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Full title: Pyrotechnicon: Being a TRUE ACCOUNT of Cyrano de Bergerac’s FURTHER ADVENTURES among the STATES and EMPIRES of the STARS

Author: Adam Browne

Year: 2012

Being a TRUE ACCOUNT of Cyrano de Bergerac’s FURTHER ADVENTURES among the STATES and EMPIRES of the STARS

(Englished from the French by Adam Browne)

What a labor of love this book is.

Where to even begin.

While not necessary, some prior knowledge might help with the enjoyment of this book.

Cyrano de Bergerac wrote two proto-science fiction novels: The States and Empires of the Moon and The States and Empires of the Sun, both published posthumously (he was killed in 1655) by his friend Henri LeBret in 1657 and 1662 respectively. There have been rumors that it was meant to be a trilogy, with the final novel being The States and Empires of the Stars, however Cyrano died even before finishing the Sun, which of course remains half-written.

I’ve seen reviews of Pyrotechnicon that admit they haven’t read the original novels, even some saying the only thing they knew about Cyrano previously was whatever can be gleaned from the Roxanne film (1987) with Steve Martin (I haven’t seen it) before reading this one, and they report that they still greatly enjoyed it, so take from that what you will.

Pyrotechnicon opens with a note from the “translator” Adam Browne saying that this is indeed the missing manuscript for The States and Empires of the Stars and that it was found by a rover under a rock on Mars.

• Just so you know what we’re in for.

  • We’re in for some whimsy.

A quick summary of the previous two novels: Empires of the Moon and Sun were simultaneously of their time and very much ahead of their time. Cyrano tells the story (in first-person) of his trip to the moon to prove to his friends that the people who live there say that Earth is their moon and therefore think Earth orbits the moon.

• Please suspend your scientific disbelief for the duration of this trilogy, this is very much science fiction. Maybe even science fantasy.

He tries a couple different methods to get himself airborne and eventually ends up accidentally inventing the multi-stage rocket we use today. He gets to the moon and eventually the sun and lots of fun things happen, but you don’t need to know any of that stuff for Pyrotechnicon. Just know that Cyrano knows his way around space, and people live on the moon, the sun, and everywhere.

For me, part of the charm of this series is the mental image of a 17th century duelist in space. It’s so anachronistic, and yet there’s no more natural a place for someone like Cyrano. Other writers have made him into the custodian of the moon for good reason.

Anyway, Pyrotechnicon!

I’ll give you a summary of the first few chapters, then down at the bottom of the page I’ll have an area marked spoilers. I think you should read this book. It’s genuinely my favorite. But I also understand if you have too much on your plate, in which case, my spoilers are fine.

Cyrano awakens from his bed in Toulouse to greet the dawn, joking that as he stands in yesterday, his nose is already in tomorrow, so he can get a sense of what the next day will be like. And then he immediately gets the sense that something terrible is about to happen to his fiance - Roxane!

• So right off the bat, we get the feeling that this is a mixture of the real Cyrano and the play Cyrano. The real Cyrano doesn’t go on for paragraphs about how silly his nose is, but the play Cyrano does. The real Cyrano also was not romantically involved with his cousin Roxane. No, this is definitely a mixture, especially the “de Neuvillette” jumpscare at the end of Roxane’s name. Ah, we’re in a timeline where Christian is dead, gotcha.

Cyrano runs to Roxane’s apartment to make sure she’s okay, and what follows is a scene dripping with sexual tension. A good chunk of this book is gonna be chastely but deliciously horny. A date hasn’t been decided for their marriage, as Roxane is afraid of being a widow (again) and tells Cyrano to put the sword away for good. Regardless, she’s excited at the prospect that he’s going to start a new adventure, which Cyrano dreads. She asks if she can come along for this one, and immediately she’s kidnapped by the Master of Secrets - a man of smoke and mirrors and dreams and nightmares, and very difficult to stab with a sword.

• I know, it’s a classic DiD. But let’s see where this goes.

