Michael Moorcock - Page 1
| Paperback - Earthlight (2002) |
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First British Edition Earthlight (2001) |
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The Dreamthief's Daughter
A tale of the albino
I hacked my way to where Gaynor and Klosterheim stood, on the edge of the square, goading the troogs and savages to kill me. I cleared a path towards the two leaders as another might clear his way through tall grass. They began to be afraid of me.
I was used to that fear I expected little else. All humans had it. I despised it. No such weakness was allowed to infect the blood of a Melnibonean. My folk had ruled the world for ten thousand years. They had determined the histories of the Young Kingdoms, those nations of human kind. My race was older, wiser and infinitely crueler than men…
In the 1930s, Count Ulric von Bek has been harried and imprisoned by the Nazis for a black sword which is part of his family’s history – and for the Grail, which his cousin Gaynor believes is also in his care. Almost dead, he is rescued from Sachsenhausen concentration camp by two unknown figures, an Englishman called Bastable and an albino girl, Oona. With them, he journeys to a strange, underground world. And there he meets a figure known to him only from dreams, in which they are somehow the same person, yet separate: Elric of Melniboné.
As their stories intertwine, von Bek comes to know of Elric’s past, and recent history and their very beings become one. Sometimes Elric is in control, sometimes Ulric. And the never-ending struggle between Law and Chaos must be fought out in both their universes, with the help of the enigmatic Dreamthief’s Daughter.
Michael Moorcock returns triumphantly to his best-known character, the albino prince, Elric of Melniboné. In the first of three new tales of the doomed swordsman, he plaits differing realities effortlessly, mixing the eternal city of Tanelorn with the rise of Hitler’s Germany.
'I was captivated by this tale from the beginning' Vector
'Scenes of beauty and power, and serious ruminations on humankind's capacity for great dreams and profound horrors' Locus
'A supreme example of the fantasy genre and more' Time Out
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First British Edition Earthlight (2000) |
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Silverheart
with Storm Constantine
A novel of the multiverse
In six days Max Silverskin, thief and trickster, must discover the secrets of his heritage or perish from the witch mark – the silverheart - on his chest which will devour his heart. Lady Rose Iron, daughter of the leader of the mighty Clan Iron in Karadur, city of metal, steam and ancient secrets, is thrown into an uneasy alliance with Max as she searches out the secrets which may save the city’s future. Captain Cornelius Coffin, head of the clans’ security forces, is in love with Lady Rose and obsessed with capturing Max. And there are others, in Shriltasi, Karadur’s underworld twin, who know the prophecy which says that only Max Silverskin can save both realms.
In Silverheart Michael Moorcock and Storm Constantine have combined their talents to produce a novel which is both surreal and qothic, with characters both sympathetic and grand guignol.
| British Pbk Original - Scribner (2000) |
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King of the City
King of the City is the sequel to the award-winning Mother London. In creating this outstandingly rich and rewarding reading experience, Michael Moorcock exposes the beating heart of our chaotic and exuberant times with unrivalled wit, compassion and insight.
The narrator, Dennis Dover, son of 'the last real Londoner to be hanged for murder', is born and raised in Brookgate, an inner London area rich in multi-layered histories and resonances. He grows to adulthood streetwise and
savvy - and deeply attached to his beautiful, brilliant cousin Rosie Beck with whom he has an almost telepathic empathy. But neither Dennis nor Rosie can foresee the inexorable rise of John Barbican Begg, the financial genius and unscrupulous schemer who, - despite their resistance, latches lamprey-like onto their lives. As Dennis pursues a dual career as underground rock guitarist and intrepid photojournalist while Rosie devotes her intelligence and energies to helping the poor of the world, Barbican builds a commercial empire whose unprecedented wealth and power dwarfs that of most nation states.
Against a brilliantly detailed backdrop of a world in turmoil - from Paris to Rwanda, from New York to Kosovo - Rosie, Dennis and Barbican follow their different paths, drawing towards a spectacular joint resolution of their destinies at one of the most historic nodal points of the Old World.
'Moorcock has the bravura of a nineteenth-century novelist: he takes risks, he uses fiction as if it were a divining rod for the age's most significant concerns' Peter Ackroyd, Sunday Times
'A master craftsman at the height of his powers. He has the energy of a Golden Age author' Iain Sinclair, New Statesman
'He is one of the most original authors of our time' Sunday Telegraph
| Paperback - Gollancz (2002) |
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Corum: The Prince of the Scarlet Robe
Prince Corum, the last of the Vadhagh, driven half-mad by the slaughter of his people, swears vengeance on their killers, the Mabden. But then he falls in love with a Mabden woman and must confront the fury of the Lords of Chaos who fear that he is the hero who could tip the balance in their cataclysmic war with the forces of Law and free his
world from Chaos’s terrible grip.
