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The Best of Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock: Legendary author of the Elric saga; Science Fiction Grand Master; Platinum album–selling rock star; and controversial editor of New Worlds. In this definitive collection, discover the incomparable stories of one of our most versatile storytellers.
Here you will find Moorcock's work at its finest. 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 tale of the ambiguous and androgynous secret agent Jerry Cornelius; the trilogy "My Experiences in the Third World War," in which 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 Newer work includes one previously unpublished story and three uncollected stories.
CURATOR'S NOTE (The Best of British SFF Bundle)
«Michael Moorcock needs no introduction. He single-handedly reinvented British SF in the 1960s with New Worlds Magazine, created the lasting legacy of Elric just to pay for the magazine, and has influenced generations of science fiction and fantasy writers to this day. This collection is a must-have.» – Lavie Tidhar
Contents:
∙ “Introduction” © 2009 by John Davey
∙ “A Portrait in Ivory” © 2007 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories, edited by John Klima (Bantam: New York).
∙ “The Visible Men” © 2006 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Nature, No. 7091, May 2006.
∙ “A Dead Singer” © 1974 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Factions, edited by Giles Gordon and Alex Hamilton (Michaael Joseph: London).
∙ “Lunching with the Antichrist” © 1993 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Smoke Signals, edited by the London Arts Board (Serpent’s Tail: London).
∙ “The Opium General” © 1984 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in The Opium General and Other Stories by Michael Moorcock (Harrap: London).
∙ “Behold the Man” © 1966 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in New Worlds, No. 166, September 1966.
∙ “A Winter Admiral” © 1994 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in the Daily Telegraph, March 1994.
∙ “London Bone” © 1997 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in New Worlds, edited by David Garnett (White Wolf: Atlanta, Georgia).
∙ “Colour” © 1991 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in New Worlds 1, edited by David Garnett (Gollancz: London).
∙ “Going to Canada” © 1980 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in My Experiences in the Third World War by Michael Moorcock (Savoy Books: Manchester, England).
∙ “Leaving Pasadena” © 1980 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in My Experiences in the Third World War by Michael Moorcock (Savoy Books: Manchester, England).
∙ “Crossing into Cambodia” © 1979 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Twenty Houses of the Zodiac, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (New England Library: London).
∙ “Doves in the Circle” © 1997 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in The Time Out Book of New York Short Stories, edited by Nicholas Royle (Penguin: London).
∙ “The Deep Fix” © 1964. First appeared in Science Fantasy, No. 64, April 1964.
∙ “The Birds of the Moon” © 1995 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in The Birds of the Moon by Michael Moorcock (Jayde Design: London).
∙ “The Cairene Purse” © 1990 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Zenith 2, edited by David Garnett (Orbit: London).
∙ “A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club” © 2001 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Redshift, edited by Al Sarrantonio (Roc: New York).
∙ “Afterword: The Best of Michael Moorcock” © 2009 by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Here you will find Moorcock's work at its finest. 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 tale of the ambiguous and androgynous secret agent Jerry Cornelius; the trilogy "My Experiences in the Third World War," in which 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 includes one previously unpublished story and three uncollected stories.
CURATOR'S NOTE (The Best of British SFF Bundle)
«Michael Moorcock needs no introduction. He single-handedly reinvented British SF in the 1960s with New Worlds Magazine, created the lasting legacy of Elric just to pay for the magazine, and has influenced generations of science fiction and fantasy writers to this day. This collection is a must-have.» – Lavie Tidhar
Contents:
∙ “Introduction” © 2009 by John Davey
∙ “A Portrait in Ivory” © 2007 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories, edited by John Klima (Bantam: New York).
∙ “The Visible Men” © 2006 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Nature, No. 7091, May 2006.
∙ “A Dead Singer” © 1974 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Factions, edited by Giles Gordon and Alex Hamilton (Michaael Joseph: London).
∙ “Lunching with the Antichrist” © 1993 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Smoke Signals, edited by the London Arts Board (Serpent’s Tail: London).
∙ “The Opium General” © 1984 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in The Opium General and Other Stories by Michael Moorcock (Harrap: London).
∙ “Behold the Man” © 1966 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in New Worlds, No. 166, September 1966.
∙ “A Winter Admiral” © 1994 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in the Daily Telegraph, March 1994.
∙ “London Bone” © 1997 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in New Worlds, edited by David Garnett (White Wolf: Atlanta, Georgia).
∙ “Colour” © 1991 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in New Worlds 1, edited by David Garnett (Gollancz: London).
∙ “Going to Canada” © 1980 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in My Experiences in the Third World War by Michael Moorcock (Savoy Books: Manchester, England).
∙ “Leaving Pasadena” © 1980 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in My Experiences in the Third World War by Michael Moorcock (Savoy Books: Manchester, England).
