Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380975971 ISBN 13: 9780380975976

Verlag: Avon Books, 1997

The lyrical genius of Michael Moorcock defies categorization; his creations soar to grand and golden places hitherto unimagined and unimaginable. In this, his most heartfelt and astonishing work to date, he carries the reader across mystical thresholds viewed from afar in the brilliant Blood and Fabulous Harbors, and reveals the mighty destinies, exemplary loves, and the true and secret histories of his most beloved and intriguing characters. It is a tale of the incomparable Rose von Bek, who discovers the myriad possibilities that life has to offer in the special, infinitely wondrous places known as the Second Ether--where time has no bounds and existence is a river of endless reinvention. Here, also, is the love of her life--the volatile and enigmatic Sam Oakenburst--and the story of the ill-fated passion of the exotic Colinda Dovero and the swashbuckling gambler Jack Karaquazian. These four together--along with their exceptional companions, including Rose's mad uncle, Michael, late of Texas--will become allies in what some call the great War in Heaven, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the agents of evil and stagnation, in a battle whose outcome will determine the very nature of reality itself.

Review:

The universe is Michael Moorcock's playground in this picaresque "autobiography" of his putative relation Rose von Bek. Rose, born in London in the mid-20th century to Sir Arthur and Lady Eleanor Moorcock, learns her love of wandering from the gypsies who gather near her father's estate. At 7 she decides on a career as a highwayman, at 17 she marries the not-entirely-respectable Count von Bek, and soon thereafter she meets her lover and companion-in-arms Sam Oakenhurst. Rose quickly discovers that she can enter the Second Ether and travel at will between the conventional world and a rollicking, quasi-infinite multiverse where the Chaos Engineers hold sway. At the same time, Sam's friend Jack Karaquazian and the beautiful Colinda Dovero conduct a romantic tragedy on a cosmic scale. It's Scaramouche meets Douglas Adams as Rose and her friends fight the War in Heaven against the Dark Angel Lucifer.

About the Author:

Michael Moorcock and his wife have homes in the United States and Europe.