Michael John Moorcock is an English–American writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.
Jerry Cornelius is a fictional character created by English author Michael Moorcock. The character is an urban adventurer and an incarnation of the author's Eternal Champion concept. Cornelius is a hipster of ambiguous and occasionally polymorphous gender. Many of the same characters feature in each of several Cornelius books, though the individual books have little connection with one another, having a more metafictional than causal relationship. The first Jerry Cornelius book, The Final Programme, was made into a 1973 film starring Jon Finch and Jenny Runacre. Notting Hill in London features prominently in the stories.
The Eternal Champion is a fictional character created by British author Michael Moorcock and is a recurrent feature in many of his speculative fiction works.
The Brothel in Rosenstrasse is a 1982 novel by Michael Moorcock. The main character is Rickhardt von Bek, a member of the family of Ulrich von Bek which is central to some of Moorcock's other fantasy novels, notably The War Hound and the World's Pain, The City in the Autumn Stars, and The Dragon in the Sword. The novel is written as Bek's memoir of a dying, demented man, in which he recalls his time with a bi-sexual teenage nymphet girl and how they take refuge in a superior brothel in a German city under siege during a 19th-century war. The standard German spelling of the name in the novel's title is "Rosenstraße".
The War Hound and the World's Pain is a 1981 fantasy novel by English writer Michael Moorcock, the first of the "von Bek" series of novels.
The History of the Runestaff is an omnibus collection of four fantasy novels by Michael Moorcock, consisting of The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God's Amulet, The Sword of the Dawn, and The Runestaff. Charting the adventures of Dorian Hawkmoon, a version of the Eternal Champion, it takes place in a far-future version of Europe in which the insane rulers of the Dark Empire of Granbretan are engaged in conquering the continent. Written between 1967 and 1969, it is considered a classic of the genre, and has proven highly influential in shaping subsequent authors' works.
Behold the Man is a existentialist science fiction novel by British writer Michael Moorcock. It originally appeared as a novella in a 1966 issue of New Worlds magazine; later, Moorcock produced an expanded version that was first published in 1969 by Allison & Busby. The title derives from John 19, Verse 5, in the New Testament: "Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them Behold the Man".
The Black Corridor is a science fiction novel by Michael Moorcock. It was published in 1969, first by Ace Books in the US, as part of their Ace Science Fiction Specials series, and later by Mayflower Books in the UK.
The Warlord of the Air is a 1971 British alternate history novel written by Michael Moorcock. It concerns the adventures of Oswald Bastable, an Edwardian era soldier stationed in India, and his adventures in an alternate universe, in his own future, wherein the First World War never happened. It is the first part of Moorcock's A Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy and, in its use of speculative technology juxtaposed against an Edwardian setting, it is widely considered to be one of the first steampunk novels. The novel was first published by Ace Books as part of their Ace Science Fiction Specials series.
The City in the Autumn Stars: Being a Continuation of the Story of the Von Bek Family and Its Association With Lucifer, Prince of Darkness is a science fantasy novel by British author Michael Moorcock. The second book in the Von Bek trilogy, it was published by Grafton in 1986. The story centres on the characters of Manfred von Bek, a descendant of Ulrich von Bek, who is also the protagonist of the previous book in the series and Libussa Cartagena y Mendoza-Chilperic, the Duchess of Crete, along with their journey to the mystical Mittelmarch, and their search for the Holy Grail.
The Laughter of Carthage is a historical fiction novel by English author Michael Moorcock published by Secker & Warburg in 1984. It is the second in the Pyat Quartet tetralogy, preceded by Byzantium Endures and followed by Jerusalem Commands. It was written in tandem, one during the day, and one at night, with the second novel in the Von Bek series, The City in the Autumn Stars.
Byzantium Endures is a historical fiction novel by English author Michael Moorcock published by Secker & Warburg in 1981. It is the first in the Pyat Quartet tetralogy, and is followed by The Laughter of Carthage.
The Vengeance of Rome is a historical fiction novel by English author Michael Moorcock, published by Jonathan Cape in 2006. It is the fourth and final in the Pyat Quartet tetralogy, preceded by Jerusalem Commands.
The Land Leviathan: A New Scientific Romance is an alternative history novel by Michael Moorcock, first published in 1974. Subtitled "A New Scientific Romance", it has been seen as an early steampunk novel, dealing with an alternative British Imperial history dominated by airships and futuristic warfare. It is a sequel to The Warlord of the Air (1971) and followed by The Steel Tsar (1981). This proto-steampunk trilogy is also published as the compilation volume A Nomad of the Time Streams.
The Steel Tsar is a sci-fi/alternate history novel by Michael Moorcock, first published in 1981 by Granada. Being a sequel to The Warlord of the Air (1971) and The Land Leviathan (1974), it is the final part of Moorcock's A Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy regarding the adventures of Captain Oswald Bastable and which has been seen as an early example of steampunk fiction. The same cover image was used for the 1984 reissue of Judas Priest album Rocka Rolla and also the 1989 video game Ballistix.
A Cure for Cancer is a novel by British fantasy and science fiction writer Michael Moorcock, first published in London 1971 by Allison and Busby. The book is part of Moorcock's long-running Jerry Cornelius series.
The Condition of Muzak is a novel by British fantasy and science fiction writer Michael Moorcock, published by Allison & Busby in 1977. It is the final novel of his long-running Jerry Cornelius series. It was first published in its revised form in 1979.
The Cornelius Quartet is the collective name for the Jerry Cornelius novels by Michael Moorcock, although the first one-volume edition was entitled The Cornelius Chronicles. It is composed of The Final Programme, A Cure for Cancer, The English Assassin and The Condition of Muzak. The collection has remained continuously in print for 30 years.
Mother London is a novel by Michael Moorcock. Published in 1988, it was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. Although the city of London itself is perhaps the central character, it follows three outpatients from a mental hospital—a music hall artist, a reclusive writer and a woman just awoken from a long coma —who experience the history of the city from the Blitz to the late eighties through chaotic experience and sensory delusions. The novel is a non-chronological compilation of episodes, snippets and sidelines, rather than a single cohesive narrative. A piece in The Guardian called it 'a great, humane document'.
The Pyat Quartet, also known as Between the Wars, is a tetralogy of historical fiction novels by English author Michael Moorcock comprising Byzantium Endures, The Laughter of Carthage, Jerusalem Commands and The Vengeance of Rome published from 1981 to 2006.
