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A review by outcolder
The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison
3.0
"He kept a book of anachronistic words and phrases he found evocative (BL MS Eng. misc. e. 599) and crossed them off neatly as he found excuses to work them into his writing." - Young, Joseph. "The foundations of E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros." Extrapolation, vol. 54, no. 2, summer 2013, pp. 183+ Ha! I think that's hilarious! The same article calls the author an "amateur medievalist" a number of times and argues that it was Eddison's interest in fantasy that led him to an interest in Icelandic Sagas and medieval literature. He's got a bunch of songs and poems in here from people like John Dunne and Shakespeare.
Forewarned is forearmed, and I had read a slew of complaints and praise for this book before starting on it. When I borrowed it from Villa Fantastica, the SFF library in Vienna, Austria, the guys there said it was a "Klassiker." So I wasn't bothered by the goofy names, the sprawling plot, the half-assed framing device, or the overwrought and archaic language. Yeah, it's a klassiker and if you're into the history of fantasy you have got to read this, but it didn't blow my mind or anything. My favorite bits are about the personality clashes among the bad guys and the most interesting character is of course the traitorous Lord Gro... but did he have to have a large, hooked nose? Groan. The few female characters are all pretty great, except for the foundling of the gods but I guess several centuries trapped in a magic mountain will leave you kind of dull. To sum up: It's epic, but a little too epic.
Forewarned is forearmed, and I had read a slew of complaints and praise for this book before starting on it. When I borrowed it from Villa Fantastica, the SFF library in Vienna, Austria, the guys there said it was a "Klassiker." So I wasn't bothered by the goofy names, the sprawling plot, the half-assed framing device, or the overwrought and archaic language. Yeah, it's a klassiker and if you're into the history of fantasy you have got to read this, but it didn't blow my mind or anything. My favorite bits are about the personality clashes among the bad guys and the most interesting character is of course the traitorous Lord Gro... but did he have to have a large, hooked nose? Groan. The few female characters are all pretty great, except for the foundling of the gods but I guess several centuries trapped in a magic mountain will leave you kind of dull. To sum up: It's epic, but a little too epic.