Michael Moorcock Books

Simply one of the best fantasy books ever. Concerned with larger issues and utillizes deeper arguments than typically found. Very stimulating and wise.

The Devil is really pretty sneaky. That will be no shock to anyone. Von Bek is a mercenary, and a very dangerous man and a bit of a lost soul, both figuratively and literally.

The Devil has a deal for him. If he can find him the Holy Grail, he can have his soul back.

Simply an excellent tale. This story has stayed with me over the years, and I fully expect to reread it once again the next time I lay my hands upon it.

I dont much care for Elric. So whether you like that or not, dont let that stop you in this case. I also disliked Gloriana and a couple of his other books. But this one here I would recommend to just about everyone.

Certainly one of Mr. Moorcock's best, blending his mastery of sword-and-sorcery fantasy with some gripping philo-theological issues which are likely familiar to anyone who has grown up in the Western world with the remnants of Christianity all around. This book truly transcends Mr. Moorcock's regular oeuvres, and will continue to resound in the mind of anyone who has found themselves gripped in the loss of faith or religion but not yet lost hope for humanity.

The Thirty Years' War was one of the singular most horrifying experiences in Europe's history (up there with WWI and WWII) and is a fitting backdrop. I will echo one of my non-fantasy-reading friend's gripes and say that the title figure equits himself much better than the devious, semi-evil character that his author first makes him out to be, and I would add that some of the more fantastical vignettes are maybe underwritten, and thus the work could have benefited from greater length in parts.

I care not much for Moorcock's heroes other than the two most 'human' and fallible ones, the man from Melnibone and von Bek. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in the best ever from the fantasy-genre, and still, a good read for those not familiar with fantasy but experienced in the pain and suffering of the real world. If you're a Moorcock fan and haven't read this yet then there is no excuse, buy ...immediately. Can't find it here try half.com

Recommended to me by the inimitable OS2 Boone during our time on the USS Chancellorsville in Japan, I didn't find it til much later but am very glad he told me about it. Certainly in my list of top ten books ever, alongside works that are much longer and traditionally thought to have much greater significance.....

Very Respectfully,

Pär L., USN

As much as I enjoyed the subsequent two novels of the Von Bek trilogy (_City in the Autumn Stars_ and The Dream Thief's Daughter_) this first volume is still my favorite. It could easily have stood on it's own as a classic.

The basic premise is that Lucifer is not an all-knowing, all-powerful arch fiend, but merely a frustrated, desperate exile. God exiled Lucifer to earth with no instructions and no further communication. In his own words, Lucifer tells how everything that he did since then was his own idea, done on his own initiative. First, he tried to prove that he could build a world that was greater than the Creator's (he reveals that most of the world's rulers and churchmen are really "his".) However, by the 17th century, Europe is clearly dieing in unending warfare and plague INSPITE of his efforts to make a better world. Lucifer admits that his efforts have been a colossal failure and that he has no idea why. Moreover, he just wants to reconcile with God and go back home to his old position in heaven.

In desperation Lucifer sends an agent to find the Holy Grail. Grasping at straws, he believes that the legendary Grail will grant immediate union with God, and as a result the Last Judgement and an end to the World's Pain. Unfortunately, the Devil has no pure knights to search for this Grail- the closest thing he can find is Capt. Ulrich Von Bek. Von Bek is far from innocent, since as a mercenary soldier he has wilfully commited murder, torture, rape, and robbery as "part of the soldier's craft." Von Bek does have a conscience, though- he just gambled that there was no God or Devil to answer to for his crimes.

Von Bek goes forth on this hopeless quest- quite convinced that Lucifer, and quite possibly God, are both out of their minds....

I have read every Elric novel. I own 500 kilos of fantasy paperbacks. This book brought me as much joy, inspiration and satisfaction as any book I have ever read. Elric was the first "evil" hero. Every fantasy writer has taken a peice of elric to produce their characters. Drizt Do'urden is a shadow of Elric. Raistlen is almost an exact copy of Elric. Darth vader's sinister life, dependence on technology/sorcery and eventual noble self sacrifice are in mimicry of Elric. In this book so many authors who wanted to write Elric stories, some who had made great fame and fortune copying Moorcock, were given licence to write as they pleased. Every short story in the book is its authors best work because as they write about their own dark heros in their own novels they are thinking about Elric. My highest praise: I want a sequel.. or two... or ten... a series published monthly untill I am old and grey.

