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El Viajero de Negro
Colección de relatos del Viajero de Negro. En un mundo gobernado por el Caos, un hombre, el hombre con muchos nombres pero una sola naturaleza, es encargado de crear el orden
John Brunner, 1971
El Estigma del Caos (Imprint of Chaos, 1960)
Romper las Puertas del Infierno (Break the Door of Hell, 1966)
La Apuesta Perdida por Ganada (The Wager Lost by Winning, 1970)
Temido Imperio (Dread Empire, 1971)
Traducción: Matilde Horne
John Brunner, 1971
El Estigma del Caos (Imprint of Chaos, 1960)
Romper las Puertas del Infierno (Break the Door of Hell, 1966)
La Apuesta Perdida por Ganada (The Wager Lost by Winning, 1970)
Temido Imperio (Dread Empire, 1971)
Traducción: Matilde Horne
284 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
100 people are currently reading
1049 people want to read
About the author
John Brunner
572 books480 followersJohn Brunner was born in Preston Crowmarsh, near Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and went to school at St Andrew's Prep School, Pangbourne, then to Cheltenham College. He wrote his first novel, Galactic Storm, at 17, and published it under the pen-name Gill Hunt, but he did not start writing full-time until 1958. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955, and married Marjorie Rosamond Sauer on 12 July 1958
At the beginning of his writing career Brunner wrote conventional space opera pulp science fiction. Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar" exploits the fragmented organizational style John Dos Passos invented for his USA trilogy, but updates it in terms of the theory of media popularised by Marshall McLuhan.
"The Jagged Orbit" (1969) is set in a United States dominated by weapons proliferation and interracial violence, and has 100 numbered chapters varying in length from a single syllable to several pages in length. "The Sheep Look Up" (1972) depicts ecological catastrophe in America. Brunner is credited with coining the term "worm" and predicting the emergence of computer viruses in his 1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider", in which he used the term to describe software which reproduces itself across a computer network. Together with "Stand on Zanzibar", these novels have been called the "Club of Rome Quartet", named after the Club of Rome whose 1972 report The Limits to Growth warned of the dire effects of overpopulation.
Brunner's pen names include K. H. Brunner, Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Ellis Quick, Henry Crosstrees Jr., and Keith Woodcott.
In addition to his fiction, Brunner wrote poetry and many unpaid articles in a variety of publications, particularly fanzines, but also 13 letters to the New Scientist and an article about the educational relevance of science fiction in Physics Education. Brunner was an active member of the organisation Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder", which was sung on the Aldermaston Marches.
Brunner had an uneasy relationship with British new wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift to a more mainstream readership in the early 1980s, without success. Before his death, most of his books had fallen out of print. Brunner accused publishers of a conspiracy against him, although he was difficult to deal with (his wife had handled his publishing relations before she died).[2]
Brunner's health began to decline in the 1980s and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on 27 September 1991. He died of a heart attack in Glasgow on 25 August 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention there
aka
K H Brunner, Henry Crosstrees Jr, Gill Hunt (with Dennis Hughes and E C Tubb), John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Keith Woodcott
Winner of the ESFS Awards in 1980 as "Best Author" and 1n 1984 as "Novelist"..
At the beginning of his writing career Brunner wrote conventional space opera pulp science fiction. Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar" exploits the fragmented organizational style John Dos Passos invented for his USA trilogy, but updates it in terms of the theory of media popularised by Marshall McLuhan.
"The Jagged Orbit" (1969) is set in a United States dominated by weapons proliferation and interracial violence, and has 100 numbered chapters varying in length from a single syllable to several pages in length. "The Sheep Look Up" (1972) depicts ecological catastrophe in America. Brunner is credited with coining the term "worm" and predicting the emergence of computer viruses in his 1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider", in which he used the term to describe software which reproduces itself across a computer network. Together with "Stand on Zanzibar", these novels have been called the "Club of Rome Quartet", named after the Club of Rome whose 1972 report The Limits to Growth warned of the dire effects of overpopulation.
Brunner's pen names include K. H. Brunner, Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Ellis Quick, Henry Crosstrees Jr., and Keith Woodcott.
In addition to his fiction, Brunner wrote poetry and many unpaid articles in a variety of publications, particularly fanzines, but also 13 letters to the New Scientist and an article about the educational relevance of science fiction in Physics Education. Brunner was an active member of the organisation Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder", which was sung on the Aldermaston Marches.
Brunner had an uneasy relationship with British new wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift to a more mainstream readership in the early 1980s, without success. Before his death, most of his books had fallen out of print. Brunner accused publishers of a conspiracy against him, although he was difficult to deal with (his wife had handled his publishing relations before she died).[2]
Brunner's health began to decline in the 1980s and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on 27 September 1991. He died of a heart attack in Glasgow on 25 August 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention there
aka
K H Brunner, Henry Crosstrees Jr, Gill Hunt (with Dennis Hughes and E C Tubb), John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Keith Woodcott
Winner of the ESFS Awards in 1980 as "Best Author" and 1n 1984 as "Novelist"..
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
February 26, 2019
the Traveler in Black travels throughout a strange world, one balanced between Chaos and Order. the Traveler has one nature: to extract Chaos. the human kind should fear any being with only one nature. as the Traveler travels, tipping the balance towards logic and away from magic, those cities that follow his path disappear, and so enter the rational world. the magic slowly fades away...
Brunner writes in the Vancean vein for this effort, and he does it well. spare but evocative prose with not a word out of place; a world and its people beautifully described with elegance and wit. this was a surprising read for me, as I mainly know Brunner through the chaotic cut-up technique he deployed in his scifi classic Stand on Zanzibar. The Traveler in Black has a feel to it that is distinctly Dying Earth. which made it dryly amusing - but also occasionally irritating, as Brunner lacks the sardonic even-handedness that is such a treat in The Dying Earth books. this episodic novel features a string of morality plays where the Traveler makes certain that bad things happen to bad people - and that became a bit tedious to me. an enjoyable book, but the enjoyment rather diminished over time as its strongest stories are its earliest ones. I also found the idea that magic = chaos = bad stuff that should be eradicated... personally annoying? I guess. why you wanna hate on magic so much, Brunner? don't be a Lev Grossman.
still, I don't want to give the impression that this is not a worthwhile experience. many fascinating ideas and the prose is top notch. I also really loved the two appearances of a certain character - first in one tale as a fretful but smart child wizard employed by a royal court under siege, and then briefly in a second tale, where he reappears as a fat and magic-less grandpa, relaxed and happy to spend time with his grandsons. I like it when authors are generous with certain characters. that first tale also features your basic inoffensive Englishman from our world, transported by the Traveler to this world of magic, to be worshiped as an otherworldly god. that was fun!
Brunner writes in the Vancean vein for this effort, and he does it well. spare but evocative prose with not a word out of place; a world and its people beautifully described with elegance and wit. this was a surprising read for me, as I mainly know Brunner through the chaotic cut-up technique he deployed in his scifi classic Stand on Zanzibar. The Traveler in Black has a feel to it that is distinctly Dying Earth. which made it dryly amusing - but also occasionally irritating, as Brunner lacks the sardonic even-handedness that is such a treat in The Dying Earth books. this episodic novel features a string of morality plays where the Traveler makes certain that bad things happen to bad people - and that became a bit tedious to me. an enjoyable book, but the enjoyment rather diminished over time as its strongest stories are its earliest ones. I also found the idea that magic = chaos = bad stuff that should be eradicated... personally annoying? I guess. why you wanna hate on magic so much, Brunner? don't be a Lev Grossman.
still, I don't want to give the impression that this is not a worthwhile experience. many fascinating ideas and the prose is top notch. I also really loved the two appearances of a certain character - first in one tale as a fretful but smart child wizard employed by a royal court under siege, and then briefly in a second tale, where he reappears as a fat and magic-less grandpa, relaxed and happy to spend time with his grandsons. I like it when authors are generous with certain characters. that first tale also features your basic inoffensive Englishman from our world, transported by the Traveler to this world of magic, to be worshiped as an otherworldly god. that was fun!
December 26, 2021
I found these stories much more compelling, and amusing, than Brunner's sci-fi stuff, despite prose that is frequently quite dense.
The enigmatic man in black is a divine guardian of sorts, journeying across the strange borderland between time (reality) and eternity (oblivion) on a mission to foster order over chaos. Chaos being those things not rooted in logic and reason, especially magic and sorcery. He does so in mischievous fashion, popping up like a genie and granting the ill conceived wishes of the unsuspecting with an "As you wish, so be it". He frequently accomplishes this by threatening or tormenting those creatures of chaos under his control, the elementals, to his ends. Without fail, this is to the wishers much deserved and usually horrific detriment, yet ultimately to the benefit of his greater cause through the knock on consequences, however indirect or obscure. And while he's happy to see those get what they deserve, he is certainly not wholly unsympathetic.
The five stories are fable like, with a definite allegorical nature, and include a number of brief, outlandish vignettes, portraying a wide range of man's follies and the traveler's disdain for man's many foibles. Some of these tie in to the larger story in clever and subtle ways, while others just serve to set the mood. The chaos/order dynamic here reminds me a bit of what Roger Zelazny did in his Amber series. Nine Princes in Amber was published only one year before The Compleat Traveller in Black. Strange coincidence, if indeed it is such.
