Skid Roche

Moorcock’s The Golden Barge

Originally uploaded by Thomas Roche

The Golden Barge was written in 1958 when Michael Moorcock was 19; it was only published in the mid-to-late ’70s.

The book is the 19-year-old Moorcock’s attempt to write an existential novel. As such, it’s really not that much fun to read. It has the flaws you might expect from a 19-year-old’s book, which are many, and the flaws you might expect from one of Moorcock’s existential novels, which are just as many, if less annoying to pretentious wannabe New Wave sci-fi authors like yers trooly.

Like I said, it’s not that much fun to read. The central conceit, about an ugly redheaaded guy chasing a glittering barge of phenomenal beauty and agonizingly obvious significance, feels more like the Maguffin in a two-disc Hawkwind theme album than a science fiction novel. It is kind of boneheadedly obvious in its thematic importance, so I spent a lot of time rolling my eyes.

However, Moorcock admirers will find The Golden Barge an extremely interesting document because it has some strange early, semi-formed renditions of the themes that later show up in his Eternal Champion cycle and the Jerry Cornelius books. The fact that Moorcock was able to turn out a novel even this good at 19, on themes as broad as this, is fairly impressive.

What’s more, the DAW First North American 1980 edition is worth picking up for the introductions by Moorcock and M. John Harrison. That’s, you know, if you’re, you know, a Moorcock nerd. Or something.