Le Silence de la cité

Silent City #1

by Élisabeth Vonarburg

Plus de trois siècles se sont écoulés depuis les catastrophes climatiques de la fin du second millénaire et les héritiers de la civilisation détruite, de plus en plus rares et de plus en plus désaxés, vivent dans une Cité souterraine avec leurs doubles technologiques.

Dernière enfant de cette Cité, Élisa est une petite fille aux capacités physiques étonnantes ; fruit des expériences génétiques de Paul, elle annonce une humanité résolument nouvelle.

Mais Élisa saura-t-elle se libérer du passé qui l'a littéralement modelée et, du même souffle, en libérer ses nombreux enfants ?

Et qu'en sera-t-il des hommes — et surtout des femmes — qui, hors les Cités, ont survécu à la barbarerie et aux mutations de toutes sortes ?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, France, Post Apocalyptic

334 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Élisabeth Vonarburg, French science-fiction author, poet, translator and editor.

Outre l'écriture de fiction, Élisabeth Vonarburg pratique la traduction (la Tapisserie de Fionavar, de Guy Gavriel Kay), s'adonne à la critique (notamment dans la revue Solaris) et à la théorie (Comment écrire des histoires). Elle a offert pendant quatre ans aux auditeurs de la radio française de Radio-Canada une chronique hebdomadaire dans le cadre de l'émission Demain la veille.

Reviews

[Feilyn]

4.5 Le début est un peu déstabilisant, on est jeté dans l’histoire sans réelles explications mais les premiers chapitres passés on est plongé dans le récit et j’ai pour ma part eu du mal à décrocher de ma lecture ensuite.

Le silence de la cité nous offre un post apo un peu diffèrent de ce que j’ai lu jusque la, assez féministe, qui questionne la relation que l’on a la maternité, au genre, a la sexualité, aux IA et la légitimité à la violence, sur quatre périodes assez différentes de la vie d’Elisa.
Certains passages sont assez durs mais j’ai adoré cette lecture!

Une belle découverte pour moi, je lirais plus de Vonarburg c'est certain. Il ne me reste plus qu'à mettre la main sur chroniques du pays des mères maintenant! :)

[Rita]

I had to give it up. The book was underwritten: large chunks of action that should have been detailed were, instead, brushed past or jumped over; problems (villains, really) that should have been near-insurmountable proved ridiculously easy to overcome; and, finally, the main character spent long passages questioning herself about her motivations but next to no time actually doing anything.

This was an extremely frustrating read because it could have been a fascinating book! The author had some very original ideas that, if fleshed out, could be the work of several speculative novels. She tackled some interesting social issues that are conspicuously absent from most SF. Unfortunately, the plot and characters were sorely underdeveloped. I completely lost patience eventually.

[Magdelanye]

The compelling beginning of this book seemed to lose momentum when the time frame became confused, at least for me. I felt there were parts missing that might have greatly enhanced my understanding, not of the plot, which was clear enough, but the rationale behind some of the imperatives. Perhaps it was pace that felt odd to me. Minute attention to detail, then years of interest collapsed into a terse paragraph. I felt cheated a bit and annoyed at the author for leading me on but also for expecting too much of me. EV makes the reader work hard!

Perhaps the difficulty with this book is its presentation as a dystopian action adventure when in fact it is a study in ethics with a little bit of metaphysical pondering woven in to the plot, which does proceed at a clip.

The adventures in the book mostly take place off stage. Civilization has collapsed long ago when the story begins, and elite survivors have taken refuge in the cities, a handful of self-sustaining enclaves devoted to genetic research and the perfection of self-regenerating human beings.Lucky for them they have already perfected the Ommarchs, robots endowed with downloaded personalities, to perform mundane tasks.
But regeneration finally fails, and the City we come to know is more alive than the handful of people who have survived the centuries. Why was the city so empty? Why were there not multitudes or at least, why were there were not a host of playmates for Elisa,why she is so alone, is not explained other than the observation that failed experiments were destroyed. Or were they all? Doubts begin a process of ethical investigation for Elisa, the child of destinys focus.

Outside the enclave,the acivities of the tribes are monitered and manipulated. From time to time, they are abducted for genetic sampling.
A truly icky social system.

A lot could be done with this material, but EV has chosen to focus on the process of ethical development. Elisa, the product of extesive genetic remodeling, has been brought up in a machine world.Machines do not feel. Her feelings make her a freak. She accepts all this up until a certain awakening point,when, fueled by empathy, she discovers the power of her own choices,after which she will assess everything in a different light.

The issues under consideration are examined in their particulars, and I became engaged with the book again when I began to appreciate its complexity. The moral issues explored abound, but the most attention is paid to the crucial role of empathy (or lack of) in the development of civilization.Ihe nature of reality and the implications of hierarchy and tradition on free will and shapeshifting are quite thoroughly explored.

