Gloriana

This was an extremely well-written novel with terrible content. It's a parody of The Fairie Queen as well as an homage to another author. It's an alternative universe Great Britain and Elizabeth I, here named Albion and Gloriana, respectively. It's full of court intrigue and sex. Somehow, the sex is done matter of factly and not pornographically. The original ending was a terrible message and Moorcock was reprimanded about it, so he rewrote the ending. It's still not great, but at least a little more palatable. This book won the 1979 World Fantasy and Campbell Awards, thus concluding my personal challenge of reading all the Mythopoeic and World Fantasy Award winners through last year. I have yet to read this year's winners, but they were outside the scope of my challenge.

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