The enigmatic man in black is a divine guardian of sorts, journeying across the strange borderland between time (reality) and eternity (oblivion) on a mission to foster order over chaos. Chaos being those things not rooted in logic and reason, especially magic and sorcery. He does so in mischievous fashion, popping up like a genie and granting the ill conceived wishes of the unsuspecting with an "As you wish, so be it". He frequently accomplishes this by threatening or tormenting those creatures of chaos under his control, the elementals, to his ends. Without fail, this is to the wishers much deserved and usually horrific detriment, yet ultimately to the benefit of his greater cause through the knock on consequences, however indirect or obscure. And while he's happy to see those get what they deserve, he is certainly not wholly unsympathetic.
The five stories are fable like, with a definite allegorical nature, and include a number of brief, outlandish vignettes, portraying a wide range of man's follies and the traveler's disdain for man's many foibles. Some of these tie in to the larger story in clever and subtle ways, while others just serve to set the mood. The chaos/order dynamic here reminds me a bit of what Roger Zelazny did in his Amber series. Nine Princes in Amber was published only one year before The Compleat Traveller in Black. Strange coincidence, if indeed it is such.
February 16, 2011
"As you wish. So be it." The traveller in black utters these words countless times on his journeys.
The Traveller in Black is the agent of the One Who, a man with many names but one nature, tasked with making order from chaos, primarily by granting people's wishes in a literal sense. He gives a god to a nation without one; he unites a girl with her lost love by making her join him as a slave.
The writing is definitely denser than I thought it would be, reminding me of Gene Wolfe at times and Michael Moorcock at others. The book is divided into five shorter selections, each from the traveller's wanderings in a different era. Some of them read almost like parables.
To sum up, I highly recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy with a philosophical bend.
The Traveller in Black is the agent of the One Who, a man with many names but one nature, tasked with making order from chaos, primarily by granting people's wishes in a literal sense. He gives a god to a nation without one; he unites a girl with her lost love by making her join him as a slave.
The writing is definitely denser than I thought it would be, reminding me of Gene Wolfe at times and Michael Moorcock at others. The book is divided into five shorter selections, each from the traveller's wanderings in a different era. Some of them read almost like parables.
To sum up, I highly recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy with a philosophical bend.
February 2, 2013
This one kind of threw me, since the writing can be dense and hard to follow. I was expecting something a bit more pulpy. That said, The Traveller in Black is serious, highbrow fantasy. Literature. In some ways, with its archaic language and rich descriptions, The Traveller in Black resembles Jack Vance's Dying Earth tales, though it's not as fun, as it gets increasingly serious as the traveller makes his stops along the way. In fact, these stories (a series of novellas) can be quite horrific, with elementals, witchcraft, zombies, giant gods, brutal torture, and more than a whiff of Lovecraftian doom to close things. But as I said, Brunner's use of language is part of the package. Modernism with a wizard's hat. The traveller operates a bit like one of the angels in the Old Testament story involving Sodom and Gomorrah, allowing each individual he meets the amount of rope they need to hang themselves. Ultimately, it's a matter of choice, with the condemnation coming from your own mouth. But there's a lot more going on here that will probably have me returning to it again. The good news is that I think it's worth it.
* I highly recommend Nesa Sivagnanam's review if you're looking for a bit more detail (and understanding). I think she nailed it, and in a way that might make you want to read this fascinating collection.
* I highly recommend Nesa Sivagnanam's review if you're looking for a bit more detail (and understanding). I think she nailed it, and in a way that might make you want to read this fascinating collection.
Read
November 2, 2019I know I've read (& used to own this book).
I was reminded of it today but recall nothing of it.
This is a note to me to see if I can find it on my shelves.
I was reminded of it today but recall nothing of it.
This is a note to me to see if I can find it on my shelves.
September 8, 2013
Originally published on my blog here in July 2001.
The five tales in this collection, which as it says is the complete set of stories about the traveller in black, were written over about a twenty year period and were revised for inclusion in this volume. The stories all have the same plot, each describing a tour made by the traveller around the cities in his domain, reducing chaos and promoting law; he makes this journey whenever a particular configuration of stars is seen in the sky. He is described as the unique being with many names but one nature; basically this means that he has no other motivation than his task. He goes about it by granting wishes, usually in a way not at all intended by the person making the wish, as is traditional in fairy tales.
Despite his one-dimensional personality, the reader becomes quite fond of the traveller in black, as he plods around his domain, becoming more weary as his work nears its completion. The work involves quite a complex idea of what law and chaos mean; the basic idea is that a world ruled by chaos is unpredictable, with, say, natural laws changing from day to day; but the wishes seem to promote law through a departure from the norm while, on the other hand, practitioners of magic seek to use chaos by making it submit to law and generally end up strengthening it.
Another writer whose fantasy is principally about the relationship between law and chaos rather than good and evil is Michael Moorcock, but his characters seek to balance the two and his conception is rather simpler if capable of spanning far more stories.
The tone of the stories, however, is much more like that of Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth, even if the settings are rather more prosaic. The arcane magic arts, for example, are overcome by the traveller's quiet "As you wish, so be it"; the stories are peaceful and enjoyable. They are among the subtlest classics of the fantasy genre.
The five tales in this collection, which as it says is the complete set of stories about the traveller in black, were written over about a twenty year period and were revised for inclusion in this volume. The stories all have the same plot, each describing a tour made by the traveller around the cities in his domain, reducing chaos and promoting law; he makes this journey whenever a particular configuration of stars is seen in the sky. He is described as the unique being with many names but one nature; basically this means that he has no other motivation than his task. He goes about it by granting wishes, usually in a way not at all intended by the person making the wish, as is traditional in fairy tales.
Despite his one-dimensional personality, the reader becomes quite fond of the traveller in black, as he plods around his domain, becoming more weary as his work nears its completion. The work involves quite a complex idea of what law and chaos mean; the basic idea is that a world ruled by chaos is unpredictable, with, say, natural laws changing from day to day; but the wishes seem to promote law through a departure from the norm while, on the other hand, practitioners of magic seek to use chaos by making it submit to law and generally end up strengthening it.
Another writer whose fantasy is principally about the relationship between law and chaos rather than good and evil is Michael Moorcock, but his characters seek to balance the two and his conception is rather simpler if capable of spanning far more stories.
The tone of the stories, however, is much more like that of Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth, even if the settings are rather more prosaic. The arcane magic arts, for example, are overcome by the traveller's quiet "As you wish, so be it"; the stories are peaceful and enjoyable. They are among the subtlest classics of the fantasy genre.
September 3, 2009
Although I've read some of Brunner's SF, I had not heard of this book until I started playing the White Wolf RPG game Exalted. That book lists The Compleat Traveller in Black as an inspiration, and so, even though it is out of print, I was inspired to eventually find a copy of this book and read it.
It feels very much like some of Moorcock's Melnibonean work. The world is young, and still in many ways in the grip of the elder era of Chaos. The laws of science, logic and reason are still not in full evidence, with the laws of magic and chaos still trying to hold their ground.
Enter into this realm the Traveller in Black. The Compleat Traveller in Black collects a number of stories Brunner wrote about a mysterious figure who works for Order and reason. In Moorcock terms, he is a definite champion for Law. The traveler encounters forces of elemental chaos, and by actions both subtle and gross, by himself and through sometimes unwitting accomplices,works to impose reason on the world. He often does this by granting wishes. One to a customer, but the results are not often what the wisher expects. Sometimes, not even the Traveler himself is fully aware of the consequences of the wishes...
The stories have a unity of voice and vision even though they were written over a period of twenty years. The traveler is a character difficult to get to know, but we get an interesting portrait of him and the world he is helping fashion. We see through the stories how his actions shape the world around him, diminishing its magic, increasing its stability. And indeed, in the end, he creates a world that not only does not need him, but is positively opposed to his further existence.
I found this an interesting counterpoint to Vance's Dying Earth, set at the opposite end of time. I think the Dying Earth is a better realized milieu, overall, but certainly, many fantasy fans will enjoy this look at the morning of the world by Brunner.
It feels very much like some of Moorcock's Melnibonean work. The world is young, and still in many ways in the grip of the elder era of Chaos. The laws of science, logic and reason are still not in full evidence, with the laws of magic and chaos still trying to hold their ground.
Enter into this realm the Traveller in Black. The Compleat Traveller in Black collects a number of stories Brunner wrote about a mysterious figure who works for Order and reason. In Moorcock terms, he is a definite champion for Law. The traveler encounters forces of elemental chaos, and by actions both subtle and gross, by himself and through sometimes unwitting accomplices,works to impose reason on the world. He often does this by granting wishes. One to a customer, but the results are not often what the wisher expects. Sometimes, not even the Traveler himself is fully aware of the consequences of the wishes...
The stories have a unity of voice and vision even though they were written over a period of twenty years. The traveler is a character difficult to get to know, but we get an interesting portrait of him and the world he is helping fashion. We see through the stories how his actions shape the world around him, diminishing its magic, increasing its stability. And indeed, in the end, he creates a world that not only does not need him, but is positively opposed to his further existence.
