Customer Reviews

The Lives and Times Of Jerry Cornelius: Stories Of the Comic Apocalypse

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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!

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.