∙ “Crossing into Cambodia” © 1979 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Twenty Houses of the Zodiac, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (New England Library: London).
∙ “Doves in the Circle” © 1997 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in The Time Out Book of New York Short Stories, edited by Nicholas Royle (Penguin: London).
∙ “The Deep Fix” © 1964. First appeared in Science Fantasy, No. 64, April 1964.
∙ “The Birds of the Moon” © 1995 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in The Birds of the Moon by Michael Moorcock (Jayde Design: London).
∙ “The Cairene Purse” © 1990 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Zenith 2, edited by David Garnett (Orbit: London).
∙ “A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club” © 2001 by Michael Moorcock. First appeared in Redshift, edited by Al Sarrantonio (Roc: New York).
∙ “Afterword: The Best of Michael Moorcock” © 2009 by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
520 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 15, 2009
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343 people want to read
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,208 books3,748 followersMichael 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 19, 2018
Somehow, despite having read massive amounts of science fiction and fantasy, I never managed to break open a Michael Moorcock book. Not one. Well, that just changed and his work is nothing like what I expected.
This reissued anthology is a “best of” selection featuring nearly forty years worth of work originally written or published from the early 60’s to the late 90’s. If you are familiar with his work, this collection is a chance to revisit old friends like Elric. For us newbies, it is a smorgasbord of different offerings, often no more than a brief glimpse into the different characters and worlds Moorcock created. However, In some cases, the glimpses were just too brief to really connect with a character and their universe.
In many cases, I found the wonder was not always in the plot as in the complex and very descriptive worlds created. His writing is often dense prose that creates worlds and layers of experience and emotion. Surprisingly, much of Moorcock’s work is not hard science fiction so much as it is speculative fiction.
Within this collection, some of the real gems include the reincarnation of Jimi Hendrix, a time travel journey to meet Jesus and John the Baptist and experience their world, a love story played out across holes in the fabric of the universe in an alternate history of the United States with a restaurant at the vortex of time and space, and alternate histories as World War Three plays out with Cossacks on horseback galloping through Southeast Asia. There is an unexpected richness and depth to many of the stories.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.
This reissued anthology is a “best of” selection featuring nearly forty years worth of work originally written or published from the early 60’s to the late 90’s. If you are familiar with his work, this collection is a chance to revisit old friends like Elric. For us newbies, it is a smorgasbord of different offerings, often no more than a brief glimpse into the different characters and worlds Moorcock created. However, In some cases, the glimpses were just too brief to really connect with a character and their universe.
In many cases, I found the wonder was not always in the plot as in the complex and very descriptive worlds created. His writing is often dense prose that creates worlds and layers of experience and emotion. Surprisingly, much of Moorcock’s work is not hard science fiction so much as it is speculative fiction.
Within this collection, some of the real gems include the reincarnation of Jimi Hendrix, a time travel journey to meet Jesus and John the Baptist and experience their world, a love story played out across holes in the fabric of the universe in an alternate history of the United States with a restaurant at the vortex of time and space, and alternate histories as World War Three plays out with Cossacks on horseback galloping through Southeast Asia. There is an unexpected richness and depth to many of the stories.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.
May 19, 2009
"The Best of Michael Moorcock" is a brand new collection of the legendary author's best short fiction, containing several of his classic stories, as well as one previously unreleased story. The collection, lovingly edited by John Davey with Jeff and Ann Vandermeer, is nothing short of excellent. There are really no bad stories here, and some that are simply stunning.
As someone who has read many of Moorcock's novels but barely any of his shorter work, I was amazed at how well the author's skill - so much better known for the long, sweeping epic - translates into the much more concentrated short form. Also amazing is the ease with which Moorcock switches tones and styles, from the light-hearted to the overwhelmingly deep, from fantasy to SF to non-genre fiction, from the joking staccato prose of "London Bone" to the lyrical sadness of the Elric story "A Portrait In Ivory". It's easy to see why this man is a legend.
One of my favorite aspects of this book are the subtle typographical touches added to each story's title - e.g. the words "Behold the Man" are placed in the shape of a cross, and "London Bone" looks like a tube sign. Each one is different and somehow relevant to the story, and they give the book an old-fashioned - in a good way! - and almost playful air.
SF fans have been lucky this year, with two excellent best-of short story collections so far: first Tor released a brilliant Gene Wolfe collection, and now there's Tachyon Publications' Michael Moorcock collection. If, like me, you weren't very familiar with these authors' short works yet, getting these books is practically a must.
As someone who has read many of Moorcock's novels but barely any of his shorter work, I was amazed at how well the author's skill - so much better known for the long, sweeping epic - translates into the much more concentrated short form. Also amazing is the ease with which Moorcock switches tones and styles, from the light-hearted to the overwhelmingly deep, from fantasy to SF to non-genre fiction, from the joking staccato prose of "London Bone" to the lyrical sadness of the Elric story "A Portrait In Ivory". It's easy to see why this man is a legend.
