No.70718
Hey wizards,
Two other wizzas and I will be reading The Pastel City, a science fantasy novel by M. John Harrison, originally published in 1971.
We'll be following a schedule of one chapter per day. The chapters are about 10 pages long on average. After each day's reading, we'll come here and talk about it. I'll be posting a short daily commentary to help kick off the discussion, along with updates on our progress through the schedule. Of course, you're under no obligation to post anything if you don't want to.
We'll start on Thursday, July 2, so in just a couple of days. Check out the blurb for the novel:
A decaying world. Ancient powers long forgotten. An old warrior with one last battle to fight. The Pastel City is a mesmerizing journey through the ruins of a far-future civilization, where the remnants of lost knowledge mingle with myth and legend. Atmospheric, inventive, and unforgettable, it is a classic of science fantasy.
I'll be following along with this edition, which can be borrowed for free from Archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/pastelcity0000unseYou can choose a different edition if you prefer:
https://archive.org/search?tab=all&query=the+pastel+city&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22To borrow a book from the Archive, you'll need an account. They only ask for an email address and password.
Come and join us for some whimsy literary fun.
No.70720
>>70718Really fun idea, I'll mark it in my calendar. Try and get DDl/torrent links for the book so we have the lowest possible friction for people that want to join.
No.70722
thanks for making the thread!
seconding anna's archive for DDL, for official links i usually check the wikipedia page of the website
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annas_archive No.70723
>>70718I read through the prologue and it seems pretty boring so far. Hopefully it picks up later. Gonna try to read with you guys but I'm probably gonna fall behind due to how fried my attention span is.
No.70724
>>70723It's ok, it takes a while to start reading as a hobby if you're not used to it. besides, it's only 10 pages a day
No.70725
WE'LL START TOMORROW!Hey wizzas, tomorrow we'll start reading The Pastel City together, a weird fiction book. Check this thread if you're interested.
>>70720Nice to have you on board wizzie. Rule 6 of Wizchan says one must not link to any content illegal in the United States of America, so I won't link anything here. But anyone interested in downloading a copy of the book instead of using the archive.org links provided in the OP can very, very easily find it online. I just checked, and it literally took me less than 20 seconds to find a PDF copy through a simple Google search.
>>70723The Pastel City is considered a gem of weird fiction, but I can understand it not being for everyone. People really like Dune for example and I don't care for it at all. That said, I'm happy you're giving it a shot! The prologue is just a quick history of the world in very broad strokes, the actual story doesn't read like that. I hope you'll manage to immerse yourself in the novel as the days go by.
No.70726
I'll be joining you guys. Found it on Annas Archive, though my file seems to have a few formatting quirks or misspellings here and there. Read the prologue, the set up seems interesting enough. Looking forward to reading it.
No.70727
where did you meet two other wizards, on shitcord?
No.70728
>>70718I'm one more wiznog for this, wouldn't mind reading another fantasy book (with an interesting twist?)
No.70729
>>70726Cool! Thanks for joining. If you dig some more I'm sure you can find a cleaner copy. anna can be a tad disorganized, try libgen.
>>70727>>68295>>70728Thanks for joining wizza. It's a science fantasy novel, there's always weird stuff going on in these. We'll see!
No.70751
>>70750I don't think I've really read a proper fantasy novel, wait, this isn't fantasy. This is post-apo sci-fi with swords. Anyway I don't really read novels so I am hooked on the intro. Reminds me of the pseudo-historical books you read inside elder scrolls games. More well written than I expected too. Concise and information dense prose with little redundancy while still telling enough to stimulate the imagination. Let's see what this book is about.
No.70756
>>70750I like the setup. The combination of the old technologically advanced ruins and current medieval stuff is cool. I don't think I've read a book with this specific setting yet and I already read ahead to the second chapter because I got into it (and admittedly because the chapters are reasonably short). The chapter pacing is quite nice, I like that they aren't too long.
No.70774
>>70750Caveman fight big bad technology, ook, modern day so advanced ook
No.70777
>>70750Yeah I love this setting. Probably because i like a bunch of games with the same setting (M&M, TES..). And leibowitz was similar (minus the fantasy stuff i guess).
Besides, i really like how it's written too. We'll see!
No.70780
>>70750"Borring-Na-Lecht…built the city-fortress of Duirinish on the edge of the Metal-salt Marsh where rusts and chemicals weather-washed from the Great Brown Waste collected in bogs and poisonous fens and drained into the sea."
It must smell really shitty there all the time lol, but yes this is promising
No.70783
Chapter 1He had made a hundred yards, his breath coming hard as the unaccustomed exertion began to tell, when the vehicle exploded. A great soundless gout of white cold fire, locked in the core of the launch by a vanished art, dissipated itself as pure light, a millennium after its confinement. It did him no harm: or none that he could recognise.And here is the protagonist, tegeus-Cromis. He's pretty much your run-of-the-mill sword-and-sorcery guy, though M. John Harrison really puts some interesting flair and atmosphere around him. I like the tower looking over Viriconium. Even the environment is a mish-mash with pieces of desert, a forest of rowans, and the ocean close by, it feels like even nature itself here follows the "blender philosophy" of weird fiction.
