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Reviewed by James Smart
'It is a thrilling, ungainly epic; a shaggy dog with a sting in its tail'
Book Description
A major literary event: the final volume in the legendary Pyat Quartet.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
To be honest I didn't think he could pull the ending of this off. Not only does he do it, he does it in an unexpected but totally appropriate way. The Hitler scenes have inevitably been mentioned in all the press reviews, but they are completely appropriate and seem (as no doubt Moorcock intended, because the sense of design, energy and control doesn't flag). I've read a lot about Hitler and the Holocaust and Moorcock's understanding of the pre-war period is thorough.
One shouldn't fail to mention how funny this book is. All the books have this mixture of horror and humour which we haven't seen, dare I say, since Dickens. The novel is far from dead. It is alive, kicking and engrossing. A word to new readers, however -- you really do need to start at the beginning with Byzantium Endures. You won't regret it. These novels take in almost the entire 20th century in a way no other sequence has done. This is the great English novel!
One shouldn't fail to mention how funny this book is. All the books have this mixture of horror and humour which we haven't seen, dare I say, since Dickens. The novel is far from dead. It is alive, kicking and engrossing. A word to new readers, however -- you really do need to start at the beginning with Byzantium Endures. You won't regret it. These novels take in almost the entire 20th century in a way no other sequence has done. This is the great English novel!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Whilst this is streets ahead of anything else published recently in English, it is clear that the author couldn't wait to be finished and rid of Pyat, the vile central character. It is less dense than the preceding three books of the quartet, runs out of steam, does little to tackle the horrors of the camps, and finishes in an unsatisfactory way. What should have been a shock denoument and ultimate act of betrayal had been flagged so openly earlier in the series that it went off like a damp squib.
You could almost imagine that Mr Moorcock was leaving the way open for a fifth volume covering Pyat's life through the post-war years and up to his death. But I doubt that is the case. He has lived with this character for decades and must surely want to be cleansed of his filth.
Despite the criticism, Moorcock (even in this book) is still, by far, the best novelist in the English language working today. He outstrips the literati with his invention, his assured language, skilled plotting, and willingness to tackle issues that affect us all. His keen political eye spots hypocrisy wherever it is manifest and shreds it with deft words. His humanity gives us characters that are both Dickensian in their portraiture whilst remaining real; characters we can know, love and sympathise with. Even Pyat, vile in so many ways, evokes compassion.
And yes, this is the Michael Moorcock who also wrote science fiction and fantasy. This does not mean he is not a good writer (although many sf and fantasy writers turn out the most atrocious recycled garbage). He is the best and I hope that he has more of his gems to offer us to help us survive in a world that needs insightful interpreters and a world of literature that needs skilled practitioners.
You could almost imagine that Mr Moorcock was leaving the way open for a fifth volume covering Pyat's life through the post-war years and up to his death. But I doubt that is the case. He has lived with this character for decades and must surely want to be cleansed of his filth.
Despite the criticism, Moorcock (even in this book) is still, by far, the best novelist in the English language working today. He outstrips the literati with his invention, his assured language, skilled plotting, and willingness to tackle issues that affect us all. His keen political eye spots hypocrisy wherever it is manifest and shreds it with deft words. His humanity gives us characters that are both Dickensian in their portraiture whilst remaining real; characters we can know, love and sympathise with. Even Pyat, vile in so many ways, evokes compassion.
And yes, this is the Michael Moorcock who also wrote science fiction and fantasy. This does not mean he is not a good writer (although many sf and fantasy writers turn out the most atrocious recycled garbage). He is the best and I hope that he has more of his gems to offer us to help us survive in a world that needs insightful interpreters and a world of literature that needs skilled practitioners.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Michael Moorcock's masterpiece!
15 April 2006
Format:Hardcover
I have been following Maxim Arturovich Pyat's adventures for a decade now, and with this final chapter I am saddened to see him go. However, knowing Moorcock, Pyat's eventual death in 1977 could well be chronicled in a future volume (I hope so, I miss him already!) Maxim's incredible meeting with Adolf Hitler is only sweetened further when viewed after the final family reunion at the novel's end. (I won't spoil it for you) As much as I enjoy Elric, Corum, Count Brass and other characters, I believe Pyat to be Moorcock's ticket to literary immortality! A great finish to a great fictional wartime memoir!!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The final betrayal
14 Feb 2006
Format:Hardcover
This is the final volume of the Pyat sequence which began with Byzantium Endures, continued through The Laughter of Carthage and Jerusalem Commands, and presents Maxim Arturovitch Pyat, trickster, self-deceiver, anti-semitic Jew and friend of fascism. This has had great reviews in the London Times, The Times Literary Supplement and, by all accounts, the rest of the UK papers. I got mine in Toronto and so far, if you're a US resident, you can only buy the new editions via Amazon. The TLS compared the sequence with Balzac's Human Comedy.
A masterpiece
10 Sep 2007
Format:Hardcover
Truly an amazing finish to an amazing quartet. Finishing off a story, especially one as deeply involved as the Pyat Quartet, is a difficult and sticky thing for an author. How many books or series have you read where the ending is somehow unsatisfying or anticlimatic? Well, not this one. Moorcook holds the final epitome of Pyat's self-deception to the very end.
The series itself is so well-written and researched that it truly boggles the mind. I'll give one example for those who have read this final book. Do you remember Pyat's secert weapon that he was developing for Mussolini? Well, during my reading of 'Rome' I got interested in Mussolini so I checked out a Biography video on him at the library. During the video they say that Mussolini always maintained he had a secret weapon, but no one ever found out what it was. It was probably a lie, but Moorcock worked that little fact of history into this fictional life story that spanned the 20th century.
Btw, these books are easy to get from Amazon UK and still only cost $3 in shipping to the US.
The series itself is so well-written and researched that it truly boggles the mind. I'll give one example for those who have read this final book. Do you remember Pyat's secert weapon that he was developing for Mussolini? Well, during my reading of 'Rome' I got interested in Mussolini so I checked out a Biography video on him at the library. During the video they say that Mussolini always maintained he had a secret weapon, but no one ever found out what it was. It was probably a lie, but Moorcock worked that little fact of history into this fictional life story that spanned the 20th century.
Btw, these books are easy to get from Amazon UK and still only cost $3 in shipping to the US.
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