I highly enjoyed this book, the dark and gothic theme created a great anti-hero in my opinion. It took a bit of time to get into the "setting" of the book, but once I did I was able to immerse myself in the story and thoroughly enjoy it.

Elric, last Prince of Melnibone. Elric makes you feel that your right there with him and drawing the from the dreaded runsword Stormbringer, all his pain,sorrow,grief you feel it all. This pale,weak being could be any of us, and yet it`s his weakness that gives him the strainth to weld such enormus power and to control the uncontrolable. Elric will make you cry, make you feel that you could defeat the Lords of Chaos your self and forever will you bare some of his burden. Your life will never be the same, the way you look at things such as the ocean will change and you`ll catch yourself try to summon the water element himself. For such a being to exist in your mind alone is enough.

Elric of Melnibone' represents a departure from the era of Tarzan and Conan, giving people a dark prince for a protagonist. This book helps put together a group of stories written for the first time by other authors and show how dynamic Michael Moorcock's Elric really is.

This is the first of the Elric saga Ive read. I found it most exhilirating. The dark antihero and his struggle for his humanity is almost sorrowful. His sword is legendary amonst who has lived to tell about it. Not many have though. Elric is an outcast among his people.It is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

I bought this in paperback in England. The store had a pile of them so I assume it's in print there. I read it on the plane home. What a perfect book for a nervous traveler -- for the first time in my life I forgot to give my whole attention to keeping the plane airborne! All the way to New York, all the way home, with the warmest, happiest chapters at the end to finish off with when you get back into your own familiar territory. But now London is familiar territory, too. Read this and know a city as one who loves it and grew up there. The Blitz scenes are worth the money alone! Funny, moving, profound,unsentimental, humane. This is a big novel, with a big generous heart. I would not be the first to compare it to Dickens. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens's and London's biographer, has compared Moorcock to Dickens and has given lavish praise to MOTHER LONDON, as have many London literary critics. Another London novel KING OF THE CITY is also a great read, though very, very different. Read MOTHER LONDON and see the city at her best, dauntless under the Nazi bombing raids, her ordinary citizens not only surviving and making the best of things, but making the quality of their lives better through sheer old-fashioned grit and determination. A lesson for all of us who never experienced our home under constant daily attack, but a heartening message with an old-fashioned up-beat celebration of ordinary human beings. Wonderful!

A stunning book, in which the city speaks to us like never before. In this book, we see just how powerfully the city moulds the lives and characters of its inhabitants, and in turn, how the inhabitants mould the city. War and destruction inflict damage on city and citizen alike, but life and the city continue. An inspirational tale.

Why this masterpiece is not in print in America while so much lightweight BritLit fills the stacks, I cannot explain. The London online Guardian has just done a discussion group on this book and it is fascinating to see how the writer, in the Q&A, describes his intentions -- working inwards and outwards from the key Blitz scenes which are at once the most terrifying and uplifting of the whole novel. This novel doesn't let you in easily but once you are there, you have to let it seize you and carry you along. When you do, you find that you are experiencing something both warm, magical, humane, profoundly funny and with a respect for the under-dog we have not seen in this country since Steinbeck's generation. Maybe an English Don DeLillo ? Really, there's no comparison. Moorcock is as modern as today's Middle East and as compassionate as Mother Therese. You won't regret taking the trouble to read this once. And you will find yourself reading it again and again for the rest of your life!! Ask those of us who have been rereading this since it came out! A genuine modern classic.

I too picked this up in London, where it's commonly available along with the paperback of King of the City, and while I am not a Londoner, I felt I was one after reading the book. If you read this and Peter Ackroyd's LONDON; A BIOGRAPHY you will have a tremendous sense not only of the city's living history, but of her contemporary heart. A great city, largely free from violence and the problems which trouble our American cities, and one that is constantly changing with fresh waves of immigration. This is a book primarily about human beings -- and very fine human beings most of them prove to be. Heartening, intelligent, with a sharp eye for human wickedness, as well as virtue. (...) Read it over Christmas if you can. It will remind you of Dickens and you will feel a whole lot better about the world, in spite of its troubles. It ends with a big party. You will love it.

