Viriconium Fragment

The Avon edition (1974), which I read last year. Cover art by Gray Morrow.

For those familiar with Viriconium, author M. John Harrison today posted a bit of a new story on his blog. I believe (but don't really know) that this is the first new visit to Viriconium since 1985.

Last week he posted links to the articles "Covering Viriconium" and "Recovering Viriconium" on the blog feuilleton, the first a fascinating look at the cover art of the Viriconium books over the years, the second a presentation of ideas for new versions.

If you like post-apocalyptic science fantasy (Starman's Son, Hiero's Journey, Hothouse, Hawkmoon), you can hardly go wrong with the first book The Pastel City. And then things get much stranger. I am currently reading Viriconium (Fantasy Masterworks, 2000), a compilation of all four of the Viriconium books.

Update: This fragment was later re-written by Harrison into a non-Viriconium story, The Crisis, per the comments here. However, another new Viriconium story, Jack of Mercy's appeared in the 2017 collection, You Should Come With Me Now.