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The Chronicles of Castle Brass #2
The Champion of Garathorm
The Champion of Garathorm is the second novel in the The Chronicles of Castle Brass series by Michael Moorcock and featuring Duke Dorian Hawkmoon and Ilian of Garathorm. It is a sequel to both Count Brass and to the Erekosë novel Phoenix in Obsidian, and is followed by The Quest for Tanelorn.
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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580 people want to read
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,205 books3,743 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 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 14, 2012
The champion of Garathorm follows on immediately from Count Brass (reviewed by me here) in a way that suggests that the Chronicles of Castle Brass were initally envisaged as a single volume rather than as a trilogy. However, a trilogy made it possible to interconnect it with the Erekosë/The Eternal Champion series. At the time my copy of The champion of Garathorm was printed (in 1981), the list of books 'By the same author' (which is opposite the title page) indicates that this book formed not only volume two of the Chronicles of Castle Brass but also the third volume of the Erekosë series (cf. the Internet Speculative Fiction Database's entry on The champion of Garathorm). Similarly, the third volume of the Castle Brass series, The quest for Tanelorn, formed the fourth volume of the Erekosë series. However, when my 1982 copy of The quest for Tanelorn was printed, the interconnectedness of the two series was no longer indicated in the author's list of publications and, today, The champion of Garathorm seems to be no longer counted as part of the Erekosë series, as indicated on Goodreads. To confuse matters more, the Encyclopaedia of Fantasy (1997) entry on Michael Moorcock states that the 1992 omnibus volume, The Eternal Champion, leaves out The Quest for Tanelorn and the graphic novel, The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell (1979) (cf. the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction entry on Moorcock). Also, the encyclopaedia's entry makes no mention of The champion of Garathorm as being part of the Erekosë series. One must conclude that there was some rethinking about the inter-relationship of these different series before the Erekosë one was concluded in the 1980s.
Anyway, reading this book is a personal triumph because I'd purchased it in April 1987, together with The Quest for Tanelorn, but was unable to read them until I could get my hands on the trilogy's first volume, which did not happen until last year (2011)! Moorcock seemed to be very popular in the mid-1980s and then, in a short space of time, his books disappeared from the shelves of bookstores (at least in Ireland). I'd already noticed that my local bookshop was being slow to restock those Moorcock volumes that had sold out so I'd bought the Garathorm and Tanelorn books together in the hope that Count Brass would become available again soon. (As I was only 18 at the time, I might not have realised that I could've ordered the missing volume (and indeed other books I wanted) through the bookshop, unless the books had fallen out of print.) Unable to read my incomplete series of Moorcock books, I found the work of other authors to distract me (such as the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman) and soon forgot about my Moorcock tomes. It was only when a friend of mine offered to find some secondhand books for me while on her annual holiday in the US in 2011 that the opportunity to locate some missing Moorock volumes arose (thanks Kathy!).
Regarding the story itself, it can be described as falling into two halves. In the first half, we find that Hawkmoon has fallen into a deep depression due to the shift of time and space he experienced in Count Brass, that resulted in his wife, Yisselda, dying in the battle of Londra before they were married and so the children they had together no longer existed. Hawkmoon spends his time considering how the past could be altered to ensure not only Yisselda's survival but also the defeat of the Dark Empire. An opportunity for him to pursue this line of reasoning takes him on a quest from the Kamarg (in the south of Moorcock's alternate France) through central Europe and into the Balkans. It was fun to read Moorcock's alternatives for familiar place-names (e.g. Bazhel for Basel/Basle, Munchenia for Munich, Pesht for Budapest and Wien for Vienna [pp. 43, 45, 50]). I also liked coming across unfamiliar (archaic) words like poignard (p. 105) and breeks (p. 118) from time to time.
At the conclusion of Hawkmoon's journey across Europe, the book enters a more action-packed narrative of war (as would indeed befit the Eternal Champion – Hawkmoon's pan-dimensional self). This involves the curious mix of medieval and futuristic armoury that typifies Moorcock's stories centreing on the Eternal Champion.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read with an interesting transgender element to the story as well as the involvement of strong female characters. I did think the chance finding of a suitable length of rope and the ease with which its 'noose settled over a branch' of a tree and held fast with just one throw somewhat fortuituous (p. 97). I also felt that, notwithstanding the involvement of Hawkmoon, the element of surprise and the exploitation of an opportunity, the successes of a tiny resistance force against an overwhelmingly large army seemed to stretch credulity towards the end. But does Hawkmoon find Yisselda in the process? You'll just have to read the book to find out!
