Here’s Michael Moorcock, then: still going strong at 82, still turning them out, this time, in the form of The Citadel Of Forgotten Myths. Moorcock might be forgiven for wanting to rest on his laurels at this point, having long been regarded as one of British science fiction’s most important voices, and whose tenure as editor of New Worlds magazine is regarded as the driving force behind sci-fi’s 1960s and 70s new wave.

At an age when most writers have long since given up trying to find anything to say – or developed an increasingly opaque late style, paring back the paragraphs and sentences to their barest, most concentrated essence (Alan Garner’s later novels spring to mind) – Moorcock has returned to a character he created more than 60 years ago; a character who has featured in over 20 novels and short stories, not to mention the comics, the concept albums, and the RPGs.

His writing has always drawn more deeply on the American sword-and-sorcery pulp tradition, in the tradition of Fritz Leiber or Jack Vance, than on Tolkien-esque high fantasy – and this debt to a format strongly associated with cheap magazines and serial stories shows in The Citadel Of Forgotten Myths’ construction. Rather than a novel, it’s a couple of shorter stories and a novella, all following the story of Elric as he searches for a deeper understanding of himself.

In the in-world chronology, The Citadel Of Forgotten Myths lies between the first and second books about Elric, but there’s nothing here to put off a newcomer to these stories. Despite continuing a story begun before the Beatles had released their first single, the writing here feels much as it ever did – a testament to Moorcock’s originality or a sign of his single-mindedness, depending on your point of view.