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Overview
This is a novel set at the very heart of Michael Moorcock’s multiverse, in Karadur, city of metal, steam, and ancient families, the mighty clans of the metal. In six days, Max Silverskin, thief and trickster, must discover the secrets of his heritage or die from the witch mark – the silverheart – which will devour his heart. Lady Rose Iron, daughter of the leader of the powerful Clan Iron is thrown into an edgy alliance with Max as she searches for the secrets that could save the city’s future. Captain Cornelius Coffin, head of the clans’ security forces, is in love with Lady Rose and obsessed with capturing Max. And there are others, in Shriltasi, Karadur’s underworld twin, who know the prophecy which says that only Max Silverskin can save both realms.
In Silverheart, Michael Moorcock and Storm Constantine have combined their talents to produce a novel that is both surreal and gothic.
Synopsis
This is a novel set at the very heart of Michael Moorcock's multiverse, in Karadur, city of metal, steam and ancient families, the mighty clans of the metal. In six days, Max Silverskin, thief and trickster, must discover the secrets of his heritage or die from the witch mark - the silverheart - which will devour his heart. Lady Rose Iron, daughter of the leader of the powerful Clan Iron is thrown into an edgy alliance with Max as she searches for the secrets that could save the city's future. Captain Cornelius Coffin, head of the clans' security forces, is in love with Lady Rose and obsessed with capturing Max. And there are others, in Shriltasi, Karadur's underworld twin, who know the prophecy which says that only Max Silverskin can save both realms.
In Silverheart, Michael Moorcock and Storm Constantine have combined their talents to produce a novel which is both surreal and gothic.
Publishers Weekly
Inflated by Constantine (Wraeththu) from Nebula Award-winner Moorcock's original manuscript, this adjunct to Moorcock's fictional "multiverse" tracks along predictable quest-for-the-icons-to-save-the-world lines. Both the industrial city of Karadur and its separated, underworld twin, Shriltasi, are decaying, and engaging master thief and hero-in-hiding Max Silverskin has six days to unite them so both can survive. Muzzy magic, inane sewer-crawls, posturing rulers and limp villains dilute the message that humanity had better balance reason with magic. To its near disaster, Karadur is ruled by the Lords of Metal--unyielding, stiff and flat. Unfortunately, so is this fantasy novel. Agent, Howard Morhaim. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewIn a rare collaboration, genre icon Michael Moorcock teams up with Storm Constantine in a fantasy set in Karadur, the legendary city of metal and steam at the center of Moorcock's Multiverse.
As the once-magnificent city of Karadur slowly stagnates above ground and Shriltasi, its dreamlike subterranean twin, turns to dusty ash below, only one person can save the cities (and, in effect, the entire Multiverse): an infamous thief named Max Silverskin. Imprisoned in the escape-proof Gragonatt Fortress by the Lords of Metal -- Clans Copper, Gold, Iron, and Silver -- Silverskin has been sentenced to a lifetime of "reeducation." But after a strange dream, Silverskin awakes free of Gragonatt's confines, with a glowing disk of silver rooted in his chest. The witch-mark means that Silverskin is fated to fulfill some heroic destiny or die trying. With six days left before the silver disk on his chest devours his heart, Silverskin must uncover the magical secrets of his heritage and, somehow, save the twin cities of Karadur and Shriltasi from ruin.
Longtime followers of Moorcock's lengthy Eternal Champion sequence -- Elric of Melnibone, Kane of Old Mars, Hawkmoon, Corum, et al. -- will find this action-packed quest pitting an outlaw thief against the vaunted Lords of Metal to be an essential addition to their collection of Multiverse novels. Paul Goat Allen