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A review by zoey222
The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock
1.0
I read this book because it is mentioned as a direct inspiration for Attack on Titan. As such, I was expecting a grim story concerned with a besieged and desperate human race. While this book eventually got around to being somewhat grim, it lacks any resemblance to AoT. The creator for AoT seems to have been inspired by the vague concept of this story, and little more.
Funny enough, The Stormlight Archives uses the entirety of this story as its premise. As such, this book is essentially a Stormlight Spoiler. Sanderson did a direct rip of the world building, I kid you not. I wont go into detail about that here, because Moorcock did it first and I am not critiquing Sanderson here. It is the plot that makes this novel bad.
Massive plot holes are the ultimate undoing to this tale. The core motivations of the characters do not match the realities portrayed by the author. Major characters with literally a million years of history make decisions that go against that established set of values. For example, the human race is apparently desperate to defeat the demons. They are so desperate that they call upon the myth of a champion. And yet, throughout the entire story, humans do nothing but win, and the eternal champion has no direct influence on these "decisive" battles. If you were to remove the eternal champion from the story, humanity would have brutally stomped the Eldren, no question. The champion is along for the ride and kills basically no one for the first three battles. Thus, the stakes do not exist. Why do we care whether the humans win or not if they are steamrolling on easy mode?
It gets stupider. The Eldren are a pacifist race who possess nuclear sci-fi weapons that would destroy humanity in an instant. They owned these for a million years, and chose not to use them, even during this book when 90% of their race is decimated. Then, at the end, the eternal champion switches sides to the Eldren, and THE ELDREN JUST GIVE THIS RANDOM WHITE DUDE WHO IS THE FIGURE HEAD OF THEIR ENTIRE RACE'S DECIMATION CONTROL OF THE NUCLEAR WEAPONRY. AND HE MURDERS THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE. AND THE ELDREN DONT FEEL REMORSE OR ANGER ABOUT IT. THEY WANT THE RANDOM WHITE DUDE TO BANG THEIR QUEEN AFTERWARDS.
It just makes no sense. This story is supported by complete logical falsity. What a waste of time.
Along the way the author makes the tired sexist remarks that are common in pre 2000's media, and he has no understanding of love. He interprets infatuation and lust as love, and the main character falls in love with literally every cute girl he sees. I am not kidding. Any girl the main character interacts with, he explicitly states that he both loves her as a daughter and as a lover. Its just the cherry on top of this stupid sundae.
Funny enough, The Stormlight Archives uses the entirety of this story as its premise. As such, this book is essentially a Stormlight Spoiler. Sanderson did a direct rip of the world building, I kid you not. I wont go into detail about that here, because Moorcock did it first and I am not critiquing Sanderson here. It is the plot that makes this novel bad.
Massive plot holes are the ultimate undoing to this tale. The core motivations of the characters do not match the realities portrayed by the author. Major characters with literally a million years of history make decisions that go against that established set of values. For example, the human race is apparently desperate to defeat the demons. They are so desperate that they call upon the myth of a champion. And yet, throughout the entire story, humans do nothing but win, and the eternal champion has no direct influence on these "decisive" battles. If you were to remove the eternal champion from the story, humanity would have brutally stomped the Eldren, no question. The champion is along for the ride and kills basically no one for the first three battles. Thus, the stakes do not exist. Why do we care whether the humans win or not if they are steamrolling on easy mode?
It gets stupider. The Eldren are a pacifist race who possess nuclear sci-fi weapons that would destroy humanity in an instant. They owned these for a million years, and chose not to use them, even during this book when 90% of their race is decimated. Then, at the end, the eternal champion switches sides to the Eldren, and THE ELDREN JUST GIVE THIS RANDOM WHITE DUDE WHO IS THE FIGURE HEAD OF THEIR ENTIRE RACE'S DECIMATION CONTROL OF THE NUCLEAR WEAPONRY. AND HE MURDERS THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE. AND THE ELDREN DONT FEEL REMORSE OR ANGER ABOUT IT. THEY WANT THE RANDOM WHITE DUDE TO BANG THEIR QUEEN AFTERWARDS.
It just makes no sense. This story is supported by complete logical falsity. What a waste of time.
Along the way the author makes the tired sexist remarks that are common in pre 2000's media, and he has no understanding of love. He interprets infatuation and lust as love, and the main character falls in love with literally every cute girl he sees. I am not kidding. Any girl the main character interacts with, he explicitly states that he both loves her as a daughter and as a lover. Its just the cherry on top of this stupid sundae.