The Roads Between the Worlds

From the author's notes, Moorcock was writing these stories in the period while he was editor of New Worlds. These stories were an attempt to tie together the old traditions of SF with the new wave, of which he was a part. The three stories in the book have little in common with the exception of the Multiverse concept, which ties together all of the stories of the Eternal Champion which Moorcock has written. All represent the struggles that the people of Earth are going through at one point in the continuum.I have enjoyed all of the Eternal Champion series that I have read to date, and have been pleasently surprised by how enjoyable and well written the non-Elric stories are. Most people seemed to be introduced to Moorcock through Elric and perhaps do not read more. They are missing out on a broader picture of which Elric is only a part.I found myself wanting to read more about Faustaff, the Fireclown, and Clovis Becker when the stories were over. I wish there were more books about them! This book is similar to the first book in the series entitled The Eternal Champion which introduces a number of characters through medium length tales.

The cover of this book is what first attracted me. Any book that dares to place a demonic clown standing on top of the sun can be relied on to be at least mildly interesting. Of course, first I had to read the other books in the series, so now that I finally get to this book, I've found that it lives up to the weird cover. Rare science-fiction from Michael Moorcock (the other exception being A Nomad of the Time Streams), it's just as good as his others. Some comments on the three novels: The Wrecks of Time: Kicking off the volume off the volume with the strangest story scienifically, it gets even stranger toward the end, but the tale of Faustaff and his fight against the D-Squads is great. The Winds of Limbo: Ah, here the clown! One of Moorcock's more political tales, it also brings back his Von Bek family, who appear to be playing on both sides of the conflict. It's very good for a story with a clown and politics. The Shores of Death: Interestingly enough, Clovis Becker is the only definate Eternal Champion in this volume (and the only reason I know that is because he is mentioned when all the names are going through John Daker's head in the first volume). Moorcock nevers explains how or when the planet stopped spinning, which is good, because if the Earth ever stopped spinning, everyone on it would be killed by interta, which would propel us all at thousands of miles per second. Still, it doesn't get in the way of a good story. Great trio, though the connecting material leaves a little to be desired. I couldn't figure out what it had to do with the stories, though I remember Renark Von Bek as the cosmic guy from The Sundered Worlds. I assume that the stories are memories he is thinking about, but since he never appears in the stories, it is curious as to why he remembers them. However, the connecting material is only at most a page long and this is only a minor quibble. This is required reading for any interested in fun science-fiction

The Roads Between the Worlds contains three unrelated stories, set in the theme of the multiverse. These stories take place on Earth, but not the Earth we know. These Earth's exist in different planes of the multiverse and coexist with our own. The first, and most entertaining story, The Wrecks of Time, finds the enigmatic Dr. Faustus leading his elite group against D-Squads who are tring to destroy Earth. Making matters worse for Dr. Faustus is that he travels the multiverse and the D-Squaders are trying to destroy thirteen Earths. The story keeps you guessing until the climax when Faustus meets the creatures behind the D-Squaders. Next, The Winds of Limbo takes you to Switzerland where the mysterious Fireclown speaks out against the government and what Earth has become. Here Moorcock skillfully blends politics and religion into a ideological clash between old and new guard politics. Finally in The Shores of Death, Moorcock takes us to a doomed Earth where the few humans left live extremely long lives but cannot have children. Here we see the clash between those who accept their fate vs. the few who try to find some hope for humanity's future. Like other Moorcock works, these stories make you think and question how we live, think and co-exist with one another, despite how different we truly are