As for Cromis himself? Meh. But I'm not really reading this for him, I just want to see more of the world. What you guys think of the protagonist?
These novels are weird for me. It always feels like something I've already read a million times but I keep coming back to it to find something special about it. Can't quite explain.
>>70751Glad you're enjoying it wiz. You said you don't really read novels, but since you obviously play games like ES, I'm sure you'll be very familiar with plenty of the tropes in this. This is the type of book writers in those studios steal stuff from.
>>70756Yeah, writers from those days really respect your time with the book length. This one is 157 pages long. I pretty much never read the new fantasy stuff because it's mostly just six books of padding and garbage.
>>70774I didn't see any cavemen myself in the prologue, but you know what? In this type of book you could always use some.
>>70777Hah, you just spoiled M&M for me, not that I mind. It's a series I always wanted to try and never did. I thought it was just medieval fantasy. Leibowitz is in the same ballpark, but it doesn't have the gonzo in it, and man, stuff like this really asks for some of that wackiness. I think we're in for some good times.
>>70780There are so many bogs, wastes, and weirdly colored fogs in this novel that I'm not even sure the living beings here are breathing air anymore.
No.70784
>>70783I always like these kind of world-weary recluse characters that had their days of glory and now just want their peace. The tower sounds like a very comfy hideout, I was already envisioning myself living in something similar as I was reading.
As for the length, when I started reading again a few years back I started with the Stormlight Archives, lol. Though to be fair, I only found the first book to be truly great (with exception of Shallans character, who just grated my nerves), the others did suffer from their length and everything from book 4 onwards has been very much hit and miss. But this isn't about that.
No.70785
>>70783I guess having an old protagonist is fairly uncommon compared to modern works and it can promise narrative developments like uncovering his pasts or something. I like the writing style. The description of nature was nice but nothing special, looking forward to what viriconium looks like. Hopefully it's weird and interesting. Also Baan is basically a lightsaber.
>It always feels like something I've already read a million times but I keep coming back to it to find something special about it.Immersion? I feel like that's the basic idea of how these books work. They transport you to a different world.
No.70787
>>70783The first chapter was okay, an upgrade from the prologue I would say. Less place names and character names to be overwhelmed by at least. I also like Cromis quite a bit so far, he seems like a chill guy. Quite wizardly of him to want to live alone in a desolate tower. Too bad the guy he rescued was such a jerk to him.
No.70794
Chapter 02About him rose the Pastel Towers, tall and gracefully shaped to mathematical curves, tinted pale blue or fuchsia or dove-grey. They reached up for hundreds of feet, cut with quaint and complex designs that some said were the high-point of an inimitable art, thought by others to be representations of the actual geometrics of Time.Cromis meets his buddy back from "Round Table" days, Grif, and they start getting the party back together to defend Queen Methvet Nian against her cousin and rival Canna Moidart, who is mustering her forces to take control of the Pastel City.
I liked the inclusion of the megatheria there. Cromis has now been given his quest and a reason to journey around. Let's see where he goes next.
>>70784Having a tower by the sea would be nice, not gonna lie. I mind length more than I mind a shitty story to be honest! Sanderson is not a bad writer but he takes forever to do anything. Let's be honest, it's genre fiction, we know all the tropes, you don't need 4k pages to tell the hero's tale for the zillionth time. I'll read someone like Moorcock even though I don't like him as a writer instead of a more polished writer just because Moorcock can tell his stuff in less than 200 pages. It's a prejudice of mine, I just have this feeling there are too many writers and stories out there, you don't get to hold me for 5 or 6 books to tell a rather predicable story, even if it's good. There's more stuff out there I want to read about.
>>70785You right it is uncommon. I'm willing to bet though he's still the best swordsman in the land. I didn't realize that is indeed kinda like a lightsaber. This came out many years before the first movie, so now I'm wondering if George Lucas got the idea from here, although it was probably from that Fritz Leiber story where they use a blade of energy or whatever it was called.
Maybe it's partially immersion. I read lots of different types of books that also offer immersion, but with this gonzo stuff it's different. I guess it's because I've been also reading comics forever and comics in general come straight from the pulps. Maybe it's connected to childhood and nostalgia or something.
>>70787Well he's dead now. It was just so we could see the baans working.
No.70796
>>70794The beginning of the journey and sadly the abandonment of the cozy wiz tower. I always how these old books envisioned future technology. The room of windows to places that aren't actually outside the palace, which would now probably just be described as screens or holograms in modern books. The sloth was cool. But I got confused a bit by the end, there's a sentence that reads something like 'he [Cromis] left behind three succubi' or something like that, one is the young queen, the other his buddy's left-behind wife but who is the third one supposed to be?