As much as I love the concept of Moorcock's Multiverse novels, I have to admit that it takes a lot of searching to find the gems amidst all the rest, since many of them were written when he was a lot younger (and often very quickly) and have a bit of a slapdash quality to them, so that the concept is clearly there but it's also all over the place. His best books are the ones where the vision is clear from the onset and he manages to sustain across the entire work, like the Jerry Cornelius novels. And this one. This is probably his most famous work to non-SF readers, I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's "mainstream" because even though there aren't people with giant black swords cutting everyone to pieces and invoking ancient gods, it's still very clearly a Moorcock book. This is probably the best novel to recommend to people who want to get into him but are scared off by his other novels because it's self contained and more or less "normal". Basically it's his love letter to the city of London, through the eyes of three characters, Mary Gasalee, David Mummery, and Josef Kiss, all of whom were involved in avoiding getting bombs dropped on them during the Blitz and who we follow as the story reels back and forth in time, as the characters wander all over the neighborhoods of London, running into the people there and commenting on the changing times. Moorcock evokes the spirit of London through the characters, both literally and figuritively (Mummery is compiling notes about the city, Gasalee and Kiss are both mildly psychic I think), in the same way that Ulysses gives you a tour of Dublin and Lanark represents Glasgow (on that note, has there even been a definitive novel of NYC . . . Dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer?) in a way that lets an outsider like myself get a feel for the city and it's movements but at the same time I think you'd have to truly be a Londoner to understand it all . . . by making the foundation of the novel rooted in the Blitz and having everything either proceed from or regress to there he centers it on what is probably the most defining event for most of London, and contrasts both the great uncertainty and fear of those days with London's nonchalance and ability to survive . . . the shockwaves of it continue to resonate throughout the book, like echoes that haven't reached their targets yet. And due to the characters being psychic, interspersed throughout the narrative are the jumbled thoughts of the people of London, giving voice to the millions that live there, adding a different texture to the proceedings. Moorcock throws everything he can into the novel, giving us a city and a people that are comic and tragic, mundane and grand, all at the same time, creating a story that could only happen in one place, hinting that the only way to really survive is to create your own myths, and run with them. What you get there isn't so much a tightly plotted story but a series of images cascading one after the other, putting together a picture of a place that you'd never understand completely unless you lived there, but since most of us don't, this is the closest we'll ever come. I don't know if it was ever published in the US, but it's certainly out of print here now, though I'm sure used bookstores and UK-related websites have it, since it's definitely still available there I'd recommend snagging it. It shouldn't be the only Moorcock book you ever read, but if you have to start somewhere or if you really only want to read one, this would be it.

I am reading my way through the White Wolf omnibus series and have just finished this one. There is only one word to describe the sweep and the depth of Moorcock's imagination -- awesome. It's no wonder so many other fantasy writers call him the Master.
This book, like the final book in the Elric series, has a dramatic and shocking ending, but that makes it all the better, all the more like a real myth. From books like Mother London and The Brothel in Rosenstrasse, through the Elric and Hawkmoon novels, to the most recent King of the City, Moorcock shows himself to be the greatest. A giant in modern fiction. Whether you like fantasy novels or literary fiction, I guarantee you will like the Corum series. Only Moorcock and Tolkien are the 'real thing'. Even in his minor work, he throws up concepts which other writers create entire series out of. He is one of the best and most influential writers of our age. Totally recommended!

In America at least, I think Moorcock has been overlooked as a notable pioneer in fantasy. At the very least he's merely underrated but as I read more and more of his work I realize how much he's influenced writers of today and the recent past, especially in the fantasy genre. Elric took the concept of the "anti-hero" and ran with it and Corum injects a whole heap of Celtic mythology into the proceedings, with quite entertaining results. Nowadays, some writers (Charles DeLint is the one who comes to mind right away) pretty much base their entire careers on building on those mythologies and folklores, but when Moorcock put all this stuff together, I don't think it was as common and I wonder what people thought of it at the time. This is another volume in White Wolf's Eternal Champion series and the second entire book to feature Corum (he's had cameos in other stories throughout) and this one basically wraps up his saga. Pound for pound I think Corum is a far more interesting character than Elric . . . Elric, while fun in a "gee what new tragedy will happen to him so he can complain about it" sort of way, probably has the biggest appeal these days to teenage fantasy lovers who mostly fixate on "Cool! He sucked out that guy's soul!". Corum, on the other hand, is more well rounded, he has definite doubts after saving the world, he misses his late wife but is prepared to move on, has a sense of humor and is actually proactive once in a while, which I think gives the stories more narrative drive, as opposed to the Champion reacting to stuff over and over again. These last three stories in the series have separate plots but mostly deal with the ongoing problem of saving the world from huge demigods from Limbo that would really like to get back but since they can't would rather just destroy the world (I'll give Moorcock this, his villains are unique). Corum is summoned to the future (really the past, or at least an alternate world) to save the world from these menaces and proceeds to get hip-deep in Celtic mythology. Moorcock sure seems to have done his research and it's hard to tell where he's drawing from other sources and where he's simply just making it up. The plot do suffer to some extent from the "plot coupon" mentality, where Corum has to go track down the long lost rare artifacts (the titles of the stories are a good clue) generally by way of a lot of tangential side quests, but Moorcock piles on so much local flavor that you don't really notice and he does take time to throw in extra twists and wrinkles so it doesn't feel color-by-numbers. The ending is typically downbeat (I know they're called "champions" but boy do their lives stink) but it's a fast entertaining read and probably possessed of more reread value than the Elric stuff, this definitely makes for a more consistent reading experience throughout. A must for both fantasy fans (the White Wolf volumes are sadly out of print, I'm sure the British or the originals are all available, although I'm not sure how much revision was done) and those who enjoy adding a sprinkling of Celtic folklore to their reading.