One of my favorite aspects of this book are the subtle typographical touches added to each story's title - e.g. the words "Behold the Man" are placed in the shape of a cross, and "London Bone" looks like a tube sign. Each one is different and somehow relevant to the story, and they give the book an old-fashioned - in a good way! - and almost playful air.
SF fans have been lucky this year, with two excellent best-of short story collections so far: first Tor released a brilliant Gene Wolfe collection, and now there's Tachyon Publications' Michael Moorcock collection. If, like me, you weren't very familiar with these authors' short works yet, getting these books is practically a must.
June 2, 2013
The Best of Michael Moorcock is a collection of the legendary author's best short fiction, containing several of his classic stories, as well as one previously unreleased story.
The collection, lovingly edited by John Davey with Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, is nothing short of excellent. There are really no bad stories here, and some that are simply stunning. As someone who has read many of Michael Moorcock's novels but barely any of his shorter work, I was amazed at how well the author's skill — so much better known for the long, sweeping epic — translates into the much more concentrated short form.
Also amazing is the ease with which Moorcock switches tones and styles, from the light-hearted to the overwhelmingly ... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
The collection, lovingly edited by John Davey with Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, is nothing short of excellent. There are really no bad stories here, and some that are simply stunning. As someone who has read many of Michael Moorcock's novels but barely any of his shorter work, I was amazed at how well the author's skill — so much better known for the long, sweeping epic — translates into the much more concentrated short form.
Also amazing is the ease with which Moorcock switches tones and styles, from the light-hearted to the overwhelmingly ... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
May 4, 2023
I'm shrugging and rounding this up from 3.5 stars for the quality of the work rather than its effectiveness in capturing my attention. I don't feel that I enjoyed it as much as it deserved and found myself respecting what I was reading more than enjoying it. The writing is mostly really good, though his brilliant descriptiveness can be a bit too much for some short-form stories. His characters feel alive, for the most part, and the stories seem to actually mean something to them. The collection, though, is so all over the place that I was never really able to sink into it. I'd get into the mindset for one story only to be taken somewhere jarringly different for the next. Interestingly, the core voice of the author was easy to see in each, regardless of the style, genre, and subject, but this wasn't enough to make reading the stories a coherent experience. I think that if I'd read a story here and there between reading other works then I'd have enjoyed them a lot more.
Read
March 26, 2019As the afterword admits, a title like that was always going to be asking for an argument; starting out as a hack of the old school, Moorcock was insanely prolific for many years. Like my dad says, in the time most people write a bad chapter, Moorcock would have cranked out a bad trilogy (and crank is definitely the operative word for some of them). Still, unpolished and corny as it is, some of that work is essential to understanding his project. Whereas the selection here feels a little too much like the respectable Moorcock, just pulp enough but no pulpier – the larger-than-life figure who'll leave the litfic types ever so gently scandalised, but not too much so. Which is to say it concentrates on his later work, with even characters like Elric or Jerry Cornelius appearing in oblique revisits, rather than the more openly adventurous material which made their names and Moorcock's. Which is to say, there's a disproportionate amount of stuff with no overt genre elements, and yes A Winter Admiral is a beautiful story, with certain subterranean links to the Von Bek dynasty and thus the whole crazy edifice of the Eternal Champion and beyond. But for every Winter Admiral there's an Opium General, which may be well-regarded but nevertheless feels like an underpowered revisit of Roeg's Performance and Moorcock's own peak Cornelius. Hell, even the Shakey Mo solo story, while it has a certain rarity value, could almost pass for realism were it not for his resurrected passenger, and too often feels like a parody of the disappointed sixties survivor's lament (which, in fairness, may at least be deliberate); the full Burroughs homage of The Deep Fix is even more trying, and one of the longest pieces here to boot. To be fair, the magnificently blasphemous time travel story Behold the Man is present, in more or less its original form, and the tale of the Clapham Antichrist has a wonderful note of West London Arthur Machen. London Bone has its slightly clunky politics, but also a real Angela Carter music hall vigour; what would later become the opening to Blood - which I've had 20 years or more and never begun - recalls the modulation of his old mucker M John Harrison's style, and indeed the subject of a rip in space-time, in the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. And seeing so many different Moorcock worlds jumbled together was always going to help bring out the pattern in his multiversal carpet. But a less polite, more representative selection would have been a magnificent book indeed. But then perhaps I'm just sulking at the absence of my own favourite creations of his, those godlike, childlike, naive sophisticates from the End of Time.
(Netgalley ARC)
(Netgalley ARC)
May 15, 2025
Literate and thought provoking, Moorcock's writing I'd lyrical and visceral.
