author: Michael Moorcock

name: Steev

average rating: 3.50

book published: 2011

rating: 3

read at: 2012/02/02

date added: 2012/02/02

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
When I was a kid I used to be a big Michael Moorcock fan, especialy his Elric of Melnibone books. But in retrospect I now recognize most of his output as SF and Fantasy "trash." Swords-and-Sorcery pulp. It's nice that Moorcock is now this outspoken anarchist radical, but that's probably the only reason PM Press has published this book. The title story is a weird sort of experimental plotless reverie featuring one of Moorcock's signature heroes, Jerry Cornelius, of which I read a lot of back in the day as well. But this story is mostly just a bland rant about gentrification and change and the good old days. It's written as a huge number of tiny sections, each one a weird little vignette where Jerry is somewhere in the world with some subset of a cast of odd sidekicks, musing or complaining about how this or that place or neighborhood has really changed and oh what a shame that is. But nothing really happens. It's a bit like Moorcock is just phoning this in. Then, after "Modem Times 2.0", there's a memoir sort of piece called My London in which Moorcock describes growing up in post-war England. Not something you hear much about these days so it's interesting, in a way much more interesting than the Jerry Cornelius "story." But overall, the book is just kind of underwhelming.