I found this an interesting counterpoint to Vance's Dying Earth, set at the opposite end of time. I think the Dying Earth is a better realized milieu, overall, but certainly, many fantasy fans will enjoy this look at the morning of the world by Brunner.
May 22, 2014
review of
John Brunner's The Traveler in Black
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 20, 2014
I have a paper bag full of John Brunner bks on the floor of my bedroom, where I do most of my reading. When I need a break from whatever more challenging bks I'm reading (it's been William Gaddis's The Recognitions + others for quite some time now) I dip into the bag & pull one out. Two dips ago I pulled out Now Then, a collection of 3 novellas that include his earliest published story + a bit called "Imprint of Chaos". My review of Now Then is here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... . The most recent Brunner dip produced The Traveler in Black. I noticed that a revised "Imprint of Chaos" began this & that 3 more tales developed the initial idea further. I almost put it back in the bag to pick another one b/c, while I liked "Imprint of Chaos" I didn't want to repeat read it & wallow in what I consider to be a somewhat minor Brunner work.
In my review of "Imprint of Chaos" I postulate the Traveler in Black as Entropy Personified & quote the following to substantiate this: "The black-clad man chuckled. 'He to whom the task was given of bringing order out of chaos in the universe,' he replied."
Now, according to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio... , entropy is:
"2 a : the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity"
wch (ignoring the implications of the word "degradation") describes the Traveler in Black's purpose quite well. HOWEVER, the "b" part of the above definition:
"2 b : a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder"
- in particular the "trend to disorder" is the OPPOSITE of the Traveler in Black's goal. So wch is he? Entropy Personified? Or Anti-Entropy Personified? I think he's Entropy Personified w/ "entropy" meaning the bringing chaos into order:
"["]I am he to whom was entrusted the task of bringing order forth from chaos. Hence the reason why I have but one nature."" - p 26
"["]what is the purpose of your task?""
[..]
""Why! When all things have but one nature, they will be subsumed into the Original All. Time will stop. This conclusion is desirable."
Manuus looked sourly at the brazier. "Desirable, perhaps—but appallingly dull.["]" - pp 26-27
I think I wd've asked: 'Why is it "desirable" & to what? Whom?" Also, I'm no sure I don't agree w/ Manuus's position: is order necessarily preferable to chaos? I'm sure many people in my lifetime have been preoccupied w/ that issue upon noticing that the 'order' imposed on them isn't one conducive to the flourishing of their natural strengths. Take the character Jorkas:
"this was not a young man riding a horse, nor was there in fact a horse being ridden, but some sort of confusion of the two, in that the man's legs were not separated at all from his mount. They ended in fleshy stalks, uniting with the belly of that part of the composite animal resembling a horse." - p 33
""Yes, he bears the imprint of chaos, does he not?" said the man in black. "He is left over, so to speak. He is fairly harmless; things have by-passed him, and his power grows small."" - p 35
""He has rather endured from a period of absolute confusion["]" - p 35
Imagine what we now call mythological beings, such as the minotaur (ignoring that as a metaphor), as actual creatures from a time when natural diversity was much larger. The bringing of 'order' seems to all too often carry w/ it the stamping out of unusual. Jorkas, being a Rara Avis, disappears as possibilities become more narrow-minded. Whenever I'm confused, it's probably usually due to an insufficiency of knowledge or a lack of clarity of communication. I generally prefer to solve this problem thru increasing my understanding. Is an age of "absolute confusion" an age of 'insolvable misunderstanding'?
Jorkas's power becomes so reduced that "the eldritch song Jorkas had been used to sing was turned a lullaby with nonsense words to soothe asleep happy babies in wicker cradles." (p 189) I suppose, as fates go, that's not such a nasty one.
The Traveler in Black identifies himself thusly:
""I have many names, but one nature. You may call me Mazda, or anything you please." - p 12
Many readers may recognize "Mazda" as a brand of car (modest, aren't they?) but how many know this?:
"Major Deities and Figures. The driving forces of Persian mythology were two powerful gods, sometimes presented as twin brothers. Ahura Mazda was the creator, a god of light, truth, and goodness. His enemy Ahriman, the spirit of darkness, lies, and evil, created only destructive things such as vermin, disease, and demons. The world was their battlefield. Although they were equally matched during this period of history, Ahura Mazda was fated to win the fight. For this reason, Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, was the supreme deity of Persian mythology. The Zoroastrians identified him with purifying fire and tended fires on towers as part of their worship." - http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Pa-Pr...
"The Wager Lost by Winning" (the 3rd of 4 tales here) (almost) begins w/:
"Leaning on his staff, the traveler in black stood in the shade of a chestnut-tree and contemplated them as they filed by. Directly he clapped eyes on them, the banners had told him whence they hailed; no city but Teq employed those three special hues in its flag—gold, and silver, and the red of new-spilled blood. They symbolized the moral of a proverb which the traveler knew well, and held barbarous, to the effect that all treasure must be bought by expending life.
"In accordance with that precept, the Lords of Teq, before they inherited their father's estates, must kill all challengers, and did so by any means to hand, whether cleanly by the sword or subtly by drugs and venom. Consequently some persons had come to rule in Teq who were less than fit—great only in their commitment to greed.
""That," said the traveler to the leaves on the chestnut-tree, "is a highly disturbing spectacle!"" - pp 121-122
If the Traveler in Black is Entropy, he's a moral judge form of entropy so I suppose having him be a religious/mythological figure is more apropos. One of the most entertaining aspects of this bk is the 'poetic justice' he metes out by giving the people he encounters 'what they ask for' in a form w/ highly undesirable results for them.
""This I pledge on my life!" the merchant fumed. "If my daughter carries on the way she's going, I shall never want to speak to her again—nor shall I let her in my house!"
""As you wish, so be it," said the traveler. From that moment forward the merchant uttered never a word; dumb, he stood by to watch the fine procession in which the girl went to claim her bridegroom, and before she returned home apoplexy killed him, so that the house was no longer his." - p 131
""I must have been!" Viola moaned. "Would that hasty wish of mine come undone!"
""The second time a person calls upon me," said the traveler, "I may point out the consequences if I choose. Do you truly wish to find yourself once again on the green at Wantwich—alone?"
"There was an awful silence, which she eventually broke with a sob.
""However," the traveler resumed, when he judged she had suffered long enough to imprint the moral permanently on her memory" - p 164
One way I cd 'justify' rereading "Imprint" was by looking for differences between the earlier version & the one printed here. In this version, an epigraph from Ovid begins it:
"Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum unus erat tota naturae vultus in orbe, quen dixere Chaos: rudis indigestaque moles.
—Ovid: Metamorphoses, I 5" - p 7
Wch Google Translate (slightly edited by yrs truly here) transforms to: "Before the sea and the lands of all things of heaven, [there] was one which cover[ed] the whole face of Nature in the world, whom the men have spoken of [as] Chaos, rude and undeveloped mass."
Another bit not in the original is this part:
"Manuus hesitated. "Who," he resumed at length, "imposed—?"
"And his tongue locked in his mouth, while the traveler looked on him with an expression blending cynicism and sympathy. When at last the enchanter was able to speak again, he muttered, "Your pardon. It was of the nature of a test. I had seen it stated that . . ."
""That there are certain questions which one literally and physically is forbidden to ask?" The traveler chuckled. "Why, then, your test has confirmed the fact. I, even I, could not answer the question I suspect you were intending to frame.["]" - p 26
What I'm reminded of here is the notion of YHWH as the unspeakable name of 'God'. "Yahweh is called the Divine Name and the Tetragrammaton, or four-letter word, because it has four letters in Hebrew. Most Jewish people won’t even say Yahweh. Instead, they say HASHEM—a Hebrew word that means “The Name”, or they say Adonai—the Hebrew word for Lord. Yahweh is also called the Ineffable Name, or the unspeakable Name, but God’s Name is not unspeakable." ( http://www.hisnameisyahweh.org/hisnam... ) Until I decided to look up "the unspeakable name of god" online I didn't realize that there's a Christinane controversy over Yahweh's being actually sayable (apparently contrary to the Jewish position).
When I've given any thought to it at all, wch isn't often, I've imagined the Jewish position as meaning that anything truly profound is, by definition, beyond human understanding. Imagine the full 189, 824 letter word for the chemical Titin as an attempt to logically describe the chemical in detail (you can witness 2 relevant works of mine online here: https://vimeo.com/86542569 & here: https://archive.org/details/Piano_Ill... ). Now imagine trying to describe the universe using the same method & inserting ____ (blanks) for everything encountered that you don't have a word for. The description wd hypothetically be infinite, the amt of _____s wd be infinite, the amt of words wd be finite. One might call that an unsayable name.
