The Dancers at the End of Time

Michael Moorcock

1980 (Omnibus)

The Dancers at the End of Time is set right at the end of time as the universe nears the heat death. All that’s left of the teeming billions are a few sparse thousands. And their Cities.

No decaying ruins these but the heart of Civilisation. The centres of the power that enable the few to live their hedonistic lives to the full.

However, not all is well at the far ends of time for as the majority of humanity heedlessly use their power to resculpt vast swathes of the planet's surface those with the will note the decay endemic in the Cities.

This far future is still a time that many people aim for little knowing that it’s a one-way ticket. However few really care to return their own times once supplied with the rings that let them undertake their own manipulations. But those who do try and return home find they are no longer rooted in their birth era.

The story is split over three books, here presented in a single volume, that trace the final epoch as seen through the life of Jherek the last human to have been born. Unusually for a person of his time he falls hopelessly in love with a woman of the far distant past.

Amelia Underwood found herself abandoned in the far future as the result of a failed experiment. At first completely horrified by the society she finds herself in for she’s a Victorian of the most prim sort, she is amused and touched by the lengths to which Jherek went in order to win her hand in an approved manner.

Before Jherek is able to consummate his love Amelia is returned to her birth time. At first, he’s not too concerned, for it would only be a matter of time before she is returned to his side. However, as time goes on she remains lost in the distant past and Jherek gradually falls into a decline as he pines away for his lost love.

Finally convinced that she will not be returning under her own steam, Jherek persuades his immediate circle to mount a rescue mission and he is flung back into a time he knows nothing about, looking for a single woman in the largest city of it’s time (and far larger than anything in his own time) who does not want to be found.

Of course, this being a Michael Moorcock book, there are a number of references to other Moorcock stories and series, some relatively subtle (Jherek’s name for one) and other quite explicit – Una Pearson and Barstable make their appearance.

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This is part of the Science Fiction Masterworks series.

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