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Topic: Viriconium

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	Viriconium by M. John Harrison
		A war is stirring against Viriconium and its Queen, Methvet Nian.
		The heroes are a loose band of mostly washed-out or retired knights.
		'In Viriconium' is concerned primarily with the life and fortunes of painter Ashlyme, his courting of the ailing artist Audsley King and his employment by the paranoid dwarf known as the Grand Cairo.
	www.sfcrowsnest.com /articles/books/2006/nz10063.php (1268 words)

	Viriconium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Viriconium is a fictional city created by M.
		Viriconium lies in a dying Earth littered with the detritus of the millennia, partly drawn from Jack Vance's own Dying Earth series.
		In Viriconium 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.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Viriconium (318 words)

	Viriconium -- Facts, Info, and Encyclopedia article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Viriconium is a fictional city created by (Click link for more info and facts about M. John Harrison) M.
		Viriconium lies in a dying Earth littered with the detritus of the millennia, partly drawn from (Click link for more info and facts about Jack Vance) Jack Vance's own (Click link for more info and facts about Dying Earth) Dying Earth series.
		In Viriconium parodies (Click link for more info and facts about Arthurian) 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.
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/v/vi/viriconium.htm (298 words)

	Funny DVD: Viriconium - $10.88 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Set in the imagined city of Viriconium, hеrе are the masterworks that revolutionized а genre and enthralled a generation of rеаdеrs: The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights.
		The contents аrе the three longer Viriconium stories (The Pastel Сitу, A Storm of Wings, and In Viriconium) plus the range of shоrtеr tales that surround thеsе, often providing a peculiar form of continuity, where a story is the introduction to its predecessor.
		Time, for Viriconium, perched somehow at thе far end of a degenerating world, is wоrn so thin that characters seem tо wander from stage to stage almost as if they wеrе themes rather than personalities.
	www.funnydvdmovies.com /tvr30353533333833313539.html (863 words)

	The Books Of M.John Harrison
		The subject of the series is the city of “Viriconium”, the last remaining great city in a world that has been exhausted by the works of millennia of preceding cultures.
		Viriconium's army is ill-prepared for battle, despite possessing the last few of the Afternoon Culture's flying ships and power-weapons.
		The plot is less conventional this time, as Viriconium is menaced by swarms of giant alien locusts, unable to survive on Earth and desperately trying to re-imagine the world in a way more suitable for them.
	www.wjmarnoch.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk /mjharrison.html (2861 words)

	Wroxeter Roman City (Viriconium), Shropshire, England
		Viriconium may have had Roman overlords but it was essentially 'Celt'.
		Their feeling towards the imperialists probably were something like most conquerored peoples: some liked it, some hated it and those in the lower strata of society didn't care either way as they'd just swapped one set of masters for another.
		Viriconium's mansio was situated to the south east of the city.
	www.virtuallyhistorical.com /downloads/1071_TheBerthWroxeterLink.htm (2215 words)

	Emerald City - #71
		One of the interesting things about reading the whole sweep of Viriconium (minus, I think a short story or two which did not make it into the re-issue) is that you get to see the development of the concept (and indeed Harrison's development as a writer).
		Viriconium, then, is a story that punctures all of the pretensions of heroic fantasy, and yet is better written than most of it.
		In it, the city of Viriconium is slowly fading out of existence because the creativity and vitality that sustains it is also fading.
	www.emcit.com /emcit071.shtml (9785 words)

	LMT Tech Resource Store: Books : Viriconium
		Set in the imagined city of Viriconium, here are the masterworks that revolutionized a genre and enthralled a generation of readers: The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights.
		Back in print after a long absence, these singular tales of a timeless realm and its enigmatic inhabitants are now reborn and compiled to captivate a whole new generation.
		VIRICONIUM is a reprint of three excellent novellas and seven related by the city short stories.
	www.elise.com /lmtstore/0553383159/Viriconium.html (176 words)

	Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works: M. John Harrison (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		It was as if Viriconium (the physical city, that is, the millennial artifact which sums up a thousand dead cultures) had suffered some sort of psychic storm, and forgotten itself.
		Perhaps the worst of it is that the danger is not external, outside and threatening to break in: it walks the streets of the City as the very citizens thereof.
		Viriconium was never intended to be the same place twice.
	greatsfandf.com /AUTHORS/MJohnHarrison.php (4789 words)

	Fantastic Metropolis » What It Might Be Like to Live in Viriconium
		“Viriconium” is a theory about the power-structures culture is designed to hide; an allegory of language, how it can only fail; the statement of a philosophical (not to say ethological) despair.
		At the same time it is an unashamed postmodern fiction of the heart, out of which all the values we yearn for most have been swept precisely so that we will try to put them back again (and, in that attempt, look at them afresh).
		No character ever “survives” Viriconium: the best they can hope for after they have been sucked in is to be spat out whole (if changed).
	www.fantasticmetropolis.com /show.html?ey,viriconium,1 (644 words)

	Fantastic Metropolis » Climbing To Viriconium
		A cast of highly colourful rogues join him on his mission to destroy a race of alien automata who threaten to obliterate Viriconium entire—which is both city and land and the last of the ‘Evening’ cultures.
		This was the direction that Harrison’s work was to increasingly follow; at one point, it seemed that Viriconium was going to transmute into a kind of ‘kitchen-sink’ fantasy, in which the problems of the imagined world were at the very least identical to our own.
		The Viriconium stories that followed were even bolder in pushing the fantasy genre up uncharted and precipitous paths.
	www.fantasticmetropolis.com /i/harrison/2 (766 words)

	SFRevu Review
		In the first of the novellas that make up this book, "The Pastel City", the surviving warriors of the old king of Viriconium return when his daughter the Young Queen is threatened by the Northmen who have resurrected ancient technology to fight for them.
		The second novella "A Storm of Wings" is the complex and confusing story of an assassin in Virconium, the immortal bird lord and the fate of the Reborn men from the Afternoon Cultures.
		So Viriconium works as a mood piece, as a stylistic masterpiece, but is not well suited for those who demand logical coherence or straightforward action-adventure.
	sfrevu.com /Review-id.php?id=3140 (490 words)

	Shropshire. History. Heritage. Viriconium. Roman City. (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Military Western Command is transferred from Viriconium to Chester, leaving the former to become a thriving civilian town and centre for civilian administration.
		This is mainly because all that remains is at ground level so that, for example, the unearthed footings of a wall can indicate its height, but not necessarily the purpose of it or what it contained.
		I am sure that we will never know the full history of Viriconium, in fact we are unlikely to even piece together its Roman history, never mind the more important post-Roman history of the site.
	www.shropshire-promotions.co.uk /SS-3.html (1438 words)

	Viriconium: "Pastel City", "Storm of Wings", "In Viriconium", "Viriconium Nights" (Millennium Fantasy Masterworks S.) ... (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		It is definitely a book of two halves - In Viriconium and Viriconium Nights are superb - they're atmospheric, evocative and enthralling and I've re-read them a number of times.
		In Viriconium is one of the finest fantasy novels of the last thirty years.
		By the time he came to write In Viriconium and Viriconium Nights he had learned effectively that there was no point in his trying to write commercial fantasy because the fantasy he wrote wasn't commercial.
	www.onlinereviewers.co.uk /store/asinsearch_1857989953 (439 words)

	Steven Wu's Book Reviews: Viriconium (M John Harrison) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		John Harrison's Viriconium is a compendium of several shorter works about the empire of Viriconium, the last great bastion of humanity on a far-future Earth that has been exhausted of nearly all of its natural resources and most of its historical memory.
		Not only is the world spinning to an end, but even the empire of Viriconium is falling apart, decades removed from its greatest age.
		I understand that the breakdown in mental health and in even such basic things as chronology are meant to parallel the decrepitude of the world, but just because Viriconium is exhausted doesn't mean that the reader should feel the same way.
	www.scwu.com /bookreviews/h/HarrisonMJohnViriconium.shtml (395 words)

