The End of All Songs
by Michael Moorcock
The End of Time (3), The Dancers at the End of Time (03), The Eternal Champion (The End of Time book 3)
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In this last book of the trilogy, the decadent immortal Jherek Carnelian and his prim, beloved Victorian lady time-traveller, Mrs Amelia Underwood are rescued from the Palaeozic Era by a passing time-machine, and finally reach the End of Time.Tags
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Jherek Carnelian and Mrs. Amelia Underwood find themselves stranded in the Devonian period due to a time travel overshoot.
The End of All Songs is longer than the other two in the trilogy, with more existential angst and a lot of exposition about time travel theory. You'd think the angst and exposition would weigh the book down, but I think nothing on earth could possibly weigh this book down. The whole series is so utterly ridiculous, and fantastic, and so much fun to read it hardly seems possible.
The End of All Songs is longer than the other two in the trilogy, with more existential angst and a lot of exposition about time travel theory. You'd think the angst and exposition would weigh the book down, but I think nothing on earth could possibly weigh this book down. The whole series is so utterly ridiculous, and fantastic, and so much fun to read it hardly seems possible.
"The End of All Songs" is the third in the Jherek Carnellian series about life at the end of time. In the first book, we learned that end of time approaches but mankind (or what's left of it) doesn't view that eventuality as compelling enough to do anything about it. We also meet our Eternal Champion of the hour - Jherek Carnellian - and his late Victorian love interest, Mrs. Amelia Underwood. In the second book, we had Jherek go back in time to retrieve Amelia from 1896, but instead of an extraction of surgical precision, we ended up with most of the population of End Time taking a quick jaunt back to London to experience the experiences of the Victorian era. Jherek and Amelia ended up together, but on a deserted stretch of paleozoioc show more beach - marooned in time.
The third book starts there - alone in the paleozoic, but quickly gets somewhat crowded as timetraveller after timetraveller bounces into their little sliver of the past and cause problems. Eventually, everything is bundled up into a neat little self-contained timeloop, but there's a whole lot of nothing that happens along the way. Jherek gets confused, lonely, bored and jealous. Amelia is filled with helplessness, self-loathing and undertakes a rather masochistic attempt to adapt to society at the end of time. Eventually, Lord Jagged's plans are finally revealed and they come to fruition.
After thoroughly enjoying the first two books in the series, I was underwhelmed with this one. It just seemed like there was far too little going on and it took far too long to get there. Too much of Jherek pining for Amelia. Too much of Amelia making half-hearted attempts to join the End Time society. Too much of Jagged being mysterious and manipulative. And definitely too little humor. show less
The third book starts there - alone in the paleozoic, but quickly gets somewhat crowded as timetraveller after timetraveller bounces into their little sliver of the past and cause problems. Eventually, everything is bundled up into a neat little self-contained timeloop, but there's a whole lot of nothing that happens along the way. Jherek gets confused, lonely, bored and jealous. Amelia is filled with helplessness, self-loathing and undertakes a rather masochistic attempt to adapt to society at the end of time. Eventually, Lord Jagged's plans are finally revealed and they come to fruition.
After thoroughly enjoying the first two books in the series, I was underwhelmed with this one. It just seemed like there was far too little going on and it took far too long to get there. Too much of Jherek pining for Amelia. Too much of Amelia making half-hearted attempts to join the End Time society. Too much of Jagged being mysterious and manipulative. And definitely too little humor. show less
The conclusion to the wondrous "Dancers at the End of Time" trilogy, in which Jherek Carnelian makes a triumphant return to the End of Time with his beloved Mrs. Underwood, only to learn that Time truly is coming to an end, and that immortality will never be what it was again. A tale well-told, mysteries answered and a satisfying conclusion cap the final book of one of the best science fiction trilogies and pieces of social commentary yet written.
Interesting enough world and themes.
But, felt it dragging on and just wanted it to end.
I have books 4 & 5 in this series, but believe they are mostly short stories involving different characters so I will be leaving the End of Time setting behind but may return again one day....
But, felt it dragging on and just wanted it to end.
