Wiz Book Club Reads: The Pastel City

Email	Spoiler Image
Comment
File
Embed
Password	(For file deletion.)

File: 1782842577107.jpg (492.81 KB, 987x1600, 987:1600, The Pastel City.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

Wiz Book Club Reads: The Pastel City Anonymage 06/30/26 (Tue) 18:02:57 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/pastelcity0000unse

You can choose a different edition if you prefer:

https://archive.org/search?tab=all&query=the+pastel+city&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22

To 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.

Anonymage 06/30/26 (Tue) 18:04:40 No.70719

File: 1782842680068.png (104.44 KB, 845x766, 845:766, The Pastel City Schedule.png) ImgOps iqdb

Here's our schedule. Alright it's a little more than 10 pages on average but it's a very easy read.

Anonymage 06/30/26 (Tue) 18:43:59 No.70720

>>70718
Really 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.

Anonymage 06/30/26 (Tue) 19:06:45 No.70721

>>70720
anna's archive

Anonymage 06/30/26 (Tue) 19:39:53 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

Anonymage 07/01/26 (Wed) 10:25:32 No.70723

>>70718
I 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.

Anonymage 07/01/26 (Wed) 10:44:33 No.70724

>>70723
It'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

Anonymage 07/01/26 (Wed) 12:00:44 No.70725

File: 1782907243924.jpg (148.27 KB, 906x709, 906:709, The-Pastel-City.jpg) ImgOps iqdb

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.

>>70720
Nice 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.

>>70723
The 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.

Anonymage 07/01/26 (Wed) 13:02:55 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.

Anonymage 07/01/26 (Wed) 13:41:44 No.70727

where did you meet two other wizards, on shitcord?

Anonymage 07/01/26 (Wed) 13:57:25 No.70728

>>70718
I'm one more wiznog for this, wouldn't mind reading another fantasy book (with an interesting twist?)

Anonymage 07/01/26 (Wed) 14:52:41 No.70729

>>70726
Cool! 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

>>70728
Thanks for joining wizza. It's a science fantasy novel, there's always weird stuff going on in these. We'll see!