This collection is a sample of his work from across his career and the stories are simply brilliant.
This collection is a sample of his work from across his career and the stories are simply brilliant.
November 28, 2022
The editors mention a joke about Mr. Moorcock, that he "has written for so long in so many different genres that there's something for every reader to hate." Some truth to this, he clearly has range. Some of these stories worked better than others, but all are well done. YMMV.
October 28, 2021
Portrait in Ivory and Behold the Man were outstanding, with the other stories being only ok.
September 21, 2022
As usual, a mix of good and not-so-good stuff, but quite enjoyable nevertheless...
October 20, 2017
I picked this book up, because Michael Moorcock was one of the authors Alyson Publications recommended as having queer characters.
I’d attempted to read the first two of the Elric books with difficulty. I decided to try Moorcock again years later.
Alas, there was little of what I’d hoped for. What I found was many a female character acting as a receptacle for male characters to interact with and show off to.
On the plus side, the stories were rich with detail. Moorcock has an excellent eye for painting a unique landscape and bringing it to life with words.
Unfortunately I kept hearing the ghosts of former editors while reading his sentences. “This is too long. Break it up.” This kept my own inner critic alert and aware, annoyed that he’d been able to get away with this.
The rape scene in ‘My Experience in the Third World War’ was horrific enough to make me put the book down, hating the narrator. Many a therapeutic vent and retaliatory writing fragment later, I was able to pick up the book again.
I had to give Moorcock credit for writing a scene awful enough to upset me that badly. I felt like I’d glimpsed a snapshot view of the sort of man who engages in sexual abuse on a regular basis, he’s morally numb enough to interpret his victims’s cries as background noise.
Unfortunately the scene was so horrific, it overshadowed the rest of the story. The end felt anticlimatic after that moment.
This isn’t the sort of thing I’d choose to read. It may upset a lot of readers. At the same time, it acknowledges a part of the world many of us choose to ignore and shouldn’t.
I’m still giving this book three stars due to the inclusion of the surreal creative fusion of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in ‘The Deep Fix’. The magical special effect created by the drug made up for the inclusion of more empty female vessels, waiting for the main character to interact with them. Not to mention such marvelous creations as the Laughing Cavalier, the Man Without a Navel, Brother Sebastian, Mr. Morl, Mr. Hand, the Vampire, and Farlowe. This story was in the same league as some of my favorites by Stephen King and Clive Barker.
There was one female character who stood out with three dimensional vividness against her faded counterparts, Bea in ‘The Cairene Purse’. She was able to develop as a fully realized individual through the narrator’s eyes, undistorted by the prism of his sexuality. The male characters the narrator interacts with constantly try to diminish Bea’s individuality, often by lumping her together with other women in a disparaged group. Her character shone through, undiminshed, in spite of this.
Other female characters felt crippled in their development at times.
This is a shame, because Moorcock’s landscapes are so exquisitely detailed. This hobbled development diminished the landscapes, making them smaller, less grand than they could have been.
The stories are good, in spite of this. I was particularly amused by the last tale, ‘A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club’. The quote about pets and God’s conversation was hilarious. It was a welcome upbeat moment, after the almost unbearable misery of ‘My Experience in the Third World War’.
Whether or not you enjoy this depends on your expectations and your tastes.
I’d attempted to read the first two of the Elric books with difficulty. I decided to try Moorcock again years later.
Alas, there was little of what I’d hoped for. What I found was many a female character acting as a receptacle for male characters to interact with and show off to.
On the plus side, the stories were rich with detail. Moorcock has an excellent eye for painting a unique landscape and bringing it to life with words.
Unfortunately I kept hearing the ghosts of former editors while reading his sentences. “This is too long. Break it up.” This kept my own inner critic alert and aware, annoyed that he’d been able to get away with this.
The rape scene in ‘My Experience in the Third World War’ was horrific enough to make me put the book down, hating the narrator. Many a therapeutic vent and retaliatory writing fragment later, I was able to pick up the book again.
I had to give Moorcock credit for writing a scene awful enough to upset me that badly. I felt like I’d glimpsed a snapshot view of the sort of man who engages in sexual abuse on a regular basis, he’s morally numb enough to interpret his victims’s cries as background noise.
Unfortunately the scene was so horrific, it overshadowed the rest of the story. The end felt anticlimatic after that moment.
This isn’t the sort of thing I’d choose to read. It may upset a lot of readers. At the same time, it acknowledges a part of the world many of us choose to ignore and shouldn’t.
I’m still giving this book three stars due to the inclusion of the surreal creative fusion of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in ‘The Deep Fix’. The magical special effect created by the drug made up for the inclusion of more empty female vessels, waiting for the main character to interact with them. Not to mention such marvelous creations as the Laughing Cavalier, the Man Without a Navel, Brother Sebastian, Mr. Morl, Mr. Hand, the Vampire, and Farlowe. This story was in the same league as some of my favorites by Stephen King and Clive Barker.
