Great Book - the Metatemporal Detective

[lostboy]

Probably old news to more horny-handed LAFers, but I came across "The Metatemporal Detective" by Michael Moorcock. It's a series of pulpy tales of derring-do featuring Seaton Begg (a Sexton Blake clone) and his arch-adversary Zenith the Albino. Lots of pulp-style writing, with tongue firmly in cheek. I really enjoyed it, thought other folks who hang out here might.
                 

[JollyBob]

I read this only recently, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am a long time Moorcock fan, mind, so that was pretty much guaranteed for me. I think any newcomers to his work might find it a bit hard going in places though, due to the episodic, short story style.

I just read the three new Elric books as well - which nicely explain and encapsulate the Multiverse idea. I would recommend they are read first really, and then you can go and fill in the gaps with the older stuff and the Seaton Begg stuff will make more sense.

I'm always amazed at Moorcock's ability to reinvent an existing character, expand on the mythos, and cram a raft of new stuff into existing continuity while making the whole thing better, more rounded and even more enjoyable to read. In anybody else's hands it would all become an unreadable mess but somehow it all works for him. Genius.

Still makes my head hurt sometimes though. 

[keeper]

I've never been able to get into his fantasy stuff - I just can't keep track of it all!!  But I did really enjoy his "Nomad of the Time Streams" trilogy: Warlord of the Air; The Land Leviathan; and The Steel Tsar.

[Heldrak]

I'm a big Moorcock fan from way back too.

His writing style changed significantly midway through his career though, I think. Personally, I prefer his earlier, more straightforward prose style to his later, more introspective style. His writing always had/has an ironic tone, but later on it becomes less an accent than the whole body of the writing and it becomes rather heavy going. In the Elric books (probably Moorcock's greatest creation and his lasting contribution to fiction) this is exemplified by the early stuff:

Elric of Melnibone
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Weird of the White Wolf
The Vanishing Tower
The Bane of the Black Sword
Stormbringer

and the later stuff:

Fortress of the Pearl
The Skrayling Tree
Elric at the End of Time
The Dreamthief's Daughter
etc.

I think the vagaries of the publishing world have as much to do with confusion about Moorcock's multiverse than anything else. When originally published, Moorcocks's various primary series (Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, etc.). Where all fairly cohesive and internally consistent, with relatively little spill-over between books. As publishers chopped and changed (and as Moorcock expanded his concepts and began to try to cram more and more abstract philosophy into his work), everything became much more muddied.

[lostboy]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I can see that Amazon are going to be getting some more of the Lostboy goldhoard in the next few months...

[dodge]

My favorites are elric hawkmoon and corum

I have the von beck which I have not read and the first 3 of the pyat quartet of which I read the first and took a break half way through the second.

I did enjoy this later stuff but the second pyat did not keep me enraptured enough.

If this book is recommended I'l have a crack at it.

After the young kingdoms thread I am  re reading the elric books they are good you know.

dodge

[JollyBob]

Yeah, I could never get away with the Pyat stories either.

But if we're talking favourites, I think mine (aside from Elric) have to be The Warhound and the World's Pain, which is both a standalone novel and a great introduction to the later von Bek centred mythos, and Gloriana: The Unfulfill'd Queen, which is just brilliant in all the right ways.

[Heldrak]

Gloriana: The Unfulfill'd Queen, which is just brilliant in all the right ways.

After Elric/Corum/Hawkmoon, Gloriana is one of my favorites too.

I also like the Dancers at the End of Time series, or at least the 3 Jherek Carnelian books plus Legends From the End of Time (A Messiah at the End of Time is rather spoiled by Moorcock's obsession with spanking... ). The short story Elric at the End of Time is great too (in which the moody & eternally self-pittying Elric is transported to the End of Time and the helpful inhabitants keep trying to cheer him up by creating an adventure for him...).

JB mentioned the Elric comic book series illustrated by P. Craig Russell in another thread, and while I don't usually like graphic novel adaptations of books, I thought that the Elric comics were particularly faithful to the originals, and Russell's art style complimented Moorcock's writing style very well.

I read the various Jerry Cornelius books, but I didn't care for them much (I found their self-concious experimental writing style tedious). Of far more interest are the two Jerry Cornel books (The Chinese Agent and The Russian Intelligence) in which the seedy & disreputable superspy Jerry Cornel lucks his way into adventure in swinging London.

[JollyBob]

Should I be surprised no-one has come out yet and said their favourite is the Michael Kane - Warrior of Mars series?

As much as I think they are great Pulp adventures and I do enjoy them, it always amazed me that Moorcock never got his arse handed to him by the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. They are such blatant copies of the John Carter novels its not even funny. Even the plots are practically identical (at least in the first book).

I suppose they are a loving homage, or tribute if you will, and that makes it alright...  And he wrote them when he was quite young, I suppose, so we can blame youthful enthusiasm.