Stunning, absolutely stunning.
Dancers at the End of Time, a cycle of three novels:
Book One: An Alien Heat
Book Two: The Hollow Lands
Book Three: The End of All Songs
The End of All Songs picks up where The Hollow Lands left off. Jherek Carnelian and Mrs Amelia Underwood are stranded on a beach during the Palaeozoic era, a time in Earth's evolution before birds and mammals.
I suppose one could turn to The End of All Songs without reading the first and second book of this Michael Moorcock trilogy, but having familiarity with all the many colorful characters will make for a richer, creamier, tastier, more satisfying read.
Assuming one has finished An Alien Heat and The Hollow Lands, I'll take an immediate shift to clips from an End of All Songs highlight reel -
SCENE MOST SUBLIME
"'It is simple,' she said, 'and it is magnificent! Look, Mr. Carnelian! It goes on forever. It is the world! So much of it. All virgin. Not even a wild beast to disturb its vast serenity. Imagine what Mr Ruskin would say to all this...Oh, Mr Carnelian - it is Eden. It is!'" So proclaims Amelia Underwood looking atop a cliff across the broad Palaeozoic expanse. And with Ameilia's mention of John Ruskin (along with Walter Pater, Ruskin was the most influential 19th century English thinker in the field of aesthetics and philosophy of art) we can detect a softening of the dear lady's rigid moral and religious categories, expanding out to appreciate the sublime beauty of nature in its pristine glory. Amelia's words here foreshadow her not so distant future radical transformation.
FARCICAL AND FAR-OUT
"Swaggering, in torn and mephitic striped pyjamas, a three foot high humanoid, with a bulbous nose, pear-shaped head, huge protuberant ears, facial whiskers, a silver dinner-fork in one hand and a silver dinner knife in the other, emerged from the ferns."
From the above description, we know Captain Mubbers and his five fellow Lats have made their way to the placid Palaeozoic. It's not long before Amelia, Jherek and an Inspector Springer, police officer in the service of Her Majesty the Queen, ask the Lats to join them for tea and biscuits.
However, the very next morning the trio wake to discover Captain Mubbers and his men, dirty little deceitful aliens that they are, have absconded with the hamper containing all their provisions. Thus the chase is on.
Michael Moorcock's inclusion of Captain Mubbers and his Lats along with Inspector Springer (guy can't give up his role as official guardian of the law even when 19th century England whence he came no longer exists) adds much broad slapstick humor.
CORNELIUS QUARTET CONNECTION
Out of the blue, blue sea, that is, there appears a power boat with two black-clad figures. As Jherek and the others quickly learn, one of those black-clad figures is female - heart-shape face, large blue-grey eyes, full mouth. "I am Mrs Persson."
Fans of Michael Moorcock's The Corenlius Quartet will be thrilled gorgeous Una Persson pops up at the opportune moment to transport Jherek and company to the End of Time.
Una Persson also treats Jherek and Amelia to lovely bits of philosophy revolving around time and the multiverse, Chronon Theory and Morphail Theory, "Yet there is a particular theory which suggests that with every one discovery we make about Time, we create two new mysteries. Time can never be codified, as Space can be, because our very thoughts, our information about it, our action based on that information, all contribute to extend the boundaries to produce new anomalies, new aspects of Time's nature."
Una, you're such a sweetie, especially when you wax sagacious. "Time is a dream - or a nightmare - from which there is never any waking. We who travel in Time are dreamers who occasionally share a common experience. To retain one's identity, to retain some sense of meaning in one's own life, that is all the time-traveler can hope for."
FIRE AND BRIMSTONE
There’s a hilarious Monty Python skit featuring Graham Chapman wearing the peaked cap and uniform of an army colonel from the waist up along with a ballerina’s tutu and pink leotards. The comedy is all in the sharp contrast.
Likewise, when the travelers return to the End of Time with its spectacular architecture, breathtaking landscapes and magnificent metamorphosing, who, of all people, shows up on the scene - Amelia's husband Harold Underwood. The contrast between Harold and the aesthetically attuned, amoral denizens of the End of Time couldn't be sharper.
Oh, yes, there he is, fresh from 19th century England, a religious fanatic who's an insufferable combination John Calvin, John Knox and Jonathan Edwards, a man forever at the ready to hurl harsh judgement at all who do not see things his way. And, predictably, Harold casts his harshest judgement on wife Amelia, exacerbated by Jherek saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. The scenes with Harold Underwood are among the funniest in the entire trilogy.
A NEW AMELIA
Recall I mentioned Amelia Underwood's transformation back there. "From the next morning it was as if a strange fever took possession of Amelia Underwood. her appearance in their breakfast room was spectacular. She was clad in crimson silk trimmed with gold and silver, rather oriental in influence. There were curling slippers upon her feet; there were ostrich and peacock feathers decorating her hair and it was evident that she had painted or otherwise altered her face for the eyelids were starling blue, the eyebrows plucked and their length exaggerated, the lips fuller and of astonishing redness, the cheeks glowing with what could only be rouge. Her smile was unusually wide, her kiss unexpectedly warm, her embrace almost sensual; scent drifted behind her as she took her place at the other end of the table."
GRAND FINALE
The concluding chapters of The End of All Songs not only serve as the ending for this novel but also the entire Dancers at the End of Time trilogy. For me, reading these chapters was like listening to the final movement of a Bach Brandenburg Concerto, the component parts of Space/Time swirling with stupendous energy, coming together and interconnecting with clarity, harmony and great beauty.
I've said enough. I encourage you to read for yourself. Thank you, Sir Michael!
