The End Of All Songs

After the first two, knockabout volumes of this trilogy, Moorcock has to settle down and tie things together. It makes the book another hundred or so pages longer than the previous outings, and there is not the comedy or the slapstick. But he winds things up well. Secrets are revealed, relationships flourish, etc. Most importantly the true bleakness of this far distant future is exposed. Earth is a burnt-out wasteland sustained as a playground for its few inhabitants by the powers of ancient cities. The End of Time crowd are true aesthetes. They reminded me of art school students, constantly admiring or deriding one another's "work." in this case the fantastic environments they conjure up for parties, and given to casual sexual liaisons. They will survive the collapse of the universe by living out eternity in a weeklong loop in which they will still have the abilities that allow them to shape their environment anyway they wish. I am worried, however, that Jherek and Amelia are sent back to the Paleozoic age to jump start a new human race, The End of Timers don't seem to know much about gene pools and diversity.