The more I'm reading, the more I too start to prefer shorter books. I used to really like the whole world building stuff, taking time to engross myself in that fantasy world. But I came to realize that even for Sanderson it only worked in a couple of his books for me (those being the first Stormlight and the first Mistborn Trilogy), everything beyond that started to drag on. And most writers simply don't have anything meaningful to write at such length so it really does end up feeling like a bunch of nothing.
No.70797
>>70796The third one I believe would be his sister, Galen.
No.70798
>>70797Oh right. Didn't really think of her as she was only kind of mentioned in passing and it sounded more like physically leaving them, not metaphorical.
No.70799
>>70794Pretty alright chapter. We get to talk with our old buddy and go to find the others, so I guess at some point the whole gang will probably get together again. I wonder what's up with Norvin though, why would he leave his wife like that…
Also,
"He entered the city by its twelfth gate, the Gate of Nigg…"
Heh.
No.70800
>>70794That's a fast and condensed progression lol. We are already leaving the city. For being the eponymous pastel city, the author spent no time there. Impressive that it didn't really feel rushed.
No.70801
>>70799That one made me chuckle too, lol.
No.70806
Chapter 03When the sun broke through, he saw that it was a bird of metal: every feather, from the long, tapering pinions of the great wide wings to the down on its hunched shoulders, had been stamped or beaten from wafer-thin iridium. It gleamed, and a very faint humming came from it. He grew used to it, and found that it could talk on many diverse subjects.In this chapter, we continue to explore the strange world of the Pastel City, with its deserts of rust, late medieval cities built on top of derelict trading hubs, harsh skies, and colorful mists.We also meet the vulture that appears on the cover. Sometimes those covers have almost nothing to do with the actual story, sometimes they're very descriptive of what you might find inside. I prefer the latter.
We also encounter a third member of the Methvin: Theomeris Glyn, the Porthos of the group. Sentimental and almost buffoonish, he serves as the comic relief which is usually my favorite type of character. I also have to add that 'Doom the Dwarf' is a pretty cool name, one can never go wrong with alliterative names, check out Marvel characters' names.
I'm calling it now this Cellur of Girvan, the would-be wizard of this tale, is actually some crazy scientist that knows chemistry and robotics. Seems a very likely character in a book like this.
>>70796I also got confused by the "three females" reference. Galen is the hero's tragic backstory, but the narrative doesn't give enough weight or time to support that at all. The only reason we know she's the third element is because there are no other female characters mentioned.
Yeah, that's the "world-building" trap that current writers have got themselves into. It's just a way to fill pages and sell three books instead of one. Just tell us a good story.
>>70799The thing with the wife. It was a tad silly for Cromis to refuse to believe "a Methvin" would do such a thing. Really? You're just a bunch of butchers for some royalty fuck. Your job is literally to kill and maim people. Abandoning wives is the least amount of pain these guys bring to the world, and he's acting self-righteous about it.
>>70800It's 157 pages long and we're a third of the way in already. The book has to get things going with a springy step. Just how I like it.
No.70807
>>70806I was a little disappointed (maybe too strong a word) that our old geezer friend is lusting after bar maids lol. I mean I know it's a regular book written by a normal person but I always find such overt sexual behavior jarring. The robot vulture is cool. Once again I appreciate the brevity at which we are moving through the story. The book never lingers in any one place for too long, loosing itself in useless details or self-indulgent exposition. I'm excited to learn about the mysterious wizard.
No.70808
>>70806This was a fun one. I really liked the atmosphere as Cromis was staying over in that dilapidated tower covered in mist, and when the bird showed up. I certainly didn't expect a talking metal bird of all things, even though it was on the cover. Very curious as to what business Cellur has with him as well.
We got some action too with the fight in the tavern, and Cromis makes a good showing yet again despite proclaiming to be a better poet than fighter.
>It was a tad silly for Cromis to refuse to believe "a Methvin" would do such a thing. Really?Yeah, I suppose so. I thought that perhaps Norvin was a particularly honorable one of the bunch, but given how Grif and Glyn are, I don't expect him to be much different heh.
No.70811
>>70806Cellur should have taught the vulture to explain who the hell himself or geteit chemosit if he actually want Cromis to listen to him. If there is a limitation to the bird robot's memory or something he could have given it a written letter to deliver. I know it's playing into the folktale motif of unclear prophecy and skeptical hero but it's harder to accept inefficiency in a story of science and machines than in fantastical myths. Maybe that's why sci fi lose out in popularity to fantasy in modern times. The world of science is too logical to be a good fit for the whimsiness required in a hero story.
>>70807I was more amused to see a perverted geezer comic relief in a western work. I thought that was more of a Japanese anime thing due to a cultural difference in how Japan treat lecherousness and sexual harassment. You definitely can't get away with writing a perverted hero in a modern novel lol. Feminists will call him a rapist.
