Tales of the Texas Woods [Hardcover]

Michael Moorcock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Michael Moorcock's first vivid encounter with the West was watching Gary Cooper, a dandified Plainsman, featured on a program with an equally dashing Joel McCrea. Buffalo Bill had been shot in old-fashioned Technicolor and captured exactly the quality of the Western annuals, with titles like Scouts in Buckskin and Heroes of the Prairie, that he inherited from his father and grandfather.

That early exposure along with Tom Mix and Hopalong Cassidy creator Clarence E. Mulford led Michael Moorcock on a life long love affair with the American West. This influence would help Moorcock to create some of the most popular characters in imaginative fiction.

Tales Of The Texas Woods has the famed Masked Buckaroo challenge the Apaches and their enigmatic leader El Lobo Blanco, the White Wolf! This original novella allows a glimpse of Elric in a Multiverse adventure. Then you learn how Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery of the Texan's honor and an adventure of the Eternal Champion in Sir Milk and Blood. Thrill to the adventures of Johnny Lonesome! Plus seven more startling stories from the mind of England and Texas' greatest author of fantasy and science fiction.

In this book of never-before-collected tales experience the many worlds of the man that the London Times called "a myth-maker" through a uniquely western slant. Complete with essays on western film and fiction, this unique collection is a book that only a master craftsman like Michael Moorcock could write. So mosey on up and take a seat, pardner and read a collection of Western tales from Texas with a little sidetrip to London thrown in.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Michael Moorcock's new collection Tales from the Texas Woods has much to recommend it besides its delightfully retro cover. A charming authorial introduction describes this Briton's views and links, both real and imagined, to America's Wild West, from his earliest days as a teenage talespinner for English pulps, imagining Arizona for other members of that "general zeitgeist already changing attitudes towards the Indian," in the belief "we were depicting a culture realistically, even if it was actually as romanticized and sentimentalized as Dances With Wolves....

The highlight of the collection, appropriately enough, is previously unpublished novella The Ghost Warriors!!, a tale of The Masked Buckaroo as by pulp western author extraordinaire "Warwick Colvin Jr." whose list of supposed titles ranges from "A Texan Revenge" through "Fryin' Frogs", "Suckin' Emus", and "Windy's Last Yodel", to "Scrapin' Barrels." When an eerie band of Apaches begins terrorizing the countryside, Hero Tex Brady takes on "the famous blue and red outfit with the black mask and white sombrero of his alter ego the legendary Masked Buckaroo!" someone even the Apaches respect....But any avid fan of Moorcock's work will want this book, and even the more casual follower of his career would find much to enjoy, and ponder, here. -- Faren Miller November 97 Locus

About the Author

London born Michael Moorcock is one of the most prominent, prolific and popular writers in the Western world. As the editor of New Worlds, Michael was a primary motivation behind the 1960's "New Wave" literary movement. His prodigious output includes rock songs, comics, screenplays, essays, and over seventy novels. Perhaps best know for his interlocking heroic fantasy series, Michael's recurring characters include Elric, Corum, Dorian Hawkmoon, Jerry Cornelius, the Eternal Champion and others. A multiple winner of the British Fantasy Award, Michael has won the Guardian Fiction Award (Condition Of Muzak), the World Fantasy Award (Gloriana), John W. Campbell Memorial Award (Gloriana), Nebula Award (Behold The Man [Mojo Press]) and was a finalist for the Whitbread Prize (Mother London). He currently lives with his wife Linda in Lost Pines, TX.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 158 pages
• Publisher: M O J O Pr; 1st edition (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885418175
• ISBN-13: 978-1885418173
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,059,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Windows into a genius's mind, August 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Tales of the Texas Woods (Hardcover)

Shor snippets of tales that only Moorcock can dream of and write of. Entertaining examples of a master's art in both story telling and thinking.

What else can one say... a distinct Moorcock... in more ways then one