W/o getting further into theological points that're ultimately just wanker bullshit to me, what I imagine in Brunner's scenario, & as an alternative to theological takes, is something being 'unaskable' by virtue of its utter existence outside of the state of mind in wch questions are asked. People awaking from dreams or coming down from expanded consciousness trips routinely find their memories of the experiences 'indescribable'. It may be that these people have too limited an ability TO describe &/OR that the experience is, in actuality, Indescribable - IE: outside of the parameters of what description is capable of b/c of the limits of description. If something is indescribable there's the possibility that no words exist to describe it &/OR that words, by their very nature, are in adequate. Cd the same thing that's postulated here for description also be possibly 'true' of questions?
I'm always thankful to writers who expose me to words I don't already know. "Geas" was the main one here: "geas [..] Pronunciation: /geSH [..] (In Irish folklore) an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on a person." ( http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/... ) The Traveler in Black's rooting in various mythologies reminds me of Brunner's 1968 Bedlam Planet wch is prefaced by this Author's Note: "In writing this novel I have made extensive use of the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology" (the interested reader can see my review of that here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... )
Brunner creates some fictional etymology too: ""And do not lament excessively for Ys. For cities, as for men, there comes a Time . . . Besides, there is a prophecy: a prince shall seek a name for his new capital, and he'll be told of Ys, and out of envy for its greatness he will say, 'I name my city Parys, equal to Ys.'"" (p 117) Wch I counter w/ this quote from the Online Etymology Dictionary:
"Paris [,] capital of France, from Gallo-Latin Lutetia Parisorum (in Late Latin also Parisii), name of a fortified town of the Gaulish tribe of the Parisii, who had a capital there; literally "Parisian swamps" (compare Old Irish loth "dirt," Welsh lludedic "muddy, slimy").
"The tribal name is of unknown origin, but traditionally derived from a Celtic par "boat" (perhaps related to Greek baris; see barge (n.)), hence the ship on the city's coat of arms." - http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?t...
Of course, Brunner's version of Paris's etymology is one way of setting the story in a mythical past. Another tactic for the same purpose is to occasionally use slightly archaic language: "Garch's trusted counselors were three, as aforesaid." (p 193)
All 4 of the stories begin w/ a conjunction of planets: "Accordingly, on the day after the conjunction of four significant planets in that vicinity, he set forth" (p 9) "this season followed the conjunction of four significant planets hereabout" (p 71) "or perhaps if they were learned in curious arts and aware of the significance of the conjunction of the four planets presently ornamenting the southern sky in a highly ornamented pattern." (p 122) "leaving the shop lit only—through a skylight—by the far-off gleam of four crucial conjunct planets wheeling downward from the zenithal line." (p 183) A conjunction of planets representing a sort of form-out-of-chaos, perhaps? What I think of is the March 9, 1982 Party for People from the Future during a conjunction of the planets - organized by the Krononautic Organism (a project founded by the fertile imagination of Richard Ellsberry in BalTimOre).
In the 2nd part, "Break the Door of Hell", there's this: "Women, too, passed: high-wimpled dames attended by maids and dandling curious unnamable pets; harlots in diaphanous cloaks through which it was not quite possible if they were diseased" (p 80) wch reminds me of this in Jacob Aranza's 1983 Backward Masking Unmasked - Backward Satanic Messages of Rock and Roll Exposed:
"Allen Parsons Project also has an album entitled Eve. The album's front cover reveals two ladies' faces behind veils. If you take a close look you can see that both ladies have sores and warts on their faces.
"One state's venereal disease investigator looked at the warts and sores on the faces in the picture and concluded that the ladies in the picture were suffering from secondary syphilis.
"How many young people listening to Eve realize that the theme of the album is VD?" - p 65
I'll bet Allen Parsons wd be surprised that that's the theme of his record (esp since he spells his name "Alan")!
Not all of the Elementals left over from the time of chaos & defeated by the Traveler are harmful to the more orderly world of the humans: "At one side of this green was a pond of sweet water which the traveler in black had consigned to the charge of the being Horimos, for whom he had conceived a peculiar affection on discovering that this one alone among all the elementals was too lazy to be harmful, desiring mainly to be left in peace." (p 132)
Did you ever wonder about the Beatles song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"?: "authorizing the mansion's master smith to forge the silver hammer-head." (p 195) "that mirror was cracked across, and the traveler knew with what hammer the blow would have been struck: silver-headed, hafted with a portion of his anatomy that some man—albeit briefly—would have lived to regret the loss of." (209)
According to Wikipedia, "Linda McCartney reports that Paul had become interested in avant-garde theatre and had immersed himself in the writings of Alfred Jarry. This influence is reflected in the story and tone of the song, and also explains how Paul came across Jarry's word “pataphysical”, which occurs in the lyrics." Furthermore, "In 1994, McCartney said that the song merely epitomises the downfalls of life, being "my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer. I don't know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell's hammer." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell&... )
Now, I love Jarry's work, so this unexpected reference to it delights me. When I started researching the silver hammer for this review, I expected to find some common mythological reference, not Jarry. However, the only hammer I know of in myth is Thor's & I don't recall it being silver. U still think Brunner took the image from myth but it may just be a variant on familiar imagery.
All in all, for people interested in mythology, Brunner's spin-off will probably be a delight.
John Brunner's The Traveler in Black
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 20, 2014
I have a paper bag full of John Brunner bks on the floor of my bedroom, where I do most of my reading. When I need a break from whatever more challenging bks I'm reading (it's been William Gaddis's The Recognitions + others for quite some time now) I dip into the bag & pull one out. Two dips ago I pulled out Now Then, a collection of 3 novellas that include his earliest published story + a bit called "Imprint of Chaos". My review of Now Then is here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... . The most recent Brunner dip produced The Traveler in Black. I noticed that a revised "Imprint of Chaos" began this & that 3 more tales developed the initial idea further. I almost put it back in the bag to pick another one b/c, while I liked "Imprint of Chaos" I didn't want to repeat read it & wallow in what I consider to be a somewhat minor Brunner work.
In my review of "Imprint of Chaos" I postulate the Traveler in Black as Entropy Personified & quote the following to substantiate this: "The black-clad man chuckled. 'He to whom the task was given of bringing order out of chaos in the universe,' he replied."
Now, according to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio... , entropy is:
"2 a : the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity"
wch (ignoring the implications of the word "degradation") describes the Traveler in Black's purpose quite well. HOWEVER, the "b" part of the above definition:
"2 b : a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder"
- in particular the "trend to disorder" is the OPPOSITE of the Traveler in Black's goal. So wch is he? Entropy Personified? Or Anti-Entropy Personified? I think he's Entropy Personified w/ "entropy" meaning the bringing chaos into order:
"["]I am he to whom was entrusted the task of bringing order forth from chaos. Hence the reason why I have but one nature."" - p 26
"["]what is the purpose of your task?""
[..]
""Why! When all things have but one nature, they will be subsumed into the Original All. Time will stop. This conclusion is desirable."
Manuus looked sourly at the brazier. "Desirable, perhaps—but appallingly dull.["]" - pp 26-27
I think I wd've asked: 'Why is it "desirable" & to what? Whom?" Also, I'm no sure I don't agree w/ Manuus's position: is order necessarily preferable to chaos? I'm sure many people in my lifetime have been preoccupied w/ that issue upon noticing that the 'order' imposed on them isn't one conducive to the flourishing of their natural strengths. Take the character Jorkas:
"this was not a young man riding a horse, nor was there in fact a horse being ridden, but some sort of confusion of the two, in that the man's legs were not separated at all from his mount. They ended in fleshy stalks, uniting with the belly of that part of the composite animal resembling a horse." - p 33
""Yes, he bears the imprint of chaos, does he not?" said the man in black. "He is left over, so to speak. He is fairly harmless; things have by-passed him, and his power grows small."" - p 35
""He has rather endured from a period of absolute confusion["]" - p 35
Imagine what we now call mythological beings, such as the minotaur (ignoring that as a metaphor), as actual creatures from a time when natural diversity was much larger. The bringing of 'order' seems to all too often carry w/ it the stamping out of unusual. Jorkas, being a Rara Avis, disappears as possibilities become more narrow-minded. Whenever I'm confused, it's probably usually due to an insufficiency of knowledge or a lack of clarity of communication. I generally prefer to solve this problem thru increasing my understanding. Is an age of "absolute confusion" an age of 'insolvable misunderstanding'?
Jorkas's power becomes so reduced that "the eldritch song Jorkas had been used to sing was turned a lullaby with nonsense words to soothe asleep happy babies in wicker cradles." (p 189) I suppose, as fates go, that's not such a nasty one.
The Traveler in Black identifies himself thusly:
""I have many names, but one nature. You may call me Mazda, or anything you please." - p 12
Many readers may recognize "Mazda" as a brand of car (modest, aren't they?) but how many know this?:
"Major Deities and Figures. The driving forces of Persian mythology were two powerful gods, sometimes presented as twin brothers. Ahura Mazda was the creator, a god of light, truth, and goodness. His enemy Ahriman, the spirit of darkness, lies, and evil, created only destructive things such as vermin, disease, and demons. The world was their battlefield. Although they were equally matched during this period of history, Ahura Mazda was fated to win the fight. For this reason, Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, was the supreme deity of Persian mythology. The Zoroastrians identified him with purifying fire and tended fires on towers as part of their worship." - http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Pa-Pr...
