From the legendary author of the Elric saga, a Science Fiction Grand Master, a platinum albumreceiving rock star, and the controversial editor of the new wave’s New Worlds, this definitive collection captures the incomparable short fiction of one of science fiction and literature’s most important contemporary writers.
These exceptional stories range effortlessly from the genre tales that continue to define fantasy to the author’s critically acclaimed mainstream works. Classic offerings include the Nebula Awardwinning novella Behold the Man,” which introduces a time traveler and unlikely messiah that H.G. Wells never imagined; The Visible Men,” a recent tale of the ambiguous and androgynous secret agent Jerry Cornelius; the trilogy My Experiences in the Third World War,” where 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Newer work handpicked by the expert editing team includes one previously unpublished story and three uncollected stories. With his finest stories finally collected in one volume, this book is a long-overdue tribute to an extraordinarily gifted, versatile, and much-beloved author.
Industry Reviews
"A major novelist of enormous ambition." --Washington Post "The 17 stories in this collection demonstrate the breadth of scope and the excellence in storytelling of SF Grand Master and multigenre author Moorcock... Moorcock crosses genres, bends boundaries, and breaks rules as only a master storyteller can." --Library Journal "...Moorcock is a throwback to such outsized 19th-century novelistic talents as Dickens and Tolstoy." --Locus "[Moorcock] introduced me to the ridiculously powerful things that happen when you put a sophisticated, contemporary literary vocabulary at the service of a blackly grim high-fantasy imagination. A giant of the genre in every possible sense." --TIME Magazine "It is all quintessential Moorcock--a wild, fascinating batch of stories fairly balancing the fantastic and the nearly ordinary, and showcasing Moorcock's talent very well, thank you." --Booklist "...a handy, one-volume collection that serves as a superb introduction to the boundless imagination of this unique and fascinating author..." --Bookgasm "..something for everyone to love... This collection illustrates the breadth of Moorcock's talent. A long-overdue retrospective." --The Guardian