Cover from the first edition | |
Author | M. John Harrison |
---|---|
Cover artist | Albert Godwin and Richard Carr |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Series | Viriconium |
Genre | Fantasy |
Publisher | Orion Books |
Publication date | 2000 |
Media type | Print (paperback) |
Pages | 562 pp |
ISBN | 1-85798-995-3 |
OCLC | 43634907 |
Viriconium is an omnibus collection of the entire Viriconium sequence by M. John Harrison. It consists of the three novels, and all the short stories from the collection Viriconium Nights . It was published in 2000 by Orion Books as volume 7 of their Fantasy Masterworks series. Several of the stories first appeared in the magazines New Worlds and Interzone . The short stories appear here in a running order different from earlier publications of Viriconium Nights and it appears that the whole Viriconium sequence is here arranged by some internal chronology.
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer and musician, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published literary novels. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, a seminal influence on the field of fantasy since the 1960s and '70s.
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fairy tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities across the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century.
Michael John Harrison, known for publication purposes primarily as M. John Harrison, is an English author and literary critic. His work includes the Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories (1971–1984), Climbers (1989), and the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy, which consists of Light (2002), Nova Swing (2006) and Empty Space (2012). He is widely considered one of the major stylists of modern fantasy and science fiction, and a "genre contrarian". Robert Macfarlane has said: "Harrison is best known as one of the restless fathers of modern SF, but to my mind he is among the most brilliant novelists writing today, with regard to whom the question of genre is an irrelevance." The Times Literary Supplement described him as 'a singular stylist' and the Literary Review called him 'a witty and truly imaginative writer'.
Eddie Campbell is a British comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Chicago. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell, Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus, a wry adventure series about the few Greek gods who have survived to the present day.
Viriconium is a series of novels and stories written by M. John Harrison between 1971 and 1984, set in and around the fictional city of the same name.
A frame story is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories. The frame story leads readers from a first story into one or more other stories within it. The frame story may also be used to inform readers about aspects of the secondary narrative(s) that may otherwise be hard to understand. This should not be confused with narrative structure or character personality change. A frame story is also called a "sandwich narrative" or an "intercalated narrative". One narrative is embedded or nestled within a second story and acts as a commentary on the frame narrative or vice versa. This framing device is a common literary technique within the New Testament. For example, Mark interrupts the story of the cursing and withering of the fig tree to place another story within it. The fig tree narrative acts as a commentary on the Temple cleansing.
Harry Stephen Keeler was a prolific but little-known American fiction writer, who developed a cult following for his eccentric mysteries. He also wrote science fiction.
Lawrence Block is an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York–set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1994.
Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber, an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born and partly raised in Aruba, in the Dutch Caribbean. He is a prominent novelist of post-Stonewall gay literature. He was a member of The Violet Quill, a gay writer's group that met briefly from 1980-81. The Violet Quill included other prolific gay writers like Edmund White and Felice Picano. Garber, who has historically been very protective of his privacy, uses "Andrew Holleran" as his pseudonym.
Bacchus a.k.a. Deadface is a comics character created by Eddie Campbell and based upon the Roman god of wine and revelry, known to the Greeks as Dionysus. In this incarnation, Bacchus is one of the few Greek gods who have survived to the present day, and is now an elderly barfly wandering the world telling stories about "the old days."
The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes and novella written by the United States author C. J. Cherryh between 1977 and 2004. It was first published by DAW Books in 2004. This collection includes the contents of two previous Cherryh collections, Sunfall (1981) and Visible Light (1986), all of the stories from Glass and Amber (1987), stories originally published in other collections and magazines, and one story written specifically for this collection ("MasKs"). Cherryh's 1978 Hugo Award winning story, "Cassandra" is also included.
A composite film is a feature film whose screenplay is composed of two or more distinct stories. More generally, composite structure refers to an aesthetic principle in which the narrative structure relies on contiguity and linking rather than linearity. In a composite text or film, individual pieces are complete within themselves, yet they form a whole work that is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
Viriconium is an omnibus collection of two books of the Viriconium series by M. John Harrison. It was published in 1988 by Allen & Unwin. The book contains the novel, In Viriconium and the full contents of the short story collection Viriconium Nights. Several of the stories first appeared in the magazines New Worlds and Interzone.
A short story cycle is a collection of short stories in which the narratives are specifically composed and arranged with the goal of creating an enhanced or different experience when reading the group as a whole as opposed to its individual parts. Short story cycles are different from novels because the parts that would make up the chapters can all stand alone as short stories, each individually containing a beginning, middle and conclusion. When read as a group there is a tension created between the ideas of the individual stories, often showing changes that have occurred over time or highlighting the conflict between two opposing concepts or thoughts. Because of this dynamic, the stories need to have an awareness of what the other stories accomplish; therefore, cycles are usually written with the expressed purpose to create a cycle as opposed to being gathered and arranged later.
Ruth Thomas is a British writer of novels and short stories.
Dying Earth is a subgenre of science fantasy or science fiction which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth or the end of time, when the laws of the universe themselves fail. Themes of world-weariness, innocence, idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources, and the hope of renewal dominate.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2001 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Robert Silverberg. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt in April 2001.
Bibliography of British science fiction and fantasy writer Tanith Lee:
Viriconium Nights is a collection by M. John Harrison published in 1984.