Scan barcode
lapismydear's review against another edition
4.0
Una obra de fantasía bastante interesante, no es excepcionalmente buena, pero tampoco es mala y tiene algunos clichés que son de mis favoritos.
nonb_horror_fan's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
shane_tiernan's review against another edition
4.0
Sometime in the early 80's I was reading a lot of Moorcock, Elric, Hawkmoon, Count Brass and some of his sci-fi stuff. My buddy Eric Messerol decided to get in on the fun, but didn't want to read the same books I did, so he started reading the Corum books. I'm not sure if he ever finished them, but I do know that I never got around to reading them, even though I've had them on my shelves for more than 30 years.
Obviously, I finally got to them. I would normally give a book like this 3 stars, but I'm giving an extra point for it NOT seeming dated, more than 50 years later. I don't mean that it has a style similar to modern books, I just mean that it wasn't cringy and didn't have me laughing at its seriousness. Of course it is nostalgic to hear names like Arioch and Xiombarg so that may have helped too.
Obviously, I finally got to them. I would normally give a book like this 3 stars, but I'm giving an extra point for it NOT seeming dated, more than 50 years later. I don't mean that it has a style similar to modern books, I just mean that it wasn't cringy and didn't have me laughing at its seriousness. Of course it is nostalgic to hear names like Arioch and Xiombarg so that may have helped too.
isauldur's review against another edition
4.0
Note: Below, my review is split into two parts. The first gives my general thoughts on the book and series, and the second details spoilers and major plot points. Be warned.
This should be a relatively short review (at least for me).
Part One: Overview
I rounded up the star rating to four, because I considered this book to be better than the previous one. The Queen of the Swords picks up a few months after the previous book, and once the story gets going, it doesn't stop until the end. The second book of Corum does a great job of expanding the world, and is quite good at world building for such a short novel. The story increases the stakes in this middle volume, since now Corum and company are battling against the Queen of the Swords herself, a more powerful Goddess of Chaos than Arioch in the first book. And this conflict takes Corum, Rhalina and Jhary to the Five Planes that the Queen rules. And it is here that I must address something that I brought up in my review of The Knight of the Swords: this book, in regards to its imagery and settings, could well have been written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I read another review that made the same comparison, so I know I'm not alone in drawing this parallel. Or parallels, since there are several. Once more, the settings are as alien as Burroughs's Barsoom, with some bizarre elements at which the reader can't help but be fascinated. I'll detail these elements in my spoiler section below. And more than its predecessor, The Queen of the Swords is much more action-driven, with Corum and his fellows going from battle to confrontation to showdown. We get to see more of Corum's Summoning power, which was one of the things I found most interesting in the first book.
Another parallel I'd like to draw is, surprisingly, to the young adult book series Deltora. Much like Corum, Deltora is almost insane in its settings. The creatures that Emily Rodda (the author of the Deltora series) describes and invents are so strange and bizarre in their own unique way that, even if they're grotesque and evil, I can't help but love them. Likewise, Moorcock does something similar in this book, bringing to light creatures that are as nonsensical and illogical, whose evolutionary history would drive Darwin to insanity, that I simply want to know more about them. Some of these creatures are named and even described to some extent, through Jhary who, being the Companion to Champions, has seen most of them before. This is perhaps what I liked most about this second volume in the Corum series: it doesn't shy away from the strange and even capitalizes on the fear of the unknown (more detail below). I've read primarily modern fantasy, and one thing I've noticed most authors do is try to normalize the fantastic, they attempt to make the awe-inspiring and uncanny more grounded. In short, modern fantasy mainly tries to mirror our world. The Corum books so far, as far as I can tell, turn our world on its head. Whereas humans are typically the good guys, the ones who know better and can fix whatever problems there exist (LOTR and the Barsoom series have humans dealing with the main conflict), here, humans are the problem. This isn't exactly a new concept, of course. Countless forms of media have utilized humans as the primary antagonists, a type of horde that consumes and destroys, but in most of these mediums there is usually one human who is good, one human who makes it worthwhile to save the rest. Corum's world doesn't work that way. While technically Rhalina and her people are of the Mabden race (humans), the barbarians and their atrocities make me want to side with Corum and his people almost exclusively. This theme isn't exactly dominant in this book, but it was a big part of the beginning of Knight.