No.70816
people really read novels like this together? I didn't know this
No.70817
>>70816Book clubs go back to ancient Rome
No.70818
Chapter 04Grif's smile vanished. He nodded. "Aye, and found one more piece for the puzzle. I was fascinated by the precise edge of his wound.Examining it more closely, I found — " He paused; prodded the fire with his boot and watched the ascending sparks. "We buried only a part of that man, Cromis: the rest has gone with the creature you put to flight. "His brain has been stolen."I had just finished this chapter when I suggested we read this book together. I restarted reading from the prologue for this thread, and now I'm back to this point. From here on, it's all new to me too. This is where the weird stuff starts happening. The brain getting stolen gave me a chuckle because I was immediately reminded of the infamous Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain". In it, Spock has his brain surgically removed and stolen by a group of crazy space succubi. It's also widely considered one of the worst episodes of the original series, though I confess I quite like it. This book was published just a couple of years after that episode aired.
What do you guys think stole the brain? I'm guessing by the description of the fight it's a cyborg. It couldn't be an android/robot otherwise it would just fight to the end and would've killed Cromis then and there. Maybe it's something else entirely. We'll see.
The dialogue in this novel feels a little stiff so far, but the descriptions of nature, landscapes, and objects are where the charm of the story lies. That, and of course the setting and the weirdness, which I hope we see more of moving forward. For example, I want to know why the hell they need human brains in the first place. Please let there be zombies in this world too. That would be great!
>>70807This novel strikes me as generally chaste compared to a lot of fantasy stuff. The protagonist doesn't even have a love interest! I agree with the pacing. It's one of the reasons I picked this novel up.
>>70808And let's not forget that Grif is a bootlegger. Guy is literally a mobster.
>>70811I didn't think of that. The vulture having no relevant info is silly. If I try to make sense of it, I guess it's possible that Cellur was afraid that his bird could get captured and valuable information retrieved by an enemy somehow.
>>70816Yes, and it's our second book.
No.70819
>>70818A rather grim chapter, this one. The poor nameless sword is left in pieces, as is Chromis' psyche it seems. Perhaps this giant thing is what Cellur was trying to warn us about. Also rather creepy that it took the guard's brain… what could it possibly need it for…
No.70820
im burnt out already bros…go on without me
No.70821
>>70818Finally some more action! But I have a confession to make guys … I already read ahead and I'm at chapter 9 now. So I'm a little cautious of discussing because I'm not sure what went on in which chapter specifically and I don't want to spoil. The three eyed freak was cool but I really don't understand why Chromis didn't alert the rest of the camp and went to chase it alone. I mean it could've just as well been a scout and his sleeping companions might have gotten attacked in his abscence, completely defenseless. Nice that we got to see the Baan in action, too.
No.70824
>>70818>but the descriptions of nature, landscapes, and objects are where the charm of the story lies.True though being the OCD reader I have to google every word I don't know as I read and even get into info-gathering rabbitholes, and there were a lot of new words here. Learnt weird ways to describe colors and what some geographical formations are called. Last chapter I even learnt that glaciers move and can erode the soils beneath it.
I thought the baan that killed Cromis sister would make an appearance in some critical fight scene but he lost it here fighting an unknown monster that popped out of nowhere and almost losing. What's most surprising is he lost his nameless sword too. That's two important plot items used up in one scene. We are speedrunning Cromis getting his hero sword upgrade I think. Could have used the Chekhov's baan in a more satisfying fight.
No.70829
Chapter 05'"No," said Tomb, "we aren't too far behind them." He displayed his repugnant teeth. "I'd have been up with Waterbeck and his well-disciplined babes by now, but I wanted to get that power-armour in good order."Hah, there you go. Here we have a dwarf clad in power armor, running around with a battle axe firmly clasped within its mechanical gauntlet, shouting he'll slice somebody's 'onions'. Sure, you might think this is nothing new, but that's because we're in 2026 and you have played the shit out of games like Fallout.
But remember, this is where Fallout got the idea from! And by the way, here we have a dwarf in a massive, eleven feet tall power armor, not some puny human wastelander in an overdone bucket, so if you ask me, The Pastel City is STILL looking cooler than Fallout, even though it was published 26 years earlier!
What else can I say about this chapter? There's a dwarf in power armor about to chop somebody's balls off. Was this a good choice for the wiz book club or what?
>>70819The plot thickens.
>>70820Sad to see you dropping the novel wiz, try to read this chapter and the next on your own pace, there's a dwarf in power armor in this one and the next chapter I'm sure there's going to be a huge battle.
>>70821That's really nice actually, you got invested. I suppose that's the whole point of a book club is finding books that you enjoy and want to read. I think that encounter between Cromis and the cyborg/android was very fast and it just took a few seconds, but yeah, I think he could've shouted here and there to alert the rest of the team.
