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Eternal Champion #15
Count Brass
Count Count Brass; Champion of Garathorm; Quest for Tanelorn (Tale of the Eternal Champion Vol. 14) Moorcock, Michael
512 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
8 people are currently reading
509 people want to read
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,209 books3,756 followersMichael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 28, 2019
' THE SECOND COMING OF THE DARK EMPIRE
It has been five years since the great heroes served the Runestaff and ended the Dark Empire at the Battle of Londra, but Dorian Hawkmoon and his beautiful wife, Yisselda, still mourn Yisselda's father, the noble Count Brass who was slain there. Yet now, the people of Aigues-Mortes are turning against Hawkmoon, and ugly rumors that he has betrayed Count Brass grow rampant.
And so it is that Dorian Hawkmoon, Duke of Koln, rides out one night to clear his name by meeting a ghost, only to discover a cadre of living dead men - and suddenly finds himself forced to embark on a quest in the most dangerous of netherworlds to reclaim his own life... and the woman he loves... '
Blurb from the 1973 Del Rey paperback edition
This rather brief beginning to Hawkmoon's further adventures sees the dead return in various ways from the parallel spaces and times of the multiverse.
Hawkmoon, following his part in the fall of King Huon and the evil Empire of Gtanbretan, has retired to his home in the Kamarg, a popular hero.
However, several locals have apparently recently encountered the ghost of Count Brass, Hawkmoon's friend and fighting companion.
The dead Count is apparently blaming Hawkmoon for his death.
Upon confronting the ghost, Hawkmoon discovers him to be a much younger Count Brass, confused as to his time and place. It transpires that not all the Lords of Granbretan were vanquished and one has kidnapped Hawkmoon's companions from parallel timelines, and has brainwashed them into trying to assassinate Hawkmoon, his ultimate aim being to restore the Granbretan Empire.
It shadows Burroughs in many ways with its plot of teaming with allies and setting off on a quest, with pursuits and battles along the way.
This is a darker, more sharpened version, though. John Carter of Mars (who I suddenly realise carries the eponymous JC initials boasted by many of the incarnations of The Eternal Champion) inevitably returned back with his posse of companions intact. With Moorcock, they mostly die.
Like John Carter on occasions, Hawkmoon has lost his soulmate Yisselda and will now embark on a quest to find her.
It's a very short but fascinating piece. It seems paperbacks have evolved into a larger, heavier species than I recall back in the 70s. Shelves now heave under the weight of Peter F Hamiltons and Alistair Reynolds, and long series of interminable space opera, zooming off into their own endless entropy. It might be interesting to investigate how much publishers are pressured into fostering and marketing trilogies and series rather than stand alone novels. Certainly, the major awards seem to feature far more 'First in the Unobtainium' chronicles than they used to.
Is it merely publishing strategy or in response to our current obsessions with episodic TV, or have they evolved in tandem with each other?
Sorry to have gone off on a tangent there. Moorcock's multiverse of course is the ultimate series with seemingly every work relating to the others on some level. We can forgive him for that. Moorcock is the David Bowie of genre fiction, continually reinventing his on-page persona of The Eternal Champion, plundering his past for reflections and reinterpretations, always fresh and topical.
Moorcock's series were later generally released in bundled volumes of three or four novels, which is the case with the revised Editions currently on issue.
It has been five years since the great heroes served the Runestaff and ended the Dark Empire at the Battle of Londra, but Dorian Hawkmoon and his beautiful wife, Yisselda, still mourn Yisselda's father, the noble Count Brass who was slain there. Yet now, the people of Aigues-Mortes are turning against Hawkmoon, and ugly rumors that he has betrayed Count Brass grow rampant.
And so it is that Dorian Hawkmoon, Duke of Koln, rides out one night to clear his name by meeting a ghost, only to discover a cadre of living dead men - and suddenly finds himself forced to embark on a quest in the most dangerous of netherworlds to reclaim his own life... and the woman he loves... '
Blurb from the 1973 Del Rey paperback edition
This rather brief beginning to Hawkmoon's further adventures sees the dead return in various ways from the parallel spaces and times of the multiverse.
