Zimiamvia : A Trilogy

Rating:
Summary: This should not be out of print - head for the library
Review: ... and look for it, or the individual titles: Mistress of Mistresses, Fish Dinner in Memison, The Mezentian Gate.This is fantasy of the highest order, and unlike anything else you might read. The prose itself is unusually beautiful. Though not writing the same as any of them, I place him in my pantheon of writers with Gene Wolfe, Thomas Pynchon, Kazantzakis (more than a few similarities there), perhaps Sam Delany.I first got recommended his less subtle, but still great, book The Worm Ourobouros back in the late 60's as a follow-on to Tolkien. This is a much more grown-up vision.

Rating:
Summary: This should not be out of print - head for the library
Review: ... and look for it, or the individual titles: Mistress of Mistresses, Fish Dinner in Memison, The Mezentian Gate.This is fantasy of the highest order, and unlike anything else you might read. The prose itself is unusually beautiful. Though not writing the same as any of them, I place him in my pantheon of writers with Gene Wolfe, Thomas Pynchon, Kazantzakis (more than a few similarities there), perhaps Sam Delany.I first got recommended his less subtle, but still great, book The Worm Ourobouros back in the late 60's as a follow-on to Tolkien. This is a much more grown-up vision.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome, unique, larger than life - but demanding - fantasy.
Review: Ornate and splendid, Eddison's trilogy is by far the most audacious and ambitious fantasy I've read. The third volume is sadly incomplete, Eddison (like Peake) having died before he could finish it; but fortunately he had written the final sections, and it is the middle that is fragmentary. Even the plot summaries which do exist show that some of the best scenes in fantasy were, tragically, never written! The books are set in the world of Zimiamvia, where superhuman noblemen and women love, die, fight and endure intricate political wrangling. What is unusual about the books is their underlying philosophy, whose gradual revelation and embellishment is the real purpose of all this plot-mongering. To say more would be to reduce the intellectual excitement of discovering it. This is not an easy, story-teller's yarn, but a demanding AND REWARDING project. Its very prose is rich, dense and ornate, appropriate to the grandeur and seriousness of the author's intent. This is high fantasy for grown-ups. I like a bit of escapism as much as the next person, but it is also good to see the genre (before it WAS a genre) being used to a much higher purpose.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome, unique, larger than life - but demanding - fantasy.
Review: Ornate and splendid, Eddison's trilogy is by far the most audacious and ambitious fantasy I've read. The third volume is sadly incomplete, Eddison (like Peake) having died before he could finish it; but fortunately he had written the final sections, and it is the middle that is fragmentary. Even the plot summaries which do exist show that some of the best scenes in fantasy were, tragically, never written! The books are set in the world of Zimiamvia, where superhuman noblemen and women love, die, fight and endure intricate political wrangling. What is unusual about the books is their underlying philosophy, whose gradual revelation and embellishment is the real purpose of all this plot-mongering. To say more would be to reduce the intellectual excitement of discovering it. This is not an easy, story-teller's yarn, but a demanding AND REWARDING project. Its very prose is rich, dense and ornate, appropriate to the grandeur and seriousness of the author's intent. This is high fantasy for grown-ups. I like a bit of escapism as much as the next person, but it is also good to see the genre (before it WAS a genre) being used to a much higher purpose.

Rating:
Summary: Mature British Fantasy that Predates The Hobbit
Review: The Zimiamvian trilogy is a philosophy beautifully realized through Eddison's deftly extruding a world based on Beauty, his "fundamental value" of the universe (but how it's accomplished you'll just have to read for yourself). The fact that he starts with a philosophy means that his mindset throughout Zimiamvia is consistent and allows him to progress confidently through plot, prose, and poetry.

He describes environments with sumptuous imagery, but the best of his writing is in how he conveys that which is left unsaid: in the wonderful, bantering conversations, in the way Fiorinda conveys so much in the simple tilt of her head. Indeed, transitory beauty found in the fleeting moment was one of Eddison's obsessions, and important to the books. Simple gestures create changes in mood and atmosphere and it's fascinating to see Eddison impart these sweeping temporal phantasms again and again.

My only criticism is that Eddison's Victorian sentiments towards the roles of men and women can be quaint. But he obviously loved these characters and his commitment to them and to the philosophy behind Zimiamvia makes them utterly convincing, and such anachronisms are easily forgiven. After all, he fully admitted that his idea of utopia might not be everyone's.

This edition of the Zimiamvian books (Mistress of Mistresses - published in 1935, A Fish Dinner in Memison, and The Mezentian Gate all in one volume) also has the benefit of an introduction and wonderful footnotes by Paul Edmund Thomas which helped me since I'm uninitiated in the scholarship of Scandinavian and Viking sagas and a little rusty on some of the classics, to which Eddison makes copious references. I don't know if the individual books have the benefit of such notes, but I would recommend seeking out a copy with them if you're not intimately familiar with those subjects (also with Renaissance Italian political intrigue, European art history, and, in one passage, cricket match terminology). But please don't let this deter you from reading these marvelous books. Thomas' notes are conversational and even funny sometimes, which makes them very accessible. As of the writing of this review, the book is out of print, but I easily found a cheap used copy online and I encourage you to find one, too.