 First edition cover | |
| Author | Jeannette Ng |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | John Coulthart |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Angry Robot |
Publication date | 3 October 2017 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 416 |
| ISBN | 9780857667281 |
Under the Pendulum Sun is a 2017 fantasy novel by British writer Jeannette Ng. Ng's debut novel, it was published by Angry Robot.
In an alternate history, James Cook had a fourth voyage where he discovered Fairyland, called "Arcadia", in the 1780s.
In 1847 [note 1] , Catherine Helstone travels to Arcadia under the endorsement of the London Missionary Society to search for her brother Laon, a missionary with who disappeared while trying to convert the fae to Christianity. Arriving in Arcadia, she is met by her guide Miss Ariel Davenport, a changeling, who takes her to the mission, a castle-like manor that they call Gethsemane.
Arriving the mission she meets Mr Benjamin Goodfellow, a gnome the only convert. She's told there's also an elusive housekeeper called the Salamander. Benjamin tells Cathy that Laon is "away-away," but will be "back soon."
As days go by and Cathy awaits Laon's return, she begins to learn about Rev Jacob Roche, who first established this mission, and in increasingly frustrated by Miss Davenport's unwillingness to tell her anything substantive.
In a moment of anger, Cathy runs away from the castle into the mists surrounding it. There she meets Laon returning to Gethsemane, although he believes she is an magical illusion in the mist. They part ways, and then both find their way to Gethsemane, where they reunite in earnest. He had gone to the court of Queen Mab to petition for access to inland Arcadia. She is now coming with her court to visit Gethsemane.
In the Guardian , Adam Roberts called it "strange, brooding and occasionally perverse" and "opulently atmospheric." [1] SYFY declared it one of The 10 Best Novels of 2017, stating that its "world-building and atmosphere are just incredible" and emphasizing its Gothic tone. [2]
Publishers Weekly considered it "intriguing but unfocused," with "possibilities [that] are fascinating" and "period touches [that] satisfy" but an "unwieldy" plot. [3] James Nicoll called it "engaging," with Arcadia being an "odd and melancholy world," and lauded Ng's choice to reveal only the "shadow of [her] worldbuilding, [such that readers] are left to puzzle out the larger implications on their own." [4] Jeff Somers, listing it among his "50 of the Greatest Science Fiction & Fantasy Debut Novels Ever Written", called it "a truly original fantasy debut built on a truly genius premise." [5]
In 2020, Samantha Shannon picked the book as her submission for the "I wish more people would read..." feature in The Guardian , describing its premise as a "stroke of pure brilliance" and the book as having "the mark of a true Gothic masterpiece." [6]
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | British Fantasy Award | Fantasy Novel | Shortlisted | [7] |
| Newcomer | Won | [8] | ||
| 2019 | John W. Campbell Award | — | Won | [9] |
The character Queen Mab comes most directly from Queen Mab by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The unusual name Laon comes from another Shelley poem, Laon and Cythna .
A Gothic novel with protagonist named Cathy and a childhood spent on the Yorkshire moors alludes to Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. More overtly, Cathy and Laon have childhood imaginary worlds named Gaaldine, Exina, Alcona, and Zamorna. These are all locations within the Brontës' childhood imaginary world (see Glass Town or Gondal).
Each chapter of Under the Pendulum Sun begins with an epigraph excerpted from either real or fictional writings. The real writings are:
| Author | Work | Ref |
|---|---|---|
| Bible (Leviticus, Matthew, Song of Solomon, Revelations) | ||
| John Sanford | Psalms, paraphrases, and hymns, adapted to the services of the Church of England | [10] |
| Meric Casaubon | A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Years Between Dr John Dee and Some Spirits | [11] |
| Percy Bysshe Shelley | Queen Mab | [12] |
| Edgar Allan Poe | "The Raven" | [13] |
| Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne | The Blazing World | [14] |
| “Strange Discovery”, The Scotsman [note 2] | [16] | |
| William Shakespeare | Romeo and Juliet | [17] |
| John Locke | An Essay Concerning Human Understanding | [18] |
| Albert Stanburrough Cook | "The Whale (Asp Turtle)", The Old English Physiologus | [19] |
| John Cosin | The History of the Popish Transubstantiation | [20] |
| Edward Bouverie Pusey | The Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ | [21] |
| Reginald Heber | "Morte D’Arthur: A Fragment", The Life of Sir Reginald Heber, D. D. Lord Bishop of Calcutta, by his Widow | [22] |
Others blur the line between real and fictional, inserting fictional alternate history text into real books:
| Author | Work | Ref |
|---|---|---|
| J Ritson | Fairy Tales and Folk Songs, Now First Collected, with Two Dissertations on Pygmies and on Fairies | [23] |
| George Young | The Life and Voyages of Captain James Cook | [24] |
Emily Jane Brontë was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte and Anne titled Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell with her own poems finding regard as poetic genius. Emily was the second-youngest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She published under the pen name Ellis Bell.
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name refers to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of early Gothic novels.
