Unquenchable Fire (S.F. MASTERWORKS Book 81)

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed  The Iron Dragon's Daughter  (although it is not nearly as dark and sinister as that book in its conclusion or throughout) or its sequel  The Dragons of Babel , it is more moderate fantasy in its telling and happier in its conclusion so I think it would be a little more like  The Anubis Gates (FANTASY MASTERWORKS)  or  The Drawing Of The Dark (FANTASY MASTERWORKS) .Although all those titles are part of the fantasy masterworks rather than the sci fi masterworks!I think perhaps the reason this is part of the sci fi masteworks is that many of the trappings of modernism and post-enlightenment or scientific society remain in this setting, ie cars, apartment blocks, TV, government agencies and bureaucracy, even though there has been a quite fantastical and spiritualist transformation of reality. This is never "worked out" or revealed as having an underlying explanation or pathology, such as was in  I Am Legend (S.F. MASTERWORKS)  or Iron Dragon's Daughter (depending upon how you read it), it is truly magical, like offerings in the masterworks series such as The Land of Laughs or Anubis Gates.This is a wonderfully constructed narrative in which the commonplace of today's world, seeking to navigate unhelpful bureaucracies without any satisfaction in doing so or with the results, is blended with the magical, offering enactments, sacrifices, witnessing individual and group mystical revelations or experiences, but the magical has become commonplace too.The style and pace of the narrative is a like clunky at times and it does not "flow smoothly", in part this is because stories and story telling is central to the plot and some of the actual stories told by the tellers, central characters in the story, are spliced into the overall narrative, so one moment you are reading about the characters and their lives, mainly one character as she goes about her business and feels hijacked by a higher power, then it switches back and forth between some truly strange stories. I could not always make direct connections between what was going on in the tale and what was going on in the overarching story, although when I stopped worrying too much about that I was able to just enjoy the book.Reading this I thought that it was a little anti-climatic in its conclusion, there's such a build up throughout the book that it would have been nearly impossible to draw it into a satisfactory conclusion but there is still a proper beginning, middle and end to the story and it is an enjoyable read. Thematically there are issues to do with having your own individual will usurped or whether you can be the master of your own fate or not but what I thought was most brilliant was how the author was able to demonstrate that the most, literally, wonderous and miraculous things could be rendered mundane by ordinary quarrels or priorities and by social conventions or organisation.

Despite being a SF Masterwork, Unquenchable Fire is very much a work of speculative fiction. Set in an America following a spiritual revolution, science is the last thing on the mind when surrounded by miracles and spirits.Immensely imaginative the story follows Jenny, a young woman chosen for great things who just wants to live a regular life. The main theme of the book is how losing control affects Jenny who is trapped in a world where ritual and religion is the only thing holding society together.The imagery in the stories of the founders is rich, and the stories will stay with you a while after reading them. I can't help but feel that there is a lot of the spiritual aspect of the book which went straight over my head, due to lack of familiarity with subjects such as Tarot, a subject the author is an expert on.I found this book to be a challenge, by taking a location familiar to the reader but changing the rules of society so completely led to a disorientating feel to much of the book. A bit too abstract at times I found it difficult to follow, but the narrative is rewarding enough if you can manage to stick with it

Clever and layered comment on how we live ... plus miracles, possessions and little gods galore. Wonderful writing which reminded me of Moorcock, Gaiman type style. None of this could exist all together in one time and place in our current reality (or mine at least) but parts of it are happening now somewhere, or has happened in our recent past. Which, given the fabulous nature of the story is ... sobering. Wry observations on motherhood, power, small town politics, bureaucracy, superstition, religion and the weakness of humans - just great. My brain wakes me up in the small hours to read more.

Although my copy appears under the VGSF Masterwork rubric, it’s hard to see this magical-realist fantasy as SF of any kind, even though it appears to take place some decades after its publication date. Despite that, it won the Arthur C. Clarke award for 1988, though ACC, if he ever read it, which seems unlikely, may well have pondered the lack of engineering details.Unquenchable Fire takes place in what we have to assume is the future, as it refers in passing to dramatic events which took place some decades ago within the narrative, and which it’s probably fair to guess will take place the day-after-tomorrow if today falls solidly in 1988. This future US doesn’t look much different from the US of the 20th century – the suburban, lower-middle class lifestyles of our lead character Jennifer Mazdan and those around her are familiar from decades of sitcoms and other modestly satirical fictions (the introduction by Lisa Tuttle refers to the settings of Philip K. Dick novels, and that’s not a bad starting point). And the tale, which is essentially about Jennifer’s attempts to live her life by her own standards, and not by unexamined conformism, cuts a familiar path.Except for the big gimmick, which, to Pollack’s credit, is unique. The “dramatic events” noted earlier are an emergence – a re-emergence, perhaps – of benign and malign spirits, and other supernatural wonders, into the world, a flowering so dramatic that the dominant cultural force is a kind of shamanism which has transformed the structure of society. There’s still a Presidency, there’s still industry and commerce, there’s still TV, there are computers, but life is dominated, at all levels, by rituals designed to propitiate the spirits of what is known as “the Living World”. This isn’t any kind of organised religion with a coherent theology: it’s more like Roman paganism, which was all about going through the motions and saying the right thing rather than a philosophical system. America being America, of course, it’s all become exceptionally bureaucratic. Supernatural events, real or suspected, are investigated by the “SDA” (Spiritual Defence Agency). On public holidays, superstar shamans known as “Tellers” relate the highly symbolic stories (which Pollack, annoyingly, decides to call “Pictures”) of the Founders, the first-wave shamans who created this new spiritocracy. On one such holiday, Jennifer mysteriously falls asleep before she can arrive at the Telling, and on awakening finds herself inexplicably pregnant. She decides to deal with this – wholly supernatural – event in her own way, and the novel’s narrative traces her path from conception to birth, and then concludes with a brief overview of her later life and the significance of her daughter.As noted, the scenario is unique, and Pollack’s prose is carefully judged, making the preposterous scenario seem plausible, largely due to an admirable lightness of touch. The characterisation is also very sound. Unfortunately, the book is way too long, and this reader’s patience was largely exhausted before I got halfway. I stuck with it, out of respect for Pollack’s imagination and craft, but it was a dreary old haul, and I was so fed up I got unnecessarily grumpy with my wife for no reason other than my irritation at the length of the narrative. When I finally finished, I cracked open a beer to celebrate.The main causes of the irritation were twofold. First of all, a very slim plot is stretched out for over 300 pages. Secondly, the – for want of a better world – action is frequently interrupted by excerpts from the “Pictures”, surreal, dream-like narratives that are probably packed with powerful symbolism which adds immense depth to the narrative if, unlike this reader, you can actually be bothered to read them. I gave up on them fairly soon, finding them to be the kind of self-conscious (and perhaps self-regarding) Weirdness For Weirdness’s Sake that has become all too common in what John Clute calls “Fantastica” over the last few decades. Some readers may be impressed by the imagery and inventiveness on display here, and I might have been in my twenties, but in my sixties, I’m acutely aware that life is far too short for another bleedin’ writer showing us how Far Out their imagination can go.Which is a shame, because the scenario and the style are good, and the book’s overall theme – a rather sweet, old-fashioned hurrah for non-conformism and the triumph of creativity and vision over the mundane – is something no-one with a functioning heart and mind could disagree with. There’s a lot to like here. It’s just disappointing that it’s presented in what soon becomes a boring manner.