Michael Moorcock to debut first novel in almost ten years – about Michael Moorcock

Victor Gollancz, the renowned UK science fiction and general literature publishing imprint, has just announced the acquisition of the UK rights for The Whispering Swarm, the first novel from the pen of fantasy/weird-fiction legend Michael Moorcock in almost ten years. And its subject appears to be … Michael Moorcock.

In his first full novel in almost ten years, Michael Moorcock returns to the city of his childhood and one of his most successful recurring themes: London,” states the Gollancz announcement . “The Whispering Swarm follows a young man called Michael Moorcock. Part-autobiography, part-story, in The Whispering Swarm, Moorcock mixes elements of his real life – his first job on Fleet Street, and the initial stirrings of his interest in writing – with adventures in parallel universes peopled with highwaywomen, musketeers and magicians.” The novel, due out in July 2015, will be followed by two sequels.

Michael Moorcock has not only produced some of the most memorable characters and series in modern fantasy and science fiction, but also has been a formative influence on the two genres since the Sixties, as editor of New Worlds and major proponent of the New Wave. As Edward James later wrote, “the writers of the so-called New Wave were mostly born during or after the war, and were not only reacting against the sf writers of the past, but playing their part in the general youth revolution of the 1960s which had such profound effects upon Western culture. It is no accident that the New Wave began in Britain at the time of the Beatles, and took off in the United States at the time of the hippies.” Moorcock not only distilled the mood of that time in his Jerry Cornelius series, he became one of the icons of counter-cultural clashes with the UK Establishment in 1968 following the controversy over publication of Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron.

It’s hard to imagine writers like Alan Moore, China Miéville, or Neil Gaiman emerging without Moorcock, and they both sometimes give the impression of being junior versions of the Great Beardie himself. Moorcock arguably has had a greater range than any of them so far. He practically inaugurated steampunk – before anyone had even articulated the theme. He popularized the concept of the multiverse, for a continuum of parallel universes. He has won some serious literary credentials outside genre fiction. He protected and promoted J.G. Ballard, even though his own fiction had a very different flavor. And he has become one of the great modern chroniclers of London through works such as Mother London and London Bone. The new series looks likely to pick up that thread.

“Is Now a Perfect Time for a Michael Moorcock Revival?” asked Joel Meadows in Publishing Perspectives back in 2013, a propos of Gollancz’s reissuing of Moorcock’s great fantasy series'” said Gollancz Commissioning Editor, Marcus Gipps. “Well, it seems now is the perfect time. “We’ve been thrilled to republish 31 books of Mike’s remarkable backlist over the past few years. Now that Gollancz’s Michael Moorcock Collection is complete, it’s brilliant to be publishing a dazzling, mercurial new series that will introduce new readers to the life and works of a legendary figure.”

Hotly awaited – even if that means the hots are for more and more of Moorcock on Moorcock.