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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moorcock Still the Coolest, November 17, 2003
This review is from: The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius: Stories of the Comic Apocalypse (Paperback)
Jerry Cornelius, a product of sixties hip when Moorcock's name never seemed to be out of the papers, died, was resurrected and died again, certainly in terms of his fashionability. Now here he is with a bunch of the best of his earliest adventures coupled with a quartet of his best new ones, dealing with Clinton's foreign policy, Lady Diana's death-cult, Middle Eastern Politics and, in what is probably the best story in the book, events around the catastrophe of 9/11. And, to this reader's surprise at least, he seems even more relevant today than he did when he first hit the pages of New Worlds, that magazine of early post-modernist senisbility, some forty years ago. Moorcock's fingers were definitely on the pulse of our times and this collection proves it. Elegant, fast and sardonic, these are tales that are, like Scott Fitzgerald's, distinctly of their time and yet retain a universality lacking in most other contemporary fiction. This is the best value on the literary market. As he proves in his McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury story, Moorcock is also provides great entertainment while making us think a lot deeper than, for instance, the Matrix's rabbit hole. Totally recommended!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ur-rebel in bell bottoms, November 5, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius: Stories of the Comic Apocalypse (Paperback)
Jerry C. is a Mod gone mad: he is the ultimate manifestation of English 60's style. So anti-cool he's completely cool, so immoral he teaches by anti-example -- got that? -- as when he cheerfully kills a young boy who seems to be the earthly manifestation of the Buddha...shocking when he first appeared, even now he retains his appeal. In fact, in the post-James Bond era of Austin Powers, Jerry is more intriguing than ever...and Moorcock is simply one of the most important writers of fantasy, or writers period, up there with Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Doris Lessing.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More detached? More amoral?, May 28, 2005
This review is from: The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius: Stories of the Comic Apocalypse (Paperback)
Seems best to have read the "Cornelius Quartet" first. The novels provide a good introduction to Jerry as well as other characters who appear in these stories: his brother Frank, sister Catherine, Miss Brunner, Bishop Beesley, Una Persson, Major Nye, Professor Hira,...
These short stories focus on commentary by Jerry and company against a backdrop of world events:
"I'm not interested in being right. I'm interested in what happens."
"This is the age of the lowest common denominator. I blame America."
Jerry here seemed more detached, more amoral than in the novels. Some of his coolness slipping into coldness. Perhaps because the world he protects himself against has become harsher. Moorcock's writing is at least as good as in the Quartet. It took some adjustment going from the novels to the short stories. Instead of going into Jerry's world, as the novels did, these short stories take Jerry into the world. Jerry's escape and our escape are over.
Toward the end of this first reading, I began to let go of my expectations based on the Quartet and accept the short story format. I'm looking forward to a second, fresh reading.
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