolate landscapes (across rivers and marshes, through mountain tunnels, etc.) on a quest to destroy something so they can save the world. A major difference, and what saves the book from being simply another quest fantasy, is the post-apocalyptic vision of an unknown advanced civilization which died out mysteriously, leaving samples of their devastating handiwork behind. Thus, the dwarf arms himself with an 11-foot tall mechanical skeleton and carries some sort of laser. Cromis and his friends ride into one battle on horseback, but leave in a glass blimp. Cool.

A Storm of Wings is the second part of M. John Harrison???s VIRICONIUM sequence. Viriconium has been at peace for eighty years after the threat from the north was eliminated, but now there are new threats to the city. Something has detached from the moon and fallen to earth. A huge insect head has been discovered in one of the towns of the Reborn. The Reborn are starting to go mad. Also, a new rapidly growing cult is teaching that there is no objective reality. Are the strange events linked with the cult???s nihilistic philosophy? And what will this do to Viriconium???s peace? Tomb the dwarf and Cellur the Birdlord, whom we met in The Pastel City, set out to discover the truth.

A Storm of Wings was published in 1980 ??? nine years after The Pastel City ??? and M. John Harrison???s writing style has evolved. In some ways it???s better ??? characterization is deeper and the imagery is more evocative. This world feels fragile and moribund and the reader gets the sense that, as the cult proclaims, it???s hard to tell what???s real and what???s just a warped perception. Or perhaps Viriconium is slipping from reality into a dream. Or into a different reality altogether. The story is strange, outlandish, and blurry.

In the third part of the VIRICONIUM omnibus, The Floating Gods (aka In Viriconium), we visit the old artists??? quarter of Viriconium ??? a lazy decaying place where gardens bloom and the smell of black currant gin exudes from the taverns where the increasingly lackadaisical citizens used to sit and talk about art and philosophy. This part of the city used to be vibrant and innovative, but it has been deteriorating as a psychological plague has been creeping in from the high city. The artists??? patrons, infected by this plague of mediocrity, have become dreamy and only want to purchase uninspired sentimental watercolor landscapes. And all they want to talk about is the debauched antics of the Barley Brothers, a couple of twins who act like buffoons but are rumored to be demi-gods.

This part is funny, witty, and brilliantly written with sharp humorous insights into disagreeable human behavior. As the plague crept closer, I could feel the beloved city of Viriconium decaying ??? its fountains drying up and its gardens becoming unkempt and shabby. Like the previous book, A Storm of Wings, The Floating Gods is intensely atmospheric. This is a better book, though, because the atmosphere is balanced by humor and plot.

Viriconium Nights is the last book in M. John Harrison???s VIRICONIUM epic. It???s a collection of seven short stories set in and around the city of Viriconium which contain some of the characters we???ve met in the previous VIRICONIUM books and include many allusions to recurring events and motifs: mechanical metal birds, tarot cards, locusts, the fish mask, big lizards, the Mari Lwyd, etc. Each story stands alone but focuses on the city of Viriconium and particularly the bohemian residents of the Artists??? Quarter. All of Viriconium is decaying, but this part of the city feels especially bleak, probably because it???s peopled with brooding artistic types whose desperation results in freakish hedonistic behavior.

Though there are recurring characters in the VIRICONIUM works, we never get to know any of them very well. The haunting, weird, incomprehensible city is the main character. M. John Harrison has explained at his blog that he didn???t want Viriconium to be ???tamed??? or ???controlled,??? so he has confused and disoriented the reader by making it impossible to understand what it would be like to live in his world: ???I made that world increasingly shifting and complex. You can not learn its rules. More importantly, Viriconium is never the same place twice.??? I think this is more successful in the last three parts of VIRICONIUM ??? the first novel, The Pastel City, is almost a traditional quest fantasy.

VIRICONIUM is one of those works that I feel like I should give 5 stars just because it???s original and M. John Harrison???s prose is brilliant. Harrison is a master of style and his writing is superior to most of what???s offered on the SFF shelves. However, the truth is that though I recognize Harrison???s genius, I can???t say that I enjoyed every moment of VIRICONIUM, which may be a reflection on me more than on the work itself. Spending so much time in a city that???s unknowable and decaying resulted, for me, in an overwhelming feeling of disorientation and hopelessness. The characters and the plot, which feel like they are there only to support the role of the city, don???t make up for this. A month from now, I probably won???t remember any of the plots in Viriconium Nights. But I will remember Viriconium.

I listened to the audiobook version of VIRICONIUM which was produced by Neil Gaiman Presents and is narrated by Simon Vance who is one of the absolute best in the business. This is a high-quality production and highly recommended for anyone who wants to read one of M. John Harrison???s best-loved works.

The author's storytelling style is much like [a:Patricia A. McKillip 25 Patricia A. McKillip https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1220752490p2/25.jpg]'s early works; a bit slow in movement but robust in the descriptions and especially the word choices for those descriptions is what I love most.This book is a set of stories on the same place but each is more like novellas than shorts. Novellas I can enjoy, shorts I just don't.