The Ice Schooner

[Foxbat]

A story of a post-apocalyptic ice age that bears more than a passing resemblance to Moby Dick. Throw in a pinch of Joseph Conrad and you've got a novel from Mr Moorcock.

A whaling captain looking for a new ship comes across a character dying on the ice. Saving this individual steers him to a quest to discover the legendary home of The Ice Mother.

A very well thought out world - full of action and adventure. A not-so-convincing romance, and a character at the story fulcrum who reminds me a lot of Queequeg.

All-in-all, I found it a most enjoyable read and would recommend it to any Moorcock fan yet to open the pages of this one. New and second-hand copies are available at Amazon. Alternatively, it's available as a four novel omnibus under the title Sailing To Utopia

Edit: hmm. Perhaps I should have stuck this in the Reviews section. Ah well, too late now...

 

[BAYLOR]

A very good and underrated book.

 

[BAYLOR]

It's too bad he didn't allow for a sequel . This one would do well as a big screen feature film.

 

[The Judge]

I read it in Travelling to Utopia earlier in the year, and for my money it was by far the best of the three novels in the compendium. It was -- perhaps inevitably -- imbued with the 1960s idea of women (it was published in 1966) since the one main female character is literally fought over by two men as to which of them should possess her. Like Foxbat I wasn't wholly convinced by the romance aspect of the plot, from the woman's perspective in my case, since it seemed more believable that the main character should fall for her since she's beautiful and part of a wealthy family.

*confession alert* I've not read Moby Dick, so I can't comment on any similarities of character and plot. There is action, but for me it wasn't an adventure story, rather one that deals with issues of belief and hope, and determination. It's set in an ice-bound Earth, where humans have adapted to lands of eternal ice by reverting to an older, harsher, culture, but the protagonist actually has all his certainties confounded when he embarks on a long voyage through the Americas by means of the schooner of the title. (They're trying to find the legendary city of New York.)

Overall, well worth the read. I thought the whole setting well realised and the prose very good.

 

[TWErvin2]

I hadn't thought about this book in a long time, actually until I was scanning the Moorcock section of the forum.

I recall enjoying it for different reasons than I enjoyed the Elric or Hawkmoon books. Different pacing and, in many ways, a more intriguing storyline.

Like Baylor said above, an underrated book.

 

[BAYLOR]

I hadn't thought about this book in a long time, actually until I was scanning the Moorcock section of the forum.

I recall enjoying it for different reasons than I enjoyed the Elric or Hawkmoon books. Different pacing and, in many ways, a more intriguing storyline.

Like Baylor said above, an underrated book.

For a standalone , It does have an epic feel to it.