Malignos

by Richard Calder

Una metáfora perversa sobre la marginación.

Varios años después de la última guerra contra el Submundo, Richard Pike, exiliado de su país e investigador privado de poca monta, debe descender a las entrañas de la Tierra para devolver a su amada Gala la vida que le han arrebatado sus semejantes. Porque Gala ha sido castigada por los suyos, los malignos del Submundo, por compartir la luz del sol con un hombre...

Malignos es la primera novela publicada en castellano de Richard Calder, autor que ha irrumpido con fuerza en la escena de la ciencia ficción con una propuesta tan personal como obsesiva e innovadora. Poético, transgresor y estilista deslumbrante, Calder narra un descenso a los infiernos impregnado de una sensualidad mórbida e irresistible.

“Oscuro, temerario y tocado por la pizca idónea de lirismo.” -- William Gibson

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

far, far in the future, Richard Pike is a disreputable pimp in the Pilipinas Archipelago, a former war hero and expat from the Darkling Island, whoring out the love of his life - the demonic malignos Gala, a devout catholic born in the deep underworld, and a turncoat on her people during the great war between the Earth Above and the Netherworld. trouble comes our lovers' way, and the brave Gala is poisoned and simplified. Pike must journey to the heart of the Netherworld, to the mind-bending city of Pandemonium, to find her cure. a dark and surreal science fantasy quest ensues.

do you have a secret inner hipster, a snobby elitist who loves your little finds - ones that no one else seems to know about? i sure do. i get a thrill from liking things that few people will ever come across. but it's a sad feeling too. why haven't i heard about Richard Calder before now? why isn't his excellent Malignos better known? it seems unfair.

this is a pretty amazing novel. its dense & hallucinogenic imagery, casual sadism, and intense focus on perverse & not-so-perverse spirituality reminded me of the early, bizarre trilogies of Elizabeth Hand and Paul Park. even better, his use of arch & deeply ironic dialogue, his shallow & self-absorbed hero, and the oddly cheerful & light tone for some dark events were reminiscent of Jack Vance's equally picaresque and arty Dying Earth series. in this story of a tormented, murderous hero and his, let's say, larger-than-life sword, there is also more than a nod to Moorcock's Elric series - it seems almost like a straight-up homage. and, obviously, the basic narrative of this novel - a hero's descent into an underworld to save the life of his lady love - is also the basis of innumerable tales and legends.

the writing is wonderful. the imagery is gorgeous. the narrative is compelling. the characters are off-kilter but strangely iconic. the author, himself an English expat living in Philippines, brings to the table both insouciant verve and a lived-in understanding of elements of Filipino culture. this is science fantasy that made me pause and consider many things.

it is perhaps inappropriate to actually call this a "science fantasy". the history of this world is given careful pseudo-science explanation. first of all, the universe is composed of many dimensions. sometimes these dimensions bleed over and sometimes denizens of one dimension will cross over to another. in a certain dimension that is clearly where the idea of Hell sprung from and bled over, evil is good. people apparently have given themselves the appearance of what we call devils, amongst many such outre appearances. the philosopher-scientists who dominate this dimension, and the dark-energy beings that protect them (including that eternally famous villain, the cold-hearted Metatron) became ambitious and sought the create their own personal universe. disaster occurs; their dimension is destroyed; their spirits crossed over to a new dimension to possess and integrate with its more perverse and artistic residents. these newly transformed beings began to create great & terrible machines and to fashion new, more appealingly demonic forms. they were called many things: goblins, ogres, malignos. they are not necessarily evil... they just see things a different way. and driven underground, they plot to someday return. oh, and i'm not even talking about our dimension. Malignos takes place in a post-post-post-apocalyptic future of a familiar-seeming earth, but one that includes such world powers as Atlantis and Cathay. it's all so mindboggling and carefully thought-out... awesome!

