Aside from the unspecified future its fixture in time is indeterminate: one story may concern events which are in the distant past of another while the streets and quarters never remain anchored enough for any kind of map to be drawn.

(A shorthand description might describe a series that starts out reading like Jack Vance and ends up closer to Bruno Schulz.) It becomes apparent that Viriconium stands for all the cities that have ever been, and with its avenues, rues and strasses often seems to be a composite of them all. Or so we’re told in the first book of a series which begins as outright fantasy and moves by an astonishing feat of authorial dexterity closer to our world and our time. In the distant future of the Earth, when the human race has flourished then lapsed into a state of terminal decay, only one city of note remains: Viriconium, the Pastel City, surrounded by the wastes and fens of a ruined world. But first it’s necessary to say something about Viriconium itself. This post looks at prior cover designs while a subsequent post will suggest some solutions to the challenges. John Harrison‘s Viriconium books-three novels and a collection of short stories-present challenges that the illustrators and art directors of the past have invariably failed to meet. When you’re employed as a book designer and illustrator it’s impossible to avoid taking a professional interest in the packaging of your favourite books. If they were people I’d want to sleep with them even though doing so might mean contracting some debilitating illness. It’s often been a function of the writing here to think aloud while communicating an enthusiasm as enthusiasms go this one runs deeper than usual. This is a lengthy post of potentially minority interest for which I make no apologies.

Neil Gaiman in the introduction to the Bantam/Spectra edition of Viriconium (2005) His prose is deceptively simple, each word considered and placed where it can sink deepest and do the most damage. He moves elegantly, passionately, from genre to genre, his prose lucent and wise, his stories published as sf or as fantasy, as horror or as mainstream fiction. There are writers’ writers, of course, and M.

The Pastel City (New English Library, 1971).

The pastel city by m john harrison