Product Description

Enter a decaying far, far future society, a time when anything and everything is possible, where words like 'conscience' and 'morality' are meaningless, and where heartfelt love blossoms mysteriously between Mrs Amelia Underwood, an unwilling time traveller, and Jherek Carnelian, a bemused denizen of the End of Time. The Dancers at the End of Time, containing the novels An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands and The End of All Songs, is a brilliant homage to the 1890s of Wilde, Beardsley and the fin de siecle decadents, satire at its sharpest and most colourful.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15801 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 672 pages

About the Author
Born in London in 1939, Michael Moorcock now lives in Texas. A prolific and award-winning writer with more than eighty works of fiction and non-fiction to his name, he is the creator of Elric, Jerry Cornelius and Colonel Pyat, amongst many other memorable characters.

Customer Reviews

A great work of literature by Michael Moorcock!
I've always had a problem trying to decide whether Michael Moorcock was a good writer or not. I thought he told a good story, but as an author I couldn't figure if he was "just" a fantasy writer or something more. This trilogy, "the Dancers at the End of Time", has allowed me to make up my mind at last: it's simply the best writing by Moorcock I've ever read. It's original, fantastic stuff, evoking Dunsany, Swinburne, Borges, Beardsley, untrammeled by any self-consciousness about style or genre. It knocks the spots off his "fantasy" stuff (Elric, etc), with a lightness of touch with some devilishly serious themes. Moorcock calls it a "comedy": perhaps it's this which has really freed him up and released him from the slavish adherence to his Eternal Champion / Law-Chaos theme which, although original, can dog his other works and gradually become more limiting the more he deploys it. Here, it's not explicit at all, and the story soars with potential and fancy.

Perhaps its deepest point: the ultimate destination of human social evolution, a utopia of happy, omnipotent immortals, who appear to us utterly amoral, cruel, and uncaring, yet are burdened with an innocence which is the only thing which allows them to enjoy their utopia - otherwise empty and pointless to us. So - is that what we want as the goal of our species, a universal utopia which we can only enjoy at the cost of our own humanity?

Oh, yes - and it's hilarious too. Wonderfully farcical, sophisticated, witty, and just plain fun. Forget the "fantasy" label - this is a work of literature, get it, read it, and decide for yourself!

better than elric
These three books are probably among the finest michael moorcock ever wrote, full of humour, they examine morals and how ludicrous they can be, there are no swords and it's unlike moorcock's other settings, a prudish victorian era lady sent to a future time where the inhabitants have the the power to do or create anything and have a damn fine time of it!! however as usual moorcock can write a short piece of work free of waffle and without the need for sequel upon sequel or the dreaded prequel!! (God that's rare nowadays!!)It's a good place to start with regard to his work and it is a very original piece of writing.

Moorcock's best
I must admit to not being a huge fan of Michael Moorcock. Nervertheless, having said that, I still seem to have read an awful lot of books by him. I put this down to the fact that the first thing I ever read by this author was the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy. It just swept me away. I loved it. It was funny, clever, witty and full of engaging characters. Since reading it I have trawled my way through numerous other bloated Moorcock series (Cornelius Quartet, Runestaff, Elric, Oswald Bastable, Gloriana) searching for more of the magic - but nothing has ever come close to matching the succinct beauty and memorable humour of these novels. (Though Behold the Man wasn't too bad.) A singular and dazzling creation. Buy it and read it! But don't expect anything else by Moorcock to be as good.