I have to take a moment here to remark on the writing style. Cyrano breaks the fourth wall constantly. The book opens with “Dear reader,” and you can feel Cyrano looking directly at the “camera” in some scenes, but this is also how the original two novels were. Browne does an amazing job of emulating translating Cyrano’s writing style.

“Make haste, reader! What, you are still in the room? Là! Long empty! Look you, through the window! See, I am already racing through the château’s courtyard”

Searching for where the Master of Secrets could possibly be, Cyrano ends up at a dank, rundown library run by a man who is way too into books. The librarian goes into a speech about how information is the sperm, the brain the egg. All of his books are moist and labial. He eventually hands Cyrano a book. “This isn’t what I was looking for.” “No, it was looking for you.” The book points him in the direction of Venus.

Cyrano just happens to own a bunch of rocks from Venus, and following the “physics principle” that “like is attracted to like”, when he washes the Earth dirt off of them, they start floating towards Venus. He puts these in a box in his ship, and off he goes!

Along the way, he gains a companion in Fritillary, a lamp-headed orangutan-bodied alien who can only speak by projecting words onto the surface of his lantern and gets Cyrano’s attention in battle by flashing his flame.

• “…and Fritillary will be your favourite character.”

  • (from the final paragraph of the novel)

Fritillary sometimes also inadvertently flashes his thoughts in his lantern, which is how Cyrano learns that Fritillary is married to a lampheaded woman who has a glow growing in her belly - his wife is expecting! So it’s a shame when he mistakenly joins Cyrano’s trip through space. But he’s a good sport about it.

As Cyrano and Fritillary are flying through space in their carriage made of the summer sky (sometimes you just have to nod and pretend like you know how that would work, because that’s what the author is doing too), they have to pass through the sun in order to get to Venus on the other side. Luckily, since the ship made of the summer sky is an impossibility, they’re safe from the harmful effects of the sun (keep nodding), but that doesn’t stop some other strange effects from happening to them.

As they get closer and closer to the core of the sun, their bodies become translucent until they can see their organs, their bones, their own brains, and then nothing. They experience the realest, but also softest, gentlest ego death I’ve certainly seen in literature.

• “…even, as time passed, who I was…Something about a nose, I seemed to recall, a sword, a hate, a love. They seemed unlikely. I tried to hold onto them, but the light was too strong. It washed them away…”

And just as quickly as it left, their bodies return as they leave the sun and approach Venus.

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“…the world that would be the setting of my enemy’s death and the recovery of my love, and what, I was sure, would prove to be my most famous victory.”

And with that, we’re more than a quarter of the way through the novel, and anything else I’m gonna mark as spoilers.

Before I get to the spoilers though, I want to leave you with my impression. Not only is this novel lovingly faithful to not just the spirit of the other books in the series, but also to the spirit of Cyrano. Once you learn to suspend your modern disbelief, total immersion into the universe is effortless, even moreso to believe that this could have been written by the man himself.

I suppose the biggest departure from Cyrano’s writing style is the inclusion of his sword. In the first two novels (if I remember correctly) he doesn’t carry a sword on him and doesn’t fight anyone. Reflecting his full transformation into a humanist, all of his clashes are philosophical and intellectual. But since this novel is the grand finale, we gotta have some swashbuckling action.

Spoilers

+ yeah about that

• The next page is “Chapter the Seventh: In Which I Die”

• Listen, in this house, we love a good doomed narrative.

• The adjective “syphilitic” is used at many points throughout the book to describe the Master of Secrets and anything associated with him, and I wonder if this was done in reference to one of the possible ways that Cyrano died, by complications due to syphilis.

• Fritillary’s light gets snuffed out, killing him, and while Cyrano manages to cut off one of the Master of Secret’s hands, he also manages to get stabbed through the heart, fall off the ship, and drift in the vacuum of space. What follows is a quiet monologue in which Cyrano compares his dying body to wine:

  • “I became drunk on the wine of my decay, a full-bodied red of modest fame but excellent nose.”