When it comes to real intellectual content Gene Wolfe gives better value than Moorcock in this series at least. But for sheer Celtic instincts (listen to Celtic Ladies CD while you read this) Moorcock is second only to Yeats, who used the great Celtic myths for inspiration (both the CD and Yeats refer to 'moorcocks'). These are the closest to their Celtic roots, using Cornish, rather than Irish, as their main influence. Is it a coincidence that Cornwall has so many traditions associated with King Arthur and Camelot. There's a suggestion in this that Corum visits Tintagel, which sometime Dubliner Moorcock has used to similar effect in his Jerry Cornelius books. How mythologies intersect, sometimes with disastrous results, is part of the theme of this hell-for-leather fantasy which goes so fast, in comparison to modern 'phat phantasy', as Revolution SF calls it, that you hardly realise the time has passed. The CONTENT of this book, like Wolfe's, is considerably greater than the content of most of its rivals. Highly recommended, if just for its sense of the Celtic Twilight.

My first experience with Moorcock was Elric. I loved the character and wanted to read more Moorcock, so I picked up Von Bek. Well, I did not care for Von Bek, so I picked up the Eternal Champion, which, excluding the Von Bek story, I liked. I had heard many good things about Corum and decided to give him a try. While I will not say that he is greater than Elric, he is almost as good. Corum's story is one of irony to the end. Humans take his eye and his hand, but he aids humans in their struggles and falls in love with one. She dies and the Prince with the Silver Hand collection starts up. I liked these novels and consumed them rather quickly. They are well-written and thought out and everything that happens, for the most part, is resolved. Moorcock's sense of continuity is wonderful. Corum, as are most Moorcock books, is violent and full of arrows through heads and swords through throats. If you are at all interested in dark fantasy, read Corum

While Elric remains Moorcock's most enduring charecter, Corum is the most likable. The Corum stories are also probably the best written because they were written as a series, unlike the Elric stories which were written through a 15 to 20 year time span. (The first 4 volumes of Hawkmoon are also excellent.)

Corum, like Elric is a tragic Hero, but is much more likeable and really has a lot of elements of being a true Hero. While Elric is a taker (The Stealer of Souls), Corum leaves his own world for another to help humans in a dire struggle against an Ancient race of Gods. (Actually charecters and representations from ancient Celtic Mythology.)

All in all one of Moorcock's best series. A must for any Sci-Fi/Fantasy Genre fan.

Moorcock is an excellent writer. His most obvious talent, to me, is his ability to drive both his story and his character's development via the same dark and despairing prose. Even when he writes the brightest, most gorgeous days, in the Elric saga, they are undercut by a real feeling of weight, depression, despair, and fatalism. This contrast can be shocking, especially if you have not previously read anything else by Moorcock.

Moorcock's ability to build a character, and his methods, fall somwhere between Tolkien's action based and Gene Wolfe's sometimes explanatory styles. His prose is as dark as that of Mervyn Peake, though Moorcock is less poetic, and is much more focused on action. This collection of the first three books of the Elric portion of his even larger "Eternal Champion" multiverse, holds, in my opinion, some of the best fantasy available on the market. The story is less predictable an more engaging, more 'different' than I have been accustomed too by years of McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, Salvatore, etc. dominating the fantasy fields. Moorcock brings back the strangeness that, almost twenty years ago, enticed me into the genre of fantasy, via Tolkien's books.

