Customer Reviews

The Dancers At The End Of Time (Eternal Champion Series, Vol. 10)

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There is no denying that Michael Moorcock is an inventive writer. I've only started to read his work recently, starting with that irreverent novel about Jesus "Behold the Man", the peripatetic adventures concerning Elric, and now "Dancers At the End of Time".

This series of books is set in a future well beyond our own time. For Jherek Carnelian and the rest of his kind, our world is so far in the past (hundreds of thousands of millenia in the past) that history and Hollywood, fiction and fact have blurred together. Moorcock takes us so far into the future that "sand" on a beach is actually crushed bone, and characters behave in ways which would shock even the most open-minded people of our own society.

In Jherek Carnelian's society it is impossible for anyone to feel shock. No one is encumbered with the conventions and standards which we in our own time feel obliged to live by. In the future life is one long game without rules, a fairground in which to indulge. Death is practically an obsolete notion. Sounds like heaven on Earth, doesn't it? As space and time are no longer barriers, it wouldn't surprise me if another time traveller like Karl Glogauer had gone into the past and "implanted" the concept of heaven - the misinterpreted promise that all the misery and suffering, the turmoil and deprivation, would eventually be rewarded with everlasting life and blissful harmony. All in exchange for clean living and a lot of faith. This would have been a cruel trick for a time traveller to play, even if it wasn't intentional.

In the early 20th century Marcel Duchamp once declared that anyone can be an artist. In Jherek's time everyone is an artist, able to create their own environments to whatever specifications they desire, alter their bodily appearance whenever the whim takes them, and build menageries filled with specimans culled from anywhere and anywhen.

Jherek has a fondness for anything associated with his favourite period the 19th century. When it comes to nostalgia past eras are best loved by those who never experienced them. It's like someone obsessed with Robin Hood holding a romantic view of the Middle Ages. One object of beauty coveted by Jherek is the elegant Mrs Amelia Underwood. Much of Moorcock's story concerns Jherek's attempts to win the heart of Amelia Underwood in a series of well-intentioned gestures and temporal wanderings. I don't want to say too much more than that, but rest assured, it's an eventful ride. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of what the characters look like as they keep changing their appearance, but just hang in there. When Jherek pursues Amelia in 1896 he's like the proverbial fish out of water. You won't be disappointed.

Definitely the most ornate of the many Eternal Champion books, the Dancers book literally drip with the times of Oscar Wilde and company, every sentence is flowering and flowing, wrapping around themselves several times, almost wallowing in their lyrical flavor before leading directly into the next one. For once, Moorcock manages to deliver this high minded language without sounding pretentious, not many people could pull that off. And his world here is as far from the blood drenched sword and sorcery conflicts that make up the Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon books, like the Jerry Cornelius books (who both the characters and the plots mostly resemble) nothing seems to happen even as the action is spiraling around, philosophy that most writers would spend entire books on is tossed off in careless comments, the Law/Chaos arugments are brought up again but you don't even notice. The best part is the character interaction, for all their decadence and carelessness, the Dancers are a bit of a lovable bunch because of their innocence and you can't help cheering on the burgoning romance of Amelia and Jherek, both savoring the long drawn out tension and cursing that she doesn't ditch that loser of a husband and go with Jherek. The romance is at the center of the book and Moorcock knows it, he aptly illustrates the passions that just burn underneath the surface of the two lovers and makes you sympathize with their conflicts. Deep down inside you know they're going to be together but since this is a Moorcock book you wonder what form. The happy ending is nice for once as well, one can only stomach Elric's seemingly endless self pity for so long, entertaining and thought provoking as it is. This series basically rewrites the Jerry Cornelius books, takes out the stuff that made it nearly incomprehensible (if you've read them you know exactly what I mean) and layers the plot on thick, some people complain they had trouble following it, coming off some of his more complicated stuff, this couldn't be easier, heck I guessed a lot of the twists before they happened, but I missed nearly as many as well. All in all, one of the more entertaining and well rounded Eternal Champion books, it even has some great guest appearance by other characters from the other series (and what Moorcock book would be incomplete without that?), it offers adventure, romance and some philosophy in a nice package that leaves you with a good feeling when you've finished. Doesn't get better than this.

For years I had put off reading Moorcock... I read plenty of other Science Fiction and Fantasy, from Neil Stephenson to Robert Jordan, but never got around to reading this giant of the genres. I'm glad I finally did.

"The Dancers At the End of Time" is quite possibly the wittiest and most amusing time travel scenario I have ever encountered. Moorcock wrote this exciting little trilogy (originally published as several smaller hardcover volumes) with a wit rarely encountered in the often overly-serious sci-fa genres. His satire drips with the delightful flavor of the turn of the century fin-de-siecle, delightful parodies of H.G. Wells, and a delicate, romantic heart that matches the author's humor. I laughed at Jerekh's bumbling attempts at romance. I cried at the almost tragic occurences near the end of the novel, and I cheered at the resolution. Having just finished reading Mary Doria Russell's depressing "The Sparrow" (although also an excellent book), I needed something a bit more uplifting. This did the trick.

If you're looking for a good intelligent satire, you can do no wrong by taking a look at this classic Moorcock masterpiece.

In these three books, Michael Moorcock reaches farther and explores more ideas and concepts than most other authors - even SF/F authors, in their entire career.

