THE WOODS OF ARCADY

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Although The Woods of Arcady is billed as the second volume of Michael Moorcock's "The Sanctuary of the White Friars" trilogy, in many ways it stands on its own and does require knowledge of The Whispering Swarm, the first novel. In fact, trying to read the two books as a single narrative is practically an exercise in futility, although Moorcock may certainly be planning to tie them together when the final novel in the sequence, The Wounds of Albion, eventually appears.

The novel opens with an almost stream of consciousness juxtaposition of three different stories, one about Lord Blackstone, who appears to be spending a weekend in the country with the family he finds mostly as an annoyance. The second plotline depicts the adventures of Captain Buggerly Otherly on a ship that travels the Moonbeam Roads, a set of ethereal pathways that link many of the realms in Moorcock's multiverse. The final plotline follows a fictionalized version of Moorcock, himself, living in London during his early twenties with his wife and young children. The most accessible of the early chapters, this Moorcock interacts with actual people from Moorcock's own life, although his wife, Hilary Bailey, has been renamed Helena, to drive home that these seemingly autobiographical sections should not be taken as true.

Just as the Moorcock of The Whispering Swarm found himself in a realm of fictional characters in London's Alsacia, this Moorcock, unaware of those adventures, connects with Athos, Aramis, Porthos, and D'artagnan and well as other literary heroes, such as Claude Duval. Moorcock is kidnapped to Tangiers and finds himself on an adventure not of his choosing. Unfortunately, his character lacks volition for much of the novel, making the book more about the wondrous worlds and creations Moorcock witnesses. Moorcock has always been adept at introducing strange and wondrous landscapes into his work, whether it is the Weeping Wastes of Melnibone or the depiction of the rooftop gardens at Derry and Tom’s in the Jerry Cornelius stories. The Woods of Arcady is no different with its underground caverns and the Great Oasis.

The dichotomy between the matter of fact life that Moorcock lives with Helena and their daughter and the adventure through strange places in the presence of fictional creations is one of the driving forces in the book. Moorcock repeatedly refers to his ability to create new worlds and talks about the blured lines between his dream life and his waking life, noting that he has often written novels while asleep. More than a tribute to his own creations, however, The Woods of Arcady is am homage to the characters and authors who he grew up reading and who often have influenced his own writing, whether he has written about the characters or written in response to their earlier adventures.

The Woods of Arcady is not a straightforward novel, and those who are most familiar with Moorcock's fantasy novels may find themselves lost, even as Moorcock the character is moving through worlds that are reminiscent of those that welcome Elric. Instead, Moorcock's writing in this novel has more in common with his more mainstream titles, such as the "Between the Wars" series or Mother London, with a healthy dose of autobiography as told by an unreliable narrator. At the same time, The Woods of Arcady is a novel that clearly offers more upon multiple readings when the reader is less concerned with the plot, and can instead focus on the authorial tricks Moorcock is deploying through the novel.

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