Anyway, reading this book is a personal triumph because I'd purchased it in April 1987, together with The Quest for Tanelorn, but was unable to read them until I could get my hands on the trilogy's first volume, which did not happen until last year (2011)! Moorcock seemed to be very popular in the mid-1980s and then, in a short space of time, his books disappeared from the shelves of bookstores (at least in Ireland). I'd already noticed that my local bookshop was being slow to restock those Moorcock volumes that had sold out so I'd bought the Garathorm and Tanelorn books together in the hope that Count Brass would become available again soon. (As I was only 18 at the time, I might not have realised that I could've ordered the missing volume (and indeed other books I wanted) through the bookshop, unless the books had fallen out of print.) Unable to read my incomplete series of Moorcock books, I found the work of other authors to distract me (such as the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman) and soon forgot about my Moorcock tomes. It was only when a friend of mine offered to find some secondhand books for me while on her annual holiday in the US in 2011 that the opportunity to locate some missing Moorock volumes arose (thanks Kathy!).
Regarding the story itself, it can be described as falling into two halves. In the first half, we find that Hawkmoon has fallen into a deep depression due to the shift of time and space he experienced in Count Brass, that resulted in his wife, Yisselda, dying in the battle of Londra before they were married and so the children they had together no longer existed. Hawkmoon spends his time considering how the past could be altered to ensure not only Yisselda's survival but also the defeat of the Dark Empire. An opportunity for him to pursue this line of reasoning takes him on a quest from the Kamarg (in the south of Moorcock's alternate France) through central Europe and into the Balkans. It was fun to read Moorcock's alternatives for familiar place-names (e.g. Bazhel for Basel/Basle, Munchenia for Munich, Pesht for Budapest and Wien for Vienna [pp. 43, 45, 50]). I also liked coming across unfamiliar (archaic) words like poignard (p. 105) and breeks (p. 118) from time to time.
At the conclusion of Hawkmoon's journey across Europe, the book enters a more action-packed narrative of war (as would indeed befit the Eternal Champion – Hawkmoon's pan-dimensional self). This involves the curious mix of medieval and futuristic armoury that typifies Moorcock's stories centreing on the Eternal Champion.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read with an interesting transgender element to the story as well as the involvement of strong female characters. I did think the chance finding of a suitable length of rope and the ease with which its 'noose settled over a branch' of a tree and held fast with just one throw somewhat fortuituous (p. 97). I also felt that, notwithstanding the involvement of Hawkmoon, the element of surprise and the exploitation of an opportunity, the successes of a tiny resistance force against an overwhelmingly large army seemed to stretch credulity towards the end. But does Hawkmoon find Yisselda in the process? You'll just have to read the book to find out!
August 31, 2015
A book of great ideas that nonetheless fails to rise above being a pretty average read.
This book's largest problem is that it starts off very slowly. Literally half the book is spent trying to get Hawkmoon off his butt and into the interesting adventure that Moorcock has planned. During these initial pages, Moorcock also introduces Hawkmoon fully into the Eternal Champion cycle for the first time ever, and perhaps he thought that was worth the pages ... but it's slow.
What happens on the other side of the tunnel between worlds is pretty typical fare and even pretty typical Hawkmoon fare. A new world and a new Eternal Champion could have been fabulous. This meeting between Champions could have been really interesting for its unique point-of-view. Instead, it's OK: there are armies of bad guys, and they fight. But what it sets up on its last page promises that what comes next could be more ...
This book's largest problem is that it starts off very slowly. Literally half the book is spent trying to get Hawkmoon off his butt and into the interesting adventure that Moorcock has planned. During these initial pages, Moorcock also introduces Hawkmoon fully into the Eternal Champion cycle for the first time ever, and perhaps he thought that was worth the pages ... but it's slow.
What happens on the other side of the tunnel between worlds is pretty typical fare and even pretty typical Hawkmoon fare. A new world and a new Eternal Champion could have been fabulous. This meeting between Champions could have been really interesting for its unique point-of-view. Instead, it's OK: there are armies of bad guys, and they fight. But what it sets up on its last page promises that what comes next could be more ...
