Trial of Flowers (Paperback)

~ Jay Lake (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The ancient and decadent City Imperishable teeters on the verge of obliteration in this inventive fantasy from the prolific Lake (Rocket Science), if not from the armies marching toward its gates, then from the dark, bloodthirsty gods reawakening within its walls. Three haunted and imperfect men must stand against the destruction of everything they know: Jason the Factor, a businessman and sometime civil servant who's in love with pain; Imago of Lockwood, a feckless lawyer who puts himself forward as a candidate for the centuries-dead position of Lord Mayor; and Bijaz the Dwarf, an embittered and self-hating half-man whose lips have been sewn shut. As random supernatural assaults are perpetrated on innocent citizens, these three must uncover the City Imperishable's blackest secrets, not knowing whether or not their actions will save what they hold dear. Filled with violence and some seriously perverse sex, this grand guignol of a book should appeal to fans of such authors of urban fantasies as China Miéville and Jeff VanderMeer. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Campbell Award winner Lake's second novel (after Rocket Science 2005) is a contemporary fantasy that launches a planned series featuring a byzantine metropolis called the City Imperishable. When the city's de facto and largely unknown leader vanishes from a locked room, his apprentice, Jason the Factor, struggles to maintain civilian order in the face of terrifying hauntings from the noumenal world and the threat of advancing enemy soldiers beyond the city's walls. As if these challenges weren't enough, Bijaz the Dwarf, an estranged business partner of Jason's deceased father, is planning an uprising to end the persecution of the eccentric Sewn faction of dwarves, and Imago of Lockwood wants to return leadership to the now-defunct office of lord mayor. While vying among themselves for ultimate control, Jason, Bijaz, and Imago discover that they share a common dream of returning the City Imperishable to its former glory. Lake's masterfully atmospheric prose, littered with odd and endearing minutiae, sustains unforgettable characters, making this essential reading in the increasingly popular subgenre of urban fantasy. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books; illustrated edition edition (September 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597800562
• ISBN-13: 978-1597800563
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #291,594 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark Urban Fantasy , February 21, 2007

By	Brett J. Callahan (Lake Oswego, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jay Lake's "The Trial of Flowers" is a decadent, dark urban fantasy in the mold of M. John Harrison's "Viriconium" or, as the book's jacket mentions, "Perdido Street Station" and "The Etched City".

The City Imperishable is a sprawling, ancient metropolis where power rests in the hands of the rich and the city's dwarves are treated like second class citizens. It immediately brings to mind an industrializing London layered with Rome at its darkest and most decayed. The Cthuluesque old gods are awakening and terrorizing the city by offing its citizens in dark and bloody ways during the night. The heir to the long vacant throne disappears early in the book, and a combined army of barbarian tribes is on the march with the intention of pulling the city down brick by brick so that its long dead but still feared empire will never rise again.

Into this swirling and bloody backdrop are cast the three main characters: Jason, servant and friend of the missing heir; Bijaz the Dwarf, leader of the city's sewn dwarves, whose lips are gruesomely sealed; and Imago, a down in his luck lawyer of sorts with an ingenious plan to reinstate the office of the mayor by staging "the trial of flowers", a rite so ancient that no one knows what it is.

These three uneasy allies are ultimately tasked with saving the city, journeying through the drug dens, torture pits, and ancient temples beneath the city and into the dark, magic filled nights on a quest to stop the resurrection of terrible gods who derive their power from bloodshed and suffering.

Lake's decadent world is ripe with decay, corruption, violence and sex. A world well worth visiting.

If you like this book check out "Black Orchids from Aum"

4.0 out of 5 stars Night in the City Imperishable, July 1, 2007

By	The Ginger Man - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Dark urban fantasy just below the outstanding quality of Meiville and Vandemeer. Lake creates strong characters and extremely visual scenes. As in other successful works in this genre, the city itself becomes a critical character in the plot's unfolding. Lake comes close at times to crossing the imaginary dividing line I have in my reader's mind separating dark from morally repellant but manages to walk the tightrope well.

Set some time aside because the prose can be dense but the plot remains compelling and fast-moving. If you like the genre, you will like Trial of Flowers.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader, May 12, 2008

By	Blue Tyson "- http://freesf.blogspot.com" - See all my reviews

Jason and the Boxodwarfs.

or

Dunnyman delving Imago shortening sequence sacrifice.

In a rather strange city - one that is definitely of the New Weird variety, three men form a strange alliance of sorts because they can see very bad things are likely to happen in the future. Old Gods coming back, apparently not good at all.

These three are a dwarf, a business type, and a not-at-the-moment layabout lawyer.

Some old political legislation is used to challenge the status quo, as well as the leverage of an invading army that would like to do away with them.

Cults, gangs, cameleopards, blind child monsters, devil dogs, guns, gamblers and more.

Definitely not one for the squeamish. The dwarves here are formed in the Japanese torture-and-bonsai variety, not the born under mountains and hang out with hobbits type.