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kilroyPrint date: 1993 (books revised from originals in the 70s) (20s: 1, 50s: 1, 60s: 4, 70s: 7, 80s: 7, 90s: 6, 00s: 14)
This is one of those books where if I were explaining it to you in person I'd be gesticulating wildly to try and fill in pauses where I can't actually find words. It's not unique in the sense that all books are unique, it's unique in the sense that reading it made me go Wait, what? Really?!? about once every five pages. It reminds me of Amber in a sense-- there's an unshackled imagination here that refuses to politely fit into the conventions of a genre.
Take the core setting: The End of Time. Do a little thought experiment with me: what would happen if humanity had no physical needs or limitations? If death was a reversible lifestyle choice and you could summon thousand-foot high buildings out of thin air with a thought? Whim would become king, aesthetics the only morality, and the opinion of others the only social structure. And yet for all its caprice the society would be utterly innocent of such concepts as doubt, guilt, fear, and obligation. It would be utterly corrupt and fundamentally pure at the same time-- a society that could only be described to modern humans via paradox. See what I mean about conventions?
The book is an impossible love story, and a story of impossible love. There's time travel and aliens and the end of the universe, but the motive force behind the tale is that someone from Victorian England is in love with someone from the End of Time despite all their differences. Their struggle to even understand each other was what kept me interested. How could they possibly make this work? Is pursuing it nobility or foolishness, or is there a meaningful difference? How will they change each other? I've seen love stories about people from different backgrounds before, but this one's so far beyond "different backgrounds" that it transcends into almost an entirely new kind of story. It's as alien as a human falling in mutual love with a bookshelf.
Moorcock has created something whimsical and strange here, and the love he has for it pours through the pages. It's a trifle, a witty absurdity; but it sparkles. It inflames the imagination. In its essence it's a book the denizens of the End of Time would thoroughly approve of; but for us back here in the Dawn Age it's a rare glimpse of something transcendent and ridiculous.
It'll make you smile even as it confuses the hell out of you.
Verdict: Keep and lend to friends who would enjoy a very strange trip. (24.5/72)
Page count: 664 (14098 total)
Completed: 40 (19 female authors, 21 male authors)
Rejected: 32 (20 male authors, 12 female authors)
Next book due: Sat. 2/5
This is one of those books where if I were explaining it to you in person I'd be gesticulating wildly to try and fill in pauses where I can't actually find words. It's not unique in the sense that all books are unique, it's unique in the sense that reading it made me go Wait, what? Really?!? about once every five pages. It reminds me of Amber in a sense-- there's an unshackled imagination here that refuses to politely fit into the conventions of a genre.
Take the core setting: The End of Time. Do a little thought experiment with me: what would happen if humanity had no physical needs or limitations? If death was a reversible lifestyle choice and you could summon thousand-foot high buildings out of thin air with a thought? Whim would become king, aesthetics the only morality, and the opinion of others the only social structure. And yet for all its caprice the society would be utterly innocent of such concepts as doubt, guilt, fear, and obligation. It would be utterly corrupt and fundamentally pure at the same time-- a society that could only be described to modern humans via paradox. See what I mean about conventions?
The book is an impossible love story, and a story of impossible love. There's time travel and aliens and the end of the universe, but the motive force behind the tale is that someone from Victorian England is in love with someone from the End of Time despite all their differences. Their struggle to even understand each other was what kept me interested. How could they possibly make this work? Is pursuing it nobility or foolishness, or is there a meaningful difference? How will they change each other? I've seen love stories about people from different backgrounds before, but this one's so far beyond "different backgrounds" that it transcends into almost an entirely new kind of story. It's as alien as a human falling in mutual love with a bookshelf.
Moorcock has created something whimsical and strange here, and the love he has for it pours through the pages. It's a trifle, a witty absurdity; but it sparkles. It inflames the imagination. In its essence it's a book the denizens of the End of Time would thoroughly approve of; but for us back here in the Dawn Age it's a rare glimpse of something transcendent and ridiculous.
It'll make you smile even as it confuses the hell out of you.
Verdict: Keep and lend to friends who would enjoy a very strange trip. (24.5/72)
Page count: 664 (14098 total)
Completed: 40 (19 female authors, 21 male authors)
Rejected: 32 (20 male authors, 12 female authors)
Next book due: Sat. 2/5