Hawkmoon, following his part in the fall of King Huon and the evil Empire of Gtanbretan, has retired to his home in the Kamarg, a popular hero.
However, several locals have apparently recently encountered the ghost of Count Brass, Hawkmoon's friend and fighting companion.
The dead Count is apparently blaming Hawkmoon for his death.
Upon confronting the ghost, Hawkmoon discovers him to be a much younger Count Brass, confused as to his time and place. It transpires that not all the Lords of Granbretan were vanquished and one has kidnapped Hawkmoon's companions from parallel timelines, and has brainwashed them into trying to assassinate Hawkmoon, his ultimate aim being to restore the Granbretan Empire.
It shadows Burroughs in many ways with its plot of teaming with allies and setting off on a quest, with pursuits and battles along the way.
This is a darker, more sharpened version, though. John Carter of Mars (who I suddenly realise carries the eponymous JC initials boasted by many of the incarnations of The Eternal Champion) inevitably returned back with his posse of companions intact. With Moorcock, they mostly die.
Like John Carter on occasions, Hawkmoon has lost his soulmate Yisselda and will now embark on a quest to find her.
It's a very short but fascinating piece. It seems paperbacks have evolved into a larger, heavier species than I recall back in the 70s. Shelves now heave under the weight of Peter F Hamiltons and Alistair Reynolds, and long series of interminable space opera, zooming off into their own endless entropy. It might be interesting to investigate how much publishers are pressured into fostering and marketing trilogies and series rather than stand alone novels. Certainly, the major awards seem to feature far more 'First in the Unobtainium' chronicles than they used to.
Is it merely publishing strategy or in response to our current obsessions with episodic TV, or have they evolved in tandem with each other?
Sorry to have gone off on a tangent there. Moorcock's multiverse of course is the ultimate series with seemingly every work relating to the others on some level. We can forgive him for that. Moorcock is the David Bowie of genre fiction, continually reinventing his on-page persona of The Eternal Champion, plundering his past for reflections and reinterpretations, always fresh and topical.
Moorcock's series were later generally released in bundled volumes of three or four novels, which is the case with the revised Editions currently on issue.
January 23, 2008
Michael Moorcock, Count Brass (Berkley, 1973)
Moorcock returns to the world of Hawkmoon and co. in the Chronicles of Castle Brass, a trilogy that might as well be called the fifth, sixth, and seventh Runestaff novels. Here, we have Hawkmoon and Yisselda, the only survivors of the battle of Londra, married for five years, and with two children. During a moment of reflection, Hawkmoon opines that he'd give anything to have his old friend Count Brass, Yisselda's father, back. The story then turns into a "be careful what you wish for" fable, as the townsfolk of Aigues-Mortes start reporting the ghostly figure of Count Brass haunting the town cemetery, swearing to kill Hawkmoon. Hawkmoon goes to meet the challenge, and when he finds Count Brass, the two of them have to figure out why the Count-twenty years younger and unable to remember any of his long association with Hawkmoon-has been sent from the grave to kill his dearest friend.
As with the rest of the series, there is much here to delight the Moorcock fan and more than enough to bring in the lover of sword and sorcery novels who hasn't yet encountered Moorcock somehow. The everpresent typos that marred the DAW editions of the first two Runestaff novels are gone, and so the reader can just let the story flow. And it does. Loads of plane-hopping fun. *** ½
Moorcock returns to the world of Hawkmoon and co. in the Chronicles of Castle Brass, a trilogy that might as well be called the fifth, sixth, and seventh Runestaff novels. Here, we have Hawkmoon and Yisselda, the only survivors of the battle of Londra, married for five years, and with two children. During a moment of reflection, Hawkmoon opines that he'd give anything to have his old friend Count Brass, Yisselda's father, back. The story then turns into a "be careful what you wish for" fable, as the townsfolk of Aigues-Mortes start reporting the ghostly figure of Count Brass haunting the town cemetery, swearing to kill Hawkmoon. Hawkmoon goes to meet the challenge, and when he finds Count Brass, the two of them have to figure out why the Count-twenty years younger and unable to remember any of his long association with Hawkmoon-has been sent from the grave to kill his dearest friend.