• A poem about the beauty of space, and then he’s awoken by King Louis XIV. Sorry, Godking of the Universe Louis XIV.

  • This feels like a dig at how monarchs compare themselves to gods. I don’t feel like it digs enough.

• They relight Fritillary’s lantern and Cyrano embraces him. Turns out it’s been a million years since they died, and Cyrano responds with “all the more urgency to return to my quest then.” And has to convince the royal council to revive him and send him back in time to rescue Roxane.

  • I find myself once again gesturing at the undying pointy nosed fellow.

• Fritillary suddenly has a vision projected in his lantern which Cyrano and Louis catch sight of. Some figures, but most importantly, a little girl.

  • “There was, reader, in that simple little cut-out form, in the straight brave set of her head on her slender neck, such sweetness, such innocence that my heart went to her, completely and forever.”

    • (I wonder if this will be anything important later)

• At one point Cyrano’s arm is wounded and the royal surgeon fills it with “adamic clay” - the clay used to create Adam. The skin quickly goes through stages of evolution from amoeba to lizard to feathers eventually to human skin. Cyrano remarks that his bird feathers were gold and purple.

  • I just thought that was neat so I included it here.

• Cyrano and Fritillary are taken back in time, and they challenge the Master of Secrets to a rematch. The hand that Cyrano cut off is replaced with smoke that can transform anything it touches into jewels. He slashes at Cyrano’s face and grabs Cyrano’s sword, turning the blade into a giant gemstone he has trouble wielding. Fritillary sets the scenery on fire, melting away the Master of Secrets. They rescue Roxane and escape, only to discover the slash at Cyrano’s face has turned his nose into a crystal.

  • He’s never healed of this by the way, he finishes the trilogy with a crystalized nose, I love this.

• Louis is excited to see the marriage of Cyrano and Roxane and quickly arranges their wedding. At the same time, the universe is being ripped apart by the Master of Secrets, desperate to stop the wedding, as his true fear is the little girl Cyrano saw in Fritillary’s vision: Ariette - the daughter of Cyrano and Roxane. Their wedding proceeds as the whole wedding party flees from the destruction, Roxane giddy with excitement from the adventure she finally got to be a part of. Their kiss stops time for Ariette to visit them in a timeless bubble and give them a wedding gift: a box of snuff. Cyrano groans, but Ariette insists he use it now, and he does.

• When the time bubble wears off, Cyrano sneezes, and the Master of Secrets finally disappears in a rumble of thunder.

• Louis reveals the reason that he was so excited their marriage: he wants to retire from being godking of the universe and leave the position - not to Cyrano, as we might have suspected, but to Ariette.

  • “Why should it be some bearded old gent who takes it on? Why not a little girl? Why not innocence, why not cheerfulness? Why not a universe ruled by sweetness?”

• Cyrano’s friends remark that he’s changed. He suspects they mean his crystal nose, but no, they point out that he no longer has his sword.

• Cyrano and Roxane live on Mars, and he finishes this book with one last paragraph:

  • “And later still, daughter, you will come by this book. You will read it, and Fritillary will be your favourite character. At last, you will arrive at this final page, and this line, the final one, in which you will learn that I love you and am devoted to you, and am pleased to inform you that the tale ends as all little girls’ tales must, with the solemn assurance that we all lived happily ever after. Signed, Your Father”

• So yeah, it’s a fairy tale with a fairy tale ending, if only because these characters who’ve only experienced tragedy for hundreds of years deserve a fucking break.

• That the whole thing was written for his daughter Ariette, from the “Dear Reader,” at the very beginning to the “Signed, Your Father” at the very end, is so kind and sweet and loving. The novel set you up with all of this suspension of disbelief to get you to not only be open to the idea of Cyrano and Roxane getting married and having a child, but also for you to love her too. Ariette represents the height of science fiction/fantasy - something that could never exist but here she is, a love letter to the universe.

• I’m absolutely adding her to my personal scifi canon - Ariette, the godqueen of the universe.