Conference noted::sf

I think his two best are "DANCERS AT THE END OF TIME" and if you
have NO religious convictions or don't mind being offended, there
is 'BEHOLD THE MAN".  Where Moorcock goes out of his way to offend
everyone....

-dick

To be honest, I didn't really care for much of Moorcock except for the
Elric series. But then, my tastes have changed over the years, so I
should probably give his other stuff a try again (I originally read his
books circa 15 years ago).
	Moorcock has done so much interconnecting of his various series
that it's almost useless to try and separate them. He recently published
a short novel called "Elric at the End of Time", which interconnects
Elric with the Jherak Carnelian series. It appeared in the anthology
ELSEWHERE, edited by Mark Arnold and Terri Windling and published by
Ace Books a couple of years ago. It has since appeared in its own hard-
cover, though only in England.

--- jerry

	Hmmm. I have a copy of "Time of the Hawklords" by a Michael Moorcock.
	It's a poorly written fantasy about the British rock band, Hawkwind -
	painfully amateurish. One of the musicians in Hawkwind was a Michael
	Moorcock - is he THE Michael Moorcock?

I've only read one Moorcock book and that was more than enough, thank you.
It was called "The Eternal Champion" and in it our hero is drawn to a
world in the far future to take up the standard of humanity against 
humanlike aliens who occupy half the earth.  He proceeds to kill all but
a few of the aliens (that is, he slaughters a few millions or billions
of people) but these remaining few convince him that *they* are the good
guys and humans are the bad guys.  This 'champion' then proceeds to switch
sides and goes on to kill *all* the humans on the planet.

Gimme a break...

JP

Re .4 - It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it :-)

		The Eternal Champion was, I agree not too hot, but try
	the Hawkmoon and Elric series for some inventive sf-fantasy.
	
						sam

re:.3
	(1) TIME OF THE HAWKLORDS is not really by Moorcock. The by-line reads
"Michael Moorcock and Michael Butterworth" and the book is little Moorcock and
lots Butterworth. Butterworth later wrote two sequels.
	(2) Yes, Hawkwind's Michael Moorcock is *the* Michael Moorcock. He's
also written (or co-written) a few tunes for the rock group Blue Oyster Cult,
including an Elric/Eternal Champion song, "Black Blade" (on the albums CULTO-
SAURUS ERECTUS and EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL LIVE).

re:.4
	Yeah, that's kinda what I did't like about most of Moorcock's sword-&-
sorcery fiction. But you should really try the Elric books, or some of his sf
novels; my favorite is THE ICE SCHOONER. Don't try the Jerry Cornelius books,
though, unless you want something *really* strange.

--- jerry

I'm a great fan of Michael Moorcock. My favorites are the Cornelius
Chronicles, "A Cure for Cancer", "The Final Programme," "The Condition of
Muzak," and "The English Assasin." It's something like a tetralogy, but you
can read them in any order you like. They're like variations on a theme.
Here's the theme, it concerns the three siblings Frank, Jerry and Catherine
Cornelius.

Frank has been screwing around with space and time again, using technology
or magic he's stolen from their father, trying to fix the world in a state
where he's well off. If he's not careful, or since he's been careless, he
will kill or has killed their sister Catherine. He doesn't really understand
what he's doing. Jerry is really p.o.'ed about Cath, and about Frank
generally screwing things up, so he's forced into messing around with the
same dangerous stuff Frank is into, shaking things up and making anything
and everything possible, even the re-birth of Catherine.

Although the means to the end is technological domination of the world the
goals are totally mundane: Frank wants a comfortable shopkeeper's existence,
where nothing much changes but everybody's comfortable, and Jerry wants a
glamorous rock star's existence, where sombody scrapes all their days away
in dingy clubs, but with talent and a lucky break somebody gets to be the
idol of millions. Frank is Apollonian and Jerry is Dionysian. Each one might
be capable of extraordinary God-like acheivements, but they screw each other
up, and both end up doing a real half-assed job.

BTW, there's a third Oswald Bastable adventure available, The Steel Tsar.
Best of the lot in my opionion.

There's a Karl Glogauer adventure, "Breakfast in the Ruins" which deceived
me into thinking that Moorcock was dead, until I checked the date of
publication, and realized he had done more work since then. (At least, I
don't think it's all posthumous work.) The theme of the book was death and
rebirth, and MM apparently made himself a fictional character (not the first
time he's done so) for the purpose of sharpening the piquancy of the story.
I thought it was very well done. I generally like this kind of device, where
you're not sure where the boundaries of the fiction lie.