As with the rest of the series, there is much here to delight the Moorcock fan and more than enough to bring in the lover of sword and sorcery novels who hasn't yet encountered Moorcock somehow. The everpresent typos that marred the DAW editions of the first two Runestaff novels are gone, and so the reader can just let the story flow. And it does. Loads of plane-hopping fun. *** ½
October 6, 2014
Maybe not the depth of Elric (at least some think so, me I think the depth is there) but it's still a great and "fun" (not sure about that word, but I suppose it fits in some ways. it's hard to break it down as the book has everything from humor to pathos and all within a few pages of each other) read and will suck you in. Hawkmoon is my favorite incarnation of the Eternal Champion.
This book ends in a somewhat more "upbeat way than most other of the Eternal Champion Cycle, adds to the story of more than one "incarnation of the Champion, ties up the Hawkmoon saga and arguably ties up the Eternal Champion Cycle itself.
This book ends in a somewhat more "upbeat way than most other of the Eternal Champion Cycle, adds to the story of more than one "incarnation of the Champion, ties up the Hawkmoon saga and arguably ties up the Eternal Champion Cycle itself.
June 21, 2023
Michael Moorcock caps off his garbled 'Eternal Champion' pseudo series (which, as this book will thoroughly convey, he would really rather have called the 'Champion Eternal' series, but I suppose publishers roll their eyes at the faux medievalist sentence ordering) with a borderline incoherent cosmology starring the decidedly unremarkable Dorian Hawkmoon and several of his other, far cooler and more exciting characters in supporting roles. All of these novels are hampered by the same problem - a respectably ambitious but ultimately poorly achieved desire to elevate the works beyond "mere" fantasy adventure fiction, slick with sweat, leather and fun, into something metaphysical, political, theological and nowadays incredibly trite in its theming.
The first two novels in this book, Count Brass and The Champion of Garathorm, are totally fine adventures - the first is actually a bit naive feeling for Moorcock, not bad but a little lacking in edge, although its conclusion - and the opening to the following story - are enjoyable bitter. The third novel is where things really collapse. We get an ambiguous, stakeless travel/quest full of abstract spacey imagery and a host of briefly introduced, quickly disappearing characters, with little tangible connection to the events preceding it. At the end, there are brief excerpts of both Elric and Corum novels and they remind the reader of stories that are grounded in worlds painted in broad strokes, full of spice and fun and digestible destinies and tragedies, before we are slumped back into the baneful, disappointing conclusion of Tanelorn, where big men wave swords around in a confusingly algebraic climax which involves the balance and man being the master of his own destiny which, when conveyed via a story about totally arbitrarily chosen great men of destiny who save the universe, seems extremely retarded.
When it comes to the bones and sinew of a story, Moorcock knows exactly how to write, he can tell an adventure with the best of them, his characters are witty and fun or dramatic and forlorn, everything just moves with abandon and energy. But when he sets his sights higher, things fall apart, like the errr enfolding conjunctioning intersection spheres of the cosmos or whatever crap he made up to impress the members of Hawkwind after they told him he had, like, just like, figured it all out, man...Stick to Elric! Or Corum! Or grab The War Hound and the World's Pain if you want something a bit less popular!
The first two novels in this book, Count Brass and The Champion of Garathorm, are totally fine adventures - the first is actually a bit naive feeling for Moorcock, not bad but a little lacking in edge, although its conclusion - and the opening to the following story - are enjoyable bitter. The third novel is where things really collapse. We get an ambiguous, stakeless travel/quest full of abstract spacey imagery and a host of briefly introduced, quickly disappearing characters, with little tangible connection to the events preceding it. At the end, there are brief excerpts of both Elric and Corum novels and they remind the reader of stories that are grounded in worlds painted in broad strokes, full of spice and fun and digestible destinies and tragedies, before we are slumped back into the baneful, disappointing conclusion of Tanelorn, where big men wave swords around in a confusingly algebraic climax which involves the balance and man being the master of his own destiny which, when conveyed via a story about totally arbitrarily chosen great men of destiny who save the universe, seems extremely retarded.