August 23, 2020
The Champion of Garathorm is the second volume in the Chronicles of Castle Brass trilogy, and is also the penultimate volume in his whole vast Eternal Champion multiverse tapestry. Dorian Hawkmoon, Duke of Koln, refuses to accept the loss of his beloved family, and has begun to question the rest of his reality itself. Many plot threads and characters from other books tie into this one, and it's fun to see threads from earlier books picked up and threads thrown out for works to follow. The Hawkmoon books are the ones I've always seen as Moorcock's best, with elements of science fiction and fantasy and myth woven together masterfully.
August 6, 2017
This is book 2 of the Chronicles of Castle Brass and follows directly on from the ending of volume 1, Count Brass, in which Dorian Hawkmoon returned to the castle after his misadventures in other dimensions and times, only to discover that his wife Yisselda had been killed five years previously at the battle of Londra, and his two children have therefore never been born. Instead, his father-in-law, Count Brass, who in Dorian's former reality did die at that battle, was saved - by Dorian himself at the end of volume 1. In this altered reality, Dorian has lived in a trance, talking of Yisselda and their non-existent children for the past five years, and everyone else has pitied him as being mad with grief.
Unable to face his altered circumstances, Dorian becomes a recluse, spending his time re-enacting the battle of Londra with models he has commissioned, and trying to find a version in which Yisselda survives, driven by an irrational conviction that he can bring her back that way. He doesn't eat properly or sleep, and, as months pass, becomes a dishevelled and dirty wreck, then weak and ill. No one can get through to him and finally, when Count Brass is called away on a state visit to Londra, and Dorian refuses to accompany him, he is left with only the company of retainers.
Dorian sinks towards death until an unexpected visitor arrives who is apparently an old friend of the count's from his days as a fighting mercenary. She is a middle-aged, very experienced, woman warrior called Katinka van Bak, who learned swordskills while a slave and earned her freedom with them. She tells Dorian she has fled the Ukraine where a motley army of strange bandits has taken over. When she mentions that one looks like an old friend of Dorian's, who died around the same time as Yisselda, he becomes interested and asks her to guide him back to the Bulgar Mountains so that he can spy on the bandits and see if Yisselda is among them.
On the way, helped by eating properly, Dorian gradually regains his strength and health. As they near their destination, they are joined by a man called Jhary-a-Conel who has a small black and white winged cat as a companion - which, to anyone who has read other Eternal Champion books by Moorcock is an immediate flag - and who talks to Dorian of other incarnations he has lived through. They reach a tunnel which would take them to the far side of the Bulgar Mountains - and everything changes. I won't say more to avoid spoilers, other than to say that the second half of the book centres around another incarnation of the Eternal Champion, Ilian of Garathorm, who is now queen of a devastated land following invasion by a huge army of beings, mainly worshippers of Chaos, who have descended upon her peaceloving people.
The book is, as indicated, a story of two halves with Dorian's at first depressed and increasingly obsessive mindset and his gradual recovery, then Ilian's struggle to free her people against a backdrop of her own guilt at having betrayed her brother under torture. Although some readers might be impatient with Dorian's depressive state, it is convincingly portrayed. It was also a nice twist to see a female Eternal Champion incarnation.
My favourite character in the book was the down to earth soldier, Katinka, whose experience turns out to be invaluable to Ilian in her goal . It will be interesting to see what develops in book three, .
Unable to face his altered circumstances, Dorian becomes a recluse, spending his time re-enacting the battle of Londra with models he has commissioned, and trying to find a version in which Yisselda survives, driven by an irrational conviction that he can bring her back that way. He doesn't eat properly or sleep, and, as months pass, becomes a dishevelled and dirty wreck, then weak and ill. No one can get through to him and finally, when Count Brass is called away on a state visit to Londra, and Dorian refuses to accompany him, he is left with only the company of retainers.
Dorian sinks towards death until an unexpected visitor arrives who is apparently an old friend of the count's from his days as a fighting mercenary. She is a middle-aged, very experienced, woman warrior called Katinka van Bak, who learned swordskills while a slave and earned her freedom with them. She tells Dorian she has fled the Ukraine where a motley army of strange bandits has taken over. When she mentions that one looks like an old friend of Dorian's, who died around the same time as Yisselda, he becomes interested and asks her to guide him back to the Bulgar Mountains so that he can spy on the bandits and see if Yisselda is among them.
