While there are more lyric fantasy writers (the likes of Anne McCaffrey, Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip and Charles de Lint spring to mind), whom I love dearly, Michael Moorcock has no peers for sheer brain-bopping, mind-engorging, plain ol' brainy fun. His books are full of outrageously disparate concepts and beings, plunged together into the fabulously outre reality he has created for them. His plots are absolutely Byzantine in complexity and arty playfulness; his characters are archetypal, without being in the least stereotypical or flat, yet each is consummately heroic or vile.

I'm not sure that it's possible to read only one Michael Moorcock book; there's just too much to leave behind; and with the ingenius techniques he uses to return and even revive his large cast, there's just no need to.

But, interestingly, the historical characters he uses in The Dreamthief's Daughter (primarily Hitler and his top Nazis) are adroitly and appropriately drawn with exacting attention to period detail and personalities. This is an amazing book from a wild genius who never fails to engage and enthrall.

by Stephen Richmond
Rambles.NET
10 December 2005