Reviews

Celebrant by Michael Cisco

theesotericcamel's review

4.0

As hallucinogenic and synaesthetic as ever. His discriptions are as visceral and surreal as in previous books, conjuring very peculiar and specific imagery. In this case the story revolves around deKlend, a pilgrim trying to find his way to the mystical city of Votu. Throughout the book, the story keeps switching back and forth between deKlend's pilgrimage, and scenes and lore from Votu itself. deKlend, is very similar to Cisco's other protagonist, as found in his other novels such as The Great Lover, or The Narrator. A larger than life and almost cartoon-like figure that is tempered with many unlikel idiosyncracies. I would also argue that Votu, the city itself, becomes a character itself, as it is often referenced and is the constant goal of deKlend. The city of Votu, I would argue, is Cisco's most compelling creation in this book. It is a city that seems to straddle the edge of the future. Besides the regular human population, it also includes Natural Robots among it's denizens. Machines that seems to have been created by nature itself. They are venerated as gods in the city and have their own temples. Besides the humans and robots, you also meet the Rabbit Girls and the Pigeon Girls. As is common with any Michael Cisco book, each page is full of interesting and utterly unique ideas and imagery. The story almost becomes secondary to the presentation of these ideas. In fact the story itself is usually quite simple, but the telling of it is often taken off track to pursue a "vignette" of thought here or there. The story is further muddled when you realize that the events in the book as they unfold are not necessarily told in chronological order. Michael Cisco provides a helpful timeline at the beginning of the book. Reading Michael Cisco can be difficult sometimes, and if you are expecting something straight forward this book should be avoided. I always enjoy reading Cisco because of the untterly unique ideas and images he is able to conjure. Reading a Cisco book is defintely more of an experience rather than a book. The story seems to envelop you in its abstractedness, and you become a denizen of the world presented in the book as a result.

jake_'s review

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

2.75

Votu is a quite deliberately irrational fantasy world delivered in a deadpan and sardonic eloquence recalling Borges and at times Peake (compare also Valente’s Palimpsest, Calvino’s Invisible Cities). I probably missed a lot of the influences on the prose style itself, which frequently switches perspective, cuts itself off mid-thought, and blurs speech, thought and narration.

Celebrant is less focused than The Divinity Student, more challenging than The Narrator, but perhaps even more original, at least in its fantasies, than both. 

Ultimately this book was too sprawling, postmodern, incoherent and meaningless to be enjoyable, and it did not compensate with the same degree of beauty and metaphysics-shattering fantasy of Borges, Calvino etc.

I would definitely consider a re-read in the future, especially if some heroic publishing house decides to republish the lost Chomu Press works of Michael Cisco.