>>70824This writer is found of those technical geological words, I have a Merriam Webster close by when I read any book and this one is no different.
No.70830
>>70829So we meet the dwarf and he fixes up our dear nameless sword, how nice. Seems like we are going to need it very soon too as the Northerners are here already… hopefully the Methven and the army can fight them off. The dwarf in power armor alone should give them quite an edge.
No.70831
>>70829Ahh a classic trope. The self-important noble who cares more about his own ego than the fate of the country, rudely dismissing of the heroes just cause. A character that solely exist to incite anger from the readers and provide catharsis when we witness his downfall. The dwarf is not much of a dwarf now. We'll see the first big battle scene soon.
No.70833
Chapter 06When he next looked up, there were seven airboats in the sky where there had been four, and three of them bore the arms of Methvet Nian, Queen Jane of Viriconium. "Grif! Up there!"
"If they are couriers," said Grif, "they come a little late."
The crystal launches clashed with a sound like immense bells. As Cromis watched, the Northern squadron-commander closed to ram: but the sky exploded suddenly around his ship, and burned, dripping cold fire; and, tail-first and crippled, it dropped out of the sky. Faint violet bolts chased it down.
"There's a cannon aboard one of those ships," said Tomb the Dwarf wonderingly. "It is the Queen's own flight."Well, that's quite an excellent climax right there. Total savagery, swords clashing, horses charging, spaceships, laser cannons, monsters, a dwarf in power armor, guts! Guts everywhere! Can you imagine if there was also a wizard somewhere in there, raining death from above with his spells? This book just got so close to having the perfect weird fiction chapter, but it missed by a single wizard. Damn. Not bad at all though, and we still haven't reached the crux of this clusterfuck. A bunch of Geteit Chemosit, whatever they are, taking people's brains left and right. Well shit, it's about time they listened to that bird isn't it? I'm sure they'll be right on that next.
What do you guys think of this one? I think it's the strongest chapter yet. Nice payoff. The first half of the book was clearly a buildup to this, and it didn't disappoint.
>>70830Turns out the dwarf in power armor was quite a cool scene in the battle. That and the aerial battle. I really liked it!
>>70831It was good that he didn't give up command, that way he got the blame 100%. It wouldn't be nice to see Grif or Cromis taking command of a doomed army. What did you think of the battle scene?
I think another wizzie gave up on the book besides the burned out wiz. Damn, and on the best chapter.
No.70834
>>70833Yeah definitely the best chapter so far. It did the classic narrative development of "hopeless adversary (invincible robots) -. there is still a glimmer of hope (weakness in the enemy formation) -> just hold on even when everything seem hopeless -> rescue (queen's fleet)". When the queen's fleet appear it was like an anime scene where an ally suddenly appears and blocks a fatal attack or something and everyone goes "Nani?!". I could see fans getting hyped if it's made into a show. Definitely a tried and true formula. Don't forget old Glyn's sacrifice too. The description of him seemingly getting younger in his final moments of noble sacrifice was very sentimental. Now that needs to be a more common trope.
No.70835
>>70834Oh and the reveal of the traitor was hype too. Damn, there's so many developments this chapter.
No.70836
>>70833Definitely a pretty strong chapter. So many developments. We find out that those 3-eyed giants are the Geteit Chemosit, and that Norvin is a damned traitor. Witnessing the dwarf in power armor was indeed a treat, seems like he really ate into the ranks of the Northmen thanks to it. And to think the Queen herself would show up like that…
I do hope they finally listen to that bird. I've been internally screaming at them to do so this whole time lol. But I guess the plot demanded they ignore it for a while.
No.70837
>>70833I really liked that chapter. To be honest I was a little worried there would be some sort of deus ex machina that would enable them to fight or at least stall the northmen. Probably because that happens a lot in modern fiction where authors are too scared to have real consequences. Rest in peace Glyn. I did have some trouble visualizing some of it though, I was wondering at times "how are they just not being surrounded and completely run over yet?". I'm attributing it to English not being my first language for now, though.
No.70839
Chapter 07The valley was a gaping wound filled with Northerners and dead men and thick white smoke which surged up from wrecked airboats, obscuring the dark figures of the geteit chemosit as they performed their acts of skull-rape.And so our heroes are on the run, and there's only one thing left to do now: find Cellur and learn everything they can about the mysterious geteit chemosit. The name geteit chemosit feels like an anagram to me, but nothing really fits. It sounds like geochemist, but then there are some letters left over. I guess we'll see. What do you guys think it is?
I enjoyed this chapter. It's very morose and a nice repose after the carnage we witnessed in the previous chapter.
>>70834Yeah I knew they would make it but didn't know how. Queen Jane appearing herself makes sense, it's pretty much the only other named character in the novel.
>>70836And Norvin was left alive, pretty sure this will come back to bite them in the ass.