The English novel is an important part of English literature. This article mainly concerns novels, written in English, by novelists who were born or have spent a significant part of their lives in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. However, given the nature of the subject, this guideline has been applied with common sense, and reference is made to novels in other languages or novelists who are not primarily British, where appropriate.
Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, in which the character Mercutio famously describes her as "the fairies' midwife", a miniature creature who rides her chariot over the bodies of sleeping humans during the nighttime, thus helping them "give birth" to their dreams. Later depictions in other poetry and literature and various guises in drama and cinema have typically portrayed her as the Queen of the Fairies.
The Gothic double is a literary motif which refers to the divided personality of a character. Closely linked to the Doppelgänger, which first appeared in the 1796 novel Siebenkäs by Johann Paul Richter, the double figure emerged in Gothic literature in the late 18th century due to a resurgence of interest in mythology and folklore which explored notions of duality, such as the fetch in Irish folklore which is a double figure of a family member, often signifying an impending death.
Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem; With Notes, published in 1813 in nine cantos with seventeen notes, is the first large poetic work written by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822), the English Romantic poet.
Juanita Ruth Coulson is an American science fiction and fantasy writer most well known for her Children of the Stars books, published from 1981 to 1989. She was a longtime editor of the science fiction fanzine Yandro.
The Revolt of Islam (1818) is a poem in twelve cantos composed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817. The poem was originally published under the title Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century by Charles and James Ollier in December 1817. Shelley composed the work in the vicinity of Bisham Woods, near Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire, northwest of London, from April to September. The plot centres on two characters named Laon and Cythna, inhabitants of Argolis under Ottoman rule who initiate a revolution against its despotic ruler. Despite its title, the poem is not focused on Islam as a specific religion, though the general subject of religion is addressed, and the work draws on Orientalist archetypes and themes. The work is a symbolic parable on liberation and revolutionary idealism following the disillusionment of the French Revolution.
Zastrozzi: A Romance is a Gothic novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley first published in 1810 in London by George Wilkie and John Robinson anonymously, with only the initials of the author's name, as "by P.B.S.". The first of Shelley's two early Gothic novellas, the other being St. Irvyne, outlines his atheistic worldview through the villain Zastrozzi and touches upon his earliest thoughts on irresponsible self-indulgence and violent revenge. An 1810 reviewer wrote that the main character "Zastrozzi is one of the most savage and improbable demons that ever issued from a diseased brain".
Mystics in Bali, also released as Leák and Balinese Mystic, is a 1981 Indonesian supernatural horror film directed by Tjut Djalil. Based on the novel Leák Ngakak by Putra Mada, the film stars Ilona Agathe Bastian, Yos Santo, Sofia W.D., and W.D. Mochtar.
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."
Angry Robot is a British-based publishing house that publishes an array of science fiction, fantasy and horror titles. Angry Robot was founded in 2008, and has been publishing books in both the UK and US. markets since. In 2014, Angry Robot was sold by Osprey to Watkins Media, and has continued to build a strong list of bestselling books. They are the publishers of the Korean-translated bestseller The Cabinet by Un-su Kim; the epic Tiktok romantasy Glacian Trilogy by Stacey McEwan and recently the USA Today bestseller and instant Number 1 Sunday Times Bestseller, Evocation by S. T. Gibson.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft.
A Vindication of Natural Diet is an 1813 book by Percy Bysshe Shelley on vegetarianism and animal rights. It was first written as part of the notes to Queen Mab, which was privately printed in 1813. Later in the same year the essay was separately published as a pamphlet.
Maureen Peters was a historical novelist, under her own name and pseudonyms such as Veronica Black, Catherine Darby, Belinda Gray, Levanah Lloyd, Judith Rothman, Elizabeth Law and Sharon Whitby.
The 77th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Dublin 2019—An Irish Worldcon, was held on 15–19 August 2019 at the Convention Centre, as well as in The Point Square, Dublin, Ireland.
Jeannette Ng is a British fantasy writer best known for her 2017 novel Under the Pendulum Sun, for which she won the Sydney J Bounds Award for Best Newcomer at the 2018 British Fantasy Awards. For that work, she was also the winner of the 2019 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, which, largely due to her acceptance speech, was shortly thereafter renamed to the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. In 2020, she won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work for that acceptance speech.
Since the initial publication of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818, there has existed uncertainty about the extent to which Mary Shelley's husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, contributed to the text. Whilst the novel was conceived and mainly written by Mary, Percy is known to have provided input in editing and publishing the manuscript. Some critics have alleged that Percy had a greater role—even the majority role—in the creation of the novel, though mainstream scholars have generally dismissed these claims as exaggerated or unsubstantiated. Based on a transcription of the original manuscript, it is currently believed that Percy contributed between 4,000 and 5,000 words to the 72,000 word novel.
Nghi Vo is an American author of short stories, novellas, and novels. Vo's fantasy novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune has received acclaim and won the Hugo Award for Best Novella and the IAFA Crawford Award.
canto 1 . The Raven.". The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe. Vol. 2. stanza 15 act 1, scene 4 . book 4, ch. 4, § 14 .
