Michael Moorcock's Multiverse sequence- part one
Storm Constantine says, somewhere in the anthology The Oracle Lips, that the writer Michael Moorcock has been one of her chief inspirations. She wrote Silverheart with him, as you know.
Michael moorcock is a literary giant, he's written, Fantasy, Science Fiction, historical novels and maistream novels. His main concept is the Multiverse, a plurality of Universes in which the Eternal Champion's incarnation fought the eternal struggle between chaos and Law, some even for the Balance, that keeps those eternal forces in equilibrium. Almost all of Moorcock's books are connected with this overall theme. His main sequences are:
John Daker- The Eternal champion
(The Eternal champion, Phoenix in Obsidian, the Dragon in the Sword) John Daker is an ordinary English man who's "Evoked" in strange realms to fight in the guise of an Eternal Champion. in the first novel he's Erekose, a warrior hero who fought the elfin-like Eldren. The humans here are somewhat alike to Neocons-Taliban, and Erekosè here knows horrible guilt and desperate love. in the subsequent novels he won't even, initially, know who's hhe's supposed to be and what he's supposed to do. He's plagued by dreams and recollections of the myriad of other Eternal Champions,and he hopes only to find peace, as he goes from an icy corroded world to another covered in marshes, even in search of his lost love.This series is very poignant and tragic, interesting the succession of varous worlds John Daker encounters.
Corum
Two trilogies: The prince with the Scarlet Robe and The Prince with the Silver Hand silver Hand.
Corum is the last of the Valdagh, another elven-like race, that's become effete and over-sophisticated. They're no match for the humanlike Mabden, a barbarous tribe of which destroys them all, including Corum's family and friends. Yet Corum will fall in love with a woman of a more civilized Mabden nation, and for her Corum will fight other Mabden tribes and the Lords of chaos themselves, banishing them for his plane of existence. That's the first trilogy. In the second, an older, immortal Corum, having outkasted his wife and all who knew him, lives like a recluse in his castle, when he's called by Mabden of the far future, to fight ugly, monstrous Ice Gods, who are turning the Earth of that plane in to an icy wasteland.
Corum's a more gentle Conan, and Michael Moorcock in writing his advenhtures took inspirations from old gaelic legends, expecially in the second trilogy.
Elric of Melnibonè:
You all know the doomed Albino and his hellsword Stormbringer, stealer of souls.He's by far the most famous of Moorcock's characters. named Elric the Womanslayer, the Betrayer, the Kinslayer, he too cannot find peace, for, deep in himself, he feels he shouldn't have been born. He's pledged to chaos, addicted to his soulstealing runesword, who he tries to abandom-only to be forced to retrieve it for the final struggle between chaos and Law
In the preface of the story "The Curse of the Snake", Storm's earliest story published, Storm points out that the protagonist resembles a Melnibonean. come to think of it, the character of Cal has something Moorcockian: like most of his characters he's a haunted, and he has Elric's sardonic attitude. He too searches his Tanelorn, Immanion.
(to be continued)
Michael moorcock is a literary giant, he's written, Fantasy, Science Fiction, historical novels and maistream novels. His main concept is the Multiverse, a plurality of Universes in which the Eternal Champion's incarnation fought the eternal struggle between chaos and Law, some even for the Balance, that keeps those eternal forces in equilibrium. Almost all of Moorcock's books are connected with this overall theme. His main sequences are:
John Daker- The Eternal champion
(The Eternal champion, Phoenix in Obsidian, the Dragon in the Sword) John Daker is an ordinary English man who's "Evoked" in strange realms to fight in the guise of an Eternal Champion. in the first novel he's Erekose, a warrior hero who fought the elfin-like Eldren. The humans here are somewhat alike to Neocons-Taliban, and Erekosè here knows horrible guilt and desperate love. in the subsequent novels he won't even, initially, know who's hhe's supposed to be and what he's supposed to do. He's plagued by dreams and recollections of the myriad of other Eternal Champions,and he hopes only to find peace, as he goes from an icy corroded world to another covered in marshes, even in search of his lost love.This series is very poignant and tragic, interesting the succession of varous worlds John Daker encounters.
Corum
Two trilogies: The prince with the Scarlet Robe and The Prince with the Silver Hand silver Hand.
Corum is the last of the Valdagh, another elven-like race, that's become effete and over-sophisticated. They're no match for the humanlike Mabden, a barbarous tribe of which destroys them all, including Corum's family and friends. Yet Corum will fall in love with a woman of a more civilized Mabden nation, and for her Corum will fight other Mabden tribes and the Lords of chaos themselves, banishing them for his plane of existence. That's the first trilogy. In the second, an older, immortal Corum, having outkasted his wife and all who knew him, lives like a recluse in his castle, when he's called by Mabden of the far future, to fight ugly, monstrous Ice Gods, who are turning the Earth of that plane in to an icy wasteland.
Corum's a more gentle Conan, and Michael Moorcock in writing his advenhtures took inspirations from old gaelic legends, expecially in the second trilogy.
Elric of Melnibonè:
You all know the doomed Albino and his hellsword Stormbringer, stealer of souls.He's by far the most famous of Moorcock's characters. named Elric the Womanslayer, the Betrayer, the Kinslayer, he too cannot find peace, for, deep in himself, he feels he shouldn't have been born. He's pledged to chaos, addicted to his soulstealing runesword, who he tries to abandom-only to be forced to retrieve it for the final struggle between chaos and Law
In the preface of the story "The Curse of the Snake", Storm's earliest story published, Storm points out that the protagonist resembles a Melnibonean. come to think of it, the character of Cal has something Moorcockian: like most of his characters he's a haunted, and he has Elric's sardonic attitude. He too searches his Tanelorn, Immanion.
(to be continued)