I do not wish to equate Moorcock to Tolkien. Moorcock is a very, VERY different writer, with a style that is very, VERY much his own. It is a good, strong style. It is even a, dare I say it, UNIQUE style, in a literary genre that is consistently derided for the lack of new works with original writing styles. I highly recommend the purchase of both this collection and its sequel collection, 'The Elric Saga, Part II'. They offer an engaging and enjoyable reading experience.

This book includes the first three of the old six book Elric series that Moorcock put out. I was seriously into Moorcocks Elric stuff as a teenager and now after rereading it after all these years I still consider this to be a classic in the fantasy genre. Elric is far from being a typical or cliched fantasy hero, in fact I would label him as an anti-hero. Instead of being a strong chivalric hero Elric is a foppish weakling albino who is kept alive only through the use of drugs and sorcery. He sits on the throne of a declining empire that takes pride in being cruel and unjust to the rest of the world. He comes into possession of a sword that is more or less a demon physically manifested into the form of a black bladed two handed sword. The sword, named Stormbringer, feeds on the souls of those that Elric kills giving Elric their lifeforce and energy. He becomes dependent on Stormbringer like a heroin addict to heroin, needing it and the souls of those that he kills just to function. So yeah like I said not exactly Sir Galahad here.

A very dark tale without being overly contrived. I'm surprised more of the black trenchcoat wearing goth/black metal/Marilyn Manson crowd of the younger generation hasn't caught on to the Elric stuff. I really enjoy Moorcocks Mulitiverse/Champion Eternal concept and would put those original Elric stories at the top of the Fantasy heap, second only to Robert E Howard and Tolkiens work.

An Omnibus edition that includes three books.

Elric of Melnibone

Elric is the emperor of a declining civilisation. It is threated from without, by the 'lesser' races of humanity.

He also has to deal with the power plays and ambitions of his relatives, and has his own illnesses to bear, as well.

However, he has a plan. He doesn't realise what and who it will cost him to carry it out, as he makes a deal with Chaos.

5 out of 5

The Sailor On the Seas of Fate

There are three parts to this book. Sailing to the Future includes the crossover where Elric meets, Erekose, Hawkmoon and Corum aboard the Dark Ship of the Captain.

Then there is Sailing to the Present, and Sailing to the Past. The latter is a reworked version of the Jade God's Eyes.

5 out of 5

and

The Weird of the White Wolf

The Weird of the White Wolf also is a book that contains several smaller pieces of work, namely :
The Dream of Earl Aubec
The Dreaming City
While the Gods Laugh
The Singing Citadel

The first is a quick Eternal Champion interlude.

In the Dreaming City Elric returns to the Dragon Isle to attack his cousin, who is holding his lover captive.

While the Gods Laugh show Elric journeying with Moonglum, his version of the Companion to Champions, to find the Dead Gods Book.

The Singing Citadel is a building with the properties of a siren, basically. Elric and Moonglum investigate.


4.5 out of 5

"There are 6 books in the original Elric saga; Elric of Melnibone is the first. All of them are classics not to be missed. Unlike most modern fantasy works, Moorcock's books have complex plots and are rich in language. Keep a thick dictionary at your side as you read these."
-- Glenn G. Thater, Author of 'Harbinger of Doom'

I'm truly sorry for having taken so long in discovering Michael Moorcock. The element of the supernatural in his stories is as uncanny and unearthly as in vintage Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. Definately the most addictive fantasy I've picked up in some time: the prose runs on adrenaline, every chapter ending on a hook that makes the book nearly impossible to put down. But it is the Elric character that bestows upon this series its deserved immortality. An albino, a weak offspring who should've died and yet lived on to become the most powerful sorcerer of his age...Elric is the archetype of all visionaries throughout the ages - those who felt the burden of existence too intensely to bear it. Those whom the rest of humanity both requires and scorns.

Count Von Bek this time, and we are closing on the twentieth century, timewise. The Count has come to the famous brothel, and brought along his very young girlfriend. They are out to have some fun, and plenty of s*x, too, of course. Or a combination.

Amidst all the shagging, war and the outside world intervene.

For me this was a departure from Moorcock's usual tales of the fantastic. While the reader looking for Elric or Corum-style tales may be disappointed, the novel itself is far from disappointing. The characters are some of the strongest Moorcock has developed, from Von Bek and his young lover Alexandra to the various denizens in the Brothel, each one brings strong feelings and opinions to the war around them. As those in the brothel use its charms to escape the reality of war, so does Von Bek use these recollections of his past to escape his inevitable death. This novel is out of print so try used book stores or auction sites on the internet, which is where I found it. If you can appreciate great writing, then by all means try and get ahold of a copy.

