The Ice Schooner by Michael Moorcock
Pages 207
Year 1969
Rating 8
Really enjoy the novel. This one is quite old from Moorcock (1969). In terms of rating I would say 8/10. Moorcock is one of those writers that politically is not one I tend to agree but in terms of writing and characters so far they are great. To be honest I only read around 5/6 of his and so far they've been good. I like is chaotic side of things. This story is set in the future and the wet dream of political activists happened and earth is ball of ice. People have been living in eight cities in Mato Grosso (it's in Brazil).
Here we follow Konrad Arflane, a former captain of one of those cities but now turn a solitary man. As he travels through the ice he finds and helps a lord from another city. As he helps him arrive to his city he is tasked by him to take the best ship in the eight cities to a fable city of New York where they think their goddess has her court.
First of all, have you read moby dick? or master and commander? you going to need since there is a lot of talk about ships with names of stuff unknown to me plus the all whaling with harpoons. The story is epic and you could see another writer (or if written probably 30 years later) to have 400 or 500 pages instead of the current 207. It's fast pace and to be honest If I had a complain it would be this fast pace sometimes made the timeframe a bit wonky - like several months have pass and so probably the interaction of characters probably would be important to understand why x character is so deeply in love with Y or respects Z. But, alas, it's not horrible.
So, what did I not enjoy? first of all, it was the romance stuff. Some people would complain about Konrad but to them I would say, grow up. But yes, my problem would be the believability of it. Second it was ending , well not the ending but the last 8 or 9 pages where the full explanation my first explanation was "was this it? "okay".
It was a nice philosophical story about tradition vs progression, about history. If Moby Dick he wanted to kill the whale here is about fable new york.
Advisable if you wish to start reading Moorcock. But if you are starting please read Elric. Interesting that this novel along with The Black Corridor & The Distant Suns are all part of "Sailing to Utopia" series but although some themes connect this stories, you can read them at any order since they are not connected at all.
View all my reviews
Really enjoy the novel. This one is quite old from Moorcock (1969). In terms of rating I would say 8/10. Moorcock is one of those writers that politically is not one I tend to agree but in terms of writing and characters so far they are great. To be honest I only read around 5/6 of his and so far they've been good. I like is chaotic side of things. This story is set in the future and the wet dream of political activists happened and earth is ball of ice. People have been living in eight cities in Mato Grosso (it's in Brazil).
Here we follow Konrad Arflane, a former captain of one of those cities but now turn a solitary man. As he travels through the ice he finds and helps a lord from another city. As he helps him arrive to his city he is tasked by him to take the best ship in the eight cities to a fable city of New York where they think their goddess has her court.
First of all, have you read moby dick? or master and commander? you going to need since there is a lot of talk about ships with names of stuff unknown to me plus the all whaling with harpoons. The story is epic and you could see another writer (or if written probably 30 years later) to have 400 or 500 pages instead of the current 207. It's fast pace and to be honest If I had a complain it would be this fast pace sometimes made the timeframe a bit wonky - like several months have pass and so probably the interaction of characters probably would be important to understand why x character is so deeply in love with Y or respects Z. But, alas, it's not horrible.
So, what did I not enjoy? first of all, it was the romance stuff. Some people would complain about Konrad but to them I would say, grow up. But yes, my problem would be the believability of it. Second it was ending , well not the ending but the last 8 or 9 pages where the full explanation my first explanation was "was this it? "okay".
It was a nice philosophical story about tradition vs progression, about history. If Moby Dick he wanted to kill the whale here is about fable new york.
Advisable if you wish to start reading Moorcock. But if you are starting please read Elric. Interesting that this novel along with The Black Corridor & The Distant Suns are all part of "Sailing to Utopia" series but although some themes connect this stories, you can read them at any order since they are not connected at all.
View all my reviews
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