Michael Butterworth (2) (1947–)

I’ve read “The Time of the Hawklords” by Michael Moorcock and Michael Butterworth twice. The first time I read it I was a teenager in the 1980’s and thought it was a mediocre sci fi novel by one of my favorite fantasy authors, Moorcock. At the time I’d never heard of the band, Hawkwind, and I thought the band in the story were completely fictional.

The second time I read it was later on, after I became a huge Hawkwind fan, and familiar with their Moorcock-penned spoken word song, show more “Sonic Attack”, which completely changed the context of the story.

In the book the band, the Hawklords, have to continually play their music to counter a sound-based death generator buried in the center of the Earth that’ll destroy all life.

It’s definitely better reading it knowing a bit about Hawkwind, as the mid-70’s line up are basically the stars of the novel, slightly fictionalized…. It’s easy to recognize the various members in the characters, their personalities and contributions to Hawkwind’s overall sound and concert shows.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend this for a reader new to Michael Moorcock who wasn’t already a Hawkwind fan… show less

I hadn't read this since I was a teenager, but my opinion has barely changed. Amiable and harmless yarn, but very little of Moorcock's literary influence in evidence. Non-essential even for Hawkwind fans.

Simply a novelization of the sci-fi series "Space: 1999". Fairly well written but follows the scriptline with not much added except more detailed descriptions.

Just about one of the worst novels ever written. Very datedd. Rock musicians turned into demigods who must battle evil machines of the death generator. And appearance by Elric (strangely misspelled at one point) makes the whole thing very bizarre. Moorcock pastiche at its worst. Supposedly book 2 of a trilogy. I don't think book 3 was ever published.