I really don't have that much to say about Queen of the Swords, so I'll end the Overview here. It's a good piece of the Corum series, and I'm already looking forward to reading the third. It's a really fun, action fantasy with enough steampunk-like science fiction to make it uniquely its own.
Part Two: Spoilers
First, I'll address the parallels I found with the Barsoom series. Corum, much like John Carter, has certain enhanced abilities that give him status and power over most. Both encounter otherworldly creatures that couldn't even be found in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Specifically, the creatures that chant and sing before they attack (these are maybe on the same level of strangeness as the Plant Men of Mars), and the Ghanh, which was described as a flying monster with the head of a shark. And both of them go into an ultimately alien world and both resolve most of their conflicts through fighting, though neither of them particularly enjoys bloodshed. Corum leaves his own Five Planes, recently released from the malicious rule of Arioch by Corum himself, and goes to the Queen of the Swords's realm. Unlike Corum's own world, however, the Queen's Five Planes are absolute chaos. The land is blasted and there is no clear measure of time, since the Queen stopped the sun in its tracks. In these Five Planes, two specific adventures were quite memorable to me: The Lake of Voices and the Plain of Blood.
In several works of fantasy, it's been said that a battle was so-and-so brutal, and that the ground was drenched in blood. But the assumption is usually that the fields eventually recuperated. In the Queen's realm, there is an entire desert of red dust that is actually the dried blood of the fallen mortals who died in battle. This was both harrowing and chilling. While it's mentioned that this was a full battle between Law and Chaos, I found myself intrigued to find out why this battle occurred at all. Through this plain runs a milk-white river, which is allegedly the blood of the gods who fought in the battle. Since they're gods, however, their spilled blood doesn't dry up.
The Lake of Voices is what firmly reminded of me Rodda's Deltora. While Deltora is aimed to a much younger audience and it clearly isn't as dark as Corum, it also has surreal elements of the inexplicable and the fantastic. This lake makes no splashing noises nor ripples, but rather it screams with the voices of all those claimed by the spirit who inhabits the lake. This particular chapter was chilling, since Jhary himself (who judging by his behavior in this book has seen enough to be okay with virtually anything) is disturbed and deeply affected by the screams and pleas of the voices in the lake (hence the name).
I cannot say much more about this book. Anything that drew my attention I have already discussed it (in more length and probably depth) in my review of The Knight of the Swords. Overall, I liked this second book a little more than the first if only because The Queen of the Swords was much easier to read and get through, and it is more fun because of the almost non-stop action.
This should be a relatively short review (at least for me).
Part One: Overview
I rounded up the star rating to four, because I considered this book to be better than the previous one. The Queen of the Swords picks up a few months after the previous book, and once the story gets going, it doesn't stop until the end. The second book of Corum does a great job of expanding the world, and is quite good at world building for such a short novel. The story increases the stakes in this middle volume, since now Corum and company are battling against the Queen of the Swords herself, a more powerful Goddess of Chaos than Arioch in the first book. And this conflict takes Corum, Rhalina and Jhary to the Five Planes that the Queen rules. And it is here that I must address something that I brought up in my review of The Knight of the Swords: this book, in regards to its imagery and settings, could well have been written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I read another review that made the same comparison, so I know I'm not alone in drawing this parallel. Or parallels, since there are several. Once more, the settings are as alien as Burroughs's Barsoom, with some bizarre elements at which the reader can't help but be fascinated. I'll detail these elements in my spoiler section below. And more than its predecessor, The Queen of the Swords is much more action-driven, with Corum and his fellows going from battle to confrontation to showdown. We get to see more of Corum's Summoning power, which was one of the things I found most interesting in the first book.