On the way, helped by eating properly, Dorian gradually regains his strength and health. As they near their destination, they are joined by a man called Jhary-a-Conel who has a small black and white winged cat as a companion - which, to anyone who has read other Eternal Champion books by Moorcock is an immediate flag - and who talks to Dorian of other incarnations he has lived through. They reach a tunnel which would take them to the far side of the Bulgar Mountains - and everything changes. I won't say more to avoid spoilers, other than to say that the second half of the book centres around another incarnation of the Eternal Champion, Ilian of Garathorm, who is now queen of a devastated land following invasion by a huge army of beings, mainly worshippers of Chaos, who have descended upon her peaceloving people.
The book is, as indicated, a story of two halves with Dorian's at first depressed and increasingly obsessive mindset and his gradual recovery, then Ilian's struggle to free her people against a backdrop of her own guilt at having betrayed her brother under torture. Although some readers might be impatient with Dorian's depressive state, it is convincingly portrayed. It was also a nice twist to see a female Eternal Champion incarnation.
My favourite character in the book was the down to earth soldier, Katinka, whose experience turns out to be invaluable to Ilian in her goal . It will be interesting to see what develops in book three, .
November 21, 2022
This trim tale of the Eternal Champion moves fast. It doesn't pack as much of a punch as the previous volume, but is still great.
August 27, 2020
I find the Castle Brass books fascinating, but hard to review without a skeleton-summary of the plot. So if that scares you - the summary, not the skeleton! - then don’t read further.
As noted by another reviewer, I may take a break after “The Quest for Tanelorn", things are overlapping a bit, Multiverse Overload!
The first part of the second book in the Chronicles of Castle Brass finds Hawkmoon brooding, brooding Yisselda and the children he thinks he has lost, brooding his friends lost in battle, brooding the aftereffects of the Black Jewel. All of these, maybe, or something else? Regardless, lots of brooding. Which leads to contemplation, fear, and madness. Hawkmoon is dying, slowly but surely, his refusal to act is killing him. Then a visitor comes, Katinka von Bak, to tell Hawkmoon of a disparate army ravaging the lands of Ukrainia. Wiping out everyone and everything in their path. Learning the army is populated by those Hawkmoon knows to be dead, he theorizes the Dark Empire is beg=hind the force and makes a deal with Katinka to learn more. Time for a Quest! And none too soon for Hawkmoon, who wonders if he can resolve his inner demons in the quest to the Bulgar Mountains. Travel is initially hard, and Hawkmoon is wary, that is until he meets Jhary on the way. Multiverse! Traitors! Maybe, anyway.
Into part two Hawkmoon dreams, deeply and confusedly, of his many manifestations and the many people he has known, loved, fought for, and fought with across time and space. Upon awakening, he has come to accept this, and takes on the Eternal Champion guise of Ilian of Garathorm. A woman! How awesome! Soon Hawkmoon-Ilian begins to mentally accustom to the new thing he/she is, and Ilian is back, ready to fight the Dark Empire again. Whiskers does his recon again in Virinthorm, where he finds Ymryl, and Ymryl the Yellow Horn (which can call for help from Hell!!), and Baron Kalan. Uh oh. Learning this, they travel to find more soldiers, being captured in the process. We learn more of Ilian’s past but find their captors will aid them in fighting Ymryl, if not altogether willingly. Ilain decides to raid for more weapons, and, while returning, finds Yisselda (!) in Ymryl’s room. They both escape, and soon are reunited with Katinka and Jhary, who are amazed to find Hawkmoon’s wife alive, on this plane anyway.
Into part three we amass for battle! Ilian, Katinka, Jhary, Yisselda, Lyfeth of Ghant, Mysenel of Hinn, armed with flame lances and riding vaynas. Quite the scene! As with the previous book, the climax of this book is epic. Plenty of blood, death, reunions, fire, heroism, vengeance, fate, Multiverse truths revealed, masks undone, demons summoned, new paths taken, old ones retread… Yep, a lot to wallow in and enjoy. Law and Chaos forever battling for control, and each for their own ends.
I am heading directly to “The Quest for Tanelorn”, as I must know how this iteration of the Eternal Champion plays itself out. Fascinating stuff, Moorcock. Bends and reimagines some of the best of myth, legend, and history into something totally unique, yet just recognizable, peripherally. Ace. RIvals the best of Elric.