"The Wager Lost by Winning" (the 3rd of 4 tales here) (almost) begins w/:
"Leaning on his staff, the traveler in black stood in the shade of a chestnut-tree and contemplated them as they filed by. Directly he clapped eyes on them, the banners had told him whence they hailed; no city but Teq employed those three special hues in its flag—gold, and silver, and the red of new-spilled blood. They symbolized the moral of a proverb which the traveler knew well, and held barbarous, to the effect that all treasure must be bought by expending life.
"In accordance with that precept, the Lords of Teq, before they inherited their father's estates, must kill all challengers, and did so by any means to hand, whether cleanly by the sword or subtly by drugs and venom. Consequently some persons had come to rule in Teq who were less than fit—great only in their commitment to greed.
""That," said the traveler to the leaves on the chestnut-tree, "is a highly disturbing spectacle!"" - pp 121-122
If the Traveler in Black is Entropy, he's a moral judge form of entropy so I suppose having him be a religious/mythological figure is more apropos. One of the most entertaining aspects of this bk is the 'poetic justice' he metes out by giving the people he encounters 'what they ask for' in a form w/ highly undesirable results for them.
""This I pledge on my life!" the merchant fumed. "If my daughter carries on the way she's going, I shall never want to speak to her again—nor shall I let her in my house!"
""As you wish, so be it," said the traveler. From that moment forward the merchant uttered never a word; dumb, he stood by to watch the fine procession in which the girl went to claim her bridegroom, and before she returned home apoplexy killed him, so that the house was no longer his." - p 131
""I must have been!" Viola moaned. "Would that hasty wish of mine come undone!"
""The second time a person calls upon me," said the traveler, "I may point out the consequences if I choose. Do you truly wish to find yourself once again on the green at Wantwich—alone?"
"There was an awful silence, which she eventually broke with a sob.
""However," the traveler resumed, when he judged she had suffered long enough to imprint the moral permanently on her memory" - p 164
One way I cd 'justify' rereading "Imprint" was by looking for differences between the earlier version & the one printed here. In this version, an epigraph from Ovid begins it:
"Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum unus erat tota naturae vultus in orbe, quen dixere Chaos: rudis indigestaque moles.
—Ovid: Metamorphoses, I 5" - p 7
Wch Google Translate (slightly edited by yrs truly here) transforms to: "Before the sea and the lands of all things of heaven, [there] was one which cover[ed] the whole face of Nature in the world, whom the men have spoken of [as] Chaos, rude and undeveloped mass."
Another bit not in the original is this part:
"Manuus hesitated. "Who," he resumed at length, "imposed—?"
"And his tongue locked in his mouth, while the traveler looked on him with an expression blending cynicism and sympathy. When at last the enchanter was able to speak again, he muttered, "Your pardon. It was of the nature of a test. I had seen it stated that . . ."
""That there are certain questions which one literally and physically is forbidden to ask?" The traveler chuckled. "Why, then, your test has confirmed the fact. I, even I, could not answer the question I suspect you were intending to frame.["]" - p 26
What I'm reminded of here is the notion of YHWH as the unspeakable name of 'God'. "Yahweh is called the Divine Name and the Tetragrammaton, or four-letter word, because it has four letters in Hebrew. Most Jewish people won’t even say Yahweh. Instead, they say HASHEM—a Hebrew word that means “The Name”, or they say Adonai—the Hebrew word for Lord. Yahweh is also called the Ineffable Name, or the unspeakable Name, but God’s Name is not unspeakable." ( http://www.hisnameisyahweh.org/hisnam... ) Until I decided to look up "the unspeakable name of god" online I didn't realize that there's a Christinane controversy over Yahweh's being actually sayable (apparently contrary to the Jewish position).
When I've given any thought to it at all, wch isn't often, I've imagined the Jewish position as meaning that anything truly profound is, by definition, beyond human understanding. Imagine the full 189, 824 letter word for the chemical Titin as an attempt to logically describe the chemical in detail (you can witness 2 relevant works of mine online here: https://vimeo.com/86542569 & here: https://archive.org/details/Piano_Ill... ). Now imagine trying to describe the universe using the same method & inserting ____ (blanks) for everything encountered that you don't have a word for. The description wd hypothetically be infinite, the amt of _____s wd be infinite, the amt of words wd be finite. One might call that an unsayable name.
W/o getting further into theological points that're ultimately just wanker bullshit to me, what I imagine in Brunner's scenario, & as an alternative to theological takes, is something being 'unaskable' by virtue of its utter existence outside of the state of mind in wch questions are asked. People awaking from dreams or coming down from expanded consciousness trips routinely find their memories of the experiences 'indescribable'. It may be that these people have too limited an ability TO describe &/OR that the experience is, in actuality, Indescribable - IE: outside of the parameters of what description is capable of b/c of the limits of description. If something is indescribable there's the possibility that no words exist to describe it &/OR that words, by their very nature, are in adequate. Cd the same thing that's postulated here for description also be possibly 'true' of questions?
I'm always thankful to writers who expose me to words I don't already know. "Geas" was the main one here: "geas [..] Pronunciation: /geSH [..] (In Irish folklore) an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on a person." ( http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/... ) The Traveler in Black's rooting in various mythologies reminds me of Brunner's 1968 Bedlam Planet wch is prefaced by this Author's Note: "In writing this novel I have made extensive use of the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology" (the interested reader can see my review of that here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... )
Brunner creates some fictional etymology too: ""And do not lament excessively for Ys. For cities, as for men, there comes a Time . . . Besides, there is a prophecy: a prince shall seek a name for his new capital, and he'll be told of Ys, and out of envy for its greatness he will say, 'I name my city Parys, equal to Ys.'"" (p 117) Wch I counter w/ this quote from the Online Etymology Dictionary:
"Paris [,] capital of France, from Gallo-Latin Lutetia Parisorum (in Late Latin also Parisii), name of a fortified town of the Gaulish tribe of the Parisii, who had a capital there; literally "Parisian swamps" (compare Old Irish loth "dirt," Welsh lludedic "muddy, slimy").
"The tribal name is of unknown origin, but traditionally derived from a Celtic par "boat" (perhaps related to Greek baris; see barge (n.)), hence the ship on the city's coat of arms." - http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?t...
Of course, Brunner's version of Paris's etymology is one way of setting the story in a mythical past. Another tactic for the same purpose is to occasionally use slightly archaic language: "Garch's trusted counselors were three, as aforesaid." (p 193)
All 4 of the stories begin w/ a conjunction of planets: "Accordingly, on the day after the conjunction of four significant planets in that vicinity, he set forth" (p 9) "this season followed the conjunction of four significant planets hereabout" (p 71) "or perhaps if they were learned in curious arts and aware of the significance of the conjunction of the four planets presently ornamenting the southern sky in a highly ornamented pattern." (p 122) "leaving the shop lit only—through a skylight—by the far-off gleam of four crucial conjunct planets wheeling downward from the zenithal line." (p 183) A conjunction of planets representing a sort of form-out-of-chaos, perhaps? What I think of is the March 9, 1982 Party for People from the Future during a conjunction of the planets - organized by the Krononautic Organism (a project founded by the fertile imagination of Richard Ellsberry in BalTimOre).
In the 2nd part, "Break the Door of Hell", there's this: "Women, too, passed: high-wimpled dames attended by maids and dandling curious unnamable pets; harlots in diaphanous cloaks through which it was not quite possible if they were diseased" (p 80) wch reminds me of this in Jacob Aranza's 1983 Backward Masking Unmasked - Backward Satanic Messages of Rock and Roll Exposed:
"Allen Parsons Project also has an album entitled Eve. The album's front cover reveals two ladies' faces behind veils. If you take a close look you can see that both ladies have sores and warts on their faces.
"One state's venereal disease investigator looked at the warts and sores on the faces in the picture and concluded that the ladies in the picture were suffering from secondary syphilis.
"How many young people listening to Eve realize that the theme of the album is VD?" - p 65
I'll bet Allen Parsons wd be surprised that that's the theme of his record (esp since he spells his name "Alan")!
Not all of the Elementals left over from the time of chaos & defeated by the Traveler are harmful to the more orderly world of the humans: "At one side of this green was a pond of sweet water which the traveler in black had consigned to the charge of the being Horimos, for whom he had conceived a peculiar affection on discovering that this one alone among all the elementals was too lazy to be harmful, desiring mainly to be left in peace." (p 132)
Did you ever wonder about the Beatles song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"?: "authorizing the mansion's master smith to forge the silver hammer-head." (p 195) "that mirror was cracked across, and the traveler knew with what hammer the blow would have been struck: silver-headed, hafted with a portion of his anatomy that some man—albeit briefly—would have lived to regret the loss of." (209)
According to Wikipedia, "Linda McCartney reports that Paul had become interested in avant-garde theatre and had immersed himself in the writings of Alfred Jarry. This influence is reflected in the story and tone of the song, and also explains how Paul came across Jarry's word “pataphysical”, which occurs in the lyrics." Furthermore, "In 1994, McCartney said that the song merely epitomises the downfalls of life, being "my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer. I don't know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell's hammer." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell&... )
Now, I love Jarry's work, so this unexpected reference to it delights me. When I started researching the silver hammer for this review, I expected to find some common mythological reference, not Jarry. However, the only hammer I know of in myth is Thor's & I don't recall it being silver. U still think Brunner took the image from myth but it may just be a variant on familiar imagery.
