A
Literary Saloon
&
Site of Review.

Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Contents:

Main

the Best

the Rest

Review Index

Links

to e-mail us:

the complete review - fiction

The Cornelius Chronicles
(The Cornelius Quartet)

by
Michael Moorcock

general information | our review | links | about the author

- Return to top of the page -

Our Assessment:

B+ : odd, surreal, literary sci-fi

See our review for fuller assessment.

The complete review's Review:

       The four novels collected in The Cornelius Chronicles (republished in slightly revised form as The Cornelius Quartet) present an arc of Jerry Cornelius-adventures, from the (fairly) straightforward action-adventure of the first, The Final Programme, to the metaphysical summa of The Condition of Muzak. Cornelius, of course, lives on elsewhere: Moorcock created the template, but never fixed the characters's identity, and freed him to be used by others as well. And Moorcock himself has also penned other Cornelius-tales.
       These four novels, written between the mid-1960s and the mid-70s, are very much of their time. They are novels of London, and of the England of that period.
       Cornelius is a superhero, but a flawed one. He is indestructible and yet has weaknesses. He is both a former Jesuit and a physicist. Party-animal and solitary soul. By the end of the tetralogy he is a messiah -- yet another role he is not ideally suited for.
       More than anything, Cornelius is defined by his origins. He is a city-creature through and through: "The city was his security, with all its horrors", Major Nye diagnoses. "When they began to destroy his city he lost his bearings completely." Not that he was entirely firmly grounded even before. The physical destruction of the city and the world progresses through the novels, but the London in which we first encounter Cornelius was already unstable. His luxurious housing (which he tries to recreate several times over) and his wild parties notwithstanding, London teeters from the first.
       The Final Programme culminates in "the world's first all-purpose human being" striding confidently eastward. " 'A tasty world,' it reflected cheerfully." But it is not an idyll that will last. The being is, after all, only half Cornelius, and the twinning is not the one that can ultimately satisfy Cornelius.
       In the books that follow he is, indeed, barely half a man. Cornelius can -- and does -- change appearance, but he finds it more difficult than most to adapt. He rarely seems comfortable in his skin. His ideal, his complement, is his sister Catherine, and throughout the novels Cornelius tries to find her -- and himself. She is his goal and aspiration. Events -- and brother Frank, in particular, -- thwart his ambitions, and people use his weakness to their own ends.
       Cornelius' world is a culture beyond decline: a reflection of England in the years when Moorcock was writing these books, the inner rot made glaringly visible in an exaggerated apocalyptic vision. The Dark Ages seem to sweep across the globe again, for better and worse.
       Moorcock spins both traditional adventures and metaphysical ones. There is warfare of familiar sorts, and surreal occurrences. There are both quaint airships and vibraguns. And a good number of curious and oddly engaging characters surround Cornelius.
       The malleable, happy-go-lucky (where possible) Cornelius is an unusual sort of hero, but fascinating nonetheless. Moorcock does a great deal with him -- more than might expect from a fictional character.
       The books try a variety of approaches, as Moorcock experiments with form and content. The English Assassin is cinematographic in its layout, and The Condition of Muzak is musically-composed. Moorcock also incorporates newspaper-quotes as chapter headings and epigraphs, an effective and telling counterpoint of reality and fiction.

       The Cornelius Chronicles is a mix between sci-fi and metaphysics, literary and pop fiction. It's likely to disappoint those who prefer shallower fantastic tales. It is determined by flux, chaos, entropy. It can't be pinned down. It's not always satisfying, but it is strangely gripping. One wonders (and hardly ever guesses) what comes next. It can be a bit arduous, but it is worthwhile.

- Return to top of the page -

Links:

• Four Walls Eight Windows publicity page

• Jeff A. Heermann
• PopMatters

• Moorcock's Weekly Miscellany
• Michael Moorcock Homepage at Sweet Despise
• Bibliography
• Interview at 3 AM
• Interview at Crescent Blues
• Interview at Locus

• King of the City
• The individual novels making up The Cornelius Chronicles:
  • The Final Programme (The Final Program)
  • A Cure for Cancer
  • The English Assassin
  • The Condition of Muzak
• A Nomad of the Time Streams
  • The Warlord of the Air
  • The Land Leviathan
  • The Steel Tsar

• See Index of Science Fiction
• See Index of Contemporary British fiction

- Return to top of the page -

About the Author:

       Michael Moorcock, born in 1939, is a prolific British author.

- Return to top of the page -

© 2001-2010 the complete review

Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links