Venusia

System #1

by Mark von Schlegell

Primitive literacy is redundant. Mere words are expelled. We inaugurate a world of pure presence. The mind, that intrudes itself between ourselves and those memories too terrible to know, must keep us moving beyond the grasp of their claw. To control the flow, it will be necessary that political order be imposed always temporarily. The state shall enjoy direct, creative access to the real.It's the end of the twenty-third century. Earth has violently self-destructed. Venusia, an experimental off-world colony, survives under the enlightened totalitarianism of the Princeps Crittendon regime. Using industrialized narcotics, holographic entertainment, and memory control, Crittendon has turned Venusia into a self-sustaining system of relative historical inertia. But when mild-mannered junk dealer Rogers Collectibles finds a book about early Venusian history, the colony -- once fully immersed in the present -- begins losing its grip on the real. With his Reality-V girlfriend Martha Dobbs, neuroscop operator Sylvia Yang, his midget friend Niftus Norrington, and a sentient plant, Rogers wages a war to alter the shape of spacetime, and in the process, revisions the whole human (and vegetable) condition.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book because a Facebook friend was reading von Shlegell's new novel. I am not much of an s-f reader, but I have been realing J.G. Ballard for the past couple of months. and thought I would try some one new. ,Venusia was entertaining, Philip k. Dick-inflected science fiction, wildly difficult to keep up with, but I thought I was getting along pretty well. Then I didn't pick it up for five days while traveling, and I finished the last half in a kind of pleasant stupor. I have a vague sense of what was going on, and my favorite character was the plant. It seemed, however, that the novel possibly had no editor and certainly had no proofreader.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is like that curvy-ass road in san francisco. just when you think its reaching some type of normalacy of direction it veers off into completely different, unexplored territory...and it keeps doing this, over and over again like a particle accelerator built into your already peaking acid trip, which in this novel is something called the n-scape where all quantam possibilities seem to be realized that most of the main characters find themselves navigating throughout most of the narrative.

its amazing that this guy can keep it going for so long and still manage to shelter a plot. even though this was a very difficult read, and would be hard-pressed to recommend this to many people, i admire its sheer volume of twisted imagery and experimentalism. this book will probably leave you with a hangover.

[Sara Gerot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This book is awesome. There are so many time slips and holograms that it is almost impossible to hold on to the narrative. . . almost. Schlegell gives you just enough to keep you following along. The characters are mysterious and their relationships with each other are compelling. I seriously could not stop reading this madness. This book pushes and pulls you all over the place and actually succeeds in making dream and hallucination sequences riveting. This is unbelievable. I cannot wait to read more of his books.

[Brent Hayward · Rating 3 out of 5]

De-structured and post modern, whatever that means, in the vein of Burroughs or early Vollmann. Unfortunately, in texts like this, the lack of rules also means that anything goes, including all logic, and the reader (namely me) can get numbed to the parade of bizarre and most probably unlinked events. As others reviewers have said, you kind of have to just go with it. Some fun, though, with sentient plants, talking bugs, sex, violence, time travel and copious drug consumption.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read various articles about why people don't read science fiction. One theory is that the language and concepts are foreign to the average mainstream reader. Those of us who spent our youth reading science fiction are wired to be comfortable with many of the tropes of science fiction, we know how to take the made-up terms and concepts and run with them. To the average non-sf reader these things may seem confusing and simply too much work to try to assimilate. (An interesting article on SF reading protocols at http://www.tor.com/index.php?id=58637... )

"Venusia" is a case in point. I knew going in that this wasn't going to be an easy read, and yes it was heavy going for the most part. I'm a long-time sf reader, but I found myself experiencing the non-sf reader's difficulty with this book. Much of it had to do with the heavy, dream-like surrealism that takes up a lot of the narrative. This sort of writing, I suspect, either speaks viscerally to the individual reader or it doesn't. In my case, much of it was a miss.

The author also seems to be interested in the language of this world -- the book borders on the poetic in places, and much of the terminology springs in a logical if potentially confusing way from the world the author created (a futuristic human colony on the planet Venus). I find this aspect of the novel more engaging; Mark vonSchlegell can turn a beautiful phrase.

[Alinad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good concepts but the plot doesn't hold, or it was just too highbrow for me. Brought in some images/characters that weren't necessary. I get the idea of reality as concept and the time/multiverse bit but I get the idea from this book that he was keeping readers confused to make him seem like he knew what he was talking about. Having read sci fi classics like Herbert, Asimov, Sagan etc. I can understand some terms are difficult but it doesn't have to be that difficult.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Venusia truly made my head spin and I felt dizzy though sitting on a bench when i was trying to imagine the landscape of the novel -

I enjoyed it overall - weird is too banal a word for this one, both in style (modernistic a la MJ Harrison) and in content (from sentient plants to multidimensional twisting of reality) - the drawback is that you have to immerse yourself and not nitpick..

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you took ZigZag, polished up the scientific framework a bit,threw in some literary/philosophic cleverness from The Athenian Murders, and finished up with a bang, you'd get this book. Well, maybe you'd have to do all that while under the influence of LSD. I liked it.

[Karl Styrsky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me. I guess I'm not smart enough to track it very well, and it was just too much work to fill my limited reading time.

There's no category on GoodReads for "Abandoned Before Finishing", so I guess it will have to go on my "Read" shelf.

[Arno Vlierberghe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is honestly one of the smartest, most imaginative and supremely weird books I've ever read. Mark von Schlegell is a god damn planetary treasure. I can't wait to start in Mercury Station and Sundogz.

[Christopher RubindelaBorbolla · Rating 5 out of 5]

A serious philosophical scifi read reminiscent of philip k dick + baudrillard. One of my all time faves!

[Kim Stewart]

Please see my review here.

[Sylvia Flora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Venusia is a trip full of sci-fi mystery, drug-induced confusion, and narrative twists. The style may not be my favorite, but the imagery is fantastic.

[Meemsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dearest von Schlegelli,
IOU
-Shasti

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

hard pass. only picked up because it was published by semiotext(e) - was expecting a lot better