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Cover of Viriconium Nights

Viriconium Nights

expanded collection 1984 Viriconium

Record

First published1984
Original language EN
Work typecollection
Canon statusexpanded
Reader rating3.83 (412 ratings, collected 2026-10-28)
First-edition ISBN9780441865703

Synopsis

A collection of linked stories set in and around Viriconium, written over more than a decade and published in different forms in the United States (Ace, 1984) and Britain (Gollancz, 1985). Some return to characters from the novels, such as tegeus-Cromis, Ansel Verdigris, Audsley King and Ashlyme, while others move further and further from the city, into its hinterlands or into reimagined versions of it, until Viriconium seems to exist everywhere and nowhere. Many read less like conventional tales than intense prose poems, slices of life from places that can have no life beyond their own story, and they echo and reconfigure events from the three novels.

Where it sits

Awards (verified)

  • Locus Award (Best Collection), 1985: finalist; Locus reader-poll placement, ranked 15.
  • World Fantasy Award (Best Collection), 1985: nominated

Notes

  • A collection of linked stories set in and around Viriconium. First edition: Ace paperback, 1984; the Gollancz edition of 1985 has different contents.
  • From the series record (Viriconium): The three novels set in and around the far-future city of Viriconium.

Neighbouring works

Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.

  • Publication order, within the series Viriconium: position 4 of 4: previous In Viriconium (1982)

Sources

← Viriconium dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.