I have said this before, but surely Moorcock had some enormous tesseract-type object to keep track of the Multiverse?
A great tale that wastes only a little time in brooding - and it’s not even an Elric tale! - and then gets right into action.
As noted by another reviewer, I may take a break after “The Quest for Tanelorn", things are overlapping a bit, Multiverse Overload!
The first part of the second book in the Chronicles of Castle Brass finds Hawkmoon brooding, brooding Yisselda and the children he thinks he has lost, brooding his friends lost in battle, brooding the aftereffects of the Black Jewel. All of these, maybe, or something else? Regardless, lots of brooding. Which leads to contemplation, fear, and madness. Hawkmoon is dying, slowly but surely, his refusal to act is killing him. Then a visitor comes, Katinka von Bak, to tell Hawkmoon of a disparate army ravaging the lands of Ukrainia. Wiping out everyone and everything in their path. Learning the army is populated by those Hawkmoon knows to be dead, he theorizes the Dark Empire is beg=hind the force and makes a deal with Katinka to learn more. Time for a Quest! And none too soon for Hawkmoon, who wonders if he can resolve his inner demons in the quest to the Bulgar Mountains. Travel is initially hard, and Hawkmoon is wary, that is until he meets Jhary on the way. Multiverse! Traitors! Maybe, anyway.
Into part two Hawkmoon dreams, deeply and confusedly, of his many manifestations and the many people he has known, loved, fought for, and fought with across time and space. Upon awakening, he has come to accept this, and takes on the Eternal Champion guise of Ilian of Garathorm. A woman! How awesome! Soon Hawkmoon-Ilian begins to mentally accustom to the new thing he/she is, and Ilian is back, ready to fight the Dark Empire again. Whiskers does his recon again in Virinthorm, where he finds Ymryl, and Ymryl the Yellow Horn (which can call for help from Hell!!), and Baron Kalan. Uh oh. Learning this, they travel to find more soldiers, being captured in the process. We learn more of Ilian’s past but find their captors will aid them in fighting Ymryl, if not altogether willingly. Ilain decides to raid for more weapons, and, while returning, finds Yisselda (!) in Ymryl’s room. They both escape, and soon are reunited with Katinka and Jhary, who are amazed to find Hawkmoon’s wife alive, on this plane anyway.
Into part three we amass for battle! Ilian, Katinka, Jhary, Yisselda, Lyfeth of Ghant, Mysenel of Hinn, armed with flame lances and riding vaynas. Quite the scene! As with the previous book, the climax of this book is epic. Plenty of blood, death, reunions, fire, heroism, vengeance, fate, Multiverse truths revealed, masks undone, demons summoned, new paths taken, old ones retread… Yep, a lot to wallow in and enjoy. Law and Chaos forever battling for control, and each for their own ends.
I am heading directly to “The Quest for Tanelorn”, as I must know how this iteration of the Eternal Champion plays itself out. Fascinating stuff, Moorcock. Bends and reimagines some of the best of myth, legend, and history into something totally unique, yet just recognizable, peripherally. Ace. RIvals the best of Elric.
I have said this before, but surely Moorcock had some enormous tesseract-type object to keep track of the Multiverse?
A great tale that wastes only a little time in brooding - and it’s not even an Elric tale! - and then gets right into action.
June 8, 2025
Force fem was not on my bingo card for this book series. Ilian is a delight though
Read
November 20, 2025The four previous Hawkmoon novels are all great from The History of the Rune Staff collection however The Chronicles of Count Brass series brings greater consequences in terms of characters that don't feel like a place holder. There is real emotion and depth in this novel with a greater connection to the multiverse.
In particular this novel while it is slow, sees Hawkmoon strucken with a terrible grief, the kind you wish you could change but are unable to which results into a humane withering into the depths of despair and madness. Another significant element is the fact that the female characters have even more autonomy and act as significant actors in the plot. Moorecock has never treated his female characters poorly and it is refreshing to read something that isn't pandering or hyprocritcal.
In particular this novel while it is slow, sees Hawkmoon strucken with a terrible grief, the kind you wish you could change but are unable to which results into a humane withering into the depths of despair and madness. Another significant element is the fact that the female characters have even more autonomy and act as significant actors in the plot. Moorecock has never treated his female characters poorly and it is refreshing to read something that isn't pandering or hyprocritcal.
