April 27, 2009
Readers new to the work of Grand Master Moorcock may be a bit put off by this wandering collection of short stories, grouped neither chronologically nor by style and acknowledged in the introduction as an “almost random” selection. Those seeking links to the renowned fantasy saga of Elric will find only the enigmatic eight-page “A Portrait in Ivory,” which, while evocative and well-written, will have much less impact for those who have not previously encountered the mercenary antihero. Similarly, only three of Moorcock's four Reminiscences of the Third World War stories are included, and the other selections range from hard science fiction to the brief and “wholly non-fantastical” tale “A Winter Admiral.” Moorcock's writing is top-notch, but only completists will be able to fully appreciate its exemplars here.
June 15, 2009
From a poignant, contemplative moment in the life of antihero Elric of Melniboné ("A Portrait in Ivory") to a previously unpublished new revision of the 1993 story "Lunching with the Antichrist," the 17 stories in this collection demonstrate the breadth of scope and the excellence in storytelling of sf Grandmaster and multigenre author Moorcock. VERDICT One of the progenitors of the sword-and-sorcery genre as well as the New Wave literary sf movement, Moorcock crosses genres, bends boundaries, and breaks rules as only a master storyteller can. This important contribution to the author's oeuvre contains variant versions and some previously uncollected stories; a must read for his most ardent fans.
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
June 1, 2009
Moorcock is best known for his epic stories of Elric and Cornelius but over the course of his career has covered vastly more ground than that. Selected from more than 40 years of publication, the collection opens with A Portrait in Ivory, a contemplative view of the albino Elric written in response to a request to write a story illustrative of the word insouciant. Later comes Behold the Man, which won awards and generated a great deal of controversy, as the report of any time traveler to the era of Jesus well might. And there is A Dead Singer, in which exrock n roll roadie Shakey Mo drives around with a resurrected Jimi Hendrix. Rounding things off is A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club, a rather strange question-and-answer session with Jehovah at a club frequented by bizarre characters. It is all quintessential Moorcocka wild, fascinating batch of stories fairly balancing the fantastic and the nearly ordinary, and showcasing Moorcocks talent very well, thank you.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)