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Title: The Skrayling Tree by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0-446-53104-9 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: March, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Moorcock only gets better
Comment: This is Michael Moorcock coming to grips with what he calls The Matter of America. He is using his Elric character and his gift for fantasy to deal with some fundamental ideas in American mythology. In this book he continues the saga begun in The Dreamthief's Daughter and the same main characters appear here, but now they are on the American continent, meeting the likes of Hiawatha, the legendary native American first written about by Longfellow. He starts from three different geographical points, slowly bring his characters together as they seek either to destroy or save the legendary 'Skrayling Tree':- the native American Tree of Life, the Viking World Tree, which also represents Moorcock's own vast Multiverse. Moorcock's theories based on Mandelbrot's Chaos theories give us characters of physically different sizes as they merge from different parts of the multiverse. There is history here, both European and American, and as usual a moral and symbolic dimension to the book, which is the mark of a Moorcock fantasy novel. Highly recommended!
Rating: 5
Summary: Even better than Dreamthief's Daughter
Comment: It was great to read about Elric after almost ten years of his being away (apart from his graphic novel appearances in such things as Michael Moorcock's Multiverse). That waa in The Dreamthief's Daughter which I picked up in paperback. Because I'd so enjoyed Dreamthief, I decided to get myself the hardback of this new one and I don't regret it. It is even better, even more original and even more exciting a story -- on a very grand scale. Moorcock manages to beat his own high standards almost every time. This story, set in pre-Colombian America amongst heroes such as Hiawatha (Ayanawatta) and combining American mythology, like Eldorado, with European and Moorcock's own invented multiverse, carries genuine mythic resonances. It confirms Moorcock as England's greatest living writer of fantasy and the news that Universal is making a series of Elric movies is a joy! At last we are to see Elric even larger than life on the big screen. Meanwhile, this book rivals anything you might have seen or imagined before. The ending is particularly gorgeous, epic and vast -- better than any movie finale you've ever seen! I can't imagine what the third and final volume will be like.
Rating: 1
Summary: One of Moorcock's worst books
Comment: I am a big fan of the Elric saga and thoroughly enjoyed Dreamthief's Daughter. However, Skrayling Tree is one of the worst books I have ever read. The book is fairly evenly divided into three tranches - the first is told from the perspective of Oona, the second from Elric, and the third from the perspective of Ulric. The part with Oona and her journeys with Hiawatha (or Ayanawatta, or whatever it is Moorcock calls him) and a young albino called White Crow is the worst part of the book. Nothing really happens, as the characters mostly engage in long-winded philosophizing about the "multiverse." The second part, a small piece of Elric's "1,000-year dream journey" is only slightly better. Elric, one of the greatest characters of the sword and sorcery genre, does not engage in either for 110 pages. Again, boring stuff. The third part, told from Ulric's point of view, is a little better, but Ulric seems to be a much less interesting character than Elric. He seems weaker somehow, maybe it's due to Moorcock not "fleshing out" this character.
I always knew Moorcock was an uneven writer. He's written gems like "Behold the Man," "Gloriana," and the Elric Saga but he's also written a lot of novels that are basically pulp-level (somewhat like Philp Dick). I thought Moorcock had become a more solid writer and more sophisticated story-teller as he grew older. It seems I was wrong. The book hints that there will be yet another illogical, inconsistent, incoherent, and utterly boring book about Ulric, Oona, and Elric in the future. I think I'll skip it.
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Title: The Dreamthief's Daughter: A Tale of the Albino by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0446611204 Publisher: Aspect Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Michael Moorcock's Multiverse by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 1563895161 Publisher: DC Comics Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Bane of the Black Sword (Elric Saga, Book 5) by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0441048854 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: May, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Weird of the White Wolf by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0441888054 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Von Bek (Eternal Champion Series, Vol. 2) by Michael Moorcock, Janet Avlisio ISBN: 1565041925 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: May, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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