Another parallel I'd like to draw is, surprisingly, to the young adult book series Deltora. Much like Corum, Deltora is almost insane in its settings. The creatures that Emily Rodda (the author of the Deltora series) describes and invents are so strange and bizarre in their own unique way that, even if they're grotesque and evil, I can't help but love them. Likewise, Moorcock does something similar in this book, bringing to light creatures that are as nonsensical and illogical, whose evolutionary history would drive Darwin to insanity, that I simply want to know more about them. Some of these creatures are named and even described to some extent, through Jhary who, being the Companion to Champions, has seen most of them before. This is perhaps what I liked most about this second volume in the Corum series: it doesn't shy away from the strange and even capitalizes on the fear of the unknown (more detail below). I've read primarily modern fantasy, and one thing I've noticed most authors do is try to normalize the fantastic, they attempt to make the awe-inspiring and uncanny more grounded. In short, modern fantasy mainly tries to mirror our world. The Corum books so far, as far as I can tell, turn our world on its head. Whereas humans are typically the good guys, the ones who know better and can fix whatever problems there exist (LOTR and the Barsoom series have humans dealing with the main conflict), here, humans are the problem. This isn't exactly a new concept, of course. Countless forms of media have utilized humans as the primary antagonists, a type of horde that consumes and destroys, but in most of these mediums there is usually one human who is good, one human who makes it worthwhile to save the rest. Corum's world doesn't work that way. While technically Rhalina and her people are of the Mabden race (humans), the barbarians and their atrocities make me want to side with Corum and his people almost exclusively. This theme isn't exactly dominant in this book, but it was a big part of the beginning of Knight.
I really don't have that much to say about Queen of the Swords, so I'll end the Overview here. It's a good piece of the Corum series, and I'm already looking forward to reading the third. It's a really fun, action fantasy with enough steampunk-like science fiction to make it uniquely its own.
Part Two: Spoilers
First, I'll address the parallels I found with the Barsoom series. Corum, much like John Carter, has certain enhanced abilities that give him status and power over most. Both encounter otherworldly creatures that couldn't even be found in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Specifically, the creatures that chant and sing before they attack (these are maybe on the same level of strangeness as the Plant Men of Mars), and the Ghanh, which was described as a flying monster with the head of a shark. And both of them go into an ultimately alien world and both resolve most of their conflicts through fighting, though neither of them particularly enjoys bloodshed. Corum leaves his own Five Planes, recently released from the malicious rule of Arioch by Corum himself, and goes to the Queen of the Swords's realm. Unlike Corum's own world, however, the Queen's Five Planes are absolute chaos. The land is blasted and there is no clear measure of time, since the Queen stopped the sun in its tracks. In these Five Planes, two specific adventures were quite memorable to me: The Lake of Voices and the Plain of Blood.
In several works of fantasy, it's been said that a battle was so-and-so brutal, and that the ground was drenched in blood. But the assumption is usually that the fields eventually recuperated. In the Queen's realm, there is an entire desert of red dust that is actually the dried blood of the fallen mortals who died in battle. This was both harrowing and chilling. While it's mentioned that this was a full battle between Law and Chaos, I found myself intrigued to find out why this battle occurred at all. Through this plain runs a milk-white river, which is allegedly the blood of the gods who fought in the battle. Since they're gods, however, their spilled blood doesn't dry up.
The Lake of Voices is what firmly reminded of me Rodda's Deltora. While Deltora is aimed to a much younger audience and it clearly isn't as dark as Corum, it also has surreal elements of the inexplicable and the fantastic. This lake makes no splashing noises nor ripples, but rather it screams with the voices of all those claimed by the spirit who inhabits the lake. This particular chapter was chilling, since Jhary himself (who judging by his behavior in this book has seen enough to be okay with virtually anything) is disturbed and deeply affected by the screams and pleas of the voices in the lake (hence the name).
I cannot say much more about this book. Anything that drew my attention I have already discussed it (in more length and probably depth) in my review of The Knight of the Swords. Overall, I liked this second book a little more than the first if only because The Queen of the Swords was much easier to read and get through, and it is more fun because of the almost non-stop action.
isauldur's review against another edition
3.0
Note: Below, my review is split into two parts. The first gives my general thoughts on the book and series, and the second details spoilers and major plot points. Be warned.
Part One: Overview
First of all, I have to say that the first few chapters of this book were actually painful to read. Just from the setting and from the events described, the book grants a sense of both urgency and complacency that makes the reader (or at least me) cringe with what happens. I cannot place this book, and the 3-star rating should be evidence of it. The writing style is certainly good, and the story is one that we've seen before several times, but it's done with such a crude passion that I can't help but enjoy it. And yet, I cannot say that I loved the book. Perhaps the worst part is that I cannot even say why. The synopsis at the back of the book is not very descriptive, and I'd done little research regarding the Corum series prior to starting The Knight of the Swords, so for the first half I had absolutely no idea of what kind of story I was reading nor where it was going.
