John Crowley is an American writer working in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Not many readers know him in Russia, but acquaintance with his books usually brings a lot of pleasure, since they are peculiar and stylish. Among the works of the author there are novels, epics and short stories.
Depth
The world first became acquainted with the writer's work in 1975. John Crowley's debut novel, Depth, immediately impressed the literary world. The idea was very original - the events of the Scarlet and White Rose war were transferred to the distant cosmic future.
The scene is a huge drive in the center of which is the capital. There is nothing outside this planet, and on its surface for many years there has been a war between the Blacks and the Reds. In addition to these two forces, there are other orders: the Gray, silently watching the events, the Fair, with unique firearms, and the Sisters of Mercy, who come to help the wounded after each battle. Regardless of the clan to which they belonged.
A newcomer falls into this terrible place, but due to a coincidence, loses his memory and does not know about the purpose of his own arrival. And the journey begins ...
Animals
The second sci-fi novel by John Crowley was released the following year. The work "Beasts" tells of America in the middle of the XXI century. As conceived by the author, at this time the country is experiencing an ecological and technological crisis: many species disappear, all technologies, except genetic engineering, are declining.
To overcome extinction, scientists conduct experiments to develop new intelligent creatures. As a result, they get hybrids of man and lion, created in order to bring nature closer to the world of people. And this is interesting in itself, but the main thing in the work is not the plot, but the cultural context. Moreover, the novel ends ambiguously, leaving food for thought.
The novel contains references to classic fables, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Shakespeare's works. First of all, it was created for aesthetic pleasure and to convey to the reader a simple thought about the kinship of all creatures.
Machine summer
Depth was the first published book by John Crowley, but not the first one written. In 1968, he created the work "Learn to live with it," but failed to print it. In 1979, the novel was revised and released under the new name "Machine Summer." It was the last and best science fiction book ever written.
The main character is called Talking Reed, he talks about the civilization of angels that existed before the Tempest, which destroyed the old world. Now all that remains of it is roads, ruins and legends. After the apocalypse, life became different, strange. There are very few people, they like to play, but they can’t win and don’t even know what it is. Money became a myth, pregnancy ceased to be possible without taking a special medicine. The goal of each person was to become a saint, which in the framework of this work means the acquisition of transparency by the body.
The book ends gloomily, even creepyly, but leaves a lasting impression.
Small big
Moving away from science fiction, John Crowley created one of his most famous novels. It is fully called "Big, Small, or Fairy Parliament", was created in 1981 in the fantasy genre.
The work begins with the wedding of the main characters, after which they begin to live in an amazing place - a manor in the garden of which fairies and elves live. The leitmotif of the whole book is a paradox. The estate contains many separate houses, a small person is simultaneously larger than the Universe. The plot is not linear: events simultaneously occur in the present, past and future. Generations are changing, so in some ways the novel is also a family saga.
The author surprises readers: the more pages left behind, the more surprises and traps. To understand the meaning that the writer puts into the plot and to unravel the secrets of his characters, you need to go to the end of the book. And the ending is very unpredictable.
Egypt
John Crowley also authored an epic novel. “Egypt” became the most difficult book in the writer's work, but at the same time received the most enthusiastic reviews. The epic contains 4 volumes, it refers to a civilization that existed before the modern era and can be reborn.
The first volume was to be called “Solitude”, but later it was given the name of the entire tetralogy. The book was written in 1987, and events take place in the 1970s, the protagonist is a historian named Pierce. He lost his job in college and is forced to move to another city. In this city, another character is introduced - a woman preparing to divorce and about to sue the child from her ex-husband. The action takes place slowly, everything seems quite realistic until the historian finds a mysterious manuscript telling about John Dee, who saw the angels, and Giordano Bruno, who went on a mysterious long journey. But this is where the first volume ends.
Love and dream
The next book, which is part of tetralogy, was released 6 years after the first volume. Filled with the thoughts of the heroes, their searches for themselves and the meaning of life, she tells about how the centuries-old past affects the modern present.
"Love and Dream" continues to talk about the historian. Finding the manuscript, he learns about the lost civilization. It turns out that the surviving people forgot about their inherent strength, comparable to the power of angels. But there are those who have learned the secret. In particular, it was Bruno, who decided that he could fit the Universe in his mind and thereby control it.
An unexpected discovery pushes Pierce to write a book, at the same time he recalls his childhood and meets heroic and magical love in the present. Just like Giordano Bruno.
But the story is not at all simple or straightforward. Along with the events of the present, the reader learns about what happened in the 16th century: the battles of werewolves and witches, alchemists receiving philosophical gold and the Magic Wind that changed the world.
Demonomania
The third book of John Crowley from the epic continues the events of the previous ones. While the historian was trying to comprehend the magic that existed in the past world, magic began to manifest in the present. In the course of the plot, the reader learns that the lack of magic is an illusion, just ancient spirits were replaced by new, informational ones that penetrate from the Internet and TV screens. Among them there are both light and dark forces, which means that people are in danger. And now the beloved of the protagonist is tormented by demons, whom she intends to get rid of after entering the sect. And those who turned out to be magicians, Dr. Dee and Bruno, meanwhile, fall into the world of the living and travel through modern cities in the form of ghosts.
Events are developing in the framework of the distant past, where a large-scale witch-hunt is unfolding. And almost every character is looking for an inexhaustible golden source, not suspecting that he has long been found. And it all ends again on the most interesting.
Endless things
John Crowley devoted a lot of time to writing the epic. Between the first and last volumes, 20 years of work passed, during which he had to devote time to work on other novels, as well as writing scripts.
But in 2007, the last volume of tetralogy was given to the readers. In it, all the ways of the heroes come to an end, everything is explained. The author pays attention to the stories of Bruno and Dr. Dee, talks about a simple recipe for happiness for the protagonist and ties together all the threads of the plot, begun in the first volumes.
As a result, the writer created a truly unique thing, an intellectual bestseller full of references and allusions, providing food for the mind and full of emotional moments.
Little books have been translated in Russia by John Crawley; many fans of his work read novels in the original language, while having the opportunity to appreciate the author’s stunning play on words, which is inevitably lost in translation.