I agree that this is one of Moorcock's very best books but I got my paperback copy very easily via Amazon.uk, where it remains in print. It's worth checking Amazon uk for books that are out of print in America. I had no trouble using a credit card to buy this book and get it shipped from England. Pretty much all Moorcock's books, it appears, are in print in the UK -- Gloriana, Byzantium Endures, Mother London and all his major works, most of which aren't currently in print in the US. The paperback edition is an elegant book and slightly revised, I understand. Great cover. You can see it at the Amazon.uk site! Mary, Austin.

I sincerely hope The Brothel in Rosenstrasse will someday be reprinted. It is one of the finest works of a literary genius, and I am saddened to think that readers will be deprived of this novel. Moorcock's superhuman knack for vivid description goes into overdrive in this book, as he recreates a series of feverish memories of a time of luxuriant perversities and meager strife, maintaining a brilliant counterpoint throughout. The cast of characters is stunning and real, as if they were transcribed from some party the author had attended. The explicit details of the main character's decline from the role of sexual dominator to sexually dominated parallels the heart-wrenching destruction of the beautiful, ancient city around him, a powerful yet brilliantly subtle device. This is truly a masterwork. It took me three years to track down a used copy of it, but it was worth the search. Absolutely magnificent. Recommended.

John Daker is Erekose is The Eternal Champion, again. After all the heroics and adventuring through countless lifetimes and incarnations he is weary, and just wants to get back to his Eldren princess Ermizhad and lead the quiet life.

Something nags at him, in his mind, a name, another Eternal Champion, but he doesn't know that name. A mystery that will not let him rest and retire fromt he cycle of the Eternal Champion.

If you are looking for a great fantasy story with an abundance of action, The Dragon in the Sword surely will not disappoint you. If you like stories of soldiers desperately searching for their lost loves, this book is for you also. If you are a Michael Moorcock fan and enjoy his Elric saga, then this book is sure to deliver.
After being introduced to the very first in the series of these Elric books, I instantly became a fan not only of the epic Elric saga, but also of the author himself. His style of writing includes sentences that are thoroughly descriptive so no detail is left out. I have enjoyed Mr. Moorcock's books ever since that first one and this book is no exception.
The story is loaded with action from the very beginning as The Eternal Champions, as he is now called, recalls his past adventures with splendid detail. He recalls all of his past forms, their relationships, and their adventures. He is still Elric, but at the same time he isn't. He keeps reincarnating and taking on different identities. Some of the names he has been called along with Elric are Erekose, Urlik, and his present name, John Daker. He wishes to be Erekose again because that is who he was when he found his true love, Ermizhad, but lost her and searches for her endlessly while he also fights against chaos.
The action continues as John Daker tells of his travels on a dark ship whose captain is blind. This ship doesn't sail as normal ships sail, rather it sails between realms of the universe. While on this ship, Daker's dreams of women who chant pleas to release a dragon begin. He also dreams of a soldier in black and yellow who tells him what lies ahead, but speaks in mysteries and riddles that the Eternal Champion must figure out. He doesn't realize that his next incarnation will lead him to these very same women who plead with him in his dreams.
These women are of the Eldren race and are known as the "ghost women" because of their white armor. John comes to meet these women at what is called "The Massing" when all of the different races from a certain realm of the universe come together. They are said to be cannibalistic women who buy their partners to reproduce and then eat them. He first meets them at a marketplace where they are buying one of these "mates."
Before the massing though, Daker finds out his new identity, although he does not know what he is to be called. He winds up on a beach and finds Count Ulrich von Bek. Von Bek was in a concentration camp for speaking out against the Nazis and escaped with help from some friends. He then planned to kill Hitler but failed and escaped to this new realm called the Maaschanheem.
The action again picks up as these two run into some trouble on there way to civilization. Some bounty hunters attack the men but are defeated. Then the Baron Captain of this city picks up the two men and offers them a place to stay. The two stay with the Baron Captain until the massing, when everyone finds out the Eternal Champion's new identity. He is Prince Flamadin, who is said to have tried to kill his twin sister, Princess Sharadim. The Baron Captain now hates and tries to kill Flamadin. This is when the ghost women rescue him and tell him the truth.
The ghost women are at a marketplace buying men. But these men are not for food; rather they are banished noblemen from Princess Sharadim's land. They are telling the women the truth about the whole thing. Sharadim wanted to kill Flamadin for not wanting to share power.
The book goes on to show how the Eternal Champion battles against Sharadim and her evil army and to free the dragon from the evil sword. What is best about this book is that it almost gives a sense of completeness to the saga. I would greatly recommend this book to anybody who likes fantasy, especially fans of Michael Moorcock and the Elric saga.