The main character, Prince Corum, is a strange one to say the least. Something that fascinated me while reading this is that through the eyes of Corum, a being who is not human, we get to see the Mabden (or Men) as something utterly alien. This is something that many films have attempted before (Avatar, Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas), where we are supposed to look at our own humanity and see the flaws. For the first half of this novel, through some very clever and crude imagery, I got the sense that even though these people are of my kind (humans), I did not want to be associated with them. The line between Mabden and Vadhagh is so clearly drawn that even in my mind Corum, despite looking like a human and displaying human traits, was an altogether different entity.
Another thing that I found strange and even surprising is the fact that Moorcock captures the sense of loss and despair that Tolkien attempted to portray with his elves. The feeling that something beautiful is forever lost, that the old time of plenty and merriment are gone forever. That we cannot do absolutely anything against the tides of time. This sensation I felt much stronger while reading Corum than I did while reading The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps it is because of the crudeness that Moorcock refuses to shy away from that he captured the urgency and the darkness a little better. The grief of loss and the burning of hatred are both depicted very deeply in this novel.
But so far I have only talked about the first half of the book. The second half is very, very different in tone from the first half. The plot moves from a terrifying, almost nihilistic quest for revenge to a romance and then onto a mixture of John Carter's travels on Barsoom and Ulysses's voyages in the Odyssey (I will discuss the specific elements in my spoiler section below). And this, too, I found fascinating. The way that Moorcock shifted the focus from one type of story to another almost seamlessly is quite impressive.
A final point before delving into spoilers, I must state that the history of his world, the races of beings that keep getting older and older, that there is always a more ancient race, that even the primordial times are not the true beginning, quite reminded me of Lovercaft and his colossal monsters of the Elder Days. Even Tolkien's world, which has an entire creationist story behind it, feels youthful and lively compared to elder and elder folk in Corum's world.
I recommend it to fans of the abstract, fans of fantasy and fans who appreciate the very blurry, but very real, line between fiction and philosophy.
Part Two: SPOILERS and In-Depth Discussion
I will start with the first half of the book. This was the part that was very difficult for me to read, since there are a couple of torture scenes that, while not very descriptive, are rather crude and harsh. It does not help that we are seeing these through the eyes of Corum who, at this point, has lived his entire life in his family castle. His quest is to go and seek his relatives to see if they know anything about the growing Mabden threat; on the way, Corum learns that there is a group of men who want to eradicate the Vadhagh, the race to which Corum belongs. While not an entirely new idea (a brute, savage army coming to kill/destroy the status quo), it is presented in a few different ways throughout the novel. At the beginning, Corum's father hypothesizes that the Mabden have gone through a very quick evolution and then a devolution, going from beats to intelligent beings and then back to savages. This scientific idea is then contrasted with the idea of Chaos vs Order. Near the end of the book, Corum encounters one of the gods of Chaos, the titular Knight of the Swords, and he explains that Order and Chaos used to be balanced, but after a battle Chaos gained the upper hand, banishing the gods of Order. And it is this very chaos that gave rise to the Mabden. The Mabden are razing the older races because such is the cycle of existence. Several times the universe is called blind or deaf, immutable and uncaring. Some races exist, then they stop existing and the universe is none the better or worse for it. Even the Knight of the Swords, a god himself, admits that gods exist because of thought, and thought exists because of the gods (a theme explored in several other fantasy works, American Gods and Small Gods among them). But in this setting, the god himself is aware of this, but doesn't seem to care. Good and evil in the world of Corum are subjective, only a matter of perspective. Even chaos and order are both fine, so long as there exists a balance. The returned entity of order, the Giant, explains this to Corum.
The course of things is that they come and then they go. But there are some temporary exceptions, such as the sorcerer Shool and Corum himself, both the last members of a race no longer in existence. Again, this is something that has been done before, but not in this manner (as far as my literary knowledge extends). Which is why I'm not certain of how exactly to rate this book.
