Metropolitan (book)
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Metropolitan is a fantasy novel by Walter Jon Williams, first published in 1995 and nominated for the Nebula Award in the same year.
It is set in a world which has been 'roofed over' with an impenetrable shield for thousands of years by higher beings. The population has grown until the world is a single huge city, divided into districts which also function as separate nations. This civilisation is run by geomancy, a form of magic which depends on plasm, energy generated by structures and the relationships between them.
From the book's back cover:
- "A burning woman stalks the streets. Ten stories tall, her naked body a holocaust of fire.
- That horrific vision is all Aiah thinks of as she sleepwalks through her dead-end job meting out plasm -- a mysterious and powerful substance created by geomancy from the intrinsic power of the city structures -- and ticketing the outlaw plasm divers who burrow through abandoned cellars looking for untapped sources.
- But Aiah has learned that plasm is more than an energy source; it resonates within the human mind, giving power to heal, to fuel dreams and visions, and to kill. So when she finds an undiscovered, unlimited supply, she dares to meet with the powerful Metropolitan known as Constantine, a handsome, mysterious rebel with plans.
- Together they can use the plasm to rally forces to overthrow not only the government but the culture it has enslaved. They know the dangers of their maneuvers. They have no idea how dangerous it will be to fall in love."
A sequel, City on Fire, was published in 1997.