This volume brings together the three books of Corum, The Knight of the
Swords, The Queen of the Swords and The King of the Swords, Moorcock’s evocation of a time of magic, phantasms, cities in the sky, oceans of light and wild flying beasts of bronze which is one of the pinnacles of modern imaginative literature.
`He changed the field single handedly. He is a giant… If you are at all interested in fantastic fiction, you must read Michael Moorcock . . . He has kept me entertained, shocked and fascinated for as long as I have been reading’ Tad Williams
`[Michael Moorcock] has the sort of imaginative energy and ambition that largely died out with the great Victorians’ The Listener
`Brilliant, fantastic talent’ The Sunday Times
`A master storyteller . . .’ New Statesman
`One of the most original authors of our time’ Sunday Telegraph
`Extraordinary and exuberant’ Angela Carter
`A master of narrative’ Angus Wilson
`Exhilarating and disturbing’ Observer
`Michael Moorcock shares one remarkable quality with such disparate giants as Trollope and Proust: when we read him we want more and have no appetite, at least for a while, for anyone else’s fiction. He casts a heady, enslaving spell’ Ruth Rendell
| Paperback - Scribner (2000) |
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Mother London
Short-listed for the Whitbread Fiction prize
'A novel that is intended to be a celebration of my native city.' (Michael Moorcock)
A wonderfully rich and dazzling novel celebrating the people and places of post-war London. The main characters – all considered to be mentally disturbed by the medical profession - are able to hear the babbling voices from the heart of the city in their heads. A loving rhapsody dedicated to London itself in much the same way as Ulysses was for Dublin.
This is the voice of the city - the London of obscure suburbs, overlooked parks, forgotten graveyards, - a network of villages linked by overgrown and demolished routes.
‘Remembrance, rock, and reconfabulation: Moorcock is a London shamen’ William Gibson
'Mother Londonis wise and wistful, authentic and authoritative, intelligent and informed; it is a masterpiece.' Independent
‘There is a feast in store for those who have never been dazzled and disturbed by Michael Moorcock’s eye for the absurd and gift for fantasy; and confirmation for those familiar with his work, that he is one of the most original authors of our time' Sunday Telegraph
'It creates what amounts to a new myth of London. If this wonderful book does not finally convince the world that Moorcock is in fact one of our very best novelists and a national treasure, then there is no justice' Listener
'His is the grand, messy flux itself, in all its heroic vulgarity, its unquenchable optimism. For Moorcock's Londoners, nothing could be more magical than the real fabric of the city they love and the stories with which it echoes' Angela Carter, Guardian
About The Author
Michael Moorcock was born in London in 1939. He started writing at a young age, producing a variety of fanzines during his teenage years. After leaving school he began contribute stories to Tarzan Adventurer, a magazine that he went on to edit briefly from 1957-8. By the early 60s he was writing for SF Adventures and Science Fantasy. These stories were the first to feature his most well known character, Elric of Melnibone. His first novel, The Sundered Worlds, was published in 1965. In 1967, his novella Behold the Man won the Nebula Award. By the late 60s he had become quite prolific, often producing several novels a year. He combined his writing with the editing of New Worlds, a SF and fantasy magazine which under his reign was to become hugely influential, publishing stories by many of SF's more literary writers such as Brian Aldiss, Samuel Delany, Thomas Disch and M. John Harrison. When the magazine ceased publication, he continued to edit a series of anthologies by the same name until 1976. His novel The Condition of Muzak won the Guardian Fiction Award, and Mother London was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. As well as his fiction, he has also written a study of fantasy called Wizardry and Wild Romance (1987).
He has written for and performed with the rock groups Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult, scripted films and an interactive live-action computer game. He and his wife Linda divide their time between Austin, Texas, London and the Mediterranean.
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
The Dreamthief's Daughter
(Earthlight,
2001)
Earthlight Pbk Feb 02
Silverheart
(Earthlight,
2000)
King of the City
(Scribner Pbk,
2000)
Corum: The Prince of the Scarlet Robe
(
1992)
Gollancz Pbk Jun 02
Mother London
(Secker & Warburg,
1988)
Scribner Pbk May 00
Count Brass
(
1973)
Gollancz Millenium Pbk 1998
Behold the Man
(
1969)
Gollancz Millenium Pbk Nov 99
Gloriana
Gollancz Millenium Pbk Oct 01
Elric
Gollancz Millenium Pbk May 01
The Dreamthief's Daughter
by Michael Moorcock