Read this book after you've read "Eternal Champion" and "the Silver Warriors." Together, they tell the "whole" story of the common mortal, John Daker, who just happens to be the Eternal Champion.

The only other Moorcock books I've read so far are the Elric books, and I found these three books much better than any of those. If all you have ever read of Moorcock is Elric, I highly recommend these books. And if you love fantasy, but find much of what is written about elves and dwarves, etc., a bit childish, here is fantasy an adult can sink her/his teeth into.

In this book, John Daker, in the guise of Prince Flamadin, must save not just one world, but six entire worlds from destruction by Chaos. There's a great tie-in to the von Bek books, with Ulrich von Bek becoming Prince Flamadin's companion through most of the novel. The plot is satisfyingly complex, and the creatures Flamadin and his companions meet along the way are fascinating.

This book does some nice fleshing out of the concepts of the multiverse and the beings who can travel freely between universes, as well as the best explanation I've read yet of the true nature of the Eternal Champion. There is even somewhat of a "resolution" to the fate of the Eternal Champion.

But all is not philosophy and exposition. This book also has lots of great battles, swordplay, strange modes of travel through wormhole-like pathways, and lots of bad guys to be vanquished, including an appearance by Hitler.

The book actually does a good job of tying up many loose ends and gave me the satisfying feeling of completion that makes the best trilogies work. The tale has been told, you are sad to see your favorite characters go off into the sunset, yet you feel somehow that all is now right with the world and it couldn't have ended any other way.

Although, with Moorcock, there are, of course, other endings to this saga . . .

My all time favorite book by Michael Moorcock, this installment of the Eternal Champion series features John Daker/Erekose and begins with him being drawn out of his previous existence into another plane where the polar ice caps have melted and the planet is flooded (as in the movie waterworld, but very dark because the sun is also close to it's death). John Daker is thrust into this world with no sword or sheild, but still well aware of the misdeeds he committed in previous existances. The story has a decidedly dark and confused tone as our hero struggles to figure out who summoned him into this existance,and why. As with all Moorcock, the writing is intriguing and only in the final chapter will you tie all of the storie's threads together. If you are a fan of the John Daker saga this book is a must have (it's listed as Being the "Third and Final Story in the History of John Daker, the Eternal Champion"). If when you read this review this book is still unavailable, I urge you to find a used book store.

Colvin is now referring to the review 'above' when in fact he's actually referring to the review 'below'. Just to reiterate that the review 'above' is about the actual book advertised and the review 'below' is about an issue of New Worlds edited by David Garnett (good, but not the same NW)!

This book contains science fiction short stories, and a lesser amount of essays and reviews, from a remarkable British science fiction publication called New Worlds. It also has an interesting introduction by the former editor of New Worlds, Michael Moorcock.
New Worlds is in a sense 'before my time' for it ceased publication as a magazine when I was a child. It must have been wonderful to be part of a avante garde literary movement! You will not find the sort of "alien fires ray gun at human--human fires ray gun back at alien" stories here. New Worlds aspired to intelligent and literary science fiction. It brought opposition from some quarters, which Moorcock writes about in his introduction. It wrote about sex and drugs. It engaged in literary experimentation; for example, the story The Tank Trapeze by Michael Moorcock uses quotes from a newspaper. The story The Four-Color Problem by Barrington Bayley has a technical mathematical section. The anthology also includes stories from other masters of the genre such as Brian Aldiss and J.G. Ballard. The science fiction genre was indeed reshaped by these coterie of authors which have been called "the new wave." I am not aprori opposed to it experimentation. Sometimes it doesn't not work. But sometimes it can serve the author's purposes. And the literature of the fantastic has not always had "typical" narrative anyway. Take, for example, two novels, Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe, and Dracula by Bam Stroker. The Journal of the Plague Year, written before the 20th Century--I forget which century, sorry--is a fiction story based on a real plague which killed around 100,000 people in London. That story is written in the form of a journal which includes facts. Dracula is told in the form of more than one journal.
The idea behind the story should be interesting, and the form and content of the story is to be of service to the idea; this was achieved in the pages of New Worlds.

