MALACCA'S RICH TAPESTRY

Press, 29 October 1977, Page 19

MALACCA'S RICH TAPESTRY

The Malacia Tapestry. By Brian Aldiss. Jonathan Cape. 313 pp. $8.95. (Reviewed by Margaret Quigley) Occasionally there appears a novel which astonishes with the power and fertility of its creator’s imagination. “The Malacia Tapestry” is such a novel. The author has invented a whole world, rich in history, tradition, squalor and pageantry. Malacia is a city state, ruled by a Supreme Council, which opposes all change, awed by magicians and soothsayers, riddled with rival religions and philosophies and bursting with life. Most lively of all is the narrator. Perian de Chirolo, an out-of-work actor with no money but with high, connections and even higher hopes. Charming, amorous and outspoken, Perian recounts with irresistible humour the adventures which take him into most classes of Malacian

society. The story is simply a swift succession of incidents, comic, roisterous, idyllic or terrifying — never dull. Perian’s descriptions of the streets of the city, the temples, palaces, hovels and surrounding countryside form a backdrop which indeed resembles a tapestry — a rich and intricate tapestry, full of vivid and unexpected detail, glowing with colour and life. This is an astonishing novel, original, thoughtful and clearly written by a man of extraordinary imagination. Brian Aldiss has been a bookseller, a literary editor, a film reviewer and poet, but he first became well-known with his two outspoken novels. “The Hand-Reared Boy” and “A Soldier Erect.” Since their appearance he has published several innovative and imaginative works of science fiction. His latest work can only add to his reputation as a writer of great variety and talent.