American writer John Crowley: the best books

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

John Crowley is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. In Russia, not many readers know him, but acquaintance with his books usually brings a lot of pleasure, as they are original and stylish. The author's works include novels, epics and short stories.

Depth

For the first time the world got acquainted with the work of the writer in 1975. John Crowley's debut novel, The Depth, immediately made an impression on the literary world. The idea was very original - the events of the war of the Scarlet and White Roses were transferred to the distant space future.

The scene is a huge disk, 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 Grays, who silently observe the events, the Just, who have unique firearms, and the Sisters of Mercy, who come after each battle to help the wounded. Regardless of the clan they belonged to.

An Alien gets into this terrible place, but due to a random coincidence, he loses his memory and does notknows about the purpose of his own arrival. And the journey begins…

Beasts

The second science fiction novel by John Crowley came out the following year. The work "Beasts" tells about America in the middle of the XXI century. According to the author's idea, at this time the country is experiencing an ecological and technological crisis: many biological species are disappearing, all technologies, except for genetic engineering, are declining.

To overcome extinction, scientists are conducting experiments to breed 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, the works of Shakespeare. First of all, it was created for aesthetic pleasure and conveying to the reader a simple thought about the relationship of all beings.

Engine Summer

The Depth was John Crowley's first published book, but not the first to be written. In 1968, he created the work "Learning to live with it", but it was not possible to print it. In 1979, the novel was revised and released under the new title "Machine Summer". It was the last and best book written in the science fiction genre.

The main character is called Talking Reed, he talks about the civilization of angels that existed beforeThe storm that destroyed the old world. Now only roads, ruins and legends are left of it. After the apocalypse, life became different, strange. There are very few people, they love to play, but they don’t know how to win and don’t even know what it is. Money became a myth, pregnancy was no longer 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 darkly, even creepy, but leaves a lasting impression.

Small, big

Departing from science fiction, John Crowley created one of his most famous novels. Fully called "Big, Small, or Fairy Parliament", it was created in 1981 in the fantasy genre.

The story 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 entire book is a paradox. The estate accommodates 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 change, 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 unravel the secrets of his characters, you need to reach the end of the book. And the ending is very unpredictable.

Egypt

JohnCrowley also became the author of 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 is about a civilization that existed before the modern era and is able to be reborn.

The first volume was supposed to be called "Loneliness", but later it was given the name of the whole tetralogy. The book was written in 1987, and the events take place in the 1970s, the main character is a historian named Pierce. He lost his college job and is forced to move to another city. In this city, there is an acquaintance with another character - a woman preparing for a divorce and going to sue her ex-husband's child. The action takes place slowly, everything seems quite realistic, until the historian finds a mysterious manuscript telling about John Dee, who saw angels, and Giordano Bruno, who went on a mysterious long journey. But that's where the first volume ends.

Love and sleep

The next book in the tetralogy was released 6 years after the first volume. Filled with thoughts of the heroes, their search for themselves and the meaning of life, it tells how the centuries-old past affects the modern present.

"Love and Dream" continues to talk about the historian. Having found 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 andthereby controlling her.

An unexpected discovery pushes Pierce to write a book, while he remembers his childhood and meets heroic and magical love in the present. Just like Giordano Bruno.

But the story is not at all simple and straightforward. Simultaneously with the events of the present, the reader will learn about what happened in the 16th century: about the battles of werewolves and witches, the obtaining of philosophical gold by alchemists, 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 itself in the present. In the course of the story, the reader learns that the absence of magic is an illusion, just the ancient spirits have been replaced by new, informational ones, penetrating 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 protagonist's beloved is tormented by demons, whom she intends to get rid of by joining a sect. Meanwhile, Dr. Dee and Bruno, who turned out to be magicians, meanwhile fall into the world of the living and travel through modern cities in the form of ghosts.

Events are also developing within the framework of the distant past, where a witch hunt is unfolding on a large scale. And almost every character is looking for an inexhaustible golden source, not suspecting that it has long been found. And everything ends again at 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 elapsed, during which he had to devotetime to work on other novels, as well as writing scripts.

But in 2007 the last volume of the tetralogy was given to the readers. In it, all the paths 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 plot threads that began in the first volumes.

As a result, the writer has created a truly unique thing, an intellectual bestseller, full of references and allusions, giving food for thought and full of emotional moments.

In Russia, few books by John Crowley have been translated, many fans of his work have read the novels in the original language, while being able to appreciate the amazing play on words of the author, which is inevitably lost in translation.