Viriconium
Encyclopedia
Viriconium is a fictional city created by M. John Harrison
and also the name of the cycle of novels and stories set in and around it.
Viriconium is on a future Earth littered with the technological detritus of millennia (partly inspired by Jack Vance
's Dying Earth series although the works are also influenced in their imagery by the poems of T.S. Eliot).
).
The Pastel City concerns the defence of the eponymous city against northern "barbarians" by a melancholy swordsman and poet, 'sometime soldier and sophisticate' Lord tegeus-Cromis. tegeus-Cromis is the hero of the Methven but believes he has finished soldiering forever - until the mercenary Birkin Griff brings dire news of the war between the two queens and the hazard facing the Pastel City. They must travel to the Great Brown Waste to find Tomb the Dwarf, and join forces to fight for Queen jane and Viriconium - for Canna Moidart and the Wolves of the North have awoken the geteit chemosit, alien automata from an ancient science, which will destroy everything in their path/
The second novel of the series,A Storm of Wings, is set 80 years after the events described in The Pastel City. Lord tegeus-Cromis had broken the yoke of Canna Moidart. But now the Reborn Men, awoken from their long sleep, have inherited the Evening Cultures. Their first representative is Alsath Fulthor. In the wastelands to the north and west of Viriconium, a city is being built - but not by men. It is the Time of the Locust. The attackers are insect-like aliens who threaten to turn the inhabitants of the Pastel City into hideous, mindless insects: the story is told through both human and alien points of view and perceptions. The main characters are a resurrected man, an assassin, a magician, a madwoman, and Tomb, the Iron Dwarf.
The third novel of the series, In Viriconium, whose working title was By Gas Mask and Fire Hydrant, parodies Arthurian
motifs and deconstructs the whole series to show that Viriconium is just a fiction: the protagonist Audsley King realizes this and at last can paint the real world, which is our own. The novel is divided into sections named after cards of an imaginary Tarot
. The story concerns the efforts of one artist, Ashlyme, to rescue another - the frail, consumptive, dying Audsley King - from the plague zone (the latter is a motif that recurs in Harrison's novel Nova Swing
.) It is a desperate, misconceived enterprise which draw Ashlyme into unwilling alliance with the sinister dwarf The Grand Cairo, and which goes bizarrely wrong. Yet out of the shambles comes the clue to lifting the plague which symbolises a paralysis of will. Resonances in the text include the art of Aubrey Beardsley
, post-Impressionist art, Mervyn Peake
and Wyndham Lewis
.
The short fiction of the Virconium sequence replays this attrition; finally, in "A Young Man's Journey to Viriconium" (later retitled "A Young Man's Journey to London"), Viriconium has become little more than a dream.
Variations of the city appear throughout the series (most frequently as Uriconium and Vriko), in an attempt by Harrison to subvert the concept of thoroughly-mapped secondary worlds featured in certain works of fantasy, particularly those by J. R. R. Tolkien
and his host of successors.
A 1988 omnibus entitled Viriconium (Viriconium (1988 collection)
) omits the first two novels; it consists of the third novel, In Viriconium, and the full contents of the short story collection Viriconium Nights. The stories in this omnibus are in the same running order as in the 1985 first edition. The omnibus has an introduction by Iain Banks
.
All four works of the sequence were published in a single omnibus volume called Viriconium in 2000. (Viriconium (2000 collection)
). The stories are arranged in a different sequence (presumably chronological) which see the Viriconium Nights stories in a different running order than in the 1985 first edition and the 1988 omnibus.
M. John Harrison
M. John Harrison , known as Mike Harrison, is an English author and critic. His work includes the Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories, , Climbers , and the Kefahuchi Tract series which begins with Light . He currently resides in London.-Early years:Harrison was born in Rugby,...
and also the name of the cycle of novels and stories set in and around it.
Viriconium is on a future Earth littered with the technological detritus of millennia (partly inspired by Jack Vance
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
's Dying Earth series although the works are also influenced in their imagery by the poems of T.S. Eliot).
).
The Pastel City concerns the defence of the eponymous city against northern "barbarians" by a melancholy swordsman and poet, 'sometime soldier and sophisticate' Lord tegeus-Cromis. tegeus-Cromis is the hero of the Methven but believes he has finished soldiering forever - until the mercenary Birkin Griff brings dire news of the war between the two queens and the hazard facing the Pastel City. They must travel to the Great Brown Waste to find Tomb the Dwarf, and join forces to fight for Queen jane and Viriconium - for Canna Moidart and the Wolves of the North have awoken the geteit chemosit, alien automata from an ancient science, which will destroy everything in their path/
The second novel of the series,A Storm of Wings, is set 80 years after the events described in The Pastel City. Lord tegeus-Cromis had broken the yoke of Canna Moidart. But now the Reborn Men, awoken from their long sleep, have inherited the Evening Cultures. Their first representative is Alsath Fulthor. In the wastelands to the north and west of Viriconium, a city is being built - but not by men. It is the Time of the Locust. The attackers are insect-like aliens who threaten to turn the inhabitants of the Pastel City into hideous, mindless insects: the story is told through both human and alien points of view and perceptions. The main characters are a resurrected man, an assassin, a magician, a madwoman, and Tomb, the Iron Dwarf.