All in all, for people interested in mythology, Brunner's spin-off will probably be a delight.
October 31, 2018
Normally, when I hear or read the phrase, “As you wish,” I think of Wesley and Buttercup. In John Brunner’s The Traveler in Black, the phrase has quite a different meaning. Consisting of four previously published pieces of short fiction revised to craft a coherent story arch, The Traveler in Black is the individual with many names, but one nature. He is the epitome of order in a battle between Chaos and Order proportional to Dorian Hawkmoon’s quest for balance as told by Michael Moorcock. However, as opposed to establishing balance, Brunner’s Traveler falls distinctly on the side of Order.
In The Traveler in Black, wishes have consequences, but the Traveler uses them creatively to transform and stabilize the situation. The wishes themselves receive their fulfilment in a karmic fashion from the motivation and essence of the individual wishing. This is handled with intricate precision in that one isn’t certain when the individual wishes as to what the results might be. Sometimes, the wishes will have the kinds of backlashes one associates with “The Monkey’s Paw.” Sometimes, the wish introduces hardships from which the good folks will emerge triumphant.
The first story revolves around the idea of sacrifice and placating the gods. The Traveler finds the conception of gods to be repugnant and chaotic, so he provides a paradigmatic demonstration of a god who isn’t a god, demonstrating that the city which has clamored for a god doesn’t need one. It’s a story of which Freud would be pleased in that it relegates a sense of the divine with an irrational wish fulfillment. Even though I don’t agree that anti-theism equals rationality and theism equals irrationality, I have to admit that the way Brunner works this idea is fascinating.
My favorite story is the second. In the second story, the indolent citizens of a declining civilization decide to blame all their problems on their ancestors. Is it just me or does this also verge on the Freudian? Yet, the way the ancestors get something of the last word is particularly fascinating, as is the twist at the end.
Issues of slavery and freedom, as well as how the meaning of chance fits into life, are the lynch pins of the third story. The antagonists (who are so Objectivist as to make Ayn Rand proud) in this story offer something of a parable against greed and sloth compared to the benign and industrious nature of their victims.
Finally, many stories deal with light and darkness as metaphors for good and evil. The fourth and final story in The Traveler in Black involves a lamp/candle manufacturer who, in antithesis of his profession, has a dark heart and is fascinated by the power promised in darkness. This story is particularly interesting as it deals with the identity and purpose of the many-named Traveler himself, interwoven with those who care nothing for others and those trying not to harm.
The Traveler in Black offers four intriguing narratives, all of which give the reader something to think about. Normally, I prefer longer forms of fiction, but Brunner weaved these tales together in such an appropriate way that it almost felt like a novel.
In The Traveler in Black, wishes have consequences, but the Traveler uses them creatively to transform and stabilize the situation. The wishes themselves receive their fulfilment in a karmic fashion from the motivation and essence of the individual wishing. This is handled with intricate precision in that one isn’t certain when the individual wishes as to what the results might be. Sometimes, the wishes will have the kinds of backlashes one associates with “The Monkey’s Paw.” Sometimes, the wish introduces hardships from which the good folks will emerge triumphant.
The first story revolves around the idea of sacrifice and placating the gods. The Traveler finds the conception of gods to be repugnant and chaotic, so he provides a paradigmatic demonstration of a god who isn’t a god, demonstrating that the city which has clamored for a god doesn’t need one. It’s a story of which Freud would be pleased in that it relegates a sense of the divine with an irrational wish fulfillment. Even though I don’t agree that anti-theism equals rationality and theism equals irrationality, I have to admit that the way Brunner works this idea is fascinating.
My favorite story is the second. In the second story, the indolent citizens of a declining civilization decide to blame all their problems on their ancestors. Is it just me or does this also verge on the Freudian? Yet, the way the ancestors get something of the last word is particularly fascinating, as is the twist at the end.
Issues of slavery and freedom, as well as how the meaning of chance fits into life, are the lynch pins of the third story. The antagonists (who are so Objectivist as to make Ayn Rand proud) in this story offer something of a parable against greed and sloth compared to the benign and industrious nature of their victims.
Finally, many stories deal with light and darkness as metaphors for good and evil. The fourth and final story in The Traveler in Black involves a lamp/candle manufacturer who, in antithesis of his profession, has a dark heart and is fascinated by the power promised in darkness. This story is particularly interesting as it deals with the identity and purpose of the many-named Traveler himself, interwoven with those who care nothing for others and those trying not to harm.
The Traveler in Black offers four intriguing narratives, all of which give the reader something to think about. Normally, I prefer longer forms of fiction, but Brunner weaved these tales together in such an appropriate way that it almost felt like a novel.
March 1, 2018
aggiornamento vecchio libro letto chissà quando
April 27, 2014
Somehow I expected a bit more of this one. It was enjoyable, yes, and the setting was something not seen too often (King later used a similar setting for his Dark Tower series), but all in all it was a bit too flowery in its' prose and too skimpy on actual plot.
Well, technically it is a collection of short stories, although the way they are presented makes them appear more like an actual novel. There is a sense of continuity between different stories. One element from one story will for sure appear in the next, and stories harken back to earlier ones without explanation. Also there is a continuing exploration of the main character's quest.
So, more of a novel then.
It follows the travels of the Traveller in Black who has many names but only one nature, as he travels through a surreal world that seems to be neither here nor there and definitely not really our past or future, trying to bring order to chaos.
His gimmick is that he grants wishes and will do so in the most unexpected and ironic ways possible, sometimes to his own deep regret
It might be interesting to note that this book, similar to The Lord of the Rings, is about the loss of magic. The continuing quest of the Traveller is one that causes the magic to go away and slowly transforms the brutish world he inhabits into something rational, but ultimately more survivable. Where the early stories are very much in the vein of Sword and Sorcery, with gory human sacrifices and questionable morals, later stories more and more evoke a more civilized society.
Well, technically it is a collection of short stories, although the way they are presented makes them appear more like an actual novel. There is a sense of continuity between different stories. One element from one story will for sure appear in the next, and stories harken back to earlier ones without explanation. Also there is a continuing exploration of the main character's quest.
So, more of a novel then.
It follows the travels of the Traveller in Black who has many names but only one nature, as he travels through a surreal world that seems to be neither here nor there and definitely not really our past or future, trying to bring order to chaos.
His gimmick is that he grants wishes and will do so in the most unexpected and ironic ways possible, sometimes to his own deep regret
It might be interesting to note that this book, similar to The Lord of the Rings, is about the loss of magic. The continuing quest of the Traveller is one that causes the magic to go away and slowly transforms the brutish world he inhabits into something rational, but ultimately more survivable. Where the early stories are very much in the vein of Sword and Sorcery, with gory human sacrifices and questionable morals, later stories more and more evoke a more civilized society.
December 9, 2014
I came across this book recently on my 'books I've read' pile, but I couldn't remember anything about it so decided to give it a re-read. It didn't take too long before I realised I had never read this book before. There is absolutely no way I would ever have forgotten the Traveller, the man with many names but only one nature. And there is no way I would ever have forgotten the phrase, "as you wish, so be it". I am so glad I found this little gem of a book, and rescued it from mis-shelving.
This is fantasy at it's best, and an object lesson in being careful what you wish for. On the surface it is a simple book, actually a group of short stories, connected through the Traveller. Depending on which version of the book you are reading you may get four stories, or you may get five. I had the 4 story version, and will be hunting to see if I can find a copy of the Compleat Traveler in Black so I can read the story I missed.
At the heart of this book are people. People always seem to want what they don't have. We are never satisfied, but always looking at some goal, believing if we just had that, we would be happy. And then along comes the Traveller, who grants these wishes to the people he meets. But, as one character comes to observe, we should think more carefully. The assassin would have been better off if people hadn't known about his crimes, but pride got the better of him. Stories like this abound in the Traveler in Black. Read and enjoy.
And be very careful what you wish for.
This is fantasy at it's best, and an object lesson in being careful what you wish for. On the surface it is a simple book, actually a group of short stories, connected through the Traveller. Depending on which version of the book you are reading you may get four stories, or you may get five. I had the 4 story version, and will be hunting to see if I can find a copy of the Compleat Traveler in Black so I can read the story I missed.
At the heart of this book are people. People always seem to want what they don't have. We are never satisfied, but always looking at some goal, believing if we just had that, we would be happy. And then along comes the Traveller, who grants these wishes to the people he meets. But, as one character comes to observe, we should think more carefully. The assassin would have been better off if people hadn't known about his crimes, but pride got the better of him. Stories like this abound in the Traveler in Black. Read and enjoy.
And be very careful what you wish for.
June 3, 2013
My! My! John Brunner is yet another majestic wordsmith that I will have to start becoming much more familiar with; especially on the strength of these extraordinarily cogent, erudite, and downright philosophical parables, about the errant nature of man, and the Traveler in Black's witty, trans-formative adventures within a land beset with misfortune and magical malfeasance.