There was one female character who stood out with three dimensional vividness against her faded counterparts, Bea in ‘The Cairene Purse’. She was able to develop as a fully realized individual through the narrator’s eyes, undistorted by the prism of his sexuality. The male characters the narrator interacts with constantly try to diminish Bea’s individuality, often by lumping her together with other women in a disparaged group. Her character shone through, undiminshed, in spite of this.
Other female characters felt crippled in their development at times.
This is a shame, because Moorcock’s landscapes are so exquisitely detailed. This hobbled development diminished the landscapes, making them smaller, less grand than they could have been.
The stories are good, in spite of this. I was particularly amused by the last tale, ‘A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club’. The quote about pets and God’s conversation was hilarious. It was a welcome upbeat moment, after the almost unbearable misery of ‘My Experience in the Third World War’.
Whether or not you enjoy this depends on your expectations and your tastes.
December 17, 2018
The Best of Michael Moorcock- This must have been a difficult job. Michael Moorcock has been writing phenomenal fiction for almost sixty years. What we have here is a brief sampling of what has come to pass. Myself, I prefer his novels to the shorter works, but he is adept at getting his point across at any length. What we have here are seventeen stories, some fantastical, some grounded, but all high quality reads. There is an Elric story to start things off. Jerry Cornelius drops by. The von Beck family appears in different narratives. One of my favorite stories involves Shaky Mo, a roadie who travels with the recently deceased Jimi Hendrix on a road trip through Northern England and Scotland. No "Best of" collection of Moorcock would be complete with Behold The Man, a Nebula winning novella, here in its original form. Probably not for everyone, but a great, landmark story. I recommend this to anyone interested in discovering Michael Moorcock, or anyone, like myself, who enjoys revisiting classic first rate story telling.
June 5, 2020
Moorcock was a major force in science fiction in the 1960s as editor of 'New Worlds” magazine and as author of the Elric and Jerry Cornelius stories. This collection, edited by the Vandermeers who know their stuff, is a compendium of short stories or novelettes that showcase Moorcock's range. There are a couple of (admittedly minor) Elric and Cornelius stories, a Burroughs homage (William, not Edgar), and other slipstream-style stories covering 30 years or more.
Probably the best known is his Christ pastiche, 'Behold the Man'. Juxtaposed with that is a story about a radical vicar, 'Lunching with the Antichrist'. There are connected stories about a third world war, and a lovely fantasy called 'Birds on the Moon'. Another story features God walking into a bar and answering any question, including who gets into Heaven (most cats, some dogs, a few humans).
As important as Moorcock has been to the development of post-modern SF, some of the stories don't wear as well today. However, the Vandermeers did a good job of showing Moorcock's style and depth over time.
Probably the best known is his Christ pastiche, 'Behold the Man'. Juxtaposed with that is a story about a radical vicar, 'Lunching with the Antichrist'. There are connected stories about a third world war, and a lovely fantasy called 'Birds on the Moon'. Another story features God walking into a bar and answering any question, including who gets into Heaven (most cats, some dogs, a few humans).
As important as Moorcock has been to the development of post-modern SF, some of the stories don't wear as well today. However, the Vandermeers did a good job of showing Moorcock's style and depth over time.
November 29, 2024
What a spectacular writing career and this is just a taste of more. I'm glad that Moorcock has pushed such a long and illustrious writing career. I do not believe you could realistically create a "best of," but this is a good attempt.
- I like meeting Elric again, this time as almost incognito and enjoying it.
- The reference to the Laughing Cavalier is outstanding.
- The concept of Jesus not being who we thought and a time traveler resolving the issue is very thought provoking. Does God exist because He does, what level of belief is required? One could ponder this story for days.
- I haven't read enough about Jerry Cornelius to understand why the editor describes him as androgynous.
- Enough beating on Margaret Thatcher, and really, what would you have instead? Exaggeration to prove a point disproves the point.
Excellent read.
- I like meeting Elric again, this time as almost incognito and enjoying it.
- The reference to the Laughing Cavalier is outstanding.
- The concept of Jesus not being who we thought and a time traveler resolving the issue is very thought provoking. Does God exist because He does, what level of belief is required? One could ponder this story for days.
- I haven't read enough about Jerry Cornelius to understand why the editor describes him as androgynous.
- Enough beating on Margaret Thatcher, and really, what would you have instead? Exaggeration to prove a point disproves the point.
Excellent read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2024
A-/A
My favorite from this best of collection was “The Deep Fix,” a novella that really grabbed me from the get go. It reminded me of RA Lafferty’s Apocalypses with some early Ballard crazy (or crazed) scientist stuff mixed in. The ending of the novella is a bit of a let down but damn is the journey to that ending a wild and fun ride.
