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mdpenguin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I read this because BOC's "Veterans of the Psychic Wars" popped into my head and I was curious about the source material for the lyrics, also by Moorcock. Normally a war-oriented, sword and sorcery novel doesn't really appeal to me, but I liked this one enough that I'm going to read the next one in the series. I liked that the humans were kind of horrible and it constantly questioned whether supporting their cause against the Elderen even made sense. It was kind of anti-Tolkien in that sense. I also found the way the focus was put on the existential concerns of the protagonist really interesting. Although about a warrior engaged in a war, the actual battles are mostly glossed over and where there is detail, it's focused on Erekosë's emotional response to what's going on. Also interesting was that there wasn't much of a discussion of what Daker's life was like before being summoned back to live as Erekosë. It just kind of happened and he more or less accepted it and, though we are told that Daker was an intellectual (and possibly a professor?) from the 20th century and a lot of Erekosë's responses to what's going on around him are influenced by that perspective, there's really isn't any ink spilled on living life as Daker at all. I'd expect a story like this to be broken up into a trilogy with a lot more exposition and battle scenes, but the author really kept it tightly focused on the protagonist's response to what was happening and didn't give much exposition that didn't feed that perspective. Overall it was a fast and enjoyable read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, and War