- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows (Sep 23 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1568582730
- ISBN-13: 978-1568582733
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.6 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 299 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #479,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Jerry Cornelius, Moorcock's notorious antihero, navigates the time streams with sometimes cheerless abandon in 11 stories that range from '60s Britain to the post-9/11 world. Whether channeling the politics and entropy of the Vietnam era or reflecting on the environmental hazards of taking a shower in a far future Austin, Tex., Moorcock (The Skrayling Tree) manages to insert a dizzy abundance of bleak imagery and quotes that may disconcert newcomers to his fiction. He's at his best in the more recent, less depressing stories that lack the many Beatles references of earlier tales. In "Firing the Cathedral," Cornelius expresses the medium in Moorcock's message: "Anarchism in action. Green solutions... Call me a radical. Call me a visionary. But the way I see it, if you get a grip on the future, you might as well bring it along as quickly as possible." Also impressive is "The Spencer Inheritance," which includes a satirical take on what might happen to Lady Diana's bones. The nastiness of such early pieces as "The Delhi Division," in which Cornelius discovers the "exact difference between synthesis and sensationalism" and goes on killing anyway, might be a poor introduction to the former rock star/assassin and psychedelic guru. Moorcock rejects formulaic constructions and demands that his readers read between the lines. Some may not want to, especially SF fans who prefer traditional structure.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Jerry Cornelius – English assassin, physicist, rock star, messiah to the Age of Science – is one of fantastic literature's greatest creations. Acclaimed by Moorcock's readers, critics, and peers from Mick Jagger to J. G. Ballard, Cornelius is the ultimate postmodern antihero, more Borgesian than Asimovian. Three of the stories in this collection are here anthologized for the first time: "The Spencer Inheritance," which enmeshes Jerry with Princess Di; "Cheering for the Rockets," involving an attack on a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant; and "Firing the Cathedral," a novella based on 9/11 and its aftermath.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moorcock Still the Coolest,
By John Conquest (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lives and Times Of Jerry Cornelius: Stories Of the Comic Apocalypse (Paperback)
Jerry Cornelius, a product of sixties hip when Moorcock's name never seemed to be out of the papers, died, was resurrected and died again, certainly in terms of his fashionability. Now here he is with a bunch of the best of his earliest adventures coupled with a quartet of his best new ones, dealing with Clinton's foreign policy, Lady Diana's death-cult, Middle Eastern Politics and, in what is probably the best story in the book, events around the catastrophe of 9/11. And, to this reader's surprise at least, he seems even more relevant today than he did when he first hit the pages of New Worlds, that magazine of early post-modernist senisbility, some forty years ago. Moorcock's fingers were definitely on the pulse of our times and this collection proves it. Elegant, fast and sardonic, these are tales that are, like Scott Fitzgerald's,distinctly of their time and yet retain a universality lacking in most other contemporary fiction. This is the best value on the literary market. As he proves in his McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury story, Moorcock is also provides great entertainment while making us think a lot deeper than, for instance, the Matrix's rabbit hole. Totally recommended!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ur-rebel in bell bottoms,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lives and Times Of Jerry Cornelius: Stories Of the Comic Apocalypse (Paperback)
Jerry C. is a Mod gone mad: he is the ultimate manifestation of English 60's style. So anti-cool he's completely cool, so immoral he teaches by anti-example -- got that? -- as when he cheerfully kills a young boy who seems to be the earthly manifestation of the Buddha...shocking when he first appeared, even now he retains his appeal. In fact, in the post-James Bond era of Austin Powers, Jerry is more intriguing than ever...and Moorcock is simply one of the most important writers of fantasy, or writers period, up there with Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Doris Lessing.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews) 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moorcock Still the Coolest,
By John Conquest - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Lives and Times Of Jerry Cornelius: Stories Of the Comic Apocalypse (Paperback)
Jerry Cornelius, a product of sixties hip when Moorcock's name never seemed to be out of the papers, died, was resurrected and died again, certainly in terms of his fashionability. Now here he is with a bunch of the best of his earliest adventures coupled with a quartet of his best new ones, dealing with Clinton's foreign policy, Lady Diana's death-cult, Middle Eastern Politics and, in what is probably the best story in the book, events around the catastrophe of 9/11. And, to this reader's surprise at least, he seems even more relevant today than he did when he first hit the pages of New Worlds, that magazine of early post-modernist senisbility, some forty years ago. Moorcock's fingers were definitely on the pulse of our times and this collection proves it. Elegant, fast and sardonic, these are tales that are, like Scott Fitzgerald's,distinctly of their time and yet retain a universality lacking in most other contemporary fiction. This is the best value on the literary market. As he proves in his McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury story, Moorcock is also provides great entertainment while making us think a lot deeper than, for instance, the Matrix's rabbit hole. Totally recommended! 6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ur-rebel in bell bottoms,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Lives and Times Of Jerry Cornelius: Stories Of the Comic Apocalypse (Paperback)
Jerry C. is a Mod gone mad: he is the ultimate manifestation of English 60's style. So anti-cool he's completely cool, so immoral he teaches by anti-example -- got that? -- as when he cheerfully kills a young boy who seems to be the earthly manifestation of the Buddha...shocking when he first appeared, even now he retains his appeal. In fact, in the post-James Bond era of Austin Powers, Jerry is more intriguing than ever...and Moorcock is simply one of the most important writers of fantasy, or writers period, up there with Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Doris Lessing.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More detached? More amoral?,
By calmly - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Lives and Times Of Jerry Cornelius: Stories Of the Comic Apocalypse (Paperback)
Seems best to have read the "Cornelius Quartet" first. The novels provide a good introduction to Jerry as well as other characters who appear in these stories: his brother Frank, sister Catherine, Miss Brunner, Bishop Beesley, Una Persson, Major Nye, Professor Hira,...
These short stories focus on commentary by Jerry and company against a backdrop of world events: "I'm not interested in being right. I'm interested in what happens." "This is the age of the lowest common denominator. I blame America." Jerry here seemed more detached, more amoral than in the novels. Some of his coolness slipping into coldness. Perhaps because the world he protects himself against has become harsher. Moorcock's writing is at least as good as in the Quartet. It took some adjustment going from the novels to the short stories. Instead of going into Jerry's world, as the novels did, these short stories take Jerry into the world. Jerry's escape and our escape are over. Toward the end of this first reading, I began to let go of my expectations based on the Quartet and accept the short story format. I'm looking forward to a second, fresh reading. |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
