The Whispering Swarm

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By Michael Moorcock

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Publisher Description

Almost anyone who has read or written Science Fiction or fantasy has been inspired by the work of Michael Moorcock. His literary flair and grand sense of adventure have been evident since his controversial first novel Behold the Man, through the stories and novels featuring his most famous character, Elric of Melniboné, to his fantasy masterpiece, Gloriana, winner of both the Campbell Memorial and World Fantasy, awards for best novel. Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Michael Chabon all cite Moorcock as a major influence; as editor of New Worlds magazine, he helped launch the careers of many of his contemporaries, including Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and J. G. Ballard.

Tor Books now proudly presents Moorcock's first independent novel in nine years, a tale both fantastical and autobiographical, a celebration of London and what it meant to be young there in the years after World War II. The Whispering Swarm is the first in a trilogy that will follow a young man named Michael as he simultaneously discovers himself and a secret realm hidden deep in the heart of London.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

7 Reviews

3.0

Richard James

Created over 1 year ago

“Very strange! The part of the memoir that takes place in the possible alternate universe wasn’t my favorite, but made up for by the vivid portrayal of the emerging scifi scene of the early 60’s and so many anecdotes about now-legendary writers when they were just starting out. The writer’s world of Soho and Fleet Street is just as fantastical as anything else in the book or in Moorcock’s other work and just as entertaining”

Annette Shaylaina

Created about 5 years ago

“I tried. I was not able to get into this story. I jumped ahead and looked through the story and it never changes.”

Lana

Created almost 6 years ago

“So this was the first Michael Moorcock book I've read and I didn't think it was that bad but I'm not familiar with his writing style and certain parts just didn't make much sense to me mostly just off or unnecessary to the plot.”

Archimedion

Created over 7 years ago

Ian Davey

Created over 8 years ago

“If anything this book feels like a bridge between worlds and not just in the literal sense as described in the narrative. Moorcock has always slipped moments of autobiography into his work, moments where he is glimpsed in the ruins, or as an inheritor of a leaf of tall tales passed on by an ancestor or random stranger. So this is an autobiography, a book about Moorcock's early forays into publishing and writing. As the teenage editor of Tarzan Adventures, as a journalist mingling with his peers on fleet street, as an author finding his way while supporting a young family. He is a man whose creations take on a life of their own, drawing him into the midst of a fantastic realm in the midst of London. A place at the nexus of the moonbeam roads, where the progress of time and the rules of reality are bent out of alignment, where history and fantasy mix and merge. He finds the woman of his dreams, who immediately drags him into the life of a highwayman, raiding trams in the leafy glades just outside the city. He becomes a man caught between two lives in two very different places, the idyllic sanctuary where these figures from history and literature mix and at times war, and the world outside where emotional turmoil and the sounds of the whispering swarm are never far away. If the Second Ether novels (Blood, Fabulous Harbours, A War Amongst the Angels) were the first steps in finding a new language to describe the multiverse and express its complexity, then this is another step on that path. It's not as loud or colourful, the backdrop is a heart of London out of time under siege from Cromwell and his minions, assorted highwayman, cavaliers and characters borrowed from Dumas. In fact at times it is as though Dumas has rode cart and horses through the story. There are no albino's wielding soul sucking swords, bat-winged cats or lords of chaos. Instead a quiet sanctuary, housed by monks protecting an ancient treasure and the secrets of metaphysics, under siege in more ways than one. It's a book only Moorcock could have discovered, wrought as it is from over half a century of literary explorations, and for a book that is the start of a trilogy it feels satisfyingly complete.”

About Michael Moorcock

MICHAEL MOORCOCK, widely acknowledged as one of the premiere masters of SF and fantasy and selected by The Times of London as one of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945, is the author of dozens of works of SF, fantasy, and mainstream fiction, such as the Elric sequence (starting with The Stealer of Souls), the Corum Series (starting with Knight of Swords), the Hawkmoon series (starting with Jewel in the Skull). He has received the World Fantasy Award for life achievement and was named a Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master in 2008. He lives in Texas.