Dying for Tomorrow

by Michael Moorcock

Contains:
Introduction
"A Dead Singer" (1974) novelette
"The Greater Conqueror" (1963) novelette
"Behold the Man" (1966) novella
"Good-Bye, Miranda" (1964) short fiction
"Flux" (1963) novelette
"Islands" (1963) short story
"Waiting for the End of Time..." (1970) short story

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Time Travel

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.

Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.

During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dying for Tomorrow, originally known as Moorcock's Book of Martyrs, is a collection of seven stories, five of which first appeared in the 1960s in New Worlds Magazine. They're mostly more or less connected to his Eternal Champion multiverse/tapestry, though all can be comprehended without familiarity with other works. It contains the original short version of Behold The Man, which is not as well developed as the novel version but packs a different kind of punch. The Greater Conqueror dates from 1962, near the beginning of his career, and seeing it side by side with more polished work of the 1970s shows his development in a most enlightening manner. They're rather dark and moody pieces for the most part, framing the martyr theme. I think this line from Waiting for the End of Time... illustrates it well: "For Time meant nothing and Death meant nothing and Identity meant only a little."

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ran across a UK edition of this weird kinda thrown-together paperback collection in a huge remainder pile at Books Inc when I was about 12 or something. Despite its feeling random and perplexing, it contains some great work. I find that I'm actually happiest with and most surprised by Michael Moorcock's weirdest, most out-of-the-blue stuff, and least happy with and most nonplussed by the stuff I feel he obviously wrote because he was trying to fill pages (second Corum trilogy, Count Brass trilogy, et al), or as someone once described him as saying, (something like) "I hate to throw away perfectly good paper, so I type all over it first."

On the other hand, the work in Moorcock's Book of Martyrs feels strangely more exotic than his fantasy novels to me. Much of it is irresistibly readable. Though he's never been a prominent short fiction author, I love his shorter works. This is where I encountered the novella version of "Behold the Man," which is brilliant; though the novel is more fully developed, the novella has a nice tight punch to it that is bitter and wonderful.

My fellow Moorcock completists, rejoice.

[Maryam]

its educative.it inspires u,i mean it is so rael u would get into the book the moment u start to read it. i always saw myself as a hidden character in the novel. try reading it i tell u, u will enjoy every bit of it.

[Renzel Reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Moorcock collection!

[Michael Prendergast · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and very different version of the life of Jesus. If you have strong religious convictions than this short story is not for you...

[Albert_Camus_lives]

En Diying singer, vuelven a la vida a Jimmy Hendrix.

[Chiefdonkey Bradey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful - bright swords, anguished science, haunted heroes

[Edward Amato · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time I recall reading this author. I thought this collection of short stories was brilliant given that it was written in the 70s.

[Frederick Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve decided that short story anthologies are like albums, with your singles and all the other songs that nobody really cares about.

‘Behold the Man’, about a Woody Allen type who travels back to Bible times and impersonates Jesus, and ‘Flux’, another time-travelling tale that gets weird in ways that would be spoilery to describe, are the singles. ‘A Dead Singer’ gets an honourable mention, and the story ‘Islands’ would make great radio, if anyone out there is still interested in that sort of thing. ‘The Great Conquerer’, about Alexander the Great, was something of a disappointment. I was hyped up to read Moorcock riffing on the Alexander Romance, but no, what I got instead was a sword-and-sandal novella with pronounced Zoroastrian elements.

Overall though, this is a little book well worth reading.

[Zantaeus Glom · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an exhilarating collection of extraordinarily imaginative short stories from one of my favorite authors. This wonderfully rich compendium of effervescent prose and divine storytelling would sit well on the voluminously bulging shelf of any truly discerning reader; doubly so for one who expects especially bold thinking, and heady, grandiloquent acts of literary derring-do! 'Moorcock's Book of martyrs' is fabulous stuff! and pretty darn essential for one such as I.

I was greatly taken by 'Flux', 'Behold The Man' and the terribly moving 'Waiting for The End of Time'; the latter being an especially gorgeous example of creative writing; a near-masterpiece of sublime speculative fiction, easily on par with the finest works of J.G Ballard.

[Jeff]

Death is not always in vain

[Mustafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

what ever your mom says you should deal with it.