faustus (03/27/83)
Until a few days ago I was under the opinion that Michael Moorcock was exclusively a sword-and-sorcery writer (Elric and his adventures). However, I just finished two exceptional books of his: Breakfast in the Ruins and Behold the Man. They both feature the same main character (he's named the sme, at least). The first is a bizarre and somewhat disorienting attack on war and violence, and the second is about a trip that Karl Glogauer, the protagonist, makes through time to the year 28 AD, to observe the historical Christ. He is very suprised by what he finds (and I was too). The second, especially, is very thought- provoking (and rather depressing). They are worth reading. Wayne "I just got back from China", he said disorientedly...
tim (03/28/83)
Moorcock is far from exclusively a swords-and-sorcery writer. His "Dancers at the End of Time" trilogy is a very funny and decadent novel of the hedonistic and almost omnipotent inhabaitants of the end of time. The three novels are "An Alien Heat", "The Hollow Lands", and "The End of All Songs", and carry my highest recommendation for sf fans (for what that's worth). Another good Moorcock sf trilogy is "The Nomad of Time", following the adventures of Oswald Bastable as he attempts to regain his own universe. In the process, we see three believable and fascinating alternate twentieth centuries, worked out in flawless detail. The three books are "The Warlord of the Air", "The Land Leviathan", and "The Steel Tsar". Again, highest recommendation. Finally, Moorcock won the Nebula a few years back with "Gloriana", an Elizabethan romance. I could expotulate forever on its excellence, but not without giving too much away. Read it. You'll enjoy it. (By the way, I don't love all books I read, just because whenever I'm talking about them I praise them; I just talk about the ones that have pleased me the most.) Tim Maroney decvax!duke!unc!tim