>>70837I wondering how a single man can provide 'cover' for a whole ship coming down for a rescue. Hard to imagine how that would go.
No.70840
>>70839The chapter was a nice followup to the previous one. One thing the author does well is modulate tension and speed, despite being a short novel. Our heroes are on the run, yet it feels slow and contemplative almost. The war is lost, the immediate threat of fighting and dying is over with. Now there's only the pilgrimage.
No.70841
>>70839Pretty depressing chapter… I like it. Just like Cromis seems to be, I am rather sad the bird is dead… surprising to see him attached enough to it to bring the corpse with him though. Finally, they are making the journey to Cellur, who seems to be yet another wizardly character, an old man regarded as suspicious by the villagers. I am looking forward to meeting him. Hopefully he can explain more about the geteit chemosit, because I have no idea what they could be either. The "chem" part is maybe "mech" spelled backwards? But I dunno what the rest of it would be then.
>pretty sure this will come back to bite them in the ass.Yeah, I fear it will too. Maybe he'll be the final boss.
No.70842
>>70839I knew you would choose the skull-rape line for this chapter's quote. I don't know how they're planning to beat the Moidart now though. Duirinish and Viriconium fell. Do they still have an army somewhere?
No.70843
>>70817I don't think so, they used scrolls back then
No.70844
Chapter 08I have no doubt also that I am either immortal or cursed with an extreme longevity: but the secret of that is lost in Time. Whether it was a disease that struck me, or a punishment that was conferred upon me, I do not know. My memory extends reliably for perhaps two hundred years into the past. No further.The big reveal chapter. I really like Cellur and now that the cards are on the table, I wonder if those are all the cards.
What Cellur tells us about the geteit chemosit is goofy and fun, but I'm not sure it makes any sense. Why do you need a special automaton to destroy people's brains even if you can now resurrect people from intact brains? Besides, we didn't see the chemosit destroying the brains, but carefully harvesting them. This is like developing a special firearm to shoot zombies in the head. Is that really necessary? Anyone with a blunt weapon can destroy a corpse's brain, I don't see this being a point of warfare escalation. It doesn't seem necessary to build a whole new robot for that job.
And why would you build a robot that simply wants to kill anything alive? Is that the most fucked-up bug ever made by a software engineer, or what? Nobody saw a problem with that? Man, those programmers and military contractors from the Afternoon Cultures were dense.
It would make a lot more sense if Canna Moidart had found some bizarre tech from OmniCorp, RoboCop-style, and needed human brains to power some cyborgs. The mech parts would still be there but the brains would've deteriorated and turned to dust over the centuries, so she would need fresh ones.
Maybe there's more to this, we'll see. What do you guys think? I feel like I'm missing something here or maybe there's a new twist on the third act, something even Cellur doesn't know.
>>70840And today we finally get to take a closer look at this Cellur character. We're at the beginning of the end now.
>>70841Maybe it's mech, makes sense.
>>70842I was looking for some shocking paragraph in there. lol.
No.70845
>>70844I frankly don't really get that chemosit explanation either. So they wanna kill all the time and they don't really care who they are killing so long as they get to take brains. But they are smart enough to be integrated into an army (Moidart was marching south for a few weeks at least, plus they were probably just sitting around gathering the army for a while, are you telling me they just sacrificed Northmen to the chemosit on the daily to keep them from going off the rails?). So there's some kind of control mechanism but it only works so long as you have something to aim them towards I guess and so long the chemosit think they are moving towards that they won't kill whoever is controlling them? But then what keeps Moidart from just inventing a new enemy once the southeners are dead or conquered and have the chemosit go on an endless goose-chase to keep them busy?
And yeah, the whole reason why they have to extract brains seems far fetched as well. He probably came up with the concept of brain eaters first and just wanted to keep it in the book even if he couldn't come up with a convincing explanation why. Frankly, they could've just left it open to interpretation. The chemosit are eldritch old tech that nobody truly understands, Cellur's memories don't reach back that far. Simply say they are gathering or doing somthing with the brains but nobody knows what. That would be better imo.
No.70846
>>70844I praised the author's descriptive writing on the natural landscape before but it's really getting old. It's just all weird geological terms or plant names. This is at least the second time where he describe the landscape in terms of how it was formed through erosions and streams or whatever. Was he a high school geography teacher or something?
As for the geteit chemosit, you're right that it didn't make sense but I have a prejudice of very old (70s and before) sci-fi to be very loose with logical worldbuilding and just see technology the same way as magic. I think it may be a symbolic feature. Like if leaving the brains lets you live again and someone is cruel enough to go out of their way to destroy your brain that is extra petty evilness. It's like destroying the soul so you can't reincarnate or go to heaven. It's probably just to paint the chemosit as more evil and inhuman. The way the chemosit was programmed to be unstoppable in killing reminds me of how A Canticle for Leibowitz treat nuclear weapons. Maybe they're the cause of the previous civilization's collapse too and now humans' folly and greed will cause them to repeat the same mistake just like in Leibowitz. I wonder if the author had an anti-war messaging in mind too when he thought of this.