The action is smooth and quick, with some nice scenes of Corum being a fearsome fighter. And the final confrontation with the Knight of the Swords is quite impressive. But I feel that the strongest part of the book, at least thematically, comes from the first third, when Corum loses his hand and eye. It is around this time that the Prince learns what it is to be, for lack of a better word, human. He learns to fight and to kill, to be cruel and cunning, to hate and to seek revenge. But oddly enough, he also learns the good aspects even if he doesn't realize it. He learns compassion from the Brown Man, learns love from Rhalina, a love that he acknowledges shouldn't be valid, but is nonetheless. It's ultimately this love that leads him to make a deal with Shool the sorcerer and to travel to strange (in almost every meaning of the word) lands and to ultimately face off against a god.
I'd like to now get into the strange lands. I compared this section of the book to both the Odyssey and Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom series. He travels by sea, and in those travels he comes across a ghost ship (reminiscent of the Flying Dutchman), a sorcerer on a strange island inhabited by semi-sentient plants (reminiscent of Calypso's island upon which Ulysses is marooned), a giant walking on the ocean dragging a net behind him (which wouldn't seem out of place in a Greek epic), and the strange round-eyed folk who try to poison Corum. These last are the ones that reminded me of John Carter the most, because here we have an almost entirely alien race that, somehow, evolved into existence. And while they are courteous to Corum, ultimately his almost superhuman deeds are what save him and another prisoner. The otherworldliness of this entire sequence brought to mind the beginning of The Gods of Mars, where Carter and his friend, Tars Tarkas encounter the "plant men," by far the oddest creatures on the face of Mars. Likewise here, we seem to leap from a harsh, yet typical, fantasy into a pulp science-fantasy story, with talks about pandimensional vision and existence, cosmic entities and creatures that may well be from a different planet.
His usage of his god's eye and hand almost gave me the sense of a videogame, where the main character can summon a type of helper from a separate dimension. And this is exactly what Corum does. He peers into a separate plane and beckons strange creatures to aid him in battle. This is perhaps the most intriguing part in my opinion, because it opens the possibility that nothing is ever destroyed. He summons four hooded figures who kill several foes, and when he summons aid once more, it is the defeated foes who obey him. The novel explored much of the dimensions and multi-dimensional existence, but hardly touches on the subject of death or a potential afterlife. And given the setting that Mr. Moorcock cooked up in this novel, I think it would be very interesting to see if anything comes of it.
Finally, the ending: It is almost a happily-ever-after ending, with Corum and his partner sailing back home. This is a heavy contrast to the beginning of the novel, where Corum is driven and fully consumed by hatred and thirst for revenge and a brutal desire to kill the man who maimed him. At the end, he understands that he will have to face his torturer and that he will most likely have to fight him, but he acknowledges that he no longer desperately seeks his vengeance. But the way this is fitting is that, given the setting of an immutable universe, this ending is not a happily-ever-after, but rather a happily-until-the-gods-decide-otherwise-or-the-universe-changes-again.
I greatly enjoyed this novel, but I cannot entirely say why. While the things I discussed above certainly were a part of it, there's something odd about it that I cannot put my finger on. Maybe it's the almost dreamlike and surreal imagery in some sections, maybe it's the all-over-the-place, unpredictable plot. Either way, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for something quite out of the ordinary. There's a lot of better fantasy out there, yes. But to that, I say: Corum isn't just fantasy.
Part One: Overview
First of all, I have to say that the first few chapters of this book were actually painful to read. Just from the setting and from the events described, the book grants a sense of both urgency and complacency that makes the reader (or at least me) cringe with what happens. I cannot place this book, and the 3-star rating should be evidence of it. The writing style is certainly good, and the story is one that we've seen before several times, but it's done with such a crude passion that I can't help but enjoy it. And yet, I cannot say that I loved the book. Perhaps the worst part is that I cannot even say why. The synopsis at the back of the book is not very descriptive, and I'd done little research regarding the Corum series prior to starting The Knight of the Swords, so for the first half I had absolutely no idea of what kind of story I was reading nor where it was going.
