Double Phoenix

by Edmund Cooper, Roger Lancelyn Green

Another BAF title. Two stories about a mythical The Firebird by Cooper and From the World's End by Green

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Novella, Novels

210 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1971

About the author

Excerpted from wikipedia:
Edmund Cooper was born in Marple, near Stockport in Cheshire on April 30, 1926. He served in the Merchant Navy towards the end of the Second World War. After World War II, he trained as a teacher and began to publish short stories. His first novel, Deadly Image (later republished as The Uncertain Midnight) was completed in 1957 and published in 1958. A 1956 short story, Brain Child, was adapted as the movie The Invisible Boy (1957).
In 1969 The Uncertain Midnight was adapted for Swiss television, in French. At the height of his popularity, in the 1970s, he began to review science fiction for the Sunday Times and continued to do so until his death in 1982.
Apart from the website mentioned above there was another Edmund Cooper website full of information about the author and his publications.

Known Pseudonyms:
Richard Avery
George Kinley
Martin Lester
Broderick Quain

Reviews

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lesser-known volume in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy line is an absolutely gem. Edmund Cooper's The Firebird is better than Green's From the World's End, but both are good. Both are ethereal tales of fantasy, where reality shifts into a sort of dreamland.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

It hits my Achilles' heel: a grind of a read with no clear reward, not even the self-satisfaction of conquering some classic.

And it's not like either one is particularly difficult. "The Firebird" wields its allegory of the journey of life / spiritual fulfillment like a broomstick but its message is too trite to provide any satisfaction. "From the World's End" leaps into a dreamlike setting and logic but lost me when the two isolated people start talking philosophy and poetry at one another

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Editor Lin Carter admits in the introduction that allegory is a tough thing to pull off, but optimistically concludes the two novels herein succeed—but he's wrong. Edmund Cooper's "The Firebird" is a fantasy about a young man who spends his entire life pursuing a phoenix, while struggling with a world that (of course) hates and destroys dreamers. "From the World's End" is even less subtle, with author Roger Lancelyn Green obligingly explaining that various characters represent Gross Physical Lust or Passionless Academia, which attempt to lure the protagonist couple off the path to love and marriage.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked the older story more. I felt that the newer one was trying to hard. I have had this book laying around since high school, finally decided to read it.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this a while back so memory isn't that clear. Wasn't very keen on the one by Edmund Cooper but the second one, by Richard Lancelyn Green, was more interesting.