Then there is the issue of gender. This is where EV's imagination really goes to town. I won't spoil her unique solution, other than to say that I really appreciated the way she managed to tie all these concerns together.

This book portends further exploration of these themes. Indeed, it seems like there is one, published ten years later!

[J.a.e._Lou]

Un beau préquel au Pays des mères.
Qui vient gratter aux encoignures sur la liberté, le libre arbitre, les traumas, l'emprise, la spirale de la violence, les relations hommes-femmes, le genre... BEAUCOUP de choses en moins de 300 pages avec un récit passionnant et d'une remarquable fluidité

[Ed Erwin]

This is a novel of ideas, not action. Especially ideas around gender, sexuality, ethics, and forms of society. It reads a bit like LeGuin or Joanna Russ. The basic idea is a post-apocalyptic world where radiation or something causes most male babies to die. A very small number of people (like maybe 3 humans and a few uploaded consciousnesses) still live in a city with high technology and medicine. They perform experiments on the outsiders, trying to fix the curse. There are four sections which are quite distinct, almost like separate short stories from different times in the main character's life.

This is the sort of book you have to read slowly and attentively or you'll get lost. I on the fence with a rating. I like it, but I've preferred other stories by her.

[Lusionnelle]

It has been a few weeks now since I have read this book - somehow I could not rate it or talk about it right away.

Many things happened while I was reading, as it really pushed me to think and re-think over again about its concepts, ideas, themes, questions which are developed within the novel.

I have loved being confronted by it, somehow forced to re-question myself on topics like sexuality and gender, feminism, paternalism/maternalism, freedom and liberty of thinking and decide for oneself, determinism... not only but those specifically always intrigued me the most.

I went back and forth on some of its pages, feeling excited and angry, sometimes overwhelmed by the internal dialogue I started to have with it while reading it.

And I loved it for that. I love books that push me further by doubting my own beliefs and way of thinking. I love this kind of post-apocalyptic novel.

And I do think this is one of the books every teenager should read. There are so many things in it that would have helped me open my mind earlier and questioned what I was hearing and learning, especially about me being a girl.

Though I did not quite love as much the writing, the long sentences, who falls sometimes into holes of descriptions or thoughts, and so much digressions.

I did not really appreciate its rhythm and melody.

Unfortunately that is the main reason why I am struggling to start the sequel, which I did right after finishing this one, and it was a mistake.

I just don't appreciate the writing enough, and the narration in Chronique du Pays des Mères, especially in the first 100 pages seems to be even more chaotic and really not the type I am fond of...

Yet I already know that this second book will be as much or even more surprisingly fascinating than Le pays du silence.

It is a 100% recommendation.

[Oleksandr Zholud]

This is a post-apoc novel by a Canadian author. Written in French in 1981, it shows that problems of gender and self-identification aren’t new in SF. I read is as a part of monthly reading for April 2021 at Speculative Fiction in Translation group. The book isn’t available in English as an e-book, but there are several scans to legally borrow in Internet Archive.

This is a story of Élisa, the last baby born (or breed) in the City. After a chain of calamities, both human-made and natural, the rich and powerful retreated to the Cities – underground (?) shelters with imitations of outside and a bunch of ommach – man-like machines, often used by humans via remote control, or with programs, which emulate humans. Ommach – homo + machine. As time went by, the number of city’s inhabitants diminished to just a few, while people outside degraded and mutated. One of more prominent mutations – much more female than male birth, so to keep the system, men outside practice female kid infanticide and keep women is semi-slavery. One of the last city’s dwellers, Poul, experiments on humans outside and perfect a new regeneration mutation in his creation/daughter Élisa. Her abilities if spread across survivors, should help to restore civilization.

As Élisa grows up seeing only one human, Poul, her feeling for him become more sexual. It should be noted that themes of incest repeat several times in the novel, not a real one (say Poul isn’t genetically related to Élisa), but a ‘virtual’, meaning change of relations from parent-offspring to lovers. As story progresses, they initially join in but later are estranged.

There are adventures, both in the city and outside and a lot of interesting questions set. Bearing in mind that the novel was a debut, it is surprisingly strong, even if wanders off a bit at the end.

[Alexa]

Eh. This was seriously annoying. Incredibly clumsy story-telling, a time-line that jumps all over the place for no discernable reason, interminable interior monologues, and absolutely no sense of dramatic tension. She teases us by throwing out some interesting concepts, but then simply ignores them, leaves them dying on the side of the road. It manages to be weird and awkward and somehow preachy, yet without any ethical examination.

