I got the Best of Michael Moorcock as part of a storybundle of scifi, possibly of short stories. I read a lot of Michael Moorcock as a late teen/student, and couldn’t for the life of me remember any of these characters except for Elric of Melnibone. Sometimes it makes me wonder whether I ever really read anything at all.

The Best of Michael Moorcock

by Michael Moorcock, ed John Davey and Ann &Jeff Vandermeer

Michael Moorcock: Legendary author of the Elric saga, Science Fiction Grand Master, platinum album–receiving rock star, and controversial editor of the new wave fiction movement’s New Worlds. In this definitive collection, discover the incomparable stories of one of our most important contemporary writers.

These exceptional stories range effortlessly from the genre tales that continue to define fantasy to the author’s critically acclaimed mainstream works. Classic offerings include the Nebula Award–winning novella “Behold the Man,” which introduces a time traveler and unlikely messiah that H.G. Wells never imagined; “The Visible Men,” a recent tale of the ambiguous and androgynous secret agent Jerry Cornelius; the trilogy “My Experiences in the Third World War,” where a Russian agent in an alternate Cambodia is powerless to prevent an inevitable march toward nuclear disaster; and “A Portrait in Ivory,” a Melibone story of troubled anti-hero Elric and his soul-stealing sword, Stormbringer. Newer work handpicked by an expert editing team includes one previously unpublished story and three uncollected stories. [goodreads]

My Review

The quote from Library Journal on the front cover reads “Moorcock crosses genres, bends boundaries, and breaks rules as only a master storyteller can.” That is an excellent summary.

The editors give a detailed introduction, explaining how they eventually decided on what to include, but then there was the problem of ‘how to include it.’ Chronologically might mean it started with some of the weaker, more juvenile stories.

Well, if they are weaker, why include them in a ‘best of’?

As it is, the stories jump around through styles and genres, and the contemporary 1960s-70s in between something set in an older London, and some which are definitely fantasy land. And Moorcock is brilliant at fantasy worlds

Some of the stories are famous — Behold the Man being one that could definitely not be omitted–but for a while it is a tedious drug-addled tale, as much as two of the preceding ones. Although, since one of those is the hilarious return of Jimi Hendrix, it sort of bookends the era. I sort of remembered the war one, Crossing to Cambodia. It was really worrying, given the state of the world at present.

But with most of them I had no prior experience. I thought I would have encountered at least some of them before. They would have been in my best of MM. Some of these may display MM’s genius and breadth and genre-bending and breaking of rules, but I didn’t really enjoy many of them. Maybe I would have done if I was in my late teens still.

One for more literary intellectual readers, than scifi fans, perhaps?

Book Review | The Best of Michael Moorcock #booksky

4 thoughts on “Book Review | The Best of Michael Moorcock #booksky

  • 25 January, 2025 at 3:45 pm
    Permalink

    Never come across this writer before, but now I have to look him up!

    Reply
  • 26 January, 2025 at 4:38 am
    Permalink

    I think the name vaguely rings bells, but I don’t recall reading anything by him. Which probably means my dad didn’t read him, since most of my teen SF reads came straight off Dad’s shelf!

    Reply
    • 26 January, 2025 at 9:57 am
      Permalink

      I didn’t realise he was British, which may be why your dad didn’t have his books.

      Reply

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