The third novel of the series, In Viriconium, whose working title was By Gas Mask and Fire Hydrant, parodies Arthurian
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
motifs and deconstructs the whole series to show that Viriconium is just a fiction: the protagonist Audsley King realizes this and at last can paint the real world, which is our own. The novel is divided into sections named after cards of an imaginary Tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
. The story concerns the efforts of one artist, Ashlyme, to rescue another - the frail, consumptive, dying Audsley King - from the plague zone (the latter is a motif that recurs in Harrison's novel Nova Swing
Nova Swing
Nova Swing is a science fiction novel by M. John Harrison published in 2006. It takes place in the same universe as Light. The novel won the Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick Awards in 2007.-Overview:...
.) It is a desperate, misconceived enterprise which draw Ashlyme into unwilling alliance with the sinister dwarf The Grand Cairo, and which goes bizarrely wrong. Yet out of the shambles comes the clue to lifting the plague which symbolises a paralysis of will. Resonances in the text include the art of Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author. His drawings, done in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A....
, post-Impressionist art, Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R...
and Wyndham Lewis
Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...
.
The short fiction of the Virconium sequence replays this attrition; finally, in "A Young Man's Journey to Viriconium" (later retitled "A Young Man's Journey to London"), Viriconium has become little more than a dream.
Variations of the city appear throughout the series (most frequently as Uriconium and Vriko), in an attempt by Harrison to subvert the concept of thoroughly-mapped secondary worlds featured in certain works of fantasy, particularly those by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
and his host of successors.
Works
- The Pastel City (novel, 1971)
- A Storm of Wings (novel, 1980). Various editions have different dedicatees. The US first edition (Doubleday, 1980) is dedicated to Harlan EllisonHarlan EllisonHarlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
. The Sphere 1980 edition is dedicated to various staff of Savoy Books including Michael ButterworthMichael ButterworthMichael Butterworth is a British author and publisher who has written many novels and short stories, particularly in the genre of science fiction...
, John Mottershead and David BrittonDavid BrittonDavid Britton is a British author, artist, and publisher. In the 1970s he founded Weird Fantasy and Crucified Toad, a series of small press magazines of the speculative fiction and horror genres...
. The Unwin 1987 printing is dedicated to Christopher FowlerChristopher FowlerChristopher Fowler is an English thriller writer. In addition to his numerous horror, satire and crime novels, he has also written a Sherlock Holmes audio drama for BBC 7 entitled The Lady Downstairs...
. - In Viriconium (novel, 1982). The novel was nominated for the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1982. The US edition, retitled The Floating Gods (Timescape, Feb 1983) is dedicated to Fritz LeiberFritz LeiberFritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
(the UK edition had been dedicated to two of Harrison's friends). The US edition also has a three paragraph 'Author's Note' regarding Viriconium which did not appear in the UK editions.
- Viriconium Nights (short stories, 1985), consisting of the following stories in this order:
- "The Luck In the Head". This story was adapted as a graphic novelGraphic novelA graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
by illustrator Ian Miller and published by VG Graphics in 1991 (distributed in the US by Dark Horse ComicsDark Horse ComicsDark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
). - "The Lamia & Lord Cromis"
- "Strange Great Sins"
- "Viriconium Knights"
- "The Dancer From the Dance"
- "Lords of Misrule"
- "A Young Man's Journey To Viriconium"
- "The Luck In the Head". This story was adapted as a graphic novel
A 1988 omnibus entitled Viriconium (Viriconium (1988 collection)
Viriconium (1988 collection)
Viriconium is an omnibus collection of two books of the Viriconium series by M. John Harrison. It was published in 1988 by Allen & Unwin. The book contains the novel, In Viriconium and the full contents of the short story collection Viriconium Nights...
) omits the first two novels; it consists of the third novel, In Viriconium, and the full contents of the short story collection Viriconium Nights. The stories in this omnibus are in the same running order as in the 1985 first edition. The omnibus has an introduction by Iain Banks
Iain Banks
Iain Banks is a Scottish writer. He writes mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, including the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies...
.
All four works of the sequence were published in a single omnibus volume called Viriconium in 2000. (Viriconium (2000 collection)
Viriconium (2000 collection)
Viriconium is an omnibus collection of the entire Viriconium sequence by M. John Harrison. It consists of the three novels, and all the short stories from the collection Viriconium Nights. It was published in 2000 by Orion Books as volume 7 of their Fantasy Masterworks series. Several of the...
). The stories are arranged in a different sequence (presumably chronological) which see the Viriconium Nights stories in a different running order than in the 1985 first edition and the 1988 omnibus.