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mxmlln's review against another edition
4.0
Truly a remarkable book. The mnemonic world introduced in the first book is fully explored here. Sort of a bit metaphysical and drug-induced, but with a clear direction.
jelundberg's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't think it would be possible, but I loved this book even more than its predecessor, The Physiognomy. Ford's exploration of the dream/memory world of Drachton Below, and of Cley's romance with Anotine inside that ephemeral space, is a literary triumph. Second books in trilogies are notoriously considered the weakest volumes, but the converse is definitively true here. Highly highly recommended.
megapolisomancy's review against another edition
5.0
She shrugged. "How does the island fly? What ocean is this beneath us made of liquid mercury? What are we all doing here? These questions have become rather useless. We do our work and live in hope that someday we will be returned to the lives we have traded away for this commission."
Or maybe, more humorously:
"So many memories," I whispered, half-asleep, and as I began to drift off, I pictured myself inside a memory having a memory of a place created to store memories, lying next to a memory woman who stored within her the memory of the formula for a drug invented to ease the pain of memories. The mental exercise wearied me even more than the walking had.
Another excellent surrealist/oneiric meditation centered on the rather pathetic character of Cley and his adventures in the densely symbolic world (maybe I should say allegory?) of the Well-Built City.
Or maybe, more humorously:
"So many memories," I whispered, half-asleep, and as I began to drift off, I pictured myself inside a memory having a memory of a place created to store memories, lying next to a memory woman who stored within her the memory of the formula for a drug invented to ease the pain of memories. The mental exercise wearied me even more than the walking had.
Another excellent surrealist/oneiric meditation centered on the rather pathetic character of Cley and his adventures in the densely symbolic world (maybe I should say allegory?) of the Well-Built City.
msaari's review against another edition
3.0
A voyage to a mind that has built a palace of memory to generate thought without thinking. The ex-physiognomist Cley must return to the ruins of Well-Built City in order to find an antidote to a sleeping disease the evil Drachton Below has unleashed upon the citizens of peaceful Wenau. However, Below lays under the spell of the same disease, so Cley must find the antidote in his mind.
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