<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 4:24 PM, Adam Thornton <<a href="mailto:adam@io.com">adam@io.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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The thing I think is useful to remember about Moorcock is that he represents an alternative theme in British fantasy; effectively, he's championing the cause of Peake over Tolkien. This has, of course, been a fairly doomed battle, both in terms of sales popularity of the respective authors and in terms of their influence on future generations of writers. And if you haven't read the Gormenghast books...they're worth the time, at least _Titus Groan_ and _Gormenghast_. _Titus Alone_ is less clearly terrific, although it's certainly got its moments. The PBS miniseries thereof, also, totally kicks ass and takes names.</blockquote>
<div><br><br>Moorcock's constant praise of Peake made me want to read him - I have the one volume edition of the Gormenghast books at home, and I hope to get to them this summer.<br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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Then it's complicated by the fact that Moorcock has spawned his own set of protégés. Among them I count M. John Harrison and China Miéville. Harrison...well, the *first* time you encounter the psychopathic dwarf and the lacquered horse's skull with pomegranates for eyes, it's really cool. The seventh time, not so much. That said, I had a *great* time reading both _Light_ and _Nova Swing_. Miéville I adore, although I have a possibly-uncomfortable feeling that Bas-Lag is the Discworld done as steampunk (not that the Discworld itself hasn't gotten there recently), and that the whole thing *may* just be an extremely artful retelling of his group's D&D adventures (_Iron Council_, in particular, gave me that feeling).<br>
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Adam</font><div></div></blockquote><div><br> </div></div>I've been meaning to read Harrison, especially the Viriconium books. Nova Swing looks good too - the UK edition has this great sci-fi / noir cover that makes me really want to read it. And I have one of CM's books at home. Actually, I read an interview with him where he talks about Wolfe as a major influence on his writing. "Gene Wolfe is God," I believe he put it.<br>
<br>-Matt<br>