I also greatly enjoyed the Elric story, the Jimi Hendrix story, the WW3 sequence, and the novella “The Cairene Purse.” The only story I didn’t like all that much was the one Cornelius story, which is way too short to really make much of an impact and ended up confusing me more than anything.
I haven’t read all that much by Mr Moorcock but finishing this book only made me more happy that I’ve already picked up used copies of a few of his books and also that I have a seemingly almost endless amount of further material to peruse at my leisure.
My favorite from this best of collection was “The Deep Fix,” a novella that really grabbed me from the get go. It reminded me of RA Lafferty’s Apocalypses with some early Ballard crazy (or crazed) scientist stuff mixed in. The ending of the novella is a bit of a let down but damn is the journey to that ending a wild and fun ride.
I also greatly enjoyed the Elric story, the Jimi Hendrix story, the WW3 sequence, and the novella “The Cairene Purse.” The only story I didn’t like all that much was the one Cornelius story, which is way too short to really make much of an impact and ended up confusing me more than anything.
I haven’t read all that much by Mr Moorcock but finishing this book only made me more happy that I’ve already picked up used copies of a few of his books and also that I have a seemingly almost endless amount of further material to peruse at my leisure.
December 14, 2018
You feel in awe of a giant of fantasy and it's not easy to review something written by them.
I can't say I read everything by Moorcock but I can surely say I loved this stories.
I found them engaging and entertaining, maybe not the most representative of his work but surely an amazing read.
It was a great reading experience, a book I wasn't able to put down even if I try to savour it reading one story per night.
A very good excursus, it made crave for more.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for this ARC
I can't say I read everything by Moorcock but I can surely say I loved this stories.
I found them engaging and entertaining, maybe not the most representative of his work but surely an amazing read.
It was a great reading experience, a book I wasn't able to put down even if I try to savour it reading one story per night.
A very good excursus, it made crave for more.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for this ARC
October 22, 2022
Moorcock is certainly an accomplished author and well-deserving of all the accolades. I've always been more of a science fiction fan than a fan of fantasy, so this collection may be his best but not all are my favorites. That's OK, of course - that's what anthologies are for. Not sure if this is the place to start for newcomers to Moorcock's work but given that it's a new collection it may as well be. Enjoy the stories that suit you, pass over the ones that don't, and have fun wondering why certain stories were included.
December 21, 2022
Ima super priča od kojih me fascinirala Dead singer, o Hendrixu i njegovom roadiu.
Behold the Man mi se čini da je ovo duža verzija nego ona koju su preveli kod nas. I dalje mi je izvrsna.
Lunching with Anticheist mi je isto dojmljiva, odlična priča.
Deep fix mi se svidjela jer sam nedavno otkrio Moorcockov bend iz sedamdesetih pod tim imenom pa ima nekih poveznica s pričom.
Birds of the Moon mi je možda, onako najljepše pisana priča.
Nekako dosta rih priča odiše rockom. Osjeti se da je Moorcock živio u zlatno doba šezdesetih i sedamdesetih godina.
Behold the Man mi se čini da je ovo duža verzija nego ona koju su preveli kod nas. I dalje mi je izvrsna.
Lunching with Anticheist mi je isto dojmljiva, odlična priča.
Deep fix mi se svidjela jer sam nedavno otkrio Moorcockov bend iz sedamdesetih pod tim imenom pa ima nekih poveznica s pričom.
Birds of the Moon mi je možda, onako najljepše pisana priča.
Nekako dosta rih priča odiše rockom. Osjeti se da je Moorcock živio u zlatno doba šezdesetih i sedamdesetih godina.
November 5, 2023
Not at all as expected
This book is purported to be a collection of the best stories of the author, which may be true if you also ask in what way? This is because Moorcock is known as a writer of primarily Fantasy, and to some extent Science Fiction, but the stories within are a selection of Moorcock's LITERARY efforts. I am not a member of the literatti, so for me this collection is a flop, because as Fantasy and SF go, the stories are pretty unimaginative, if not technically bad.
This book is purported to be a collection of the best stories of the author, which may be true if you also ask in what way? This is because Moorcock is known as a writer of primarily Fantasy, and to some extent Science Fiction, but the stories within are a selection of Moorcock's LITERARY efforts. I am not a member of the literatti, so for me this collection is a flop, because as Fantasy and SF go, the stories are pretty unimaginative, if not technically bad.
dnf
April 20, 2020This was part of a Story Bundle. I don't particularly care for the Melnibone cycle (Elric is simply too brooding, dark and moody for me to enjoy), but thought I'd give it a shot to see if I liked Moorcock's other work.
