Customer Reviews

Cities: The Very Best of Fantasy Comes to Town

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The title of this collection is "Cities," and by the editor's foreword, I was led to expect four novellas that reflected upon the nature of cities -- which sounded very interesting. I decided to buy this book because of that choice of theme, and because China Mieville, now one of my favorite authors, was one of the contributors, and to a lesser extent, because Michael Moorcock was a contributor.

Of the four stories, only one really engaged the theme of the nature of cities: Paul Di Filippo's "A Year in the Linear City," which was a very good story about a incredibly vast and strangely contrived city, the nature of which the inhabitants scarcely thought about. It was one of the few works of fiction I've read in which having a protagonist who is a writer of fiction actually worked well.

China Mieville's books "Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar" were, quite intensely, engaged in depicting the nature of the cities they describe, so I was a bit surprised that Mieville's story in this collection, "The Tain," didn't seem so engaged. At least the story was definitely set in an urban environment, and was an interesting twist on the survival tale, all the more so because of Mieville's typical mockery of the excesses of the very genre he's writing in, within the story.

Michael Moorcock's "Firing the Cathedral" was the most disappointing of the four stories in the collection. It didn't engage with the theme of the nature of cities at all. As far as I could tell, none of the action of the story took place in a city. It was broken into several subsections, each starting with some quotes to reflect the political situation of the present day real world, which were mildly interested, and followed by some disjointed conversations in which characters that I suppose we're expected to recognize from other Moorcock stories exchange smarmy inside jokes, leaving the reader completely outside. I couldn't figure out if there really was any story. It may have had something to do with global warming, but I couldn't be sure. It certainly wasn't entertaining or interesting.

Geoff Ryman's story, "V.A.O.," took place entirely within a retirement home, in which aging cyberpunk hackers tracked down one of their own gone rogue. It seemed like yet another attempt to put a fresh spin on the painful cliches of cyberpunk, by taking up the theme of aging. There was certainly nothing about cities, per se.

Overall, I found this a mediocre collection, which didn't live up to my expectations of quality, nor, more surprisingly, even particularly address the theme that was supposed to tie this book together. While Filippo's story was excellent, and Mieville's was good, I wouldn't have bought this book had I realized that's all I'd get.

Cities is a compilation of four stories by authors who are all masters of their craft; Paul Di Filippo, China Mieville, Michael Moorcock, and Geoff Ryman.

Beginning with Paul Di Filippo's `A Year In The Linear City', the book takes off like a bullet from a gun. Di Filippo's envisioned city is hundreds of thousands of blocks long, but bordered on one side by a river and on the other side by railroad tracks. Beyond these boundaries exist The Wrong Side Of The Tracks and The Other Shore, places of myth and superstition. The world is cleansed of their dead by the Fisherwives and the Yardbulls, celestial beings who come for the spirits of the dead. This is a truly outstanding tale of a strange city in a strange world, with compelling characters and original plotline. Need I say more?

Next is China Mieville's `The Tain', a unique and horrifying tale of what lays in wait behind our own mirrors. Call it a tale of vampires, or a tale of spectral imagery, a curse behind vanity, or a strange sci-fi-fantasy yarn of alternate universe/reality, but what it really amounts to is a chilling tale that is well worth picking up this book strictly for `The Tain' by itself.

Michel Moorcock's `Firing The Cathedral' would be the one letdown in the book, regardless of what high esteem I hold Moorcock in. This is a `Jerry Cornelius' adventure, but I think even fans of Moorcock's `Jerry' will find this short story to be just a tad too meandering. Moorcock is an extremely talented writer whom I felt was merely left wandering through the haze of useless obliqueness when this story was conceived. `Cathedral' touches down into the prose style of "guess what I'm thinking" sci-fi jumbles that I usually try to avoid. The writing was just a little too disjointed, and Moorcock is normally much better than this individual story.

Last of the collection is `V.A.O.' by Geoff Ryman, perhaps not as well known as the other three authors, but he writes a masterpiece with this tale of elderly inhabitants of a nursing home. V.A.O. stands for Victim Activated Ordinance, a security system put into place to protect the wealthy elders from the violent youths of the time. Or is it the elderly who are violent? In a closely monitored `home', these aged folks hide their computer codes beneath videos of golf matches, codes that launder money and track the activities of The Silhouette, leader of the `Age Rage' gang.

Cities is an outstanding addition to your collection of strange places to go, and I highly recommend you pick up a copy if you are a fan of any one of these four talented authors. If you aren't now, you soon will be. Enjoy!

These stories are very loosely based on the 'cities' concept. I obtained a copy just to be able to read Miėville's _The Tain_, which was worth it. DiFilippo's novella is great as well. Moorcock's story is only barely readable, but the story's sprinkled with an interesting collection of up-to-date political quotation. The editing is okay, and Crowther's introduction is short but succinct. Worth its price for the first two stories, and you could consider the other two as bonus material.

This collection edited by Peter Crowther, contains four stories by some of the best known fantasists of today...IMHO only the Moorcock piece is weak, but they are as follows:

A Year in Linear City-Paul DiFilippo: Reminds me of Ringworld, except this one seems to be on a straight line, bordered by water on two side and a railway (subway?) that runs down the west side of the City. It's millions of blocks long, and few people have been outside of their own town (each is made up of 10k blocks),not does anyone know who or what is building/built it. Great idea and well carried out.

The Tain-China Mieville: China has Stephen King's nightmares. This one details the revenge of the people we see in our mirrors. After having to perform for us for centuries, they decide to strike back, devastating whole cities and murdering their dopplegangers where they can. They are almost unstopable since we can't go into their world.

