I’ve just read The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock.
For some reason it was on my mind and I searched through my old books, finding the version with this cover. Copyrighted 1967 the price on the back was £0.30 I probably last read it in the 70s…
I read it in a few days, not a challenging read and fairly short. It is heroic fantasy if you want to assign a genre, and that makes it a little surprising that the characters were not really developed, although their motivations were clear and I could identify with them.
The plot was not complex but it was an engaging tale. It was a little odd that the problem caused by the ‘jewel in the skull’ which the blurb makes a lot of, was resolved so quickly it was a let-down.
But these are very minor criticisms, overall I loved the book, it was an easy but entertaining read. Nostalgia helped me enjoy it although I don’t think that was a huge influence, I actually enjoyed reading this because it was an unpretentious, engaging and fast moving tale. I enjoyed the future damaged Europe and the sorcerer-scientist approach. I liked the evil Granbretan, the beast-orders of soldiers with their identifying mask/helms. And ornithopters fighting giant flamingos! Imaginative and entertaining. And of course, this is only the first in the series…
CLIVE ANTHONY 