Apparently I just don't care for Moorcock's writing. I'm not trying to say he doesn't deserve his kudos, he's just not to my taste.
Apparently I just don't care for Moorcock's writing. I'm not trying to say he doesn't deserve his kudos, he's just not to my taste.
May 25, 2020
Meandering tales that bear little resemblance to science fiction and just peter out without approaching anything resembling an actual story. This confirms my vague childhood memories of not caring for Moorcock's work.
December 6, 2018
Micheal Moorcock is one of my favorite authors and I think this collection shows how wonderful his writing and storytelling can be.
June 30, 2019
His speculative fiction is pretty spot on, 20 minutes into the future.
October 25, 2023
Someone besides the Vandermeer's should have picked the stories for this supposed Best Of, they were mostly all boring artsy shit.
March 9, 2025
I don't even know what to say about it.
June 23, 2022
The stories in this ‘Best of’ collection were chosen by John Davey with Ann and Jeff Van Dermeer not by Moorcock himself, though he asked them to do it and he wrote the stories so must take the blame, or the credit.
It’s a very mixed bunch and reading them in all in a row can cause ‘a stylistic jarring of the senses’ according to Davey. He is right. Moorcock is best known for his fantasy and science fiction and that is represented here but in a very modern way, namely it's not very fantastical. Most of the stories are about modern man going about his business and are written in a literary, understated fashion. There are no exclamation marks.
Starting safely, it opens with an Elric story entitled ‘A Portrait in Ivory’. Elric gets his portrait carved in ancient ivory from a long dead beast by a woman from a race nearly as old as his own. She captures his essence, he feels. And that’s about it.
Unfortunately, ‘that’s about it’ is an effective comment on a lot of the stories in the book. In ‘A Dead Singer’, a hippie drives a camper van around England with Jimi Hendrix in the back. The rest of the world thinks Jimi Hendrix is dead. The hippie has an overdose and drinks too much and chokes on his own vomit. Jimi Hendrix wanders off into the sunset. Perhaps it means something to somebody.
There is a lot of self referencing to Moorcock’s own created worlds. This can work but doesn’t here, for me, because it’s sort of pointless. ‘Lunching with the Antichrist’ is a story about Edwin Begg, one of Moorcock’s big Begg family. It is narrated by a journalist who has lunch with him a lot and the big mystery hinted at is that there are other worlds - a Multiverse of them, in fact! ‘The Birds of the Moon’ is another story where this startling fact features largely. But if the reader is familiar with Moorcock’s work, he already knows this. A story that is just a big hint to a ‘secret’ well known is a bit futile, even if the London Arts Board which originally published it didn’t think so.
I was under the misapprehension that the major no-no in fiction was to leave the reader with a sense of futility. Well, that may be the case in traditional fiction but in modern literary fiction it seems to be the aim. Too many of the stories in this collection left me wondering what the point was. Moorcock has criticized many traditional genre writers but at least their stories do not rot your soul. In non-literary fiction, whatever its other faults, the characters lives have meaning: James Bond wants to save Britain, Conan wants to loot and drink and ravish wenches, Heinlein’s engineers want to build things. Moorcock’s junkies drift along in a purposeless fugue state, boring the pants off you.
There is some good stuff. ‘Doves in the Circle’ is a nice, low-key story about an old Irish community in Manhattan, though it might have been better without that modern standby the paedophile priest, though to be fair good priests are mentioned. ‘The Deep Fix’ is a genuine SF story in the mode of Phillip K Dick and features a naked man with blue skin - the inspiration for Alan Moore’s Doctor Manhattan, perhaps. ‘Behold the Man’ is very famous classic SF too. ‘The Cairene Purse’ is too long for a story whose alternative title would be ‘My Sister Married an Alien’ but atmospheric, I suppose. ‘A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club’ is good fun, with God farting and scratching his ass.
It’s not all bad and if you went by page count I guess half of it is pretty good. But none of it is brilliant and the futile, despairing stuff seems to weigh more heavily than the other fiction. I hate to write a sour review for Mister Moorcock, who has given me a lot of pleasure over the years with his old-fashioned ripping yarns but taken as a whole this really wasn’t my cup of tea.
It’s a very mixed bunch and reading them in all in a row can cause ‘a stylistic jarring of the senses’ according to Davey. He is right. Moorcock is best known for his fantasy and science fiction and that is represented here but in a very modern way, namely it's not very fantastical. Most of the stories are about modern man going about his business and are written in a literary, understated fashion. There are no exclamation marks.
Starting safely, it opens with an Elric story entitled ‘A Portrait in Ivory’. Elric gets his portrait carved in ancient ivory from a long dead beast by a woman from a race nearly as old as his own. She captures his essence, he feels. And that’s about it.
