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Michael Moorcock. Blood: A Southern Fantasy. London. Millennium/Orion. 1995 ((C) 1994). 247 pages. L9.99. ISBN 1-85798-233-9.
Blood is set along the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River. Pools of "color" have been discovered. Like the crude oil and the waxy, plastic industrial culture it allegorizes, the color is a cheap source of inanimate energy. But when prospectors drill into the color, they create a metaphysical "fault"--a tear in space-time which alters the ontology of the novel and the language in which it is written.
Jack Karaquazian and Sam Oakenhurst are riverboat gamblers who occupy themselves playing "the game." Moorcock is shifting and ambiguous as he describes their profession. Do they play with cards Video games? Complex fantasy role-playing games Something about their profession suggests literary theorists manipulating synthetic...