Dragon in the Sword ~ Ppr [Paperback]

Continues the story of the story of the aspect of the Eternal Champion known as John Daker/Erekose that started in the books The Eternal Champion and Phoenix in Obsidian. His only desire is to be reunited with his lost love, Ermizhad, but instead he is pulled into the dimension of the Six Realms, where he meets Ulrich Von Bek who has escaped from the Nazis on Earth into this realm. The Six Realms are an area where six different worlds inhabited by very different cultures and races come together through a number of interdimensional gates. Daker soon learns of a plot by the forces of Chaos to conquer all the realms and knows that it is his mission as the Eternal Champion to stop that from happening.

This is one of the better examples of Moorcock's fantasy adventure style. The different realms have creative, if fairly limited, cultures, and the depiction of Hell is interesting. It is nothing groundbreaking, but is a solid conclusion to the Erekose sequence.

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.

There are a number of reviews here and elsewhere written by people who apparently loved this book. Now, I have a very eclectic taste in authors, and generally speaking I enjoy most books I pick up. With that in mind, I had heard this author's name before in lists of "must-read" fantasy books, so when I saw a hardcover copy at my local bookstore, I took it home that same day. I have to say I was gravely disappointed. Some of the themes had an interesting premise, but 90% of the time it felt like I had read it before (and better) in a Robert E. Howard story. I'm trying to find a way to put this delicately, but when you come across as ham-fisted, cliche, and bland compared to a pulp author (even a good one), that's really not a good sign. There's a phenomenon with good authors where their characters develop a life of their own and sometimes take the story in a different direction than the author perhaps expected; this book was not a good example. There are stories that are alive and real, and there are also stories that are meant to resemble the first type, and this is unfortunately the latter.

To be completely fair, I was not at all aware that this was part of a series when I first read it. Some of the stranger plot devices make a little more sense in this light, but some of them are still just out there. I may have to try some of the Elric books to see if this was some kind of fluke, because a lot of people seem to like this author. (Then again, I'm having some serious issues attempting to read Gormenghast...)