The main character, Prince Corum, is a strange one to say the least. Something that fascinated me while reading this is that through the eyes of Corum, a being who is not human, we get to see the Mabden (or Men) as something utterly alien. This is something that many films have attempted before (Avatar, Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas), where we are supposed to look at our own humanity and see the flaws. For the first half of this novel, through some very clever and crude imagery, I got the sense that even though these people are of my kind (humans), I did not want to be associated with them. The line between Mabden and Vadhagh is so clearly drawn that even in my mind Corum, despite looking like a human and displaying human traits, was an altogether different entity.
Another thing that I found strange and even surprising is the fact that Moorcock captures the sense of loss and despair that Tolkien attempted to portray with his elves. The feeling that something beautiful is forever lost, that the old time of plenty and merriment are gone forever. That we cannot do absolutely anything against the tides of time. This sensation I felt much stronger while reading Corum than I did while reading The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps it is because of the crudeness that Moorcock refuses to shy away from that he captured the urgency and the darkness a little better. The grief of loss and the burning of hatred are both depicted very deeply in this novel.
But so far I have only talked about the first half of the book. The second half is very, very different in tone from the first half. The plot moves from a terrifying, almost nihilistic quest for revenge to a romance and then onto a mixture of John Carter's travels on Barsoom and Ulysses's voyages in the Odyssey (I will discuss the specific elements in my spoiler section below). And this, too, I found fascinating. The way that Moorcock shifted the focus from one type of story to another almost seamlessly is quite impressive.
A final point before delving into spoilers, I must state that the history of his world, the races of beings that keep getting older and older, that there is always a more ancient race, that even the primordial times are not the true beginning, quite reminded me of Lovercaft and his colossal monsters of the Elder Days. Even Tolkien's world, which has an entire creationist story behind it, feels youthful and lively compared to elder and elder folk in Corum's world.
I recommend it to fans of the abstract, fans of fantasy and fans who appreciate the very blurry, but very real, line between fiction and philosophy.
Part Two: SPOILERS and In-Depth Discussion
I will start with the first half of the book. This was the part that was very difficult for me to read, since there are a couple of torture scenes that, while not very descriptive, are rather crude and harsh. It does not help that we are seeing these through the eyes of Corum who, at this point, has lived his entire life in his family castle. His quest is to go and seek his relatives to see if they know anything about the growing Mabden threat; on the way, Corum learns that there is a group of men who want to eradicate the Vadhagh, the race to which Corum belongs. While not an entirely new idea (a brute, savage army coming to kill/destroy the status quo), it is presented in a few different ways throughout the novel. At the beginning, Corum's father hypothesizes that the Mabden have gone through a very quick evolution and then a devolution, going from beats to intelligent beings and then back to savages. This scientific idea is then contrasted with the idea of Chaos vs Order. Near the end of the book, Corum encounters one of the gods of Chaos, the titular Knight of the Swords, and he explains that Order and Chaos used to be balanced, but after a battle Chaos gained the upper hand, banishing the gods of Order. And it is this very chaos that gave rise to the Mabden. The Mabden are razing the older races because such is the cycle of existence. Several times the universe is called blind or deaf, immutable and uncaring. Some races exist, then they stop existing and the universe is none the better or worse for it. Even the Knight of the Swords, a god himself, admits that gods exist because of thought, and thought exists because of the gods (a theme explored in several other fantasy works, American Gods and Small Gods among them). But in this setting, the god himself is aware of this, but doesn't seem to care. Good and evil in the world of Corum are subjective, only a matter of perspective. Even chaos and order are both fine, so long as there exists a balance. The returned entity of order, the Giant, explains this to Corum.
The course of things is that they come and then they go. But there are some temporary exceptions, such as the sorcerer Shool and Corum himself, both the last members of a race no longer in existence. Again, this is something that has been done before, but not in this manner (as far as my literary knowledge extends). Which is why I'm not certain of how exactly to rate this book.
The action is smooth and quick, with some nice scenes of Corum being a fearsome fighter. And the final confrontation with the Knight of the Swords is quite impressive. But I feel that the strongest part of the book, at least thematically, comes from the first third, when Corum loses his hand and eye. It is around this time that the Prince learns what it is to be, for lack of a better word, human. He learns to fight and to kill, to be cruel and cunning, to hate and to seek revenge. But oddly enough, he also learns the good aspects even if he doesn't realize it. He learns compassion from the Brown Man, learns love from Rhalina, a love that he acknowledges shouldn't be valid, but is nonetheless. It's ultimately this love that leads him to make a deal with Shool the sorcerer and to travel to strange (in almost every meaning of the word) lands and to ultimately face off against a god.