When it comes to the bones and sinew of a story, Moorcock knows exactly how to write, he can tell an adventure with the best of them, his characters are witty and fun or dramatic and forlorn, everything just moves with abandon and energy. But when he sets his sights higher, things fall apart, like the errr enfolding conjunctioning intersection spheres of the cosmos or whatever crap he made up to impress the members of Hawkwind after they told him he had, like, just like, figured it all out, man...Stick to Elric! Or Corum! Or grab The War Hound and the World's Pain if you want something a bit less popular!
April 21, 2018
A very satisfying series of reads from Moorcock. The first novel in the collection, *Count Brass*, is perhaps my favorite of the trilogy. The twist ending--the meddling in the timestream resulting in the return of Count Brass at the expense of Yisselda and the children, seemingly turning their memory into Hawkmoon's long fever dream--was poignant and a tragedy worthy of the Eternal Champion. It was almost a shame that the subsequent novels undid the tragedy.
*The Champion of Garathorm* was interesting and refreshing with the look at a female incarnation of the Eternal Champion.
I enjoyed the very humanist message of *The Quest for Tanelorn,* and the view of a hopeful end to the tale of the Eternal Champion, even if it undid for Hawkmoon what was so heartrending in *Count Brass.* After so many tales of the Champion's loss and lack of self-determination, it was gratifying to see the Champion take control of his own destiny. It was also nice to get a more direct explanation of some of the cosmology of the multiverse and of the Black Sword.
*The Champion of Garathorm* was interesting and refreshing with the look at a female incarnation of the Eternal Champion.
I enjoyed the very humanist message of *The Quest for Tanelorn,* and the view of a hopeful end to the tale of the Eternal Champion, even if it undid for Hawkmoon what was so heartrending in *Count Brass.* After so many tales of the Champion's loss and lack of self-determination, it was gratifying to see the Champion take control of his own destiny. It was also nice to get a more direct explanation of some of the cosmology of the multiverse and of the Black Sword.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2018
this is the second tale of hawkmoon and the last in the eternal champion series. whereas hawkmoon was an epic tale of heroic battles, count brass is a psychedelic tale of space and time the end of the universe the conjunction of the million spheres of multiple lifelines and unthinkable sorcery. hawkmoon is pushed in a far stretched quest to find his lost family which is scattered in many parallel existences! Moorcock in his last book of the eternal champion speaks out about his contempt of gods and his sympathy to mankind. it is a sad book a great book a complicated book read it first or it last it doesn't matter the tale is eternal as the champions.
April 14, 2021
Moorcock is a classic of the New Wave. However, I am aware that his plotting was largely extemporaneous and it shows. He's a legend for sure, but I'm not sure that his work holds up as well as it might considering that much of what he trail-blazed in terms of speculative fiction has now been made manifold.... It's almost like his vision has been splintered into a thousand different dimensions. Hmm, perhaps there's something to be said for the longevity and influence of the eternal champion after all.
August 27, 2020
I enjoyed the Count Brass trilogy immensely. Reviews of the three individual books can be found on their own Goodreads pages.
Not counting this book as part of my Reading Challenge total until I find a copy to read, as this edition has some extra stuff not in the original books.
Not counting this book as part of my Reading Challenge total until I find a copy to read, as this edition has some extra stuff not in the original books.
November 7, 2021
the wine of poetry turns to poison when it becomes politics
July 26, 2010
My second favorite by Moorcock. Great stuff.
July 30, 2009
time travelling dimension jumping multiple hero takes on the multiverse of decadent death and entropy - places beyond that sound a bit iffy ... and spectacular - the eternal heroquest
May 8, 2012
Unexciting - especially if you haven't read any of his others
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews