NPR Results

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 11 Aug 2011, 17:02 · from 2011-August.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:02:52 -0700
Subject: (urth) NPR Results
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On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 9:47 AM, Lane Haygood <lhaygood at gmail.com> wrote:
> The Elric books (ANY Moorcock, for that matter) is in a different time zone
> than Goodkind's trash.

Well, *almost* every Moorcock -- there was his ERB ripoff written
purely for money.

> I recommend all of the Eternal Champion books, actually.

I can't go quite that far.

It helps to understand that there appear to be two writers living in
Michael Moorcock's head. One writes quick-and-dirty swords'n'sorcery
like the majority of the EC books. These are not bad books by any
means, but they don't go an inch beneath the surface. These would
include -- just off the top of my head -- the Corum books, the
Hawkmoon books, and the books simply labelled "eternal champion."

Then there's the Moorcock who writes elegant "comedies" like GLORIANA,
the Pyat quartet, and "the Dancers at the End of Time." These are
remarkably good books, full of satire and wit. And there are quite a
few of them -- I want to mention BEHOLD THE MAN, and THE WARHOUND AND
THE WORLD'S PAIN, and the Oswald Bastable books (which are steampunk),
and BREAKFAST IN THE RUINS, and and and...

But, somewhere in the middle of these, are Elric and Jerry Cornelius
... oh my. Elric is a witty swords'n'sorcery series, almost a parody
of s&s, but never failing to take its matter seriously in context. And
Jerry Cornelius... well, some days I think Cornelius is Moorcock's
crowning achievement; other days I think it's a vast hoax. Either way,
I wouldn't be without the ten or so books that constitute the greater
Cornelius Chronicles. Amazing stuff.

To make things more confusing, Elric interacts with characters from
both the "lower" tier and the "upper" tier (appearing now with Corum
and Hawkmoon, and then in the End of Time...), and both of them (as
well as a few characters in the "upper" tier) are aspects of that
damned Eternal Champion.

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

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