‘The Jewel in the Skull’ – Michael Moorcock (Tor)

These days, life is conspiring to keep me away from the big ol’ ‘doorstopper’ books that I love losing myself in. Not that I’m complaining about this at all but the shelves that my reading pile is sat on are starting to groan a little...! I’ve recently found myself veering towards the shorter, quicker reads and Michael Moorcock’s ‘The Jewel in the Skull’ certainly fits the bill here, weighing in at a positively waif-like two hundred and twenty two pages. With Lou Anders’ ‘Swords and Dark Magic’ looming on the reading horizon, I also thought it would be interesting to go back in time a little and check out ‘swords and sorcery’ in one of it’s earlier forms. If that wasn’t enough for me, the Vance Kovacs cover art had me hooked from the moment I saw it. Go on, have a look at that cover and tell me it isn’t gorgeous...
With three good reasons to read ‘The Jewel in the Skull’, it only remained to be seen then if what was inside the covers worked for me. It did...

The Earth of the far future has grown so old that it has all but forgotten the scientific advances that have brought its people to their current state. Science is sorcery in this not so enlightened age and the greatest proponents of this new sorcery are the sorcerer philosophers of the Granbretanian Dark Empire, a rampaging movement that won’t stop until the whole world is under its sway.
Dorian Hawkmoon swore to bring down the Dark Empire but instead found himself at their mercy, forced into doing their bidding by a Black Jewel implanted in his forehead. One wrong move will lead to his brain being eaten by the malevolent force within the jewel... Hawkmoon’s mission is to carry out the vengeance of Baron Meliadus and bring down the small but powerful state of Kamarg from within. When higher powers are involved however, nothing is ever as simple as this...

I’m a big fan of Michael Moorcock’s work and a great thing about being a fan is that there’s always something written by Moorcock that I haven’t come across before. The man’s back catalogue is huge! I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of it...
The tales of Dorian Hawkmoon are amongst those works of Moorcock’s that I haven’t read yet. ‘The Jewel in the Skull’ was the first on the list and if it’s anything to go by it won’t be too long before I pick the rest up.

For a book that’s only two hundred and twenty two pages long there was never going to be enough room for Moorcock to let us really get to know his characters and tell a story at the same time. There’s a choice to be made here and Moorcock opts to give his full attention to the story. That’s not to say that the players in this piece are the flimsiest of cardboard cut outs, not at all. Hawkmoon, Count Brass, Meliadus and the rest all have enough about them to distinguish one from another and Hawkmoon in particular is engaging enough (in the space that he has) to be a character worth sticking with. It’s all about the story though and what a story it is!

‘The Jewel in the Skull’ is the perfect book for the commute to work; a short and snappy read where there is always something happening. You literally can’t turn a single page without finding yourself in the midst of a dramatic swordfight or roiling clouds of magical technology. And that’s before you factor in the confrontations with grotesque monsters and the tender trysts with the heroine. All the ingredients are in place for a good old fashioned ‘swords and sorcery’ style romp and Moorcock mixes them up to good affect. There is no shortage of action here and it’s all placed against the backdrop of an encroaching empire that is not only evil but also utterly insane... It’s definitely stirring stuff.

The pace is fast but settles into a rhythm that may put off people who are looking for something that they can really chew on. To be blunt, Hawkmoon spends the whole book getting himself into tricky situations that always seem to be resolved in just the nick of time... If you’re after something a little more plausible then this pulp tale may not be for you. If you’re after a fun read that throws you into the thick of dangerous situations (just as quickly as it pulls you out) then I reckon this could be just the book for you. I think you can guess which camp I fell into...

Moorcock does manage to find time to comment (although perhaps only on the very broadest terms) on the whole notion of empire building. He presents both sides of the argument equally but inevitably (given the nature of the enemy in this piece) settles firmly on the side of being against the whole thing. Is stability worth it if your rulers are constantly looking to indulge in excess? Probably not...
What’s more interesting though is the way that Moorcock casts the British as the foes here while at the same time portraying the lands of America as an idyllic utopia far removed from the troubles of the rest of the world. I don’t really know enough about this approach, of Moorcocks, to properly comment. For all I know, this could be as much down to a desire to give things a different spin as it could be a commentary on the British Empire of the past. I know one of the editions has a little more commentary in it but not this one. Anyone care to chip in at this point? :o) From my perspective, it was simply refreshing to see things handled a little differently.

The inevitable links to Moorcock’s multiverse are also there to be picked up although, given this is merely the opening shot in the sequence, they’re a little more understated than you would expect. They’re nice little extras for fans and they don’t get in the way of the story for everyone else.

‘The Jewel in the Skull’ is one of those stories that you’ll have fun with but only if you accept it on its own terms. What you’re getting here is fast, pulpy fun all wrapped up in a gorgeous Vance Kovacs cover I enjoyed it and if that’s the kind of read you’re after then I reckon you’ll enjoy it too.

Nine out of Ten