THE BEST SF STORIES FROM NEW WORLDS

Berkley Medallion paperback, 1968. Cover artwork by Paul Lehr.

THE ETERNAL CHAMPION

Mayflower paperback, 1970. Cover artwork by Bob Haberfield.

Rear cover and synopsis.

STORMBRINGER

Lancer paperback, 1967. Cover artwork by Jack Gaughan.

Rear cover and synopsis.

THE SLEEPING SORCERESS

NEL paperback, 1972. Cover artwork by Jan Parker.

Rear cover and synopsis.

THE SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE

Quartet paperback, 1977. Cover artist uncredited.

Rear cover and synopsis.

ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ

Arrow paperback, 1975. Cover artist uncredited.

Rear cover and synopsis.

THE RITUALS OF INFINITY

Arrow paperback, 1975. Cover artwork uncredited.

Rear cover and synopsis.

BREAKFAST IN THE RUINS

NEL paperback, 1975. Cover artist uncredited.

Rear cover and synopsis.

THE TIME DWELLER

Mayflower SF paperback, 1981. Cover by Bob Haberfield (thanks: Jerry).

Back cover fluff: 

"From the mercurial mind of Michael Moorcock... 

Tales of other worlds, other dimensions - strangely beautiful with rich surrealistic landscapes. Tales of doom, despair, horror, of dazzling invention and inspired genius. Including: 

Escape from Evening: one man finds there is only one ironical escape in a sad, dying world. 

The Mountains: the two last men on earth search for the last woman. 

The Golden Barge: what did a single murder matter when the golden barge sailed slowly onwards? 

Consuming Passion: a tale of a pyromaniac with a chilling difference. 

The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius: what was a Roman doing in Berlin; found strangle in a garden of strange, living plants?"

CITY OF THE BEAST

NEL paperback, 1974. Cover painting by Boris Vallejo
(thanks: anon).

"There came a peculiar slithering sound from the pit and from it, just to one side of the dais, I saw a great, flat serpent head rise up and begin to sway in rhythm to Horguhl's crooning. It was of a sickly yellowish colour, with long fangs curving out of its mouth from the upper jaw. There was a stale, unwholesome smell about it." 

For Michael Kane, twentieth-century scientist, this is just one of the perils he is forced to face when he finds himself transported to eon-old Mars. All that stands between him and a savage, alien death is his wits and his skill with a sword. 

In this, the first volume of his Martian trilogy, Michael Moorcock - the greatest living writer of heroic fantasy - produces a tale unparalleled since John Carter first paced the trackless emptiness of Barsoom.

THE SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE

Granada / Mayflower paperback, 1981. Cover illustration by
Melvyn Grant.

"Elric of Melnibone, last of the emperors of a once mighty land, self-exiled bearer of the sword of power called Stormbringer, found a ship wreathed in mist waiting for him on an alien seashore. 

When he boarded the mysterious vessel, he learnt from his shadowy captain that he was to serve a strange quest side by side with other heroes from other times. For this ship sailed no earthly waters. These warriors and champions fought sorcerers and demons in a journey spanning seas that seemed to connect not continents and coastlines but whole eras and different worlds. For they were sailors on the seas of fate..."

ACE DOUBLE: THE WRECKS OF TIME + TRAMONTANE

Ace Double paperback, 1967. Cover painting by
Jack Gaughan.

"EARTH ZERO TO EARTH FIFTEEN - WHICH WAS THE REAL ONE? 

What the inhabitants of Greater America didn't realize was that theirs was the only inhabited landmass, apart from one island in the Philippines. They still talked about foreign countries, though they would forget little by little, but the countries were only in their imagination, mysterious and romantic places where nobody actually went. 

That was the way it was on E-3, one of the fifteen alternate Earths that had been discovered through the subspace experiments. 

