Byzantium Endures

Infobox Book |
name = Byzantium Endures
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Dust-jacket from the first edition
author = Michael Moorcock
illustrator =
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country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = Pyat Quartet
subject =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Secker & Warburg
release_date = 1981
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 404 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-436-28458-8
preceded_by =
followed_by = The Laughter of Carthage

"Byzantium Endures" (1981) is a novel by Michael Moorcock. It is the first in the Pyat Quartet tetralogy.

Via a metafictional conceit Moorcock claims to be acquainted with the fictional author, the classical unreliable narrator Maxim Arturovitch Pyatnitski. Pyat, as he is also known, describes in the novel his adventures in Tsarist and revolutionary Russia. Born on 1 January 1900 in Kiev, Pyat dreams from early on to become a great inventor and engineer. His widowed mother, lacking any means to support his higher education, sends him at age 16 to a relative in Odessa, where Pyat is introduced to bohemian life, cocaine and sexual adventures. Making a good impression on his relative, he secures a position at a technical university in St. Petersburg. After having failed to obtain a degree (which he depicts as the success of the genius over the stupid establishment), he returns to Kiev, where he manages to profit from his knowledge of machinery and runs a successful repair enterprise. The revolutionary and post revolutionary civil war bring him again to Odessa; on the way, he aligns with whatever group is in power. Finally, he manages to escape by ship to western Europe.

Throughout all his wanderings, Pyat will not pass over any opportunity for self-aggrandisement, despite being a genuinely despicable character. The narrator appears to be addicted to cocaine and sex.

References

*cite web
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authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Moorcock's Miscellany
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date =
url = http://www.multiverse.org/imagehive/v/bookcovers/books/mikebooks/be/
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doi =
accessdate = 2007-12-16
*cite web
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coauthors =
title = Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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date =
url = http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?BZNTMNDRSF1981
format =
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accessdate = 2007-12-16
*cite web
last = Brown
first = Charles N.
authorlink = Charles N. Brown
coauthors = William G. Contento
title = The Locus Index to Science Fiction (1984-1998)
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.locusmag.com/index/b341.htm#A4880.23
format =
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accessdate = 2007-12-16