[Pikobouh]

Ce roman est très déstabilisant (dans le bon sens du terme). Il aborde un sacré paquet de thématiques, tout en laissant à chaque fois la porte ouverte à la réflexion personnelle.

Sa structure miroir est très agréable à suivre et souligne avec malice les problématiques soulevées.

Vraiment, incroyable !

[Katie Bee]

I wanted to like this book, but it wasn't really for me. A bit too much weird scientific incest and experimentation; I liked the bits outside of "the City", but there wasn't enough of that.

[timmyh]

dnf - nul

[Mathiarc]

Quelle déception !
J'avais adoré son livre Chroniques du pays des mères que je trouvais magistral. Quand j'ai appris qu'il existait un préquel, j'ai foncé le lire et quelle déception cela a été.
Peut-être suis-je trop facilement choqué, mais certains évènements du roman m'ont paru très dérangeants sans que cela ne me semble vraiment nécessaire à l'intrigue. La question du changement de genre est clairement intéressante, mais si mal amené selon moi...très loin de l'exécution de La Main gauche de la nuit d'Ursula le Guin pour rester dans le genre de la SF.
Tout n'est pas à jeter, loin de là ! Mon avis est plutôt négatif parce que j'en attendais beaucoup, peut-être qu'un lecteur avec moins d'attentes saura trouver plus de plaisir dans sa lecture.

[Kiatoulu]

J'ai beaucoup aimé! Dès les premières pages j'ai aimé la narration et l'écriture. La première partie est très énigmatique, on a toutes les réponses à la fin du livre mais l'autrice ne nous tient pas par la main. J'aime ça dans les livres : devoir me creuser les méninges pour comprendre tout en ayant suffisamment de clarté pour le faire. Je m'attendais à un livre beaucoup plus féministe. C'est plutôt la notion de genre qui est évoqué ainsi que la capacité à évoluer et à se séparer des préjugés du passé pour évoluer vers une meilleure société. C'est le premier roman de l'autrice et on voit déjà le talent énorme qu'elle a. J'ai emprunté la "suite" et je vais enchaîner ma lecture. Je veux en savoir plus sur l'univers!

[Jennie Rigg]

I'm giving this a three because while it has some nice ideas and interesting scenarios to explore, it's frustratingly full of really creative plot points that go nowhere, interesting moral dilemmas that are skated over, and then other, far less interesting, stuff that's gone into in ridiculous and pointless amounts of detail.

Add to that some of the incestuous sexual stuff is just disturbing. Also I find it incredibly unlikely that a society in which 50 girls are born for every 1 boy would have FEMALE slavery, so that engaged my cynicism quite early on.

If this was a fic I was betaing I'd expect at least another three or four drafts after this.

[Ariel]

Would love to read the original untranslated version, as the third-person restricted narration is focused on a character who genderbends; I'm betting some very interesting things happen with language, given how gendered French is.

It is a neat exploration of the human - and specifically the female - condition, and I like Elisa - she is very human, in that there are times when she is vulnerable and her gut feelings lead her astray, but she tries so hard to do the right thing despite.

Good vintage Quebec feminist SF.

[Crnbryeggshls]

The story and characters were interesting enough, but the whole thing felt slightly anemic. I just wanted more. More information about the characters, more back-story on the world, more dialog, more detail. Still, the plot hung together well, and it was a pretty quick read. Overall it was a good first novel, though I hope to find more depth when I get around to reading her later books.

[Eva Silverfine]

“The Silent City” is set in a dystopian future in which the sealed off Cities were created as refuges for society’s leading thinkers, scientists, artists (and of course politicians and the very wealthy who wormed their way in) while the outside world collapsed into disease and chaos. In the City of the story, few residents remain, but they have managed to extend their lives through biological rejuvenation processes and controlled mechanical substitutes—ommachs. One such long-lived individual has been sequestering mutants from the Outside and has created a genetically modified child—Elisa. Elisa can self-heal (rejuvenate) and grows up in this enclosed environment among a few humans and the ommachs. Eventually she realizes she must leave— her own creator is unstable and may destroy her. Before she leaves, she learns she can manipulate her body to the extent that she can change her sex, an important transition for life in the outside world, where a virus skews the sex ratio in favor of females but males still dominate the social structure. As her life outside the City unfolds, Elisa struggles between fulfilling the ambitions of her creator and caretaker and finding her own role in the Outside. Without my being wide read in the world of scifi, I am not sure to what extent this genre deals with gender fluidity, but it is an important conceptual component of this novel. In part, living as both a female and a male Elisa better understands the perspective of both. An interesting read.

