'The Eternal Champion' – Michael Moorcock (Titan)

I know I said I'd be reading more 'Elric' but remember that post about the 'Reading Slump' (last week)? Well, 'The Eternal Champion' was one of the books that I ended up getting into while trying to beat that slump and I actually managed to finish it so figured it should have it's time on the blog.

For the record, I'm still in the middle of that slump but it's not like I don't have enough interesting books to read so I'm going to beat the slump, one book at a time...

But back to 'The Eternal Champion'... It has literally been years since I read this book and all I could really remember about it was, well... not a lot really. So I got reading and while 'The Eternal Champion' ended up being really easy to get into, I found out the hard way why I didn't really remember much about it. Turns out that there isn't an awful lot to remember, certainly not in terms of the supposed hero himself anyway...

John Daker dreams of other worlds, and a name: Erekosë. He finds the strength to answer the call, travelling to a strange land ruled by the aging King Rigenos of Necranal. Humanity is united in a desperate fight against the inhuman Eldren, and he must fight with them. But the actions of his brethren turns his loyalties, and as Erekosë he will take a terrible revenge.

So, 'The Eternal Champion'... A book that will end up staying on my shelf but also a book that I can't see myself reading all that often now that I've read it again. A book that does everything that you'd expect from a Moorcock fantasy but isn't as gripping as a 'Corum' or 'Elric' read; at least, not to me. Not every book is going to work for a reader but I thought I was onto a sure thing here so... what happened?

It's sadly ironic that the one thing that I think holds this book back is the man that it's all built around; John Daker himself, the Eternal Champion... erm, Prime? Eternal Champion Number One? Whatever you want to call it, he is the root incarnation of all of them; he's got all their memories in his head and he's about to fight a war where humanity will fall if he fails. It's a solid concept (of all the incarnations of the Eternal Champion, there has to be one who was the first, right?), it's a shame then that John Daker just can't live up to it.

I'm not expecting Superman but you would have thought that Daker/Erekose wouldn't have this constant 'internal whine' going on. Corum goes out and gets stuff done, even Elric is capable of reacting to events; Erekose though... he lets stuff happen to him and then agonises about it afterwards. Personally, I'm surprised that he was able to fight to war without hiding in his tent and pondering whether any of it was real... Erekose seems perfectly able to make all the right moves with the ladies though and happily forget that he has left a wife and child behind... Funny, that.

And Erekose is so suggestible... King Rigenos tells him that the Eldren are evil and Erekose is full of righteous anger and wants to kill Eldren. Then Prince Arjavh tells him that the Eldren aren't actually evil and Erekose is all about making peace. It doesn't take a lot to change his mind after that, and then change it back again. Erekose is incapable of taking responsibility and making his own decisions, whoever happens to be talking at the time will have his sword and that's the end of it. There's nothing even remotely heroic about someone who has to be told to be heroic and that's why, for me, the story never really makes it to where it wants to go. By the time Erekose gets over himself enough to be able to make the big decision... well, it was too late for this reader.

To be honest, I much preferred Erekose's cameos in the 'Elric' books where you get a real sense of torment in a man who is so much more than he appears. That just isn't evident here though.

There is a lot of other cool stuff going on, most of it around that happy knack Moorcock has of being able to seemingly just click his fingers and create a world totally alien yet with echoes of our own to hang on to. The battle scenes as well... You know roughly how it is going to end but there's just enough uncertainty there to keep you reading. I like that.

It's enough to get you into this world tht Erekose has found himself in but unfortunately not enough to carry things by itself. It was never meant to though, that was Erekose's job.

You can see the ambition that 'The Eternal Champion' has in the questions that it asks of it's 'hero'. Erekose is no hero though, not really, and the book feels strangely flat as a result. I will keep reading though and am hoping for better things from 'Phoenix in Obsidian'.