	Viriconium - Page 2 - sffworld.com
		I thought the "Viriconium" collection was a nice and timely reprint and was glad to add it to my library as I didn't have all the works presented in this new volume.
		In Viriconium is the best, as Harrison begins to breakdown the boundaries between Viriconium and the real world, and it's at this point that Viriconium becomes a transcendent and unique reading experience.
		But as almost everybody on this thread has testified to, Harrison writes beautifully, and Viriconium is considered an important work in the fantasy canon, and therefore worth reading for that reason alone for anybody with a interest in the genre.
	www.sffworld.com /forums/archive/index.php/t-12745-p-2.html (1490 words)

	Tolkien Bibliography: books written by Tolkien in the Tolkien Library: the hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, History of ...
		In Viriconium, the young men whistle to one another all night long as they go about their deadly games.
		Viriconium is a book filled with stunning wordplay and some of the most spectacular concepts imagined.
		However, the generally depressing theme that is the atmosphere of the city Viriconium, although novel at first starts to weigh you down later.
	www.tolkienlibrary.com /dmiller/shop/index.php?load=/tolkienlibrar-21/detail/1857989953/203-6217999-9331930 (1117 words)

	The Best Reviews: M. John Harrison, Viriconium Review
		VIRICONIUM is a reprint of three excellent novellas and seven related by the city short stories.
		Something is wrong with the residents of Viriconium as a lunacy has gripped the Pastel City.
		Set in the imagined city of Viriconium, here are the masterworks that revolutionized a genre and enthralled a generation of readers: The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights.
	thebestreviews.com /review31476 (381 words)

	Like A Pendulum Do (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		His characters are desiccated by their dreams, the whispered land of Egnaro or Viriconium or London whose promise is forever out of reach.
		The stories are peopled by men — in the earlier stories, at least, it is practically always men; the few women are hard and bitter, regarding the men with a sudden accusation the men cannot understand or cope with — whose loneliness drives them always to implicate some other in the disintegration of their dreams.
		There is an urge to escape — the crags of northern England feature regularly as some sort of counterweight to the dispirited cities where so many of the stories fail to achieve their apotheosis — but never any real awareness of what to escape from, or where one might escape to.
	www.appomattox.demon.co.uk /review09.htm (1027 words)

	Comment: Head Space
		VIRICONIUM was Harrison's commentary on the cookie-cutter Tolkienesque fantasy that, even today, thirty years later, still fills the bookshelves.
		As the stories progressed, Viriconium, the last city at the end of the world, a strange kind of late 19th century, fin-de-siecle environment, had dozens of different names, and characters that had died in earlier stories reappeared as if nothing had happened, completely disconnected from previous events.
		The only way to stop the dreams is to kill the queen of the city, who wants to rename the city (a theme of the VIRICONIUM series the way the reality of the stories changes for the reader: the characters are oblivious).
	www.ninthart.com /display.php?article=1080 (1373 words)

	A wild and an untamed thing - how literature refuses gaming
		I've talked to MJH a bit about his position and when he found out that I'd roleplayed in Viriconium he said that he'd tried to write it in such a way that this would not be possible.
		While Tolkiens wolrd is definitely "mythic" in a sense I'm not sure it is not rather seen from the inside by the characters, and the sense of wonder on the part of the reader at the "sights" revealed is not accidental.
		It may be true that viriconium - which I know nothing about - was not conceieved as a "real" place but I still feel the argument is rather over-extended; it may be true for some books, it may be true foir this book, but whether it is true for all books seeoms open to doubt.
	www.indie-rpgs.com /viewtopic.php?t=13520 (3383 words)

