Jewel in the Skull (History of the Runestaff, Vol 1)

Rating:
Summary: The first and still the best
Review: The vigor and richness of the writing, the ironic sub-texts and use of current political and entertainment figures of the day, the fact that each of the four books in the series took three days to write (i.e. the whole thing took twelve days) and were not taken with any great seriousness by the author, make these the first and the best. David Eddings, Robert Jordan and the rest simply don't have the raw genius to produce throw-away books of this quality. Moorcock wrote these, like the Kane novels, as an homage to his childhood pulp enthusiasms and they have inspired rafts and rafts of imitators. This is the first book of the set now generally available as HAWKMOON, which are nice editions and rather better value than buying the books individually. They are also introduced and lightly revised by Moorcock who has said many times that these early fantasy books were like the early days of rock and roll -- you were experimenting as you worked and your main job was to keep the audience dancing. Hawkwind and their Chronicles albums came out of this series, too. However many authors have taken their buckets to Moorcock's well, they can never drain him of his originality, his vitality and his sheer, glorious intelligence.