Mona's Reviews > Viriconium

Overall

Rating:

Overall: 3
Writing: 5
Plot: 3
My enjoyment as a reader: 3

Although many fantasy and science fiction authors revere M.J. Harrison (among others these include Neil Gaiman who wrote the forward for this collection; Elizabeth Hand; China Mieville; Iain Banks; Alastair Reynolds, and Angela Carter), this collection of fantasy/science fiction novels and short stories will probably not be for most readers.

Harrison uses language idiosyncratically, using sol d’or for daffodil, for example. Maybe some of this is local British usage.

M.J. Harrison can write. (Understatement of the millenium).
He is the genius poet of modern fantasy and in some ways the precursor of much of it (science fiction too). Here’s an example:

“A melancholy heath dipped away inland—shadowy, sheep-cropped turf, black gorse, and bent hawthorn trees.”

There are also some “Easter Eggs” hidden away in the text. For example, in “In Viriconium”, the third novel, one character, Ashlyme, picks up a knife that may have belonged to another character, Hornwrack, in the previous novel, A Storm of Wings. Also the painter Ashlyme, and the poet Verdigris in one or more previous novels both have their hair in “red coxcombs”. Are they the same person?

Harrison also has a genius for writing memorable, eccentric, self-centered, comical, unlikeable characters with unforgettable names like Ashlyme or Ansel Verdigris or Galen Hornwrack or St. Elmo Buffin or Paucemanly. But it’s nearly impossible for the reader to care about such narcissistic characters.

He is brilliant at evoking a sense of dreamlike malaise. There are deliberately ambiguous or unresolved plot elements.

I can see Harrison’s effect on other writers. For example in The Pastel City, a novella about a war, I can see how he may have influenced Ellen Kushner, who wrote Swordspoint.

His stories and the characters within them resemble Hieronymous Bosch paintings brought to life. Not in the details, but in the overall ambience.

However, only a few of his characters change or grow during his stories. He isn’t great at character arcs.

Also, while the plots are interesting, the pace varies from slow to glacial. It can be easy to get antsy while reading his work.

I also found many of the stories confusing. This is one of those rare instances where listening and reading at the same time seemed to add to the confusion rather than clarifying it.

Harrison was certainly ahead of his time, and his work was the basis for much science fiction and fantasy that followed.

Audio Narration

Although I’ve enjoyed many of Simon Vance’s audio narrations, I’m not sure he was a suitable reader for this. His narration style was mostly aristocratic and detached, but brittle and histrionic at other times. It didn’t enhance my enjoyment of the book.