Unfortunately, ‘that’s about it’ is an effective comment on a lot of the stories in the book. In ‘A Dead Singer’, a hippie drives a camper van around England with Jimi Hendrix in the back. The rest of the world thinks Jimi Hendrix is dead. The hippie has an overdose and drinks too much and chokes on his own vomit. Jimi Hendrix wanders off into the sunset. Perhaps it means something to somebody.
There is a lot of self referencing to Moorcock’s own created worlds. This can work but doesn’t here, for me, because it’s sort of pointless. ‘Lunching with the Antichrist’ is a story about Edwin Begg, one of Moorcock’s big Begg family. It is narrated by a journalist who has lunch with him a lot and the big mystery hinted at is that there are other worlds - a Multiverse of them, in fact! ‘The Birds of the Moon’ is another story where this startling fact features largely. But if the reader is familiar with Moorcock’s work, he already knows this. A story that is just a big hint to a ‘secret’ well known is a bit futile, even if the London Arts Board which originally published it didn’t think so.
I was under the misapprehension that the major no-no in fiction was to leave the reader with a sense of futility. Well, that may be the case in traditional fiction but in modern literary fiction it seems to be the aim. Too many of the stories in this collection left me wondering what the point was. Moorcock has criticized many traditional genre writers but at least their stories do not rot your soul. In non-literary fiction, whatever its other faults, the characters lives have meaning: James Bond wants to save Britain, Conan wants to loot and drink and ravish wenches, Heinlein’s engineers want to build things. Moorcock’s junkies drift along in a purposeless fugue state, boring the pants off you.
There is some good stuff. ‘Doves in the Circle’ is a nice, low-key story about an old Irish community in Manhattan, though it might have been better without that modern standby the paedophile priest, though to be fair good priests are mentioned. ‘The Deep Fix’ is a genuine SF story in the mode of Phillip K Dick and features a naked man with blue skin - the inspiration for Alan Moore’s Doctor Manhattan, perhaps. ‘Behold the Man’ is very famous classic SF too. ‘The Cairene Purse’ is too long for a story whose alternative title would be ‘My Sister Married an Alien’ but atmospheric, I suppose. ‘A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club’ is good fun, with God farting and scratching his ass.
It’s not all bad and if you went by page count I guess half of it is pretty good. But none of it is brilliant and the futile, despairing stuff seems to weigh more heavily than the other fiction. I hate to write a sour review for Mister Moorcock, who has given me a lot of pleasure over the years with his old-fashioned ripping yarns but taken as a whole this really wasn’t my cup of tea.
April 13, 2025
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?
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?
January 26, 2012
Although best known for his sword and sorcery stories - particularly the Elric sagas - Moorcock has written works in almost every genre over a very long career.
Trying to assemble a collection of short stories would have been an unenviable task for the editors; many of his early novels are in fact assemblies of short stories from New Worlds and other periodicals. The Publishers Weekly review - printed at most of the book seller sites - bemoans,
Despite usually being stacked in the "fantasy" section, I think it's actually the more everyday works that stand out, particularly "Doves in the Circle", "The Winter Admiral" and my favourite - "Lunching with the Anti-Christ".
This may not be a definitive collection of Michael's short stories - although he has expressed his approval - but it is a great and varied introduction to a great and varied writer.
Trying to assemble a collection of short stories would have been an unenviable task for the editors; many of his early novels are in fact assemblies of short stories from New Worlds and other periodicals. The Publishers Weekly review - printed at most of the book seller sites - bemoans,
"this wandering collection of short stories, grouped neither chronologically nor by style,"but I think that's one of the strengths; if you don't like a story, move on to the next. You may not like it either, but I can guarantee it will be different!
Despite usually being stacked in the "fantasy" section, I think it's actually the more everyday works that stand out, particularly "Doves in the Circle", "The Winter Admiral" and my favourite - "Lunching with the Anti-Christ".
This may not be a definitive collection of Michael's short stories - although he has expressed his approval - but it is a great and varied introduction to a great and varied writer.
November 10, 2010
I find Michael Moorcock to be a very intriguing author, and this collection increased my perplexity. He certainly hops across genres, but with some common motifs and a general sense of surrealism. Best story by far was "Behold the Man." I think I'm giving an extra star just for that story alone. Wow. "A Portrait in Ivory," "The Birds of the Moon" and "Doves in the Circle" were my other favorites. Others seemed sort of incoherent and rambly... Moocock reminds me a lot of Gene Wolfe, actually.
January 18, 2012
This book was a mixed bag. Some of the stories were brilliant, other were boring. "Behold The Man" deserves its acclaim with a fascinating envisioning of the Christ myth being created by a time traveler, at first unintentionally, and then with deliberate designs to fulfill certain ideas. I definitely prefer the fantastical and psychedelic stories to the the more mundane life snapshots.
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