Gloriana

Hmm... This book is a mixed bag. Very mixed. Part of it is very good, other parts are rather bad, but in all, I liked it. It was much better than I feared. Not even the rape scene was as bad as I thought it would be.
Moorcock talks too much. Partly it reads like a French court fairy tale. I know it's supposed to be a parody of Faery Queene, but - I have read Faery Queene. Moorcock talks too much.

“A few moments, while the signal was interpreted, and then the galleon advanced more swiftly, heading, to Quire's relief, in exactly the direction he had anticipated. Hastily he swung down from the tower, tapped O'Bryan on the shoulder, winked at Tinkler, and began to run, his spurs silvery and jingling, down to the beach to await his lumbering prey.”

“Hassan al-Giafar put the nail of the little finger of his right hand to a gap between his front teeth and picked at a piece of meat, staring moodily out of the window at the retreating river.”

Also, orgasming when being raped and thinking about the murder of her mother by her grandfather? Er...?

Well, finally I've got to the end of Gloriana, the now fulfill'd Queen.

I've read through the reviews already posted and agree with much of what has been said, but I'll start my review by saying that I really enjoyed it.

I'll also point out from the outset that I have read Gormenghast but that my memory retention is so bad that my reading of that didn't really affect my enjoyment of Gloriana.

There was something about the book that I can't put my finger on, but shall nevertheless try.

The whole novel centres around a palace that is full of dark secrets from the past but is, in itself, a complete, insular entity.

The plot is full of dark secrets from the past, is a complete entity.

Gloriana herself is full of dark secrets (that even she herself does not know until the end) but a complete entity.

The conclusion of all three comes at the same time – the palace is opened up, walls and all; the plot is concluded (although I think Quire could have done with a knife in his back at Gloriana's hand); and Gloriana herself is fulfill'd.

I know I haven't managed to explain what I want to say very well but it shall have to suffice.

I'll also go against what others have said about the “florid” style and say that I found it to be entirely suitable for conjuring up, not just an image of the places described, but an atmosphere. One might say that the writing style itself were a character in the novel, and a pompous one at that.

The characters themselves were well painted, although it would have helped a bit to make a written note of all the council members near the beginning of the book as I found myself getting quite confused where characters that were introduced at the beginning appeared later after a long absence.

Gloriana's self delusions were well portrayed I thought, as well as the reasons for such delusions. She was unwittingly manufactured by Montfallcon and as such, was open to manipulation by him and those others who shared their past with Hern. The result is that her fulfilment at the end where suddenly she is mere Self for the first time was, for me, fulfilling.

As for her protracted moment of fulfilment, I would interpret that differently from the way that others have. It's my view that she didn't have an orgasm. Instead we witnessed a display of fierce joy, resulting from her finally being free of something that was far bigger than she could ever have imagined – she was released. Her reaction was an unchecked display of happiness, of joy, of elation, and that meant that she was now capable of orgasm. It isn't the having of an orgasm that makes her complete, it's the capability of having an orgasm. She is free.

The revealing of family ties between Montfallcon and Gloriana could have sounded a bit soap-operaesque but I think Moorcroft* pulls it off well. For me it was a bit of a shivery moment where a lot of threads are suddenly tied together, and I had been wondering about the loose thread wandering around in the walls that we had been introduced to much earlier. It was tied together nicely.

I also intuitively assumed that Quire's background, revealed at the end, was entirely manufactured. There was another part in the novel where such was hinted at, that the manufacturing of noble ties was of little consequence. Although where his captaincy comes from is a mystery.

To conclude, I enjoyed the novel but not enough that I would recommend it to anyone. I give it 3 out of 5.

Cams

* ;-)