Professor Faustaff knew that these alternate Earths were somehow recent creations, and that they were under attack from the strange eroding raids of the mysterious bands known as the D-Squads. But there were tens of millions of people on those Earths who were entitled to life and protection - and unless Faustaff and his men could crack the mystery of these worlds' creation and the more urgent problem of their destruction, it would mean not only the end of these parallel planets, but just possibly the blanking out of all civilization in the universe."

Ace Double paperback, 1967. Cover painting by
Jack Gaughan.

"IMMORTAL VENGEANCE 

About TRAMONTANE: 

This fourth science-fantasy novel based on the Finnish legendary epic Kalevala, seemed like a good idea because there are actually four important heroes in these wonderful legends, and this novel completes the cycle, concerning itself with the prophecy of the Great Return when the Vanhat seed shall return to Otava, the planet of their origin. Kullervo is the "bad one" of the legends. Ugly, sullen, despised, he was actually born out of evil. He kicked his cradle to pieces and refused to drown when the wise women flung him into the river. As a vindictive cowherd slave he changed cows into bears and this killed all of Ilmarinen's household. Like Manfred and Oedipus, he was predestined for tragedy and doom. However, he is surely one of the most fascinating characters in all mythology. Jean Sibelius, the great Finnish composer, chose his tragic life for the theme of his magnificent symphonic tone poem Kullervo, one of his finest works, involving choruses, soloists, and a sweeping Wagnerian nobility. My Kullervo Kasi, a prototype of his ancestor, is the spawn of a leakage from a dark dimensionof matter-energy that is invompatible with the life forces in this one. Therefore, Kullervo Kasi is the natural choice of the Starwitch Louhi to find the tag-end remnants of the Vanhat existing somewhere on despoiled Terra and destroy them...." 

-Emil Petaja.

THE STEEL TSAR

Granada / Mayflower paperback, 1982. Cover illustration by
Melvyn Grant.

"IN THE RUSSIAN SECTOR OF A BATTLE-TORN UNIVERSE, CAPTAIN OSWALD BASTABLE CONFRONTS THE MYTHICAL AGENTS OF DESTRUCTION AND DEATH 

In his epical adventures in the alternate twentieth century, Chrononaut Bastable, member of the League of Temporal Adventurers, has crossed and re-crossed many different time-streams... 

THE STEEL TSAR finds him travelling backwards in time from a shell-shocked Singapore to a Tsarist empire seething with conflict, and preyed on by motley bands of rogues and adventurers. Here he meets up with fellow-time-traveller miss una persson, and together they change the course of a history whose mythical deeds go beyond the boundaries of everyday imagination and glitter in the exuberant land of the eternal present..."

THE LAND LEVIATHAN

Granada / Panther paperback, 1984. Cover illustration by
Melvyn Grant.

"A BARBARIC NEW DARK AGE- 

IN AN ALTERNATIVE TWENTIETH CENTURY 

Seeking the answer to the mystery of life, Captain Oswald Bastable visits the Temple of the Future Buddha and is thrown through time to a new twentieth century. Plague, anarchy and superstition rule the world where he finds himself. Bands of diseased mutants pillage the continents while pirate U-boats prowl the oceans. 

But from this chaos emerges the Black Attila, commander of the African Hordes and master of the most terrible weapon ever devised by Man - the Land Leviathan, a terrifying ziggurat on wheels, a moving mountain of deadly artillery. 

At last, after centuries of cruel oppression, the Land Leviathan helps the Black Attila establish Black Power on an unimaginable, global scale. Unimaginable that is, to anyone except Michael Moorcock who has rewritten the history of the twentieth century in his own totally original, biting style."

THE WAR LORD OF THE AIR

Granada / Panther paperback, 1984. Cover illustration by
Melvyn Grant.

"THE ADVENTURES OF OSWALD BASTABLE, TRANSPORTED TO A WORLD EPICAL-HISTORICAL-FANTASTICAL 

This is the amazing story of Captain Oswald Bastable, late of the 53rd Lancers - stowaway, opium addict and time traveller extraordinary. 

Beginning in Nepal in 1903, Bastibale is jettisoned into a brave new world seventy years in the future: where the British Empire is stronger than ever, cities soar skyward, and the airship rules supreme. 

