Book Review: 'The Traveler in Black' by John Brunner
'The Traveler in Black' is a fixup novel constructed from four novellas and short stories first published in various science fiction and fantasy magazines over the interval from 1960 to 1971. Multiple editions of the novel have been issued, some of these retitled 'The Compleat Traveler in Black', which is available in print, and as an ebook.
In 1979 Brunner published a fifth Traveler tale, 'The Things That Are Gods,' which is included in The Compleat Traveler in Black.
The Ace Books edition (222 pp.) reviewed here was published in 1971, and features cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon.
The eponymous Traveler is a small man, cloaked in black and wielding a magic staff with the power to grant wishes; 'he has many names, but one nature.' His adventures take place in quasi-medieval settings, in a past (or perhaps future) era where the forces of Chaos gradually are giving way to those of Law. The Traveler apparently has been tasked by the Creator to serve as a Change Agent for this process.
The Traveler makes his way to cities like Acromel, Ryovora, Barbizond, Teq, and Ys, whose rulers greatly are troubled by the recession of Chaos, as this recession voids the power of the gods and deities which historically have governed the welfare of said cities. Deprived of the ability to truck with the supernatural, the rulers are beset with anomie and despair. The Traveler offers counsel, but the rulers tend to scorn his assistance. Likewise, the people residing in these cities often are as self-centered, and as dismissive of the Traveler, as their rulers.
A plot device used regularly in the novel is for the selfish, corrupt, and malevolent persons in the abovementioned cities to wish for something to improve their station in life; by striking his staff on the ground and announcing "As you wish, so be it," the Traveler grants the wish, but always in a manner that is the opposite (in a bad way) of what the wisher expected.
In the past, I've tried several times to read the entirety of The Traveler in Black and given up, mainly because the novel has the self-consciously 'artistic' sensibility of the New Wave era and a prose style that is wordy and obtuse:
Yet the rule bound him, and the traveler's nature was not such that he should complain. Forth he went on paths grown unfamiliar, and spoke with many people in many places, as for example in Wocrahin, where once-
Memory ! Memory ! He had never foreseen that that intangible, binding the fluid nature of eternity into the sequential tidiness of Time, would also hamper the will like age itself ! Almost, he began to envy those who could die.....
The novel is filled with these empty phrasings, which obviously Brunner hoped would come across and Enigmatic and Profound, but they are a chore to wade through.
This time I completed my reading of the novel, and I was underwhelmed. While the reviews of 'Traveler' posted online are quite laudatory, I am comfortable with giving the novel a One Star Rating. 'Traveler' belongs to the fables / fabulations sub-genre of Speculative Fiction, and if that sub-genre appeals to you, you'll find the novel rewarding. All others should pass.
I read these stories in the "New Worlds of Fantasy" anthologies that came out in the late 1960s and early 1970s and I quite liked them. Perhaps they are easier to take when you read one of them a year. I did buy the collection when I found it in a used book store.
ReplyDeleteBrunner has always been a very mixed bag for me; a few of his works I quite like, most not.
"Christ, what an imagination I've got."