These are beautifully written tales, whereby the enigmatic titular character, in his own inimitable way, strives, unambiguously, to bring order to chaos; and to be fair, some of his ice-cold, sardonic dealings with despotic landowners, conniving shop-owners etc. are downright vicious; the dude in black is a zero tolerance magus; bringing added pungency to the hoary old adage 'be careful what you wish for!'
Like all exemplary weavers of literary magic, John Brunner creates a fully-realized intro-verse; one where the reader can plunge himself / herself into so deeply, that one's prosaic surroundings become immaterial, a mere page into his luminous prose!
He certainly raised the bar to vertiginous levels with this exemplary tome! Such an enjoyable read; and the rich, dense vocabulary is a real joy to circumnavigate.
These are beautifully written tales, whereby the enigmatic titular character, in his own inimitable way, strives, unambiguously, to bring order to chaos; and to be fair, some of his ice-cold, sardonic dealings with despotic landowners, conniving shop-owners etc. are downright vicious; the dude in black is a zero tolerance magus; bringing added pungency to the hoary old adage 'be careful what you wish for!'
Like all exemplary weavers of literary magic, John Brunner creates a fully-realized intro-verse; one where the reader can plunge himself / herself into so deeply, that one's prosaic surroundings become immaterial, a mere page into his luminous prose!
He certainly raised the bar to vertiginous levels with this exemplary tome! Such an enjoyable read; and the rich, dense vocabulary is a real joy to circumnavigate.
October 4, 2016
Found this one in one of my local bookstore for just a buck!! I have been looking for a copy for years and I couldn't leave it behind, lol. The premise and artwork on the cover drew me in, even though I am unfamiliar with the author. The stories begin strong, but my interest waned with the Traveler's redundancy. "As you wish, so be it." Simplistic, but profound with the power those words convey. Aside from this I really enjoyed it and thought that it read a lot like Gene Wolfe. I recommend it.
November 30, 2025
I really enjoyed this collection of 5 linked tales featuring The Traveller in Black - a prophet-like figure who travels around granting people their wishes, only to have them realize those things were not really what they wished for. The prose has a light painterly quality. There are some villains in the stories, but no heroes. The Traveller in Black himself is more like a vehicle than a character - he even describes himself as a person with many names but only one nature. But he does undergo some personal growth by the end. Tonally, it reminded me somewhat of Tanith Lee's Flat Earth books, but without all the dark, demonic, atmosphere, and so lighter hearted than those, even though many characters meet sad ends after getting what they wished for. 4.5 out of 5.
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November 8, 2023The first Brunner that I've read which is almost purely science fiction, bearing next to no direct relation to our dear old Planet Earth. But, of course, all fiction--even the most removed from Planet Earth--has been written by us, about us, and for us, and The Traveller in Black encounters very familiar emotions, lusts, and fates on his travels. Very much a "be careful what you wish for; you might get it" narrative, it also deals with fading belief in magic (or spirit) and, thus, addresses quite effectively the 'secular age of realism' into which it was issued.
April 30, 2023
Difficult to read yet simplistic. Awkward writing. Unsurprising plot. No characters. No world building. Little action. Few ideas.Fable-like. Tension between chaos and order, good and evil, magic and science, time and eternity. Finished second story and stopped. First exposure to a Brunner. I'm sure I'm the problem.
August 10, 2025
Bit repetitive - reminds me of the John Varley Titan books, which I also didn’t love but respect. Feels so totally separate from the Bruner I do enjoy that it’s almost by a different person? Fairy tales, cycles, entropy. Overall read “cute”
October 6, 2022
Early Bird Book Deal | Tedious | The same thing happened over and over, just different examples of bad people getting what they asked for, but not in the way they expected it, so they suffered from it. Repeatedly.
May 10, 2017
The traveller in black has many names but a single nature, and carries a staff of curdled light. Whenever four planets are in a certain conjunction he is bound to walk the lands on the borders of order and chaos. The task that has been entrusted to him is to working towards banishing chaos, so that the cities of the borderlands can move from the land of chaos and eternity into the real world of order and time. As well as being able to bind elementals and limit their powers, one of the other ways he carries out his task is by granting the wishes of the people he meets, although not usually in the way they would have hoped. As the centuries pass and common sense gradually replaces a belief in magic, ever fewer of the people he meets on his travels have heard of him, and he realises that his ages long task may be coming to an end.
The five stories in this book were originally published separately, and it reads more like mythology than fantasy. I hadn't realised that John Brunner wrote fantasy as well as science fiction, but I found "The Compleat Traveller in Black" very interesting indeed.
The five stories in this book were originally published separately, and it reads more like mythology than fantasy. I hadn't realised that John Brunner wrote fantasy as well as science fiction, but I found "The Compleat Traveller in Black" very interesting indeed.
November 26, 2009
A nameless traveler with great powers is tasked with removing magic from the world. He does this by granting wishes which inevitably backfire by destroying the remaining vestiges of wonder and magic. At the start the Traveler laughs at the people whose foolish wishes he grants, but by the end he is deeply melancholy about the loss of magic in the world. These stories are drawn from various stages of Brunner's career and they reflect his evolution as a writer. He was clearly drawn to return to the idea of the Traveler many times and his attitude regarding the Traveler's mission changed over the years.
August 22, 2014
Inventive. Provoking. I like this fellow of many names and the consequences of his one nature as portrayed within this book. These consequences and scenarios allow for some reflection and my thoughts wandered a number of times. I haven't jumped into a book with enchanters and riddles in a long while and it took a few chapters for me to transition, but, I was soon riding along the prose and was captivated by it. It's refreshingly non-reliant on Tolkien mythology.
October 6, 2008
This was a book that blew me away when I first read it as a young man.
It took sci-fi/fantasy somewhere I hadn't seen before. A real eye-opener, and exquisitely written.
About time I re-read it...
It took sci-fi/fantasy somewhere I hadn't seen before. A real eye-opener, and exquisitely written.
About time I re-read it...
December 11, 2014
The Brunner variations on a theme of order and chaos. The Traveller in Black is a force of order in a chaotic world of men, gods and demi-gods. Brunner is inventive in his vignettes of man's foibles and we are often led to conclude: "be careful what you wish for."
October 20, 2016
I should really re-read this.
November 14, 2023
3.5/5
A short fix-up novel set in a dying earth setting. A mysterious and powerful figure, known as the traveler in black, takes a repeated journey through a world in which chaos prevents the use of common sense, where time has no meaning, and magic prevents the development of medieval technology. The traveler in black, who is the only entity of one nature, is tasked with incarcerating the elementals and rooting out the enchanters to bring order and reason to the realm.
I enjoyed this work quite a bit more than I anticipated. I really got on well with the prose that John Brunner uses; a rich, detailed, even baroque style that has a wonderful breadth of vocabulary. It suits the setting well, and he's able to paint the picture of a dimension in turmoil quickly and effectively. Atmosphere is definitely one of, if not the strong suit of the novel.
It's also kind of a ripping yarn. The Traveler in Black consists of four 50ish page vignettes that are all independent for the most part, but rely on each other for deeper understanding of the world. They weren't all consistence in terms of quality, yet I enjoyed them all in turn. The pacing of the story is good, and plot is interesting, leading to a quick and enjoyable read with a solid ending. Unfortunately, there was a fair bit of repetition in the story beats that I grew tired of over time, and the characters were mostly just cardboard cutouts to suit the chosen themes. The traveler himself is memorable, but not exactly fresh. I appreciated the wry sense of wit that he has, which was a welcome reprieve amongst the rest of the character work.
The Traveler in Black mostly focuses on a series of morality dramas in which the traveler plays judge, jury, and executioner. Science, reason, and logic are seen as wholly good forces, and magic is seen conversely as an evil one. Anyone who is willing to exploit magic for their own gain, regardless of how just they may be, are grouped in with the sinners. Also repeated at length is the idea of being careful what you wish for. It's fairly dull stuff as far as the themes goes, which is my main reasoning for not giving the book a higher score.
As long as your expectations are tempered going in, not expecting it to be groundbreaking, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. It reads like a dark and twisted fairy tale most of the time, in the best way. There's apparently a version with a fifth story, written later than the others. If it says anything about how much I liked the book, I'm very interested in procuring that version should I stumble across it.
A short fix-up novel set in a dying earth setting. A mysterious and powerful figure, known as the traveler in black, takes a repeated journey through a world in which chaos prevents the use of common sense, where time has no meaning, and magic prevents the development of medieval technology. The traveler in black, who is the only entity of one nature, is tasked with incarcerating the elementals and rooting out the enchanters to bring order and reason to the realm.
I enjoyed this work quite a bit more than I anticipated. I really got on well with the prose that John Brunner uses; a rich, detailed, even baroque style that has a wonderful breadth of vocabulary. It suits the setting well, and he's able to paint the picture of a dimension in turmoil quickly and effectively. Atmosphere is definitely one of, if not the strong suit of the novel.