No.70850
Chapter 09The vibrations of the battle above died away. "We are beneath the estuary. It is the underside of the world, where the dead men lose their bones." They were forced to ride through a column of cold fire. They discovered these things: The white skeletons of a horse and its rider; a sword too big for any of them to lift; an immense web; the mummified body of a beautiful princess. Sounds that were not echoes followed them down the twisted corridors. "I could believe we are out of Time," said tegeus-Cromis.Cellur has given them their final quest, and they are on their way. I feel like the novel could have used Cellur a lot more. Then again, he might be the type of character best used sparingly to maintain an air of mystery. Some plot points work much better when they are merely alluded to rather than shoved in your face.
We are heading into the final act now. How do you all like it so far?
>>70845It seems like a weak red herring to me, your idea is certainly better. We'll see.
>>70846I have been reading fantasy/scifi for a very long time and it's the rarest thing to have a writer that have something fresh to say after 200 pages of a story. That's why I prioritize plot over world-building. Get your idea in there and wrap it up ya know?
No.70851
>>70850> The white skeletons of a horse and its rider; a sword too big for any of them to lift; an immense web; the mummified body of a beautiful princess. Yeah what was that about? A symbolism for how they could die in their mission I know, but why does Cellur have dead people in his tunnels? Is it even real and not a metaphor or something?
We are entering the last stretch now. RIP Cellur.
>How do you all like it so far?Honestly much less interesting than Leibowitz. I don't feel a curiosity of what will happen next because it's easily predictable and simple. At least it's really fast paced.
No.70852
>>70844I might be wrong but the way I understood it is the chemosit weren't built specifically just to have something that can destroy people's brains, they were just the ultimate weapon in every respect, and incidentally had the function to destroy brains to deal with that technology that could revive soldiers. But yeah, I'm not sure why it looked like they were harvesting them instead of just destroying them…
>>70850Sad to see all those birds get torn to shreds, and presumably Cellur himself will die as well in the end… so much lost knowledge.
>How do you all like it so far?I don't care too much about illogical stuff and the like so I'm enjoying it a lot so far. It's gripping. I wonder what the mechanism to shut down the chemosit is… couldn't they just destroy the brain controlling them? Although perhaps it is too big for that and it would take too long.
No.70854
Chapter 10In two days, they came to Thing Fifty. It was a humbled city, ten square miles of broken towers, sinking into the soft earth. Squares and plazas, submerged beneath fathoms of filthy water, had become stagnant, stinking lakes, their surfaces thickly coated with dead brown leaves. Black ivy clutched the enduring metals of the Afternoon Cultures, laid its own meandering inscriptions over bas-reliefs that echoed the geometries of the Pastel City and the diagrams that shifted across the robe of Cellur.Of course Norvin Trinor had to show up for a final showdown after how things were left unresolved in chapter 6. I quite enjoyed this little journey to Thing Fifty. It's funny how Tomb the Dwarf has progressively become the only party member worth a damn in this book. He could probably solve this whole thing without Cromis, and certainly without Grif. I guess being a tech nerd and having an eleven-foot-tall wearable colossus helps a bit.
Only two chapters left now.
>>70851I took it as an effort to hint at the weirdness of this world. Leibowitz was a lot more grounded and tried hard to be realistic, this thing is another beast entirely. I don't know which one I like more. I remember really liking only the first third of Leibwotiz, second act was ok and third was meh.
>>70852You know there is an episode of Babylon 5 with this exact premise. An alien race builds the ultimate weapon and ends up getting attacked by it.
No.70857
>>70854Cromis has fallen off as the protagonist in the latter half of book. The dwarf and Trinor moves this chapter along. Trinor is a more interesting character than I expected. He has that charismatic vilain's pride.
No.70861
Chapter 11He stood before the door, his lips moving silently. Perhaps he was recalling his apprenticeship on the fifth floor. He knelt. He passed his hands over a row of ideographs. A red glow sprang up and followed them. He murmured something: repeated it. "NEEDS YOU," intoned the door abruptly, in a precise, hollow voice: "NEEDS YOU, BAA, BAA, BAA. OURUBUNDOS —Alright the fate of Grif I did see coming. With only a few pages left, I predict a very obvious ending or a very odd one. I did like this chapter also, especially the whole thing with the door and getting inside the complex.
The end approaches. Let's see how it goes.
>>70857The dwarf was the best character in this novel if only because it was the only one that made me chuckle. And the power-armor thing of course, I'm a Fallout fan.
No.70863
>>70861We're killing off the casts now. Time for the last chapter.