there are many absorbing scenes, bizarre & beautifully described tableau, and moments of stylized dialogue & offhand musings to enjoy, to chuckle over, to slowly digest their implications, to read again, maybe to treasure. one of my favorite bits:

'If she embraces old superstition, Defoe, it is because the new superstitions that have currency in our world, superstitions that inhibit and finally destroy our sense of empathy, will lead us all to destruction.' Gala frowned. She did not seem to like the equation of her faith to superstition. Neither, perhaps, did I. But I was too damaged by war to be able to lift my face to heaven and put all my hope in the love everlasting. The only thing I feared more than the mummery of my own existence was the possibility that God also was an ostentatious fake.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cynical, decadent adventure tale like Moorcock(including a living sword) or Vance(with a protagonist as arrogant and obnoxious as Cugel) that is remarkable straight forward for Calder with little of his baroque prose and density of weirdness. Set in the same future as his Frenzetta but set so far in advance of that book that its events have become a fable. This book has everything you would want from an adventure story: a world decaying with lost secrets, traps, narrow escapes, traveling carnivals, a hollow earth(or an underground hell or demon realm in its center), plenty of action, ancient technology, castles, ghosts, dimensional gateways, cruel experiments, and a quest. The place and character names are all taken from Milton, De Quincy, and the Old Testament which adds to the atmosphere. The protagonist is so arrogant and self centered I wonder if Calder is poking fun at his own notoriously solipsist protagonists. So this was a rip roaring adventure with plenty of pulpy and gothic wonders but a little to straightforward to be one of Calder’s better work. Maybe he wanted to see if he could restrain himself and actually write a book that kind of made sense? Fans of Moorcock, Vance, Wolfe, Rudy Rucker (Hollow Earth), Milton, Lucius Shepard’s Dragon Griaule stories, E.R.Burroughs, and George R.R. Martin (House of the Worm) will find this a fun addition to their bookshelf.

[Octavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una novela fascinante y única. Olvidaos de etiquetas, el autor hace lo que le da la gana. Personajes memorables y escenas inolvidables en un viaje al infierno en busca de un elixir.

[Max Renn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Calder first caught my attention with his excellent 'dead' trilogy (dead girls, dead boys, dead things.) In that world Calder uses industrial espionage to effect a simulacra-based scenario where otherness and eroticism are departure points into a new philosophy based on a polymorphous perversity.

In this book and in its sequel 'Lord Soho', Calder refines these philosophical excursions and extends them towards a sort of logical endpoint, this time using a future Earth that has been infected by the perverse nature of a parallel universe that has collapsed and bled out into ours. This time the 'other' comes in the shape of a race of goblin people that have mutated away from homo sapiens by embracing the perverse nature of the alien universe and populating the subterrenean.

Enter our hero, Richard Pike. despite being the quintessence of english imperialism and a war hero, Pike is nevertheless a race traitor by virtue of his relationship with Gala, a beautiful 'Malignos' as the goblin people are called. Events unfold and Pike finds himself on a heart of darkness journey into the netherworld towards the capital city of the malignos.

This book is actually a straight-forward action prequel to the heavy headtrip that is Lord Soho. nothing too philosophically earthshaking is explored here but all the dominos are lined up for the rollicking ride that is lord soho and along the way a rather fun adventure yarn is run for your pleasure. be sure and follow-up with lord soho where the colonial mindset and the dubious pleasures of willful exoticism are torn asunder with glee.

[Alfonso Junquera perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quizás mas interesante por las formas que por el fondo. En un mundo futuro totalmente alterado por un evento pasado, el Aborto, que produjo un enorme cambio en las mente y la fisonomía de la humanidad. Así que cuando el protagonista, un antiguo soldado de la guerra contra los Malignos, se embarca en un viaje hacia lo mas profundo del submundo. Un viaje casi onírico a un centro de la Tierra hueca posible gracias a una tecnología extradimensional que crea extraños efectos en la materia, en el tiempo y el espacio.

Recomendable cuando menos y un autor al que seguir en el futuro.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars