Fabulous Harbors

Second Ether #2

by Michael Moorcock

Eleven interlocking tales return readers to the alternate universe created in Blood and follow the adventures of the Grail-linked Beggs and von Beks, captive virgins, villains, monsters, Jerry Cornelius, and others.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels

228 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 1995

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]

Fabulous Harbors is a collection of eleven stories with somewhat tenuous bridging and framing sequences to tie them together in the continuity between the novels Blood and The War Among the Angels. The stories, for the most part, can be completely enjoyed and comprehended without being familiar with those other works. Familiar characters of his multiverse appear off and on- Von Bek, Elric, Cornelius- but, again, the individual tales stand alone well. My favorites are Lunching With the Antichrist and, of course, the Elric stories. Moorcock's prose is here very polished, and he doesn't let his political or societal criticisms interrupt the flow of the narratives.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked Blood: A Southern Fantasy, but found this next Second Ether book somewhat disappointing. This is a short story collection only loosely related to the previous book. There are some characters (or parallel versions of characters) in common with Blood, but otherwise there is little that seems to advance that book’s story. There is a lot of involvement of the Von Bek family and the Grail, so perhaps those elements will connect to the third book. On its own, however, this book seems mostly like a curiosity. Familiar names appear in different roles and settings. In that way it reminds me of the Futurama episode “Reincarnation” or some later seasons of Archer, remixing characters in new settings and styles but telling stories mostly unrelated to anything that came before.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked Blood: A Southern Fantasy, but found this next Second Ether book somewhat disappointing. This is a short story collection only loosely related to the previous book. There are some characters (or parallel versions of characters) in common with Blood, but otherwise there is little that seems to advance that book’s story. There is a lot of involvement of the Von Bek family and the Grail, so perhaps those elements will connect to the third book. On its own, however, this book seems mostly like a curiosity. Familiar names appear in different roles and settings. In that way it reminds me of the Futurama episode “Reincarnation” or some later seasons of Archer, remixing characters in new settings and styles but telling stories mostly unrelated to anything that came before.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun, strange mosaic, as Moorcock gives a (kinda, sort of) history of the Begg and Von Bek families, across history and the multi-verse, all told through a wide variety of genres.

It's a wondrous mish-mash, featuring characters from all of Moorcock's literary universe, as well as a hundred easter eggs.

Listed as the middle of a trilogy, but I have my doubts, as it reads, like any other standalone anthology, so I'm really interested in tracking down the books on either side to this one, as it seems to me, Moorcock may have created a trilogy that can be read in whatever order you feel like.

[Stephanie Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read. Always a good one when I just want a quick read of
Moorcock.

[Joseph Loehr]

A wonderous trip through Moorcock's Multiverse! This volume features on the Von Bek/Begg family

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hit and miss short story collection masquerading as a novel. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...

[Andy Haddon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moorcock's operating on a whole new level, weaving the mythology of his Eternal Champion with modern history, mixing the meta with splurges of day-glo dime store pulp.
Awesome.

[James Oden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Moorcock draws me in every time, and this framework of short stories truly shows the diversity of his writing (he is definitely not a one hit wonder). The book in truth is a collection of short stories about various members of the Von Beck family. This family's past, present, and future is all tightly held together as care takers of the holy grail. In Moorcock's mythos this ultimately means they are protectors of the balance between chaos and law, a theme that is found in all of his writings. In this mythos chaos is not seen as evil as much as an ever changing creative force that left to its own devices becomes something more akin to entropy and ultimately death, whereas law is not seen really as good, but a force of order and discipline, but left to its own devices becomes a force of tyranny, stasis and ultimately death. It is the balance between the two wherein life exists at its most functional state, and it is against the back drop of this philosophical lens that all the stories take place.

Concerning the breadth of the stories, there was one story that totally caught me off guard, which was "Lunching with the Antichrist". This was not a tale of sword and sorcery, nor intrigue and conflict. It was tale of priest who seems to find the way to rise above hypocrisy and teach a true message of love and mercy. His message flies right in the face of the establishment and he is ultimately defrocked and even spends some time in prison. Needless to say this is not your average Moorcock tale, but it was done well, and I must say was quite charming.

I will not lie; the times that Elric showed up immediately drew me in. Of the creations of pulp fiction, Elric of Melnibone is the ultimate. Though the stories always seem to climax with sword and sorcery, "blood and souls" for Arioch as it where, the depth of the Elric character against the backdrop of Moorcock's mythos/philosophy seems to always touch far deeper than mere pulp fiction. So to see appearances of Elric in these short stories is like a fleeting meeting of an old friend, albeit a very dark and dangerous friend.

The only negative thing I have to say about the book concerns the framework that Moorcock used to nit the stories together. The book starts off with essentially members of the Von Bek family sharing stories, the very short stories that are the focus of the book. Execution wise it Moorcock starts off strong but then somewhere and afterwards to an ever increasing degree this knitting gets weaker and weaker. It could have been better if it was really just presented as a collection of short stories, however really what I wanted was the knitting/framework to not weaken. That said, I do wonder if this was on purpose as the very last story does not return to the framework at the end at all, and is the true conclusion of the book. Hard to tell without asking Moorcock directly.

