The Dreamthief's Daughter

April 9, 2001
In this latest installment in his multivolume saga of the Eternal Champion, Moorcock (War Amongst the Angels) teams his favorite hero, the melancholy albino swordsman Elric of Melnibon , with Count Ulric von Bek, the last in a line of German noblemen who have made several previous appearances in the series. War is in the offing, and Hitler, having learned that the von Bek family may own both an enchanted sword and the Holy Grail itself, sends SS Major Gaynor von Minct to take possession of these mystical relics so they may be used to further the cause of the Third Reich. Von Bek and Gaynor, however, are merely the current earthly avatars of the Eternal Champion and one of his greatest foes; they are knights fighting in the causes, respectively, of Chaos and Law, in innumerable, gorgeously described, alternate realities. Von Bek and Elric, aided by the book's title character, a female archer who can take the shape of a white hare, must confront a variety of gods and monsters in an effort to preserve the balance of the Multiverse, which stands in dire danger of falling under Gaynor's control. Over the years Moorcock has produced a number of highly original genre and mainstream novels. In the Eternal Champion series, however, he has essentially been writing well-done variations on the same story for decades, gradually polishing his stylistic skill and occasionally making veiled allusions to contemporary political events. There's nothing particularly new here, but fans of the series should enjoy this addition.

April 15, 2001
When the Nazis attempt to acquire Count Ulric von Bek's legendary sword, Ravenbrand, he finds himself engaged in a battle against occult forces to prevent the heirloom weapon from falling into the wrong hands. At the same time, in another dimension, Elric of Melnibone attempts to keep his own sword, Stormbringer, from falling into the hands of a mad tyrant. Returning to his popular "Eternal Champion" cycle of novels, Moorcock tells a tale of two worlds and two heroes whose deeds have the power to save or destroy the multiverse. The author's flair for combining fast-paced action with metaphysical adventure results in a topnotch fantasy adventure that belongs in most libraries.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2001
Moorcock stalwarts, rejoice! The Eternal Champion is back, and the series in which different incarnations of him figure--the von Bek books and the chronicles of Elric of Melnibone--merge. Moorcock lays the foundations of this book's particular alternate world by reviewing the prehistory of Nazi Germany, after which Count Ulric von Bek relates Hitler's assumption of power and how otherworldly powers aided and resisted him. Ulric allies with the beautiful and magical dreamthief's daughter, Oona, and Emperor Elric of Melnibone, who is Ulric himself in another time period of the "multiverse" of Moorcock's fiction. They aim to destroy Gaynor the Damned, the human agent of pure evil, in all his many incarnations. Aided by the enchanted swords Ravenbrand and Stormbringer, the trio manipulate time and events and come toe-to-toe with the gods in their attempt to rebalance the multiverse. Although slow and uneven at times, the book is so full of magic and mystery, and its bad guys meet such satisfyingly gory ends, that it is still quite a romp.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)