re:mote voices: literature

Title: Blood: A Southern Fantasy & Fantastic Harbours & The War Amongst the Angels
Author: Michael Moorcock
Publisher: Orion

Moorcock's latest trilogy is perhaps his best work to date - it is complex and confusing and yet strangely enlightening. Described as the "Second Ether Trilogy" it starts with "Blood: A Southern Fantasy". To begin with "Blood" is the story of two expert gamblers Karaquazian and Oakenhurst sailing up and down the Mississippi. The world is different, "the white races have fallen into decadence", and what had looked like a limitless power source has become the greatest sink. In the typical manner of mankind eager to exploit the source, they have turned it against themselves - sucking all the energy from the world. The feel is of dark days - of end days.

But it is also about love and devotion - Karaquazian's love for Colinda Dovero and Oakenhurst's for Rose Von Bek. With the introduction of the Rose we have a familiar character - having appeared in some of Moorcock's previous works, including the most recent Elric novel "The Revenge Of The Rose". The Rose is from another reality and wonders through the "worlds" - she offers the characters a chance to go to another reality where they can live without threat. This reality is reached via the Second Ether, where the "Game Of Time" is played between the forces of Chaos and Order.

"Blood" deals with the four gambler's stories as they go through their world on an inevitable course for the Second Ether. The story is interspersed with snippets of the "Game Of Time" which are recounted as pulp novels in the characters reality. These snippets are strange - they seem out of place, with the action recounted being at odds to the course of the narrative. As the book progresses, though, their purpose becomes clear in familiarising the reader with the roles and forces in the game. This of the three books is the most complex and confusing - the trilogy makes so much more sense read as a whole.

The second book in this sequence is "Fabulous Harbours" which features a collection of short stories. These flesh out the characters of "Blood" and the Begg/von Bek families, all of whom have greater parts to play in the third novel. Some of the characters featured include Sexton Begg, Prince Ulrich von Bek, and perhaps Moorcock's most well known character Elric. The stories range in topic from desert adventure to crime thriller, to pirate escapade. All the stories are good enough - though at this stage one does wonder why they are gathered here as part of this trilogy. Also curious is reading the Elric story, which I'd read before, in this context the supporting characters became the main characters, certainly giving a new perspective.

However the reasoning becomes clear as we move onto the third and final book in this series. "The War Amongst The Angels" is where Moorcock pulls his entire career into a clear and enlightening whole or alternatively loses the plot altogether. Perhaps he even does both with the revelation that Rose Von Bek was known as Margaret Rose Moorcock before her first marriage and has been using her Uncle Michael's name as a pen name for her literary career. This is the autobiography of Michael Moorcock AKA Rose Von Bek - at least it's possible this is the case in the reality a couple of steps from our own.

Having played the "Game Of Time" in the Second Ether, the characters from "Blood" have moved through to the existence promised them. Here the world is closer to our own existence, but not quite ours. As the book moves through the life story of Rose, the ultimate game, the final game is in preparation. From Rose's adventures as the highwayman Captain Hawkmoon (Hawkmoon being the Eternal Champion character from the "Runestaff" sequence of novels) with Dick Turpin to her affair with the albino Prince Ulrich Von Bek (compare to the Eternal Champion character that is the albino Prince Elric) a new perspective is given to the perception of what Moorcock's work has been about. Inclusion of characters like Turpin and Buffalo Bill in this story enliven the story further and seem to be Moorcock's sly tribute to his own pulp adventure beginnings.

With manifestations of encrusted armoured/scaled angels breaking through from the Second Ether it becomes clear that the War in Heaven is imminent. Throughout his work Moorcock has dealt with the war of chaos and order and the fine line between the two - all the while questioning perceptions of what is good and what is evil and hence what role gods have in our lives. There have always been these deep undertones and with this novel he is bringing it forward - revealing the "war" he has skirted past so many times before, giving the reader little glimpses. Though with this trilogy the "War" is revealed to be a game of strategy, where at the end of a round the people playing the roles return unharmed - however, it is a game with the biggest stakes, the outcome being in which direction the balance swings.

Here Moorcock manages to infer that all his characters have been parts, roles, pawns in the game and all the stories have been plays and strategies. This is clever and ironic - from the clear Hawkmoon reference to the subtler Corum reference - turning his Eternal Champion story-lines upon themselves in a self-depreciating manner. But with all this the characters achieve real strengths - they are emotional and confused, resilient in their depth. The context is rich and vivid - from the energy sucking fault and the Machinoix (ritual mechanical people) from "Blood" to the chaotic carapaces of the encrusted angels and legend steeped eternals of "The War Amongst The Angels". This is easily "Michael Moorcock's" most stunning and evocative work to date - I only wonder where he has left to go.

RVWR: PTR
July 1998