Firing the Cathedral-Michael Moorcock: As best I can figure (with my limited mentality), this is a story of time coming unstuck and people living in different time periods at the same time. On the other hand it could be an old acid dream of Moorcock's left over from the sixties.

V.A.O-Geoff Ryman: If you've read "Was" or any of Ryman's books, you know that he likes to take a known premise and bend it to it's breaking point and then go over the top with it. In this one, "old" people shut themselves up in Homes (the one called Happy Farm) to protect them in their old age. It cost $100K per year to stay on the Farm. Because so many of the 'residents' are ex-programmers, all of their computers are spied on stroke by stroke and the place is monitored by cameras and bio- reading equipment 24-7-365. The property is protected by 'Victim Activated Ordanance'; in other words, the inside perimeter looks like the East German side of the old Berlin Wall.

For me, I would love to see DeFillipo's story turned into a full novel. It has classic written (pun intended) all over it.

All these writers happen to be favorites of mine, so I could be prejudiced. The Moorcock story also appears in The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius and it's from the same publisher. People not familiar with Jerry and who haven't read Alan Moore's brilliant introduction to him (reprinted on the Fantastic Metropolis website) will get a better idea of the context. Moorcock has always used Jerry as a divining rod for the sources of the world's ills and the newspaper reports, including the quote from Cromwell about Ireland, reveal the story behind the story. Contrary to what one reader says, these stories are about cities - London in Mieville's story, Linear City in Di Filippo's and Moorcock suggests that we'll be living in some sort of artificial domes as the greenhouse effect destroys the world more thoroughly than any terrorist. The way he links the tragedy of 9/11 to the tragedy of what we're doing to our own cities, let alone the planet, is beautifully stated. Four novellas by four top writers, all of whom have something more to say, all of whom have outstanding imaginations. This is what modern sf is all about. I can't recommend this highly enough.

Peter Crowther (ed.), Cities (Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003)

You're most likely going to either love this book or hate it. When it's good, it's very very good. But when it's bad, man, does it blow goat.

Paul diFilippo starts things off with "A Year in the Linear City," and while it's not the weakest story in the collection, it's just this side of unreadable. None of the characters is in any way engaging; the protagonist seems to attempt, over the course of it, to break out of his own self-absorbed shell (one of which surrounds every character here), but never really manages the sort of transformation that would be necessary to make the story worthwhile. Worse, everyone else is completely static.

China Mieville then provides us with "The Tain." Not Mieville's best work, to be sure, but certainly a refreshing change from the last bit. Readable, with the best spin on vampires since Brian Lumley took them on.

The mighty Michael Moorcock chimes in third, with "Firing the Cathedral." I've read hundreds of pieces of Moorcock's fiction, both short and long, and when he's on his game, he's one of the best writers on the planet. The Ice Schooner, Gloriana, the Elric novels... the one place where his writing has always been, to me, consistently lacking is in the Jerry Cornelius material. All of it that I've read, the sum total of which is the seven novels collected in Berkley's "The Cornelius Chronicles," was disjointed, unreadable political screed masquerading as fiction. "Firing the Cathedral" is even more so than the stuff that preceded it. To call it disappointing would be a major understatement; Jerry Cornelius fans will probably like it, but if you've never read Moorcock, whatever you do, do not let this be your introduction to his work.

Geoff Ryman rounds things out with "V. A. O.," which is the only story in the book that demanded I sit and read it in one gulp. Imagine George Clayton Johnson's wonderful "Kick the Can" set in the world of cyberpunk and given a mystery plot. It is-- even with the presence of Mieville-- the highlight of the collection.

Overall, though, the warm glow you get after you've finished Ryman's tale will quickly be overshadowed by your despair that you wasted valuable time reading two of the stories in here. **

This book includes four novellas. China Mieville takes a look at a bleak, blasted out London full of not very nice things. Avatars of death and politics collide in Paul Di Filipo's A Year in the Linear City, which is really quite good. Ryman's V A O is shorter, and not as interesting.

Of most interest to me is yet another outing for the fabled Jerry Cornelius. In Firing the Catherdral, Moorcock is attempting a scatching satirical take on our post 9/11 type world, as seen by all the newspaper quotes at the start of chapters, from both 2002 and also from decades in the past.

Jerry is running around doing his thing, happy to be back and functioning. So is the omnipresent Una Persson, travelling at Jerry's side for much of the time. The usual brothers, sisters, bishops and even Colonel Pyat make an appearance. It is ok, but maybe more than a touch heavyhanded, at times.

Compiled and edited by Peter Crowther, Cities consists of four fantasy novellas by China Mieville, Michael Moorcock, Paul DiFilippo and Geoff Ryman provide different scenarios of man's future. Mieville tells of a London overrun and destroyed by anti-human reflections living in mirrors; Moorcock's title is set in post-post-9/11 New York, Di Filippo is set in a city which literally straddles the line between Heaven and Hell, and Ryman's V.A.O. provides a funny mystery set in a future retirement home. All of these outstanding short stories are involving reflections on possible future worlds.

I do not think anyone can doubt the ability of the writers in this anthology. Moorcock and Mieville are wellknown and respected. The problem I had with the book is that crossing Proust and hard science fiction does not always work. The stories are all too wordy, and lacks in plot. Mieville and Moorcock almost pulls it off, with Mievielle's nightmare vision of a London overrun by mirror-images, and Moorcock's story about a post-apocalyptic USA. Maybe if I would be more familiar with Jerry Cornelius I might have liked this story better. Of course, the newspaper clips starting each chapter, tying the apocalypse to the Bush administration, did help improve it!
So, what is my verdict? Mieville lifts this collection, but, you would be better off bying Mieville's Perdido Street Station