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A review of The Dreamthief's Daughter

by Michael Moorcock

A legendary hero revived, to face an infamous foe

Reviewed by: Twelve
About Twelve

The Dreamthief's Daughter Anybody who claims to be a true fan of the fantasy genre must know of Michael Moorcock. J.R. Tolkien is often the one whom people refer to as the father of what we consider today to be fantasy, but Moorcock is himself a literary giant. Even through the 1970's, when the fantasy genre had no where near the respect it has now, he was writing of his anti-hero albino prince, Elric of Melniboné. His stories are unforgettable, describing the land-scrawling exploits of an overly introspective Elric, who follows his heart over morality and often pays a bitter price for his choices. Many of today's fantasy heroes and stories seem to idealistically stem from these works. Moorcock was not limited to Elric, however, and he took a pause from Elric's tales to write of other fantasy stories and genres. So I found it to be a pleasant surprise when I found The Dreamthief's Daughter on the bookshelves, and saw that the albino is back in action.

As I say in another review, I believe that the genre of historical fiction requires almost as much creativity as good fantasy. Moorcock goes ahead and combines them both in The Dreamthief's Daughter, a wonderful mixture of my two favorite types of writing. In this book, the classic Elric is thrown into the world of Nazi Germany, reincarnated and coexisting with the antagonist Count Ulric von Bek. The parallel is obvious. As Elric formerly fought against all kinds of hideous demons and hysterical megalomaniacs, now faces off against a monster of our own world, Adolf Hitler.

Moorcock's views of Germany in the late 1930's and 40's are spoken through the mind of Ulric von Bek, and they are nothing less than brilliant. He writes, for example:

There is no faster way of plunging a country into chaos than to make panicky decisions aimed at averting that chaos. Germany was recovering. Many thinking people believed that if the other great powers had supported Germany then, we should have had no Adolf Hitler. Creatures like Hitler emerge frequently because of a vacuum. They are conjured whole from yearning nothingness by our own negativity, by our Faustian appetites and dark greed.

Notice the skillful word usage, the author's ability to encompass massive ideology in a smooth and sufficient way. His writing has certainly improved since the 1970's, and should be seen as a desired model for many of today's current and would-be fantasy writers.

Indeed, the entire book is written from such an intellectual standpoint, even as it delves into the more adventurous side of things. After all, The Dreamthief's Daughter is fantasy, and there is plenty of action and creativity in its pages. Moorcock plays with the idea that many leaders of the Nazi party were involved with the Occult, and that they were in contact with greater dark powers that were the root of their evil beliefs and practices. Without giving away too much of the story, I can say that the conflict with these certain spiritual foes is from where the pure fantasy of this book arises.

In a time when much of today's fantasy sounds very much the same, Moorcock's latest work is a reminder of what the genre is truly about. It's about creativity and originality, where readers are supposed to be impressed by the genius and credibility of a fictional world. The Dreamthief's Daughter is a very smart work, rising above the adolescent stereotype of fantasy fiction that is sadly maintained by too much of today's new books. Highly recommended.

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Copyright © by Twelve, 2002

Reviewed by Twelve :
-- The House of Death - by Paul Doherty
-- The Sigma Protocol - by Robert Ludlum
-- AKIRA, Volume 1 - by Katsuhiro Otomo
-- Valhalla Rising - by Clive Cussler
-- Warrior Class - by Dale Brown
-- The Dreamthief's Daughter - by Michael Moorcock
-- Jupiter - by Ben Bova
-- Celtika - by Robert Holdstock
-- Knots and Crosses - by Ian Rankin
-- The Dragonbone Chair - by Tad Williams
-- Corpse Candle - by Paul Doherty
-- Flood Tide - by Clive Cussler
-- Samurai! - by Saburo Sakai
-- The Sky of Peleg - by Twelve
-- Disclosure - by Michael Crichton
-- Pawn of Prophecy - by David Eddings









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