But when Bastable discovers to his dismay that his own ship is alive with fugitive anarchists, two cultures and two moralities clash. Together they, and all mankind, await the fearful advent of the War Lord of the Air."

THE LIVES AND TIMES OF JERRY CORNELIUS

Grafton paperback, 1987. Cover illustration by Tim White.

"WHO - NOT TO SAY WHEN, WHERE, HOW OR WHY - IS JERRY CORNELIUS? 

We'll probably never know. Still, the contents of this book do provide a kind of kaleidoscopic biography of the immortal, ubiquitous assassin who has himself been the target of assassination attempts for his own brother Frank - and of several novels by Michael Moorcock, of course. 

THE LIVES AND TIMES OF JERRY CORNELIUS 

shows the enigmatic superhero about his business in Mandalay, London, the vatican and elsewhere (and elsewhen): they are a sharp, brilliantly witty satire of our times - and of time itself."

PHOENIX IN OBSIDIAN

Mayflower paperback, 1970. Cover painting by Bob Haberfield.

"As Erekosë, the Eternal Champion, he slew the human race that had betrayed his ideals. And loved Ermizhad, the Eldren princess. 

Then the voices called him and he was powerless to resist. As Fate's soldier, the eternal one, his lot was to vanquish tyranny. Sent tumbling through the corridors of eternity. Transformed. Now Urlik Skarsol - Prince of the Southern Ice. But called by whom? 

By Bishop Belpheg, Lord Spiritual of Rowenarc, obscene ruler of a damned race born at the end of Time? By Bladrak of the Scarlet Fjord? By the Lady of the Screaming Chalice? By the Silver Warriors, incandescent men of Moon? 

Urlik Skarsol would need take up the Black Sword, the monstrous weapon that demanded blood, be it friend's or be it foe's, before his tortured soul could rest. Before the powers of Evil could be conquered. Before he could rediscover Ermizhad. Before he could know peace again..."

STORMBRINGER

Mayflower paperback, 1968. Cover art by Bob Haberfield.

SWORD AND SWORDSMAN...BUT WHICH WAS MASTER? 

STORMBRINGER, the mighty runesword, hung far away in the city's armoury. ELRIC, haunted albino warrior-king had sworn never again to touch the enchanted blade. But he needed it now as never before. Evil supernatural beings had abducted his lovely wife Zarozinia. He would sacrifice the world itself to rescue her. But would STORMBRINGER, which seemed to have a life of its own, allow it? 

He was fated to ride out again over spectral landscapes, with the sentient blade he loved and hated...which had slain enemies - and claimed comrades.

ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ

Arrow SF paperback, 1973. Cover illustraton by Chris Yates.

"The tale of Elric, later called womanslayer; of his love for Cymoria and of the rivalry with his cousin Yyrkoon. A rivalry that was to bring the dreaming city crashing in flames, destroyed by the reavers of the young kingdoms. 

Elric, red-eyed, albino, the inheritor of waning powers, his strength precarious, sustained by arcane drugs. A hero seemingly unfit for his role. 

A story that treats of monstrous emotions and high ambitions, of sorceries and treacheries, agonies and fearful pleasures. A story that Elric was to remember only in his nightmares."

BEHOLD THE MAN

Mayflower paperback, 1973 reprint. Cover painting by
Bob Haberfield (thanks, Mark).

"Karl Glogauer, obsessed with the bright silver crucifix that dangles around the little girl's neck, tortured by his growing sexuality and the overwhelming mystic power of religion...Karl Glogauer loves with Eva, innocent and beautiful, but he is too destructive. He loves with a troop of middle-aged women, but they are just a training ground. He loves with Monica, but she is explosive, she stings like a scorpion. He loves. He tries to love. He tries... 

The story of Glogauer's crisis and identity weaves between modern london and ancient palestine, between Glogauer's erotic hunt for personality and Christ's journey to the cross. This is perhaps the most controversial portrait of Christ ever painted."