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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I read "The Pastel City" and "A Storm of Wings". I won't be continuing the series because, altough it is interesting at times, it doesn't hold my interes.
Both novels are set in phantasmagorical, post-apocalyptical world. The nature is strange and warped, and creatures are not much different. "The Pastel City" concerns a war between 2 queens, and "A Storm of Wings" deals with an alien force intruding on a weakened world after the battle(s). At times it all reminded me of Gormenghast, but one where I didn't care for the characters, which dampened my enjoyment.
Both novels are set in phantasmagorical, post-apocalyptical world. The nature is strange and warped, and creatures are not much different. "The Pastel City" concerns a war between 2 queens, and "A Storm of Wings" deals with an alien force intruding on a weakened world after the battle(s). At times it all reminded me of Gormenghast, but one where I didn't care for the characters, which dampened my enjoyment.
I have read and re-read many times the four volumes that make up this collection. Each differs greatly, and there is a clear progression from fairly standard, though superior, apocalyptic fantasy through to a kind of expressionist metaphorical prose about a city seen only through shattered mirrors. Its mysteries keep me coming back to it over and over again, and it haunts my dreams.
slow-paced
I read M. John Harrison's Light and liked it enough to pick this book off my metaphorical ebookshelf. I regret almost everything. Viriconium is three novels and seven short stories set in and around a fantastic city of the same name. It's firmly of the dying earth sub-genre (see Vance, Jack and Wolfe, Gene), where the diminished inhabitants of a high-tech civilization try to make sense of their lives in the wondrous and deadly ruins of the past.
The first story, The Pastel City is a solid and straightforward fantasy quest, with sword-swinging heroes trying to stop a deadly ancient superweapon. But the rest of the book is a slog of a fever dream, with assassins and artists and strange cults and plagues and godlings. The characters move like marionettes through a world where Time itself has worn thin. A more generous review might say that Harrison is aiming for some sort of Mythos Affect, where Sign and Signifier circle each other in an Eternal Ouroboros (annoying caps placed deliberately). I find that it has all the tedium of listening to someone else's dream, and very little of the charm. The last three quarters of the book where at first a desperate hope it'd get better, and then a miserable journey to prove it wouldn't.
Read the first bit and stop.
The first story, The Pastel City is a solid and straightforward fantasy quest, with sword-swinging heroes trying to stop a deadly ancient superweapon. But the rest of the book is a slog of a fever dream, with assassins and artists and strange cults and plagues and godlings. The characters move like marionettes through a world where Time itself has worn thin. A more generous review might say that Harrison is aiming for some sort of Mythos Affect, where Sign and Signifier circle each other in an Eternal Ouroboros (annoying caps placed deliberately). I find that it has all the tedium of listening to someone else's dream, and very little of the charm. The last three quarters of the book where at first a desperate hope it'd get better, and then a miserable journey to prove it wouldn't.
Read the first bit and stop.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Bought this partly because SF fans I knew in the 1980s raved about how good the Viriconium stories were, and partly because I really liked Harrison's [b:Light|17735|Light|M. John Harrison|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1389700041s/17735.jpg|295250]. But now they seem to me to be mainly pale imitations of [a:Michael Moorcock|16939|Michael Moorcock|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1222901251p2/16939.jpg] - not too surprising, as they originated from stories published in New Worlds. There is obvious satiricial content, being fantasy about a decaying world living for past glories (a fairly clear parallel to attitudes in Britain to the legacy of empire in the sixties and seventies), with some interesting imagery. Mostly dull though.
The most interesting and different of these stories, A Young Man's Journey to Viriconium, is placed last in this omnibus, telling of people who are searching for a way into the fantasy world from real world Britain; the addition of the conspiracy theory style elements makes this far more entertaining.
It feels to me that the reputation of these stories has been increased by lengthy periods over which they were unavailable - and they don't live up to it.
The most interesting and different of these stories, A Young Man's Journey to Viriconium, is placed last in this omnibus, telling of people who are searching for a way into the fantasy world from real world Britain; the addition of the conspiracy theory style elements makes this far more entertaining.
It feels to me that the reputation of these stories has been increased by lengthy periods over which they were unavailable - and they don't live up to it.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Rzadko trafiam na książkę, która wywołuje u mnie uczucie irytacji i z każdym kolejnym zdaniem wzmaga ochotę na odłożenie jej na czas nieokreślony, z dużą dozą prawdopodobieństwa niewrócenia do niej w ogóle. Takie jest właśnie "Viriconium". Sądzę, że jest to wysublimowana lektura dla większego niż ja "smakosza", stawiającego formę wyżej niż treść. Ja jestem bardziej zwolennikiem złotego środka, i niestety tylko w jednej z nowel w tym zbiorze, to jest w "Pastelowym mieście", udało się autorowi trafić w mój gust. Brnięcie przez resztę tego "intelektualnego labiryntu" było, niestety, drogą przez mękę, na końcu której czekała mnie sroga, w starciu z "Viriconium", przegrana. Może rozpatrywana w kategoriach Sztuki, przez duże "S" książka ta zasługuje na gwiazdek nie tylko pięć, ale i dziesięć, ale ja rozumem tego okiełznać nie potrafiłem, więc oceniłem tak, jak widać.