With stories like "Ferryman" (Eric Brown), "The White Stuff" (Peter F. Hamilton & Graham Joyce), and "A Night on Bare Mountain" (Graham Charnock), anthologies don't get any better than this. My only quibble is with the experimental narrative "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City"(William Gibson) which rounds out the volume with a whimper, not a bang. Otherwise, this is Hugo & Nebula territory.

The above review isn't for this recently published anthology, but for one of the David Garnett edited New Worlds anthologies done through the 1990s.
This new US anthology is a representational collection of stories and features drawn from the magazine New Worlds which flourished from 1965 and saw its last issue in 1995. It was closely associated with a development of sf which became known as the UK 'New Wave' movement and nowadays is probably best known as 'slipstream'. The British movement was a conscious break with modernism and attempted to find a literary form which reconnected with the general reading public as well as to develop new conventions which, as far as the writers were concerned, better described their contemporary experience.

Who said authors cant leap fully made into great work. This is a great work. Often an authors early work is some or all of their best and this applies to Michael Moorcock. It captures brilliantly in the image of the unobtainable golden barge moving down the river - the unobtainable desire for the golden mean of contentedness and happiness as we move through our lives.

It encapsulates better than any novel I have ever read the word - no let us say "empire" of "yearning".

In his introduction to the first edition (Savoy) Mr Moorcock explains how this is his first surviving book, done at an early age under the influence of his friend Mervyn Peake. He tends to disparage it but there is an odd, original quality about this book. You can now get it, with a lot of other good material, in White Wolf's EARL AUBEC volume, which reprints much of the author's shorter fiction, plus this novel. These beautifully produced illustrated editions are definitive and are well worth buying. Excellent value. But the original Savoy edition with its gold-leaf Moreau cover and its Cawthorn interior illustrations still isn't that expensive second hand from the UK. Check out the Savoy website for some strange, beautiful editions of VERY obscure titles!

This was a book I read 15 or so years ago. Of the hundreds I have read this has been the most remembered and enjoyable read by far. For years I have looked for a personal copy having borrowed the one I read with out success. I would recommend to anyone, to beg, borrow, steal or pester Amazon.com to get you a copy of your own. The fable is a story following a river yet never catching up. By the end of the tale you pray the narrator will find his goal. The goal is well worth discovering and you must read the story to find out what it is. This is and is not religious. This book can also be considered a self help story, or perhaps a study in personal understanding. If you read it you will never forget it! PS. If you don't like it, I buy your copy!

Truly an amazing finish to an amazing quartet. Finishing off a story, especially one as deeply involved as the Pyat Quartet, is a difficult and sticky thing for an author. How many books or series have you read where the ending is somehow unsatisfying or anticlimatic? Well, not this one. Moorcook holds the final epitome of Pyat's self-deception to the very end.

The series itself is so well-written and researched that it truly boggles the mind. I'll give one example for those who have read this final book. Do you remember Pyat's secert weapon that he was developing for Mussolini? Well, during my reading of 'Rome' I got interested in Mussolini so I checked out a Biography video on him at the library. During the video they say that Mussolini always maintained he had a secret weapon, but no one ever found out what it was. It was probably a lie, but Moorcock worked that little fact of history into this fictional life story that spanned the 20th century.

Btw, these books are easy to get from Amazon UK and still only cost $3 in shipping to the US.

This is the final volume of the Pyat sequence which began with Byzantium Endures, continued through The Laughter of Carthage and Jerusalem Commands, and presents Maxim Arturovitch Pyat, trickster, self-deceiver, anti-semitic Jew and friend of fascism. This has had great reviews in the London Times, The Times Literary Supplement and, by all accounts, the rest of the UK papers. I got mine in Toronto and so far, if you're a US resident, you can only buy the new editions via Amazon. The TLS compared the sequence with Balzac's Human Comedy.

I have been following Maxim Arturovich Pyat's adventures for a decade now, and with this final chapter I am saddened to see him go. However, knowing Moorcock, Pyat's eventual death in 1977 could well be chronicled in a future volume (I hope so, I miss him already!) Maxim's incredible meeting with Adolf Hitler is only sweetened further when viewed after the final family reunion at the novel's end. (I won't spoil it for you) As much as I enjoy Elric, Corum, Count Brass and other characters, I believe Pyat to be Moorcock's ticket to literary immortality! A great finish to a great fictional wartime memoir!!