The characters will constantly shock you, at first, but the "reality" of their situation soon becomes clear, and fascinating.

And if you ever wished to see "character development" made interesting, the experiences and responses of Jherek Cornelian in this epic is the Stairway to Heaven of personal growth and realization.

Did you know that the author is one of the actual creators of "Cyberpunk"? It was his magazine, New Worlds, from which the founders of Cyberpunk sprang, at the behest of the quest for an expansion of the old mythic archetype. It is a similar fusion of myth and the modern technical world which made The Matrix so captivating.

In this novel, though, he steps beyond even those boundaries. Technology is so transcendant that it no longer is even part of one's conscious world. Innocence and decadence become both the same and yet nothing at all.

All in all, "You gotta see it to believe it". An easy read, but a captivating one.

This volume, number ten in the Eternal Champion cycle, is a joy to read, having dated little in the couple of decades since the stories were written. (And anyway, what are a few decades when viewed from the sublime perspective of the End of Time?) The fantastical, hedonistic, anything-goes society at the very end of the Universe is depicted with all the imaginative gusto that is Michael Moorcock's hallmark. The romance between Jherek Carnelian (anti-hero Jerry Cornelius in a more sympathetic incarnation) and his staid Victorian Mrs Underwood, set against this backdrop, is all the more touching for the contrast. Familiar time-travellers Una Persson and Oswald Bastable turn up (I kept waiting for Mrs Cornelius to put in an appearance,) to prove that this world is but one aspect of many in the great hall of mirrors that is the Moorcockian Multiverse. To sum up, no swords in evidence but plenty of sorcery. Pure magic, in fact.

Michael Moorcock has created an extremely complex work in The Dancers series, making serious comments about the natures of and differences between art, life, religion and love. In the far, far future, humanity is comprised all of artists and their society which is all surface. They have no self-consciouness of this, but live the lives of fin-de-siecle bohemians with the power of gods. Thrust deliberately into this mix are time travellers, space travellers, and coming end of the Universe. Manipulated into falling love, the last human born of a woman, Jherek Carnelian, seeks the English Victorian Christian Amelia Underwood. Jherek is a pure artist, and Amelia is the anti-artist. Still, Jherek pursues her across time, falls in love with her, and changes his nature to please her. By turns funny, moving, and thoughtful, these books are English at their deepest core, speculating on the Nature of the English Soul released from all inhibition, want, and sense of sin, and rediscovering them happily.

I have the original paperback trilogy, which is here presented as one book. You need not have read Moorcock's other works to enjoy this, and it doesn't have the dark and brooding atmosphere of some of his Eternal Champion stuff (though a few of the individual characters do enjoy that sort of thing). Since the playful and jaded people at the End of Time have the power to do anything they want, with no danger (if they happen to die, they can always resurrect, for instance), there are no logical limits or dangers requiring the development of taboos. They don't even have a clear concept of what is pleasant and what is not; their most damning description for an experience is "dull". The most interesting parts of the books, IMHO, deal with the violently clashing sensibilities of the End of Time people and time-and-space travellers who happen upon them, such as Mrs. Amelia Underwood of Victorian England. That and the preposterous visual imagery and terrible historical malapropisms. I find these books hysterically funny. If you're familiar with Moorcock's Elric books, read the End of Time trilogy...and then read Elric at the End of Time, if you can find it. Moorcock mocking himself is truly at his peak.

What characters! What lines! What descriptions! And I don't think I've laughed this much for a long time. Moorcock wrote these long before Hitchhiker and you can see the influence, also on Terry Pratchett. I read these around the same time as American Giant by Harvey Jacobs, which I recommend. Another very funny fantasist (although Giant isn't REALLY fantasy... ). It's so rare to get grown-up writing and grown-up humor together in sci-fi. Tom Holt can do it.David Garnett can do it. Harvey Jacobs can do it. Michael Moorcock can do it. Now I'm about to start on Legends from the End of Time. It promises to be just as good. Recommended to all adults who like their humor wild, sexy and witty.

A most unusual work of Mr. Moorcock. Funny, devious, but definitely an essential for those who want to understand the most of Michael Moorcock. Probably his attitude toward life. I like the situation that the story is cast in: decadent world where the last humans of Earth have powers like gods, but use them solely for petty domestic pleasure. Jherek is the only one of them who wishes to explore other worlds, and ends up the progenitor of a new plan of creation. And the contrast between Victorian prudishness and End of Time innocent decadence is hilariously portrayed here. Very good, Mr. Moorcock. You're not miserable in this one (I mean about what happens to the hero). Hats off to Jherek, too. Hope he learns how to read, though.

Moorcock creates a very remarkable habitat in this series: a far future earth, where the inhabitants have almost unlimited power. They can create matter out of solid air, resurrect themselves, etc. The characters have become bored and suffer from a perpetual ennui, comparable to works of Wilde and Beardsley. It's like reading Saki set at the end of time. The plot is amusing: one of these almost omnipotent characters falls in love with woman from Victorian England. He decides to fall in love. Many adventures follow, all very amusing. Moorcock's prose is, for once, very crisp. I don't want to spoil the story for you, but it is definitely worth reading, and for the many readers who only know Moorcock through Elric, this will show a much lighter side of his personality.