Metropolitan (novel)

Metropolitan (novel)
Metropolitan  
Author(s) Walter Jon Williams
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher HarperPrism
Publication date 1995
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages 342 pp
ISBN 0-061-05212-4
OCLC Number 31411895
Dewey Decimal 813/.54 20
LC Classification PS3573.I456213 M48 1995
Followed by City on Fire

Metropolitan is an arcanepunk novel by Walter Jon Williams, first published in 1995 and nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in the same year. A sequel, City on Fire, was published in 1997.

Setting

Metropolitan is set on an unnamed world where, in the distant past, some agency or agencies enclosed the planet in a barrier known as the Shield. The Shield emits light and heat, incinerates all matter that rises above a certain altitude, and absorbs all electromagnetic energy directed into it. As a result, the world has no day, night, or seasons (although it does have weather phenomena like clouds and rain). Its inhabitants divide time into "shifts", which appear to correspond to about eight hours (as they are referred to as "work", "service", and "sleep" shifts). The nature of who placed the Shield around the world, and why, is a major part of the theology of the world's many religions.

Over the millennia the population of the world has grown and all available land surface has been covered with a single city, divided into areas called metropolises that are analogous to nations. The metropolises have governments that span the gamut from democracies to dictatorships; "Metropolitan" is used as a title for powerful individuals who rule entire metropolises.

Life on the planet would be impossible without the existence of plasm, an energy responsive to human will that is created by the arrangement of matter (such as buildings, or the structural elements within buildings) in certain geometric patterns. When plasm arises, it can be tapped and used directly by humans, but is usually channeled into batteries so it can be used safely. In almost all cases, plasm sources are under the control of the metropolitan government, which either keeps the plasm for its own use or sells it to its citizens, like electricity or water. Plasm use is essentially a form of magic, and its users are referred to as mages; among many other effects it can be used to create or transmute matter (for example, to manufacture food), perform medical treatments or genetic modifications, enhance senses, create illusions, and kill people with energy blasts.

Plot summary

The novel's protagonist, Aiah, is a minor functionary for the Plasm Authority in the metropolis of Jaspeer; the Authority is the public utility company that taps plasm wells and sells the plasm (at very high rates) to those who would use it. Aiah is one of the Barkazi, an ethnic group whose metropolis, Barkazil, was engulfed by civil war several generations ago, its territory partitioned and occupied by the adjacent metropolises and its population dispersed as refugees. Barkazi religion centers around a trickster god, Karlo, who is constantly running scams on others, and the tradition of the scam, or chonah, is central to their culture. Aiah briefly studied plasm use at university, but ended her studies because of the high cost of the plasm required to continue them.

Working for an emergency response team investigating a huge flaming apparition of a woman that damages several city blocks, she discovers a previously unknown plasm well of tremendous power (the apparition being caused by a woman who blundered into the well and tapped the plasm directly, killing herself in the process). Instead of disclosing its location, she leads the Authority on a wild goose chase while trying to decide on how best to use it to her advantage.

She decides to reveal it to Constantine, a resident of a luxury apartment complex near her own. Constantine is a skilled mage and visionary political theorist with dreams of moving the world beyond its stagnant situation. He became Metropolitan of his home metropolis and attempted to implement many reforms, but was betrayed, forced from power, and exiled by those closest to him. Aiah, an admirer of his political thought, discloses the plasm source to him so that he might make another attempt at realizing his plans for the "New City", asking only that she be made a part of whatever he carries out.

Aiah then effectively runs a chonah of enormous scale, misleading the Authority, dealing with her Barkazi extended family (who want a piece of whatever action she is in on) and the local organized crime group, keeping her Jaspeeri husband (working in a distant metropolis) in the dark, and avoiding the potentially lethal attentions of Constantine's right-hand-woman, Sorya. Through all of this she has a love affair with Constantine and receives training in magery from him, for which she has a great deal of natural talent.

At the novel's climax, Aiah's plasm source, and her own magical assistance, is a crucial element when Constantine orchestrates a revolution in the metropolis of Caraqui and installs himself in its post-revolutionary power structure, from which position he hopes to enact his New City reforms. Realizing that she has no hope of using her full potential as a bureaucrat in Jaspeer, Aiah leaves her job, family, and marriage behind and travels to Caraqui to help Constantine achieve his dream.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Metropolitan — may refer to: A metropolis A metropolitan area A metropole, mother country , or central part of a colonizing state Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical mother see As a cognate, a rapid transit system in an urban area… …   Wikipedia

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art — Coordinates: 40°46′46″N 73°57′47″W / 40.779447°N 73.96311°W / 40.779447; 73.96311 …   Wikipedia

  • Metropolitan Magazine (New York) — For other uses, see Metropolitan Magazine. Metropolitan Magazine Metropolitan Magazine, cover dated September 1917 Categories Politics, literature, art Circulation Mont …   Wikipedia

  • novel —    Postwar fiction of the 1950s and early 1960s was characterized by novels of class mobility, sexual adventure and realist aesthetics. Women were still under represented in publishers’ prestigious fiction lists, but influential texts appeared… …   Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture

  • City on Fire (novel) — City on Fire   Author(s) Walter Jon Williams Country …   Wikipedia

  • Cultural references to the novel The Catcher in the Rye — The 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger has had a lasting influence[1][2] as it remains both a bestseller[3] and a frequently challenged book.[3][4] …   Wikipedia

  • Texarkana metropolitan area — This article is about the Texarkana metropolitan area. For other uses, see Texarkana (disambiguation). Texarcana redirects here. For the graphic novel, see Tex Arcana. Texarkana USA   City   …   Wikipedia

  • Tulsa Metropolitan Area — See also: Green Country Tulsa Metropolitan Area U.S. Census Bureau Areas Tulsa Metropolitan Area …   Wikipedia

  • Grief (novel) — Articleissues copyedit = March 2008 unreferenced = March 2008 wikify = March 2008Infobox Book | name = Grief image caption = 1st edition cover author = Andrew Holleran cover artist = Fritz Metsch country = United States language = English genre …   Wikipedia

  • Our Lady of the Assassins (novel) — Our Lady of the Assassins   …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”