	Marcus Vinicius Spatula - A Roman Story - IV - Chapter 4
		Marcus instructed Currerus to devise a plan whereby Glevum and Viriconium could be informed rapidly that Salinae was complete: ‘That is my prime concern at this moment, chief scout,’ he informed Currerus one louring evening at Headquarters.
		So--now we start on their road.’ The scout and the centurion glanced at each other, waiting for Marcus to speak further: ‘I’ve pondered all the options,’ he said at last, ‘including a start at both ends.
		The plan was to use the Glevum force, in relays, for the first section of the road; shortly before Salinae was reached, runners would be dispatched to Viriconium with a request for manpower on the northern stretch.
	www.worcestercitymuseums.org.uk /content/rostory/spat4.htm (1873 words)

	Shropshire. History. Heritage. Viriconium. Roman City. (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Though Viriconium was no longer under the control of the Roman Empire, it underwent some rebuilding at this time.
		At this time Viriconium was the most sophisticated settlement under the control of the Britons.
		If only we could find proof that he had connections with Viriconium, then we would have gone some way in reinforcing the possibility that Shropshire was a centre for an alternative Christian belief, and in doing so we would reinforce any claim on a connection with Joseph of Arimathea.
	www.shropshire-promotions.co.uk /SS-4.html (3339 words)

	Marcus Vinicius Spatula - A Roman Story - VII - Chapter 7
		Despite frequent hit and run attacks, from across the river and by locals loyal to the British resistance, Spatula and his command are now nearing the end of their engineering mission...
		Marcus read the dispatches alone, walking through the Viriconium compound on the kind of sunlit evening which awoke thoughts of Cremona in his mind.
		He was to ensure that all soldiers from Viriconium to Glevum were suitably divided into detachments and kept on a battle footing.
	www.worcestercitymuseums.org.uk /content/rostory/spat7.htm (2135 words)

	Science-Fiction & Fantasy forums - John Harrison - Viriconium
		They vary from fare that would not be out of place in an Italo Calvino book to sequences that follow the usual quest format, but in a far more imaginative and non-generic way than usual.
		Viriconium is the last living city on a dead earth, and each tale of Viriconium presents a different version of this - the stories are not linearly linked or even factually consistent.
		The reason I was curious enough is I once got a graphic novel supposed to be based on the viriconium work.
	www.chronicles-network.net /forum/printthread.php?t=2490 (422 words)

	M John Harrison (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Viriconium: the Pastel City was the last bastion of the civilised world, where Queen Methvet Nian ruled supreme.
		In Viriconium, the young men whistle to one another all night long as they go about their deadly games, if you wake suddenly, you might hear footsteps running, or an urgent sigh.
		His fifth book, In Viriconium, was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and his sixth, Climbers, won the Boardman Tasker Award in 1989.
	www.twbooks.co.uk /authors/mjohnharrison.html (964 words)

	Amazon.co.uk: Viriconium: "Pastel City", "Storm of Wings", "In Viriconium", "Viriconium Nights" (Fantasy Masterworks): ... (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		It suggests that these are stories of of no-holds-barred rivalry between picturesque factions of killers - you know, intrigue, fights, twists of fate, betrayal, all seething beneath the surface of the city.
		At the surface level, the world of Viriconium is apparently our world tens of thousands of years in the future.
		In Viriconium is one of the finest fantasy novels of the last thirty years.
	www.amazon.co.uk /Viriconium-Pastel-Nights-Fantasy-Masterworks/dp/1857989953 (1883 words)

	M. John Harrison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		In 1999, Harrison won the Richard Evans Award, created to honor genre fiction authors selected as "highly worthy but insufficiently recognized".
		Harrison's books include several novels and collections including the Viriconium sequence.
		Under the pseudonym Gabriel King, he and Jane Johnson have written four books with feline heroes.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/M._John_Harrison (1232 words)

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