Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Books read in 2019: No. 12 -- The End of All Songs: The Third Volume of The Dancers at the End of Time

by Michael Moorcock

Started: Feb. 14
Finished: Feb. 19

Notes: Having recently read the first two books in this trilogy, I thought I should go ahead and wind things down with this third book. I'd also like to add that if you should read these and are a fan of them, The Dancers at the End of Time series does not end with this trilogy but continues in other novels and short stories, so it might be worth your while to look them up.

Mini review: As wild and "out there" as were the first two novels in this trilogy, this one tops them. And while I've commented the first two novels were similar to one another in structure and theme, this one stretches those boundaries quite a bit, going for an unusual structure in which what seems to be the climax to the tale comes near the middle of the book while the true climax is more of an emotional one between the two main characters and comes nearer the end. If you're looking for some fantastical literature which is truly different, I can highly suggest these novels, especially if you have a penchant for older fantasy and science fiction works. Also, I'd like to add, I've mentioned in another review of one of the novels in this trilogy that I found some of the material familiar, and it dawned on me why: because I've read much of Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone works and in some shorter works Elric actually travels to the End of Time, the main setting for this trilogy. So that's one mystery solved.

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