I'd like to now get into the strange lands. I compared this section of the book to both the Odyssey and Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom series. He travels by sea, and in those travels he comes across a ghost ship (reminiscent of the Flying Dutchman), a sorcerer on a strange island inhabited by semi-sentient plants (reminiscent of Calypso's island upon which Ulysses is marooned), a giant walking on the ocean dragging a net behind him (which wouldn't seem out of place in a Greek epic), and the strange round-eyed folk who try to poison Corum. These last are the ones that reminded me of John Carter the most, because here we have an almost entirely alien race that, somehow, evolved into existence. And while they are courteous to Corum, ultimately his almost superhuman deeds are what save him and another prisoner. The otherworldliness of this entire sequence brought to mind the beginning of The Gods of Mars, where Carter and his friend, Tars Tarkas encounter the "plant men," by far the oddest creatures on the face of Mars. Likewise here, we seem to leap from a harsh, yet typical, fantasy into a pulp science-fantasy story, with talks about pandimensional vision and existence, cosmic entities and creatures that may well be from a different planet.
His usage of his god's eye and hand almost gave me the sense of a videogame, where the main character can summon a type of helper from a separate dimension. And this is exactly what Corum does. He peers into a separate plane and beckons strange creatures to aid him in battle. This is perhaps the most intriguing part in my opinion, because it opens the possibility that nothing is ever destroyed. He summons four hooded figures who kill several foes, and when he summons aid once more, it is the defeated foes who obey him. The novel explored much of the dimensions and multi-dimensional existence, but hardly touches on the subject of death or a potential afterlife. And given the setting that Mr. Moorcock cooked up in this novel, I think it would be very interesting to see if anything comes of it.
Finally, the ending: It is almost a happily-ever-after ending, with Corum and his partner sailing back home. This is a heavy contrast to the beginning of the novel, where Corum is driven and fully consumed by hatred and thirst for revenge and a brutal desire to kill the man who maimed him. At the end, he understands that he will have to face his torturer and that he will most likely have to fight him, but he acknowledges that he no longer desperately seeks his vengeance. But the way this is fitting is that, given the setting of an immutable universe, this ending is not a happily-ever-after, but rather a happily-until-the-gods-decide-otherwise-or-the-universe-changes-again.
I greatly enjoyed this novel, but I cannot entirely say why. While the things I discussed above certainly were a part of it, there's something odd about it that I cannot put my finger on. Maybe it's the almost dreamlike and surreal imagery in some sections, maybe it's the all-over-the-place, unpredictable plot. Either way, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for something quite out of the ordinary. There's a lot of better fantasy out there, yes. But to that, I say: Corum isn't just fantasy.
smiorganbaldhead's review against another edition
4.0
Closer to 3.5 stars. Not quite as compelling at the first book, but still very enjoyable. I really liked how the story used Corum’s magical eye, and I liked Gaynor’s appearance in the book. The end felt a bit deus ex machina (literally), but the way it was explained tied in to the themes of the story and foreshadowing, making it work well enough. Still, as I read this one, the struggle against the invading forces of chaos reminded me a lot of Stormbringer, but without the same impact. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s the lack of Elric’s sense of doom and dread. While Corum’s stories can be very dark at times (e.g. the summoning of the dog and the bear), they feel more upbeat than Elric, especially with Jhary becoming a major character. I’ll see if that trend continues later in the series.
apostrophel's review against another edition
5.0
The Corum series builds an incredibly cool fantasy world with weird creatures, gods, quests and multiple planes of existance. The single drawback of the series is that it doesn't pass the Bechdel test. The only memorable female character is the wife and lover of the main character who dosn't say or do much... The books are still fantastic in my opinion.
wdomingue's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting tie-in with the Elric series. A bit hard to follow early on, but I'm definitely hooked enough to want to continue to the series. Onward! Corum of the Red Robe!
wdomingue's review against another edition
4.0
Exceeded my expectations. Very impressive how Moorcock is able to build out these big worlds and grand stories with so few words. The character crossover in this also made my jaw drop. 2/2 so far in the Corum books.