October 6, 2014
Following Hawkmoon as he struggles with the world(s) where he lost his love his familly, or did he? This is one of the most "different" of the Eternal Champion books. The change in incarnations from book to book does a slight change in this one as you get the change from world to world during the book. Moorcock does this at least one other time in The Eternal Champion when the hero changes personas at the book's opening.
February 21, 2020
Biggest issue with this story is that it's not a Hawkmoon-story, which is what I wanted.
Dorian Hawkmoon changes/embodies another aspect of the Eternal Champion this time and so the book centers on a female protagonist that...just wasn't Hawkmoon.
Even though I love the multiverse stuff that Moorcock does so imminently, this felt like being cheated.
The plot itself I found it rather boring and weak compared to the other Hawkmoon-stories.
Dorian Hawkmoon changes/embodies another aspect of the Eternal Champion this time and so the book centers on a female protagonist that...just wasn't Hawkmoon.
Even though I love the multiverse stuff that Moorcock does so imminently, this felt like being cheated.
The plot itself I found it rather boring and weak compared to the other Hawkmoon-stories.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2020
Hawkmoon se morfond dans son château après la disparition de sa femme, avant d'être emporté dans une aventure dans un autre plan, qui le verra sauver un monde du chaos dans un corps d'emprunt. C'est assez inconsistant.
October 3, 2020
“Champion of Garathorm” by Michael Moorcock picks up soon after the end of “Count Brass” the first novel in the “Chronicles of Castle Brass” trilogy. The twist ending of the “Count Brass” leaves the main character, Hawkmoon, in a delicate mental and emotional state, wasting away in his room in Castle Brass, playing with toy soldiers trying to refight the battles of the war again and again to see how to fight the battle with all the main heroes surviving.
Castle Brass is visited by a noble warrior woman, Katinka Van Bak who has stories to tell of invaders across the mountains that are just enough to get Hawkmoon interested in a taking a temporary break from his toy soldiers and think he can be a hero again.
As they get farther from Castle Brass and farther, Hawkmoon gets in better physical condition, they run into Eternal Companion, Jhary-a-Conel, and then we find out they don’t really need Hawkmoon. Katinka and Jhary have other plans for the Champion Eternal, they just need his soul, and playing with his toy soldiers, he wasn’t really using it.
Through some magic, Hawkmoon becomes Ilian, a royal princess of Garathorm, in a far away place that needs help fighting invaders from another dimension.
I’d read this book once before as a teenager in the mid-80’s. At the time I didn’t like this trilogy at all, and in this one I was particularly disappointed in because I didn’t like the hero, Hawkmoon, becoming a woman.
Now that I’m older, now that I’ve read a lot more books overall, seen more of the world and met a lot more random people, my previous main issue with it didn’t bother me at all.
Overall I enjoyed it. It was a quick book to get through. But it didn’t leave me in awe like other novels, it was simply a nice, enjoyable read.
Castle Brass is visited by a noble warrior woman, Katinka Van Bak who has stories to tell of invaders across the mountains that are just enough to get Hawkmoon interested in a taking a temporary break from his toy soldiers and think he can be a hero again.
As they get farther from Castle Brass and farther, Hawkmoon gets in better physical condition, they run into Eternal Companion, Jhary-a-Conel, and then we find out they don’t really need Hawkmoon. Katinka and Jhary have other plans for the Champion Eternal, they just need his soul, and playing with his toy soldiers, he wasn’t really using it.
Through some magic, Hawkmoon becomes Ilian, a royal princess of Garathorm, in a far away place that needs help fighting invaders from another dimension.
I’d read this book once before as a teenager in the mid-80’s. At the time I didn’t like this trilogy at all, and in this one I was particularly disappointed in because I didn’t like the hero, Hawkmoon, becoming a woman.
Now that I’m older, now that I’ve read a lot more books overall, seen more of the world and met a lot more random people, my previous main issue with it didn’t bother me at all.
Overall I enjoyed it. It was a quick book to get through. But it didn’t leave me in awe like other novels, it was simply a nice, enjoyable read.
June 7, 2023
About a third of the way through the book ostensibly switches main characters from Dorian Hawkmoon to Princess Ilian. This is a bit of letdown to the reader who has become invested in Hawkmoon's search for his slain wife, Yisselda.