All in all "Fabulous Harbors" was a very enjoyable and thought provoking book with a tinge of pulpish guilty pleasure. As usual, bravo Mr. Moorcock!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous Harbors is a bit of a strange book because it claims to be the second book of the Second Ether series, but really isn't. Instead it's a book about Moorcock's Von Bek family that makes skims through his multiverse and makes stops with several notable characters. The result is rather delightful, for how it builds a larger web out of individual, interconnected stories.

"The White Pirate". A delightfully funny story about religious martyrs that touches lightly upon the Second Ether [7+/10].

"The Black Blade's Summoning. A fun Elric story, mainly for its interactions with the Second Ether (and for the fact that it was the first Elric short story in over a decade [7+/10].

"The Affair of the Seven Virgins. This starts out as a period detective story that's OK, but it pretty suddenly rises up to be much more interesting in the last few pages when it's revealed as a Von Bek story after all [6/10].

"The Girl Who Killed Sylvia Blade". A bit too pastiched at times, but in the end, a nice noir piece [6/10].

Crimson Eyes. In many ways, this story was entirely puzzling for its expansion of the Crimson Eyes character, but it was a cool puzzlement that promised interesting revelations in the future [7/10].

"No Ordinary Christian". A pleasantly bittersweet tale of love lost and found [7+/10].

The Enigma Windows. A Jerry Cornelius story that's OK but doesn't really fit here [6/10].

The Birds of the Moon. A nice finale because it once more links the Grail and the transit between the universe; also a good human piece [7+/10].

[Ian Johnston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fabulous Harbours is, unfortunately, nowhere near as good as Blood. It is, actually, a collection of short stories loosely connected through a framing device of a family gathering of the Beggs and Jack Karaquazian. The stories are certainly amusing, ranging from detective fiction (with a slightly ironic character standing in for Sherlock Holmes) and noir to pure fantasy with a visit with Elric. Actually, Elric in various guises appears frequently in the stories as various members of the Von Bek family, all albinos and mostly bearing a black, soul sucking sword.

The common themes running through the story is that the Von Bek family (and all it's kin the Beggs, Becks, Beeks, etc.) are guardians of the holy grail which is the gateway to the multiverse and the key to overcoming entropy and death (reconciling God and Satan). However, there is no grand payoff, no real resolution. It's a holding pattern at best. Familiar roles are played all around, but that's a big theme he likes to play with.

The individual stories are good overall, never great. It's highly disappointing after Blood, especially since I was expecting a more coherent tale of the voyagers of the multiverse to the titular harbours. I suspect these books are rather improperly called a trilogy. There are better books by Moorcock, and this is safely skip-able. If you really love Elric you might be interested, or if you are really into Moorcock's mythology.

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to Moorcock's strange novel Blood but it isn't a typical sequel. It's a short story collection and at times it feels like an old-fashioned "fix up" novel that in some ways doesn't quite work when compared and contrasted with the first book in the series. And yet some of the writing is exquisite, and ultimately the ideas do pull together and coherence is achieved, not the sort of coherence that a standard sequel to a standard fantasy novel might have, but some other kind of coherence, looser, wider, chaotic, and finally satisfying.

'No Ordinary Christian' is perhaps my favourite story in this book. It's an Elric story (sort of) but set in the Morocco of the early 1920s (I base this date on the fact that Abd el-Krim is mentioned as a new resistance leader). The prose shows Moorcock as his best, a certain kind of Moorcock evolved from his 1960s and early 1970s fantasy blasts: a Moorcock who with Gloriana and then the PYAT novels had learned to write very well indeed. The way that Moorcock can tell a good rattling pulp adventure story in such a literary manner is really quite extraordinary.

[robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a hard book to classify. Not straight-up science fiction, not straight-up fantasy either. It veers between philosophy and politics as well.

I dunno. It was nice to see Elric again, even if Moorcock was playing so fast and loose with identity in this one that I often wasn't any too sure who Elric was inhabiting, or being inhabited by.

It's a series of shorts, loosely bound by the story-telling device of a group of friends literally telling stories. Some I didn't care much for, some I enjoyed, but Moorcock is a really good writer, and as I say, it was nice to see familiar faces for the first time in awhile.

[Red Dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hugely enjoyable, even accessible (for a Moorcock book) set of tales that range wide over a myriad of topics, but all expertly held within the multiverse concept that underpins much of Moorcock's work.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

See review of Blood

[Clint Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Fabulous Harbors is officially the second volume in the Second Ether series, it is actually a collection of short stories bound to a single introductory thread where friends tell each other their strange stories.

Moorcock seems to want to apply the themes of The Grail, The Rose and the Second Ether (his later works) to his Eternal Champions, rather than the other way around the way he did with his earlier and middle-period works. He continues to work with the theme of conservative fascism (Law), liberal anarchy (Chaos), and the measured spaces in between (The Balance). These ideas are applied not only to politics and philosophy, but to physics (influenced by his reading James Gleick's Chaos) and moral perspectives. It's an odd place for Fantasy / Science Fiction to live and grow, but for me it's very satisfying as an adult reader who followed and grew up reading Moorcock's early sword and sorcery, while appreciating how Moorcock explores serious, more deeply developed ideas.

While this volume does not follow the main characters Jack Karaquasian nor Sam Oakenhurst from the first volume, Blood, the way you might expect, it is still interesting to see how his other Eternal Champion characters react to and work within the more 'concrete' Multiverse presented in the Second Ether. Typically Elric sees it as a distraction, brushing it aside. Edwin Begg has a brief view of his heaven.