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A Complex Vision of The City
A Review by William Alexander

Science Fiction in general, and the complex urban fantasies of the New Weird in particular, have long been able to blend and transcend a binary view of The City as either good or bad, cultured or decadent, sophisticated or utterly depraved. Jay Lake embraces this rich contradiction with gusto, and his City Imperishable combines, equally and inextricably, the virtues of city mice with the worst atrocities that country mice can imagine.

Lake's protagonists are Jason the Factor, Bijaz the Dwarf, Imago of Lockwood, and the City itself. While Jason looks for his lost master, Imago concocts an ingenious plan for avoiding debt, and Bijaz tries to protect his people from scapegoating. All three of them are simultaneously sympathetic and unlikable people, even to each other; two enjoy torture as private entertainment, which prepares us for the visceral agonies and indignities all three will suffer by the end. Each individual agenda will be gradually subsumed by the needs of the City, the fourth protagonist. Grand Guignol theatrics ensue, and both blood and semen get splattered everywhere.

Trial of Flowers is more than just a guilty pleasure, however, and several Big Ideas are visible through the viscera. Power is one, not as an individually corrupting influence but as part of a more collective question: what happens when so many interrelated flavors of power (cultural, political, religious, aesthetic) are geographically concentrated behind stone walls? Tradition is another Big Idea, one Lake interrogates from several different angles. The most vividly realized culture in the City Imperishable belongs to its dwarves, who are born indistinguishable from other human children but are subsequently stuffed into growth-restricting boxes. They also have their lips sewn shut. Is this venerable tradition an arbitrary cruelty, or a distorted and once-necessary sacrifice? Probably both. The City Imperishable may, in fact, be likely to perish, and this might even be the best possible outcome for all concerned.

For my money, the best part of Trial of Flowers is Lake's exploration of all things theatrical. Audiences will witness stagecraft as religious ritual, as politically-charged spectacle, and as private, underground snuff-show -- sometimes simultaneously. Spectators will be astonished by the metaphysical possibilities of street performances and mummery, losing a few limbs in the process. Lake carefully considers the consequences of blood spilled onstage, backstage, and deep underneath the stage.

Trial's City Imperishable is part of a much larger literary landscape, one already established by the likes of Gene Wolfe, M. John Harrison, China Miéville, and Jeff VanderMeer. Lake proves himself a good tour guide, offering new neighborhoods to explore, and while his language may not reach the pyrotechnic intensity of some of his predecessors, it is nonetheless as flavorful and decadent as the characters it describes. Enjoy, but try not to wear clothes that stain easily.

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