Corum - The Knight of Swords: The Eternal Champion

If you're looking at a review of this book, then perhaps you haven't read any of Michael Moorcock's fantasy work. Don't feel bad, despite being a life-long fan of the genre, it's only recently I was introduced to Moorcock's Eternal Champion of the Multiverse by a co-worker. Corum - The Knight of Swords was my first, and in my opinion is a great starting point.From the opening introduction, I couldn't put it down and within a couple of days I'd finished it and purchased the 2nd part of the trilogy. Corum, not being a human (called Mabden in this book) has a fairly unique perspective compared with the average fantasy protagonist. Without giving too much away, Corum deals with A LOT of hardship early on in the book (reminded me a bit of the Malus Darkblade stories, a character that was clearly heavily inspired by Moorcock's characters like Elric and Corum) and these hardships act as a catalyst for his quest.Throughout Corum's journey he meets unique creatures and explores acid-trip inspired landscapes, but it never gets too "trippy" to follow. The pacing of the story is fairly quick, and though some of the names of characters and locations (Glandyth-a-Krae, Lwym an Esh, Xiombarg, etc) can be difficult to pronounce/hard to retain, they don't detract from an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable story.In closing, if you're a fan of fantasy, and don't mind some dark/sad portions of a story, I highly recommend this book!

"The Knight of the Swords" by Michael Moorcock - Corum series book 1 (fantasy - novel - September 12, 2015 - 0636) This is a deceivingly effortless book to read bur near impossible to put aside. The text has a fairy tale quality to it - unprincipled human barbarians defile goodness and purity represented by an elder race of beings - righteous displeasure transforms into a fiery desire for vengeance. Prince Corum is grossly disfigured by the barbarian leader. He narrowly evades death before escaping to another plane of reality where wickedness rules and evil bargains are negotiated resulting in unanticipated grim consequences. Thus begins an intricate and frightfully elegance series of stories of manic egos, occult realms, loathsome Chaos Lords and the eternal tug of war between Chaos and Law. To say this is an extraordinary book is an understatement. "The Knight of the Swords" is book 1 in the six book series "Corum" by Michael Moorcock. This title was the recipient of the Best Novel award in 1972 from the British Fantasy Association. Titan Books has recently reissued these books in attractive trade paperback editions. I have purchased the entire Corum set and look forward to several evenings of following Prince Corum's tribulations as he confronts the Lords of Chaos.

Moorcock's brisk pace, wild imagination, trippy imagery, and unique sense of world building are on full display. A couple of things hold this one back, though. For one, the attempt at racial allegory with the prejudices suffered by Corum's vanishing people at the hands of those filthy, ignorant, barbaric humans reads oddly more like a 1%er apologist's tone deaf comprehension of class rage. Relatedly, among the incarnations of the Eternal Champion, Corum's a bit insipid and hard to buy as a capable hero. I typically do dig Moorcock, and these are fast reads, so I might give the second volume a shot to see if Corum improves.

Corum the Un-Human, yet cultural-ed un-human being is mutilated yet has ambiguously powerful limbs and eyes grafted onto him. Without spoiling anything I can say that Corum was not aware of the properties of his "gifts" that function for his lost eye and hand when the graft was made to/on him. And the bizarre nature of how the eye and hand function is a fascinating conflict that would be horrifying if a reader puts themselves in Corums place (especially horrifying if the reader is devoted to one of the religions that eschew all associations with artefacts of the kind these certainly are. Moorcock creates this type of conflict (quite famously) in his Elric of Melnibone' character and his semi-sentient sword. Stormbringer.( a great cover of the song "Black Blade" is on the Extraterrestrial Live Album by Blue Oyster Cult... for a rock song synopsis of the appeal that relationship has with readers worldwide) ..updated 10/2/16... Et Carter

Wow. Never read this one. Totally delivers. I think it might be stronger than Mad God's Amulet series. Some Elric adjacent ideas. Strong ending and structure allow it to work as a standalone. Or first in trilogy. Read it!

This book was everything I expected and everything I forgot. I've read most of the Elric books. I love reading sword and spell fantasy and he delivered. Yet I forgot how Moorecock's stories make one think so deeply. At one point I was irritated by the seriousness, but I had to continue, and now I am sad the book is over. It is strange. I love William King's Gotrek and Felix, and Kormak and how fun they are, but they don't punch me in the heart like Moorecock's stories do (even though King's are easier to get into). Mr. Moorecock if you're reading this, thank you! You will be legend soon. Also, Jesus is Lord, not Arioch ;)))

I read this book as a teenager and thought I’d take a look at it again. It has a nice character arc, introduces a world that touches a multitude of dimensions, various mystical arts, and capricious gods. The writing was excellent and compelling. The only downside is the price. I thought I was getting the first three books. Eight dollars for a two hundred something page book that is decades old is steep.

I've been a fan of Michael Moorcock for decades, and I'm happy to report that his works still stand the test of time. While Elric was always my favorite of the Eternal Champions, Corum was a very close 2nd. Great origin story, great character, and great book!

Great writer, good plot and characters...not perfect...but good!

A good sword and sorcery book.

This was a gift and the person was very happy to read this book.