British author Michael Moorcock, born 1939 - the good guys always wear white hats
Dancers at the End of Time, a cycle of three novels:
Book One: An Alien Heat
Book Two: The Hollow Lands
Book Three: The End of All Songs
The End of All Songs picks up where The Hollow Lands left off. Jherek Carnelian and Mrs Amelia Underwood are stranded on a beach during the Palaeozoic era, a time in Earth's evolution before birds and mammals.
I suppose one could turn to The End of All Songs without reading the first and second book of this Michael Moorcock trilogy, but having familiarity with all the many colorful characters will make for a richer, creamier, tastier, more satisfying read.
Assuming one has finished An Alien Heat and The Hollow Lands, I'll take an immediate shift to clips from an End of All Songs highlight reel -
SCENE MOST SUBLIME
"'It is simple,' she said, 'and it is magnificent! Look, Mr. Carnelian! It goes on forever. It is the world! So much of it. All virgin. Not even a wild beast to disturb its vast serenity. Imagine what Mr Ruskin would say to all this...Oh, Mr Carnelian - it is Eden. It is!'" So proclaims Amelia Underwood looking atop a cliff across the broad Palaeozoic expanse. And with Ameilia's mention of John Ruskin (along with Walter Pater, Ruskin was the most influential 19th century English thinker in the field of aesthetics and philosophy of art) we can detect a softening of the dear lady's rigid moral and religious categories, expanding out to appreciate the sublime beauty of nature in its pristine glory. Amelia's words here foreshadow her not so distant future radical transformation.
FARCICAL AND FAR-OUT
"Swaggering, in torn and mephitic striped pyjamas, a three foot high humanoid, with a bulbous nose, pear-shaped head, huge protuberant ears, facial whiskers, a silver dinner-fork in one hand and a silver dinner knife in the other, emerged from the ferns."
From the above description, we know Captain Mubbers and his five fellow Lats have made their way to the placid Palaeozoic. It's not long before Amelia, Jherek and an Inspector Springer, police officer in the service of Her Majesty the Queen, ask the Lats to join them for tea and biscuits.
However, the very next morning the trio wake to discover Captain Mubbers and his men, dirty little deceitful aliens that they are, have absconded with the hamper containing all their provisions. Thus the chase is on.
Michael Moorcock's inclusion of Captain Mubbers and his Lats along with Inspector Springer (guy can't give up his role as official guardian of the law even when 19th century England whence he came no longer exists) adds much broad slapstick humor.
CORNELIUS QUARTET CONNECTION
Out of the blue, blue sea, that is, there appears a power boat with two black-clad figures. As Jherek and the others quickly learn, one of those black-clad figures is female - heart-shape face, large blue-grey eyes, full mouth. "I am Mrs Persson."
Fans of Michael Moorcock's The Corenlius Quartet will be thrilled gorgeous Una Persson pops up at the opportune moment to transport Jherek and company to the End of Time.
Una Persson also treats Jherek and Amelia to lovely bits of philosophy revolving around time and the multiverse, Chronon Theory and Morphail Theory, "Yet there is a particular theory which suggests that with every one discovery we make about Time, we create two new mysteries. Time can never be codified, as Space can be, because our very thoughts, our information about it, our action based on that information, all contribute to extend the boundaries to produce new anomalies, new aspects of Time's nature."
Una, you're such a sweetie, especially when you wax sagacious. "Time is a dream - or a nightmare - from which there is never any waking. We who travel in Time are dreamers who occasionally share a common experience. To retain one's identity, to retain some sense of meaning in one's own life, that is all the time-traveler can hope for."
FIRE AND BRIMSTONE
There’s a hilarious Monty Python skit featuring Graham Chapman wearing the peaked cap and uniform of an army colonel from the waist up along with a ballerina’s tutu and pink leotards. The comedy is all in the sharp contrast.
Likewise, when the travelers return to the End of Time with its spectacular architecture, breathtaking landscapes and magnificent metamorphosing, who, of all people, shows up on the scene - Amelia's husband Harold Underwood. The contrast between Harold and the aesthetically attuned, amoral denizens of the End of Time couldn't be sharper.
Oh, yes, there he is, fresh from 19th century England, a religious fanatic who's an insufferable combination John Calvin, John Knox and Jonathan Edwards, a man forever at the ready to hurl harsh judgement at all who do not see things his way. And, predictably, Harold casts his harshest judgement on wife Amelia, exacerbated by Jherek saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. The scenes with Harold Underwood are among the funniest in the entire trilogy.
A NEW AMELIA
Recall I mentioned Amelia Underwood's transformation back there. "From the next morning it was as if a strange fever took possession of Amelia Underwood. her appearance in their breakfast room was spectacular. She was clad in crimson silk trimmed with gold and silver, rather oriental in influence. There were curling slippers upon her feet; there were ostrich and peacock feathers decorating her hair and it was evident that she had painted or otherwise altered her face for the eyelids were starling blue, the eyebrows plucked and their length exaggerated, the lips fuller and of astonishing redness, the cheeks glowing with what could only be rouge. Her smile was unusually wide, her kiss unexpectedly warm, her embrace almost sensual; scent drifted behind her as she took her place at the other end of the table."
GRAND FINALE
The concluding chapters of The End of All Songs not only serve as the ending for this novel but also the entire Dancers at the End of Time trilogy. For me, reading these chapters was like listening to the final movement of a Bach Brandenburg Concerto, the component parts of Space/Time swirling with stupendous energy, coming together and interconnecting with clarity, harmony and great beauty.
I've said enough. I encourage you to read for yourself. Thank you, Sir Michael!
British author Michael Moorcock, born 1939 - the good guys always wear white hats
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