That impression is predicated on the structure of the novel, though, as A Storm of Wings (1980) makes clear. By the close of The Pastel City, individuals from one of the Afternoon Cultures have been resurrected – so Viriconium finds itself in danger of being superseded by the past.Īs a fictional city, Viriconium is a timeless mish-mash but, in The Pastel City, one nevertheless has the impression of a coherent, functioning place. Cromis’s journey does not run according to plan, and he turns away from witnessing its ending, and away from greater knowledge. Some say that reality is becoming thin with age, forgetting itself. The stars have been rearranged to spell the name of a past culture, but no one is left who can read it.īut the deeper themes of Viriconium are already becoming apparent.
The landscape is one of rust and garishly-coloured metal salts. Advanced technology from previous eras (the ‘Afternoon Cultures’) persists, but the world has forgotten how it works. So far, so conventional, it might seem – albeit with a vividly realised setting of a decaying far future. One of the old king’s champions, tegeus-Cromis (‘who imagined himself a better poet than swordsman’), picks up his weapons and sets out to reunite his comrades-in-arms and defend the city. The first novel in the sequence, The Pastel City (1971), sees Viriconium under attack from the forces of the ruling queen’s cousin. Not that it’s going to stop me trying to give a sense of Viriconium, of course. It’s the experience of reading Harrison’s work that counts, and nothing I say here can substitute that.
I can’t really see that as a spoiler, because plot is not the point of Viriconium (except insofar as it’s an illusion, like much else in the stories). When you venture in, it’s important to bear in mind which of these statements is the more accurate.īy the way, this post is going to tell you quite a bit about what happens. This is Viriconium: an omnibus of novels and stories by M.
This is Viriconium: the city to end all cities namesake of the dominant empire in Earth’s twilight.
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