[William Leight]

“The Silent City” was Vonarburg’s first novel, and I think it shows. it’s a prequel of sorts to “In The Mother’s Land” (or rather, “In the Mother’s Land” is a sequel of sorts, but I read them in reverse order), though it takes place in a time period that, by “In The Mother’s Land”, was only known from legends, so there’s little direct connection. But the post-apocalyptic world where both novels take place is much better fleshed out in the later one, and is more original to boot: the contrast between the last remnants of the pre-Fall high-tech society and the barbarians outside is a bit cliched. As is having the main character be a deliberately engineered chosen one who rebels against a fate she is ultimately forced to accept, if not after the same fashion as was originally planned. Still, Vonarburg does fine with it: there are some clever touches to both the high-tech City and the barbarous Exterior, and Elisa is well-written with unusual chosen one powers. Nonetheless, I feel like "In the Mother's Land" largely explores similar themes with more interesting characters, making "The Silent City" almost more like a rehearsal than a prequel. It's too bad, because the other two Vonarburg novels I’ve read were both excellent, and because those three books represent a large fraction of her works that are available in English.

[Eva]

This was a fascinating read. It's scifi, by a woman, and originally written in (Quebecois) French, so it's ticking a lot of my reading interest boxes. It has a dreamy not-from-this-era vibe (originally published in 1981), I kept hearing cheesy scifi synth sounds while reading it, and felt similarities with the mysticism of Dune. It's all the inner monologues, the philosophizing, the interest in emotions and abstract myths. The novel has feminism, cyborgs, complicated incestuous relationships, and is tackling subjects like gender transformations, genetic manipulation, and how to secure the future of humanity without falling into the traps of societal engineering or continuous propagation of violence.

I might try to find the sequel in French.

[Austin Thompson-Davoli]

This book has a cool if not particularly original setting: society destroyed hundreds of years ago and the surviving humans returning to pre-technological ways of life, except for the few still living in the techno-paradises of the cities. Unfortunately, its ideas about genetics and gender were not very interesting or well-explored. Even worse, by about the midpoint of the book, at least for me, it became incredibly boring and repetitive, often devolving into the main character's lengthy inner monologues about whether or not they had made the right choices or even had the freedom to choose at all.

[winterlongone]

I had read this novel in the English translation about 15-20 years ago. I found a copy in the original Québécois French, and decided to read it in the original. Most books I've read in both French and English come across with a different feel due to the impossibility of absolutely conveying the same meaning from the original language to the translated one. This book was no exception. I thought the French version gave a better feel to the emotional states of the characters.

[Herrholz Paul]

I exercise a little caution whenever I read translations, especially in genres such as Sci-fi where direct access to the mind and imagination of the author is important. And so I come away with a feeling of having maybe missed an encounter with the real Elisabeth Vonarburg. I read this book as an introduction to the follow up 'In The Mother's Land'. I am interested in the tussle between genders and there was plenty of that here and I look forward to more.

[Lea]

Un livre qui aborde plusieurs sujets intéressants, surtout dans un contexte de science-fiction (la métamorphose, l’hybridité, l’intelligence artificielle).

Quelques moments du livre étaient plutôt en longueur pour moi. Beaucoup de moments plutôt importants et intéressants qui sont survolés, tendis que des événements de remises en questions du personnage principal s’éternises. Tout de même un ouvrage intéressant qui se lit rapidement!

[Posidonie]

4,5/5⭐

Un début plutôt houleux pour ma part, avec une difficulté à aborder l'univers, notamment à cause de la froideur des personnages principaux. Malgré cela j'ai été happée par ce récit, bien en avance sur son temps, abordant les thématiques fortes du féminisme et de l'identité de genre. Une bonne surprise.

[Morgane Huet]

Un peu déstabilisée par le début et la relation Elisa-Paul mais j'ai trouvé l'univers et la proposition captivants. Et ++ sur les sujets du genre et de la place de la femme.
Je sais que ce livre va me faire cogiter a posteriori et ce sont les meilleures lectures que celles qui ont besoin de décanter.

[Arn]

A DNF, I finished part 1 but stopped there, full of some great ideas but they don't go where you want, rambley, and confusing at times. Unpleasant coercive and paternalistic behaviours by 1 character doesn't help attachment to the story either.

[Emilie Champagne]

L'histoire est intéressante, mais il manque quelque chose pour moi. Pas assez de temps dans chaque époque/lieu pour vraiment en comprendre l'atmosphère? Pas assez de description?

[Joanna]

It's got a really good premise, but the plot was very confusing towards the end. it's more like 3,5 stars

[Drew]

While the author had some compelling ideas, the variable but always too-slow pacing and disjointed feel made this a difficult story to finish and not one I'd recommend.

[Ray]

Kind of weird. I don't read a lot of science fiction. Needed simple editing. I read this because the next book in the series is supposed to be really good.