(1996) Michael Moorcock, Orion, £6.99, pbk, 547pp. ISBN 1 85798 306 8
Continuing the collected Eternal Champion series, this offering includes another four previously published works. The Ice Schooner concerns a quest north over ice plains to find the mythical city of New York. Much of the imagery is wonderful, and this short, bitter novel is among Moorcock's best early works. The Black Corridor sees a voyage of hope to a new world undermined by guilt and despair. Not one of Moorcock's best, but worth a visit for one of the few of Moorcock's pure SF excursions. The Distant Suns is quite dire. An attempt at parody, Moorcock co-authored this with James Cawthorn and it shows. It has a clean cut Jerry Cornelius, space ships, aliens, launch sequences and little else. Flux was written with Barry Bailey. An SF short story, Max von Bek wanders up and down alternative time streams seeking a way back to his own time and reality. Again, not the best of Moorcock but quite interesting.
Of the four, The Ice Schooner stands out as being not only well written, but almost poetic in imagery, and the volume is worth the money just for this one work.
Graham Connor
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