The Pastel City gets off to a promising start, introducing tegeus-Cromis, a Lord under the old king who is loyal to the old king's daughter. Unfortunately another contender has arisen to contest the succession, and is waging war upon the country.

The country includes Viriconium, the "pastel city" of the title. We are in the evening of civilization, and the pretender has discovered some relics of the "afternoon culture," war machines that give her a huge advantage. Cromis locates a couple of his old fellow lords (they seem to have some sort of powers beyond mere swordsmanship, almost like Jedi, and I was looking forward to finding out more about that, but we don't) to assist in the war. A mysterious metal bird directs him to an ancient scholar.

Despte its promising start, introducing Cromis and the overall situation, the story deteriorates rapidly into a mess. We lose our reasons for caring about what happens. Even the entertining character of Tomb the dwarf can't change the fact that the author found his way into problems he couldn't escape. ( )

Two Queens too many.

A pretty average science fantasy, or that is what it becomes, afterwords, anyway.

An inter-generational conflict over power develops, and three of the old stalwarts are caught in the middle.

Things look bad until some of the old technology produces reinforcements thanks to a Giant Brain.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/04... ( )

The Pastel City, set in the world of Viriconium, is an early novel from M. John Harrison. It's a sword and sorcery story, basically, but with the sorcery replaced by ruins of ancient high technology. Queen Jane of Viriconium tries to defend her kingdom against the forces of ruin and destruction, with the help of old warriors, methvens. Their enemy is armed with mysterious and dangerous forces, and ruin seems inevitable.

Yet there's a strange metallic bird, with a strange message, offering a chance to survive. In the middle of a lost war, curious events unfold. Viriconium is an interesting world, unlike any other. While the story isn't that remarkable, the setting is interesting and this short book is worth reading for that alone. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

(Original review at my review blog) ( )