No.70870
Chapter 12"Cromis, Cellur was wrong. One vital flaw in his reasoning led to what you have seen today. He regarded the chemosit as simple destroyers: but the Northmen were nearer to the truth when they called them the brain-stealers. The chemosit are harvesters.Well of course. There had to be a twist in the end. I enjoyed the ending and the book in general. Exactly what I signed in for I suppose. There's a short epilogue that gives some closure to tegeus-Cromis, I'm sure anybody still following already read it since it's very short, but I'll follow the schedule.
>>70863How do you like this novel?
No.70871
>>70861> I did like this chapter also, especially the whole thing with the door and getting inside the complex. Same. That was interesting.
>>70870Quite the twist indeed. I wonder if it was a good idea to resurrect the men of the Afternoon Cultures… think my reaction is rather similar to that of Cromis, it seems like something that can only spell doom for humanity. But perhaps I'm being too closed-minded.
No.70872
>>70870The ending was okay. I guess it's a solid novel overall. Not exceptionally good but not bad either. Apparently there is more sequel in the Viriconium series so it's weird that the end with a perfect race ushering a new golden age, because what would be conflicts for future books be? Maybe the other anon is right and the Afternoon Cultures men were hiding some dark secret.
No.70877
>>70872The sequel involves Earth getting zerg rushed by alien bugs and there's more Tomb! sounds spiffy as shit and I'd love to try it after Pastel City but I've no luck in finding a PDF so far.
And I really did like this book. Couldn't help but compare it to Star Wars, which it of course preceded, I think I would have liked this to become a huge franchise instead BUT careful what you wish for eh? In fact it ALMOST seems like George Lucas was cribbing from Pastel City rather heavily: energy blades, token female that's literally royalty and an attractive brunette, setting that blends fantasy and sci-fi elements, "droids" etc. These might be fairly common genre tropes though, but I do prefer the book's grittier setting/tone, especially how its violence and military action is way more frank and less operatic.
No.70878
EpilogueBalmacara was broken: its walls were blackened, it was like a broken tooth; and despite the Spring that had brought green back to the land after a winter of darkness and harsh contrasts, the rowan woods that surround it were without life.And so we reach the end of The Pastel City. It's a decent novel. It's whimsical and filled with things like automata brain collectors, yet it still maintains an emotional core.
What do you guys think? Are you inclined to read the sequels? I'm also curious to know how many of you actually finished it. If anyone quit before the end, I’d like to hear your thoughts too.
I'm not sure I want to read the sequels just yet, in fact I need a palate cleanser, so I'm reading A Short Stay in Hell at the moment. It's kinda nice despite the whiny and pathetic protagonist. After that I'll probably read some Greg Egan, I don't know.
>>70871The guys from the Afternoon do know a bunch of useful stuff, no need to reinvent the wheel when you can just ask a guy who had been frozen in a vault somewhere. If I were there I would have voted to waken them up.
>>70872You can always add a new big bad right?
>>70877Did you look for it on anna? I can see a few copies there.
No.70880
>>70878>Did you look for it on anna? I can see a few copies there.That's of a different series from a different guy, but y'know what I just DL'd the entire fucking Viriconium series including Storm of Wings which is what I should've done to begin with. Looks way better than the PDF of Pastel City I was working with too, let's fucking go.
No.70881
>>70878>I'm also curious to know how many of you actually finished it.I did finish it but I fell behind a little towards the end. I'm surprised I did this well actually, I assumed I wouldn't be able to get past the first few chapters given how bad my attention span is.
It was a pretty decent novel, but I don't think I'm really interested in reading the sequels. Although it would be nice to know what happens I guess, it does feel like the end of this novel is a set up for a continuation. But I'm not burning with curiosity or anything. Especially if there will be a different protagonist. I really liked Cromis, so without him I don't think it would be nearly as interesting.
No.70882
>>70878It's an okay experience
No.70885
>>70880Most of the way thru ch.2 and, I'm getting a good impression so far.
It's set ~80 years after the events of Pastel City which means most of that book's main cast are long dead, except Tomb and the Young Queen Methvet Nian who's now the Old As Fuck Queen.
One interesting thing that's changed about the setting itself is this religion/cult/philosophy called The Sign of the Locust taking over the City, which seems at least a little wizardly?
>Life is a blasphemy,” announced the Sign. “Procreation is a blasphemy, for it replicates and fosters the human view of the universe.” No.70886
>>70885Derp, forgot to mention Cellur too, and by "taking over" I mean like the Sign's becoming harder and harder to ignore as their presence grows
No.70887
>>70880>>70885>>70886Happy to see you got so involved in the book that you're now reading the sequel.
>>70881Well there you go wizza, congratulations. It seems your attention span wasn't as burned out as you first suggested. Yeah I'm not reading the sequels either, not right away anyways.
>>70882Not the most amazing fantasy novel out there, but it's short and it doesn't overstay its welcome. This is a rare gift nowadays.