I still love it. Hawkmoon is a bit less utterly heroic than Elric (who is also a bit dreary) or Corum, but I like the jewel in his skull. Hawkmoon oddly leaves the all powerful amulet he obtained in The Mad God's Amulet at home when he sets out to find The Sword of the Dawn. But, I'm always forgetting things too.
The first two books in the series - Jewel in the Skull and the Mad God's Amulet are written in a way that would have got Moorcock thrown out of his writing group these days - his use of adverbs, his stylised nodding, frowning and especially his flip flopping Point of View, now in one person's head, now in another's. He's still doing it by the third book - Sword of the Dawn, but his writing is getting better by this time. I am not sure that readers care as much about these things as writing groups anyway, and they didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book.
Also he isn't doing the philosophising that features in the more recent books on the Eternal Champion, I'm a bit bored with that now. However, I remember when I was a young lad reading these how I loved the ideas about Chaos and Law. In fact Dungeons and Dragons's Lawful Evil/Chaotic Good alignment set up wouldn't exist without Moorcock. He should get a cut.
Where Moorcock utterly triumphs is how he manages to introduce questions at every chapter so you keep turning the pages. He is also astounding in his use of striking, novel and bizarre images - the animal masks of Granbretan, the descriptions of Londra and the Kamarg and the various vanished cities, odd technology and everything. That's why he's great. It's a feast for the senses and though it's pure pulp, it's fantastic fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment