'The Bull and the Spear' – Michael Moorcock (Quartet Books)

I really didn't read a lot over Christmas and the New Year but I did manage to read a little; mostly comic books (all I was good for really) but a couple of comfort reads too. That was pretty much the whole reason I started on the next 'Corum' trilogy, I've read them before and I know that I'll get a lot out of the read. That and the fact that 'Elric' really hasn't been working for me but I still wanted to get some 'Eternal Champion' action. It all just came together really and these books will likely end up being my first series 're-read' of the year. Elric? We'll see...

For now though, lets have a little chat about 'The Bull and the Spear' and what happens to heroes with too much time on their hands...

In the ancient Castle Erorn, Corum of the Scarlet Robe dwells in isolation and sorrow. He has out-lived his great love, Rhalina, and is tormented by voices in his dreams--a crowd of shadowy figures chanting his name. Unable to ignore their calls for help any longer, he will travel through eons of time to an age of tragedy, where the people of Tuha-na-Cremm Croich, descendants of Rhalina, are persecuted by the giant gods of the Cold Folk.

A great black bull has the power needed to defeat the monsters of a new age. But to tame the bull, the Eternal Champion must travel to the fatally beautiful island of Hy-Breasail to find the invincible and magical Spear Bryionak...

So you're a hero and not only have you rescued your love, you've also gone and given your people a world without gods (quite by accident but that's just how it went); a world where people can live without fear of things that they brought into being themselves (because people are weird, aren't they?) Congratulations, you are Corum.

There is a downside though in that you have hundreds of years of life left while your great love doesn't. And therein lies the question that Moorcock has for us. What does a hero do next when he has nothing left to fight for? There are some things that you can't rescue your love from, what do you do with that time?

Well, the answer is is obvious in it's own way. The Eternal Champion never knows rest so you just know that a quest (or battle) is on the horizon; and suprise (!), Corum is summoned through time to fight for the descendants of Rhalina against the Fhoi Myore. What makes this particular quest stand out for me though is that having spent three books freeing humanity from gods, Corum turns up only to find that his name passed into legend and that he is now seen as a demi-god at the very least. I like how Moorcock turns everything round here and shows us, once again, that he loves to make things as difficult as possible for his heroes. The whole point of Moorcock's heroes is that they never have it easy, being a hero is something where you must really pay the price and it will take a big bite out of who you are. Corum seems to be the one hero who adapts to this the quickest. There's a job to be done and Corum just knuckles down and gets it done. He has always been a 'fish out of water' and that's definitely the case here as he is quite literally a man out of time. Corum sees what needs to be done though and just goes about doing it, no matter what. I can't help but respect that.

The book itself is structurally very similar to the first trilogy, quests and cliffhangers push the plot forwards (and Medbh, Corum just can't help himself...) It has a rich vein of Celtic imagery running through it though that, for me, makes the book stand out in its own right and feel like it's going to keep delivering, on that score, in book two.

And that's pretty much what you get when you're reviewing a book that's only a hundred and fifty pages long. Once you've revisited Corum himself, there's not a lot to say about the rest of the book other than it does what it needs to and (I think) does it very well. Bring on the next book though, just give me a few days to get to it.