I liked the Elric stories, but upon re-reading found the middle ones rather
thin. I liked Gloriana for the story and characters; I don't understand why
it's billed as "erotic," just because all the characters enjoy/are afflicted
with perverse tastes. (Incest, necrophilia, transvestitism, lesbianism to
name but a few.) But I suppose that's in the eye (loins?) of the reader (or
maybe the author.)

Dancers at the End of Time was interesting, I like seeing Jerry reincarnated
as Jherek, but I think Legends from the End of Time covered all the
interested territory at the End of Time much more compactly. The Golden
Barge was a good story, but not quite up to his later standard. The Time of
the Hawklords was trash - I blame that on Michael Butterworth, MM's
co-author.

I guess I've read them all except the latest couple; MMs no longer
prolific. There is no doubt about the depth of his imagination,
or that Dancers at the End of Time, its trilogy and directly related
shorx stories are a work of genius, and extremely humorous.
Matt

    Some time in '84 or '85, Moorcock produced "The Warhound and the
    World's Pain," which I liked.  The narrator is a mercenary captain
    moving through the religious wars of 16th-century Europe.  He is
    commisioned by Satan to act as liaison between Satan and God.  It
    seems Satan is now convinced that he was wrong and would like to
    negotiate a surrender...
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    Just picked up Volume II of the Cornelius Chronicles.
    Volume III coming soon!
    
    Vol II contains two novels, The titles of which are lost somewhere
    in the deep dark recesses of my mind.
    
    Only about halfway through the first novel, Frank hasn't shown up
    yet, Jerry is still mucking about with history.
    The story so far seems just a tad more ordered than I remember the
    CC (V1) being. Did JC have a child in the previous book(s)? He does
    now. 
    So far, I love it.
    
    sm

    Re-issues:  Is Avon becoming mercenary?  They published all 4 in
    one book in '77.  Billed it as one *big* novel.
    
    And I, too, feel his best work was THE ICE SCHOONER.
          
    I think he's plating on the success of the Elric reissues by writing
    END OF TIME.
    
    						Don

    The original CORNELIUS CHRONICLES was an omnibus of the original
    four novels --- THE FINAL PROGRAMME, A CURE FOR CANCER, THE ENGLISH
    ASSASSIN, and THE CONDITION OF MUZAK. Volume Two contains two books
    --- a fifth novel, THE ENTROPY TANGO, and a collection of short
    stories, THE LIVES AND TIMES OF JERRY CORNELIUS, neither of which
    have had separate paperback publication in the US (actually, with
    the exception of TFP, neither have any of the original four novels).
    	Without knowing for sure, I suspect that Volume Three will contain
    the collection THE ADVENTURES OF UNA PERSSON AND CATHERINE CORNELIUS
    IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY and the anthology THE NATURE OF THE CATAS-
    TROPHE. The latter is of Cornelius stories written by other authors.
    
    re:.12
    
    I'm not sure what you mean by your last comment. ELRIC AT THE END
    OF TIME was written and published (in England) before the current
    Elric reissues from Berkley. In fact, the reason it was published
    by DAW was that DAW had bought the US rights to it before Moorcock
    re-sold the other Elric titles to Berkley.
    
    --- jerry

    Since I ignored EatEoT (that's right, I prefered to spend the money
    eating out) I didn't realize the re-issues did not occur at the
    same time as EatEoT.  I felt the Elric "saga" was complete.
              
    Seemed to me it was written (in this case published) to boost sales.
    No bullseye this time, Don.
    
    							Don

    nothin to say, just showin off my nodename.
    
    	 /
    	(  ___
    	 ) ///
    	/

    what was the name of Stormbringer's "sister sword"?
    
                                                   
                  /
                 (  ___
                  ) ///
                 /
    

    
    Mournblade?
    
    DFW
    who never thought all that much of Elric

    That's it! Thanks.
    
                                                   
                  /
                 (  ___
                  ) ///
                 /
    

    Ah, yes, Mournblade.
    
    The only other name that had been springing to mind was that of
    Elrod of Melvinbone's sword -- Seersucker.
    
    --- jerry