It's also kind of a ripping yarn. The Traveler in Black consists of four 50ish page vignettes that are all independent for the most part, but rely on each other for deeper understanding of the world. They weren't all consistence in terms of quality, yet I enjoyed them all in turn. The pacing of the story is good, and plot is interesting, leading to a quick and enjoyable read with a solid ending. Unfortunately, there was a fair bit of repetition in the story beats that I grew tired of over time, and the characters were mostly just cardboard cutouts to suit the chosen themes. The traveler himself is memorable, but not exactly fresh. I appreciated the wry sense of wit that he has, which was a welcome reprieve amongst the rest of the character work.
The Traveler in Black mostly focuses on a series of morality dramas in which the traveler plays judge, jury, and executioner. Science, reason, and logic are seen as wholly good forces, and magic is seen conversely as an evil one. Anyone who is willing to exploit magic for their own gain, regardless of how just they may be, are grouped in with the sinners. Also repeated at length is the idea of being careful what you wish for. It's fairly dull stuff as far as the themes goes, which is my main reasoning for not giving the book a higher score.
As long as your expectations are tempered going in, not expecting it to be groundbreaking, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. It reads like a dark and twisted fairy tale most of the time, in the best way. There's apparently a version with a fifth story, written later than the others. If it says anything about how much I liked the book, I'm very interested in procuring that version should I stumble across it.
January 14, 2025
Brunner's foray into Dunsanian-Vancian fantasy. The novelettes contained within follow the titular Traveler in Black, an agent of Order who seeks to bring reason out of Chaos. While this may evoke comparisons to Moorcock's Eternal Champion sequence, these novelettes are less adventures and more parables. Commentary on the caprices of the ruling class and human behaviour.
Set in a metaphysical borderland between Reason and Chaos, each novelette opens with the Traveler commencing his usual circuit of those cities which populate the borderland. He wanders from situation to situation, seeking to subtly guide those mortals he encounters towards abandoning irrationality and chaos (magic). More often than not, said mortals (often enchanters) wish for something in a moment of despair. The Traveler then ruefully grants their wish, often with dire consequences for the wisher. This is more or less the format each novelette follows, each building a little bit on the previous work with some nods towards past characters, the Traveler's exploits, and the gradual transformation of the interstitial setting.
The borderland world of the Traveler will be familiar to one who's read the likes of Dunsany. Elementals are bound hither and thither to different landmarks, their influence manifesting in unending rainbows and dust devils. Some are more or less the gods of nearby settlements which rely on their power. Enchanters rule cities a la Dying Earth, using their magic for mercantile purposes or to empower themselves while they oppress their citizens. It's fun fare and Brunner does manage to evoke the sense of an inchoate world shedding the last vestiges of magic as it accelerates towards reason. However, the stories are somewhat slight, and feel a mite repetitive with their formulaic structure.
Brunner's prose also felt more obtuse than suited these tales at times. Less evocative, and more mildly puzzling. I wondered while reading if this was a symptom of Brunner having a stronger basis in science fiction than fantasy. Given how often the lines between the genres are blurred, I'm not sure if this is a fair or accurate assessment on my part. The stories are fortunately enhanced by Brunner's wry sense of humour. I often found myself laughing out loud at the Traveler's observations and situations he encountered.
A fun read if you're a fan of the aforementioned authors, or 60s/70s fantasy with a different flavour.
Set in a metaphysical borderland between Reason and Chaos, each novelette opens with the Traveler commencing his usual circuit of those cities which populate the borderland. He wanders from situation to situation, seeking to subtly guide those mortals he encounters towards abandoning irrationality and chaos (magic). More often than not, said mortals (often enchanters) wish for something in a moment of despair. The Traveler then ruefully grants their wish, often with dire consequences for the wisher. This is more or less the format each novelette follows, each building a little bit on the previous work with some nods towards past characters, the Traveler's exploits, and the gradual transformation of the interstitial setting.
The borderland world of the Traveler will be familiar to one who's read the likes of Dunsany. Elementals are bound hither and thither to different landmarks, their influence manifesting in unending rainbows and dust devils. Some are more or less the gods of nearby settlements which rely on their power. Enchanters rule cities a la Dying Earth, using their magic for mercantile purposes or to empower themselves while they oppress their citizens. It's fun fare and Brunner does manage to evoke the sense of an inchoate world shedding the last vestiges of magic as it accelerates towards reason. However, the stories are somewhat slight, and feel a mite repetitive with their formulaic structure.
Brunner's prose also felt more obtuse than suited these tales at times. Less evocative, and more mildly puzzling. I wondered while reading if this was a symptom of Brunner having a stronger basis in science fiction than fantasy. Given how often the lines between the genres are blurred, I'm not sure if this is a fair or accurate assessment on my part. The stories are fortunately enhanced by Brunner's wry sense of humour. I often found myself laughing out loud at the Traveler's observations and situations he encountered.
A fun read if you're a fan of the aforementioned authors, or 60s/70s fantasy with a different flavour.
October 12, 2025
Where to start, where to end? When one begins this journey, it feels unmoored, wavering in a realm of 'phantasy' alike the ones dreamt by Dunsany- foreign names and customs that seem to have no relation to themselves, let alone the real. Logic and sense slurried, though we travel forward and in circles in witness of our traveler. It starts to come in to focus and make some sense, mirroring much the same arc that we follow this changing world- chaos being subsumed by order. Thinking of it now, although it may only occur a single time for the fresh reader, this metanarrative arc is astounding. As soon as it settles, it is gone.
A note on my reading: i did purchase and read a mmp of the original 4 stories collected (the cover art is amazing with and without context; most others look... gaudy, at best), and managed to read the last written story in an online version in its correct order ("The Things That Are Gods" is the fourth story of the five in 'Compleat'). If you are deliberating between an original copy or 'Compleat', I would say that while "TTTAG" is a welcome expansion of the traveler's tales, it is not required to get the feel, though does tread interesting and novel ground, relatively. The prints that are in 'Compleat' also don't really add anything needful. I do have to wonder if the other four stories are slightly edited in 'Compleat' to be more in concert with the new elements found in "TTTAG" though. I'll probably return to this and read the 'Compleat' version when the four planets align again...
A note on my reading: i did purchase and read a mmp of the original 4 stories collected (the cover art is amazing with and without context; most others look... gaudy, at best), and managed to read the last written story in an online version in its correct order ("The Things That Are Gods" is the fourth story of the five in 'Compleat'). If you are deliberating between an original copy or 'Compleat', I would say that while "TTTAG" is a welcome expansion of the traveler's tales, it is not required to get the feel, though does tread interesting and novel ground, relatively. The prints that are in 'Compleat' also don't really add anything needful. I do have to wonder if the other four stories are slightly edited in 'Compleat' to be more in concert with the new elements found in "TTTAG" though. I'll probably return to this and read the 'Compleat' version when the four planets align again...
April 18, 2025
Chaos rules the cosmos. Magic and monsters run amok. Into this land comes a man with many names but one nature. He is the manifestation of entropy, and his sole purpose is to use chaos against chaos until it consumes itself and only order is left.
The Traveler wanders the same path endlessly and each time there is a little less chaos. At first it's monsters and magicians everywhere, but eventually they fade away. His nature is to not act until asked and then to act decisively. He grants wishes, and generally not in a way that the wisher would have wanted.
Brunner drops into the realm of fantasy and fills it with amazing scenery and a rich mysterious history. His invention of a godlike stranger who visits the land and passes judgment is terrific. The Traveler's interactions are all teaching moments about the dangers of greed and envy and how they only lead to destruction. Read this book as a child and it has stayed with me ever since.
The Traveler wanders the same path endlessly and each time there is a little less chaos. At first it's monsters and magicians everywhere, but eventually they fade away. His nature is to not act until asked and then to act decisively. He grants wishes, and generally not in a way that the wisher would have wanted.
Brunner drops into the realm of fantasy and fills it with amazing scenery and a rich mysterious history. His invention of a godlike stranger who visits the land and passes judgment is terrific. The Traveler's interactions are all teaching moments about the dangers of greed and envy and how they only lead to destruction. Read this book as a child and it has stayed with me ever since.
January 10, 2024
John Brunner seems to be having fun here. The universe is yet young, and has only just begun to emerge from chaos. Assisting and directing this emergence is the traveller in black (who has many names, but one nature), roaming about and nullifying the monsters and gods of the terrible past, and giving those who would continue to employ the yet-permeating powers of that past their just desserts... while all the while wondering -when at last he achieves his aims- what then?
TCTiB is a fix-up, and may perhaps be better read in instalments as the format of each story is the same, and each ultimate outcome predictable. But Brunner's style is a delight: spry, wry, dry, and blackly comedic - also, being barely over 200 pages, it never come anywhere near outstaying its welcome. It came over as a kind of condensed take on Tanith Lee's Flat Earth sequence - certainly not a bad thing.
TCTiB is a fix-up, and may perhaps be better read in instalments as the format of each story is the same, and each ultimate outcome predictable. But Brunner's style is a delight: spry, wry, dry, and blackly comedic - also, being barely over 200 pages, it never come anywhere near outstaying its welcome. It came over as a kind of condensed take on Tanith Lee's Flat Earth sequence - certainly not a bad thing.
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