I have books 4 & 5 in this series, but believe they are mostly short stories involving different characters so I will be leaving the End of Time setting behind but may return again one day....
My edition, 1979, in boxed set with "The Hollow Lands" and "An Alien Heat."
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Michael Moorcock, 1939 - Writer Michael Moorcock was born December 18, 1939 in Mitcham, Surrey, England. Moorcock was the editor of the juvenile magazine Tarzan Adventures from 1956-58, an editor and writer for the Sexton Blake Library and for comic strips and children's annuals from 1959-61, an editor and pamphleteer for Liberal Party in 1962, show more and became editor and publisher for the science fiction magazine New Worlds in 1964. He has worked as a singer-guitarist, has worked with the rock bands Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult and is a member of the rock band Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix. Moorcock's writing covers a wide range of science fiction and fantasy genres. "The Chronicles of Castle Brass" was a sword and sorcery novel, and "Breakfast in the Ruins: A Novel of Inhumanity" uses the character Karl Glogauer as a different person in different times. Karl participates in the political violence of the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, and a Nazi concentration camp. Moorcock also wrote books and stories that featured the character Jerry Cornelius, who had no consistent character or appearance. "The Condition of Muzak" completed the initial Jerry Cornelius tetralogy and won Guardian Literary Prize in 1977. "Byzantium Endures" and "The Laughter of Carthage" are two autobiographical novels of the Russian emigre Colonel Pyat and were the closest Moorcock came to conventional literary fiction. "Byzantium Endures" focuses on the first twenty years of Pyat's life and tells of his role in the Russian revolution. Pyat survives the revolution and the subsequent civil war by working first for one side and then another. "The Laughter of Carthage" covers Pyat's life from 1920-1924 telling of his escape from Communist Russia and his travels in Europe and America. It's a sweeping picture of the world during the 1920's because it takes the character from living in Constantinople to Hollywood. Moorcock returned to the New Wave style in "Blood: A Southern Fantasy" (1994) and combined mainstream fiction with fantasy in "The Brothel of Rosenstrasse," which is set in the imaginary city of Mirenburg. MoorCock won the 1967 Nebula Award for Behold the Man and the 1979 World Fantasy Award for his novel, Gloriana. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Series
The End of Time
9 works (3)
The Dancers at the End of Time
3 works (03)
The Eternal Champion
63 works (The End of Time book 3)
Belongs to Publisher Series
Ullstein Science Fiction (31071)
Gallimard, Folio SF (181)
Science Fiction Book Club (2701)
Présence du futur (281)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The End of All Songs
- Original title
- The End of All Songs
- Original publication date
- 1976-07
- People/Characters
- Jherek Carnelian; Lord Jagged; Amelia Underwood; Time Traveller; Inspector Springer; Captain Mubbers (show all 30); Una Persson; Captain Oswald Bastable; Karl Glogauer; Iron Orchid; Mistress Christia; Duke of Queens; Bishop Castle; Gaf the Horse in Tears; Doctor Volospion; Sweet Orb Mace; Werther de Goethe; My Lady Charlotina; Li Pao; O'Kala Incarnadine; Brannart Morphail; Argonheart Po; Chief Public Servant Shasharup; Lord Mongrove; Yusharisp; Milo de Mars; Harold Underwood; Sergeant Sherwood; Rokfrug; Nurse, a robot
- Important events
- Paleozoic Era; The End of Time
- Epigraph
- The fire is out, and spent the warmth thereof,
(This is the end of every song man sings!)
The golden wine is drunk, the dregs remain,
Bitter as wormwood and as salt as pain;
And health and hope have gone the way o... (show all)f love
Into the drear oblivion of lost things,
Ghosts go along with us until the end;
This was a mistress, this, perhaps, a friend.
With pale, indifferent eyes, we sit and wait
For the dropt curtain and the closing gate:
This is the end of all the songs man sings.
Ernest Dowson
Dregs
1899 - Dedication
- For John Clute - and Tom Disch
- First words*
- »Ich meine wirklich, Mr. Carnelian, daß wir sie zumindest roh versuchen sollten, oder?«
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Sie küßten sich.
- Original language*
- Englisch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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