Hawkmoon has been haunted by dreams of her and of the two children they never had and is convinced that she still lives even though he witnessed her death.
Still, there is a method to Moorcock's madness and the story threads do eventually come together satisfactorily amid all the craziness of body swapping, soul trapping, eternal champions, and the battling gods of Chaos and Law.
Hawkmoon has been haunted by dreams of her and of the two children they never had and is convinced that she still lives even though he witnessed her death.
Still, there is a method to Moorcock's madness and the story threads do eventually come together satisfactorily amid all the craziness of body swapping, soul trapping, eternal champions, and the battling gods of Chaos and Law.
February 9, 2020
Every time I finish reading one of Moorcock's novels, the more I think about how amazing it would be to see this made into a television / movie series. The mixture of detailed characters, fascinating landscapes, inter dimensional travel and rich history of the universe itself really is outstanding. As I'm fairly new to high fantasy novels I don't have much to compare it to, but Moorcock's imagined worlds surely have to be up there with the very best.
November 1, 2020
I liked this book better than the first if only because I liked how the protagonists went through the tunnel and Dorian Hawkmoon was changed into the princess of Garathorm; from thence they commenced to repel an invader, save the kingdom and return home with Isselda to their reality. I like Moorcock's prose and conceit: that there is a multiverse and an Eternal Champion who resides in each world. It's a great premise and furnished a scaffold for many, many writers that succeeded him.
August 11, 2022
There was no good reason to involve Hawkmoon in this story, which could have just as happily been an entirely standalone tale involving a female protagonist - a rarity in Moorcock's sword and sorcery, and therefore an experiment worth trying. Then again, maybe not, given the lazy use of rape/rape threats as a plot device. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...
May 11, 2020
Après une entrée plutôt modeste - pour ne pas dire partiellement manquée - dans la trilogie sequel d'Hawkmoon, ici Moorcock nous enchante en plaçant son récit des différents "temps" dans une optique des différentes sphères. Hawkmoon devenant Ilian, nouant une série de fils en une trame typique des récits du Champion Éternel.
Bon : en route pour Tanelorn !
Bon : en route pour Tanelorn !
October 30, 2018
It was OK, but weaker than the Elric books.
August 30, 2019
I must have read this over 30 years ago - and enjoyed it at the time.
It's not improved with time, but still a nostalgic and entertaining read
It's not improved with time, but still a nostalgic and entertaining read
December 14, 2021
Good swords and sorcery swashbuckling fun. One more volume in this series. Picking up Moorcock again after so many years has inspired me to read at least the Eternal Champions books.
September 7, 2024
this one have a flying cat how not to love?.
October 4, 2024
My full review of The Champion of Garathorm can be found here: https://discover.hubpages.com/literat...
May 6, 2025
5/7, a lot more fun exploring the new world of Garathrom with it's new, if archetypical, roster
July 17, 2025
Reading as part of the Gollancz omnibus Hawkmoon: Count Brass.
Read
October 23, 2025Book by Moorcock, Michael
May 12, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in August 1999.
Though this trilogy is entitled The Chronicles of Castle Brass, the castle itself features very little. Moorcock's interest is in the adventures of Dorian Hawkmoon, which take place on journeys far from the marshes of the Kamarg. His purposes in writing this second series featuring Hawkmoon seems to be to link him more explicitly into his idea of the Eternal Champion. The first stirrings of this idea can be seen in the Runestaff series, but it had developed considerably by the time this trilogy came to be written.
Moorcock's idea of the Eternal Champion is inspired by the ironic juxtaposition of ideas from psychology and comparative mythology with the uninventive duplication of standard characters and plots across the fantasy genre. All heroes are aspects of the one Eternal Champion, doomed to fight to preserve the balance between Chaos and Law across the centuries and in a multitude of worlds. He has a standard group of companions, is inspired by his love for a beautiful lady, and his battles take the form of a small group of heroic comrades fighting faceless and diabolical science or sorcery.
The concept, and particularly this trilogy, is heavily dependent on the idea of parallel universes. This is a highly problematic idea in science fiction, as it has been overused to get a lazy writer out of a difficult situation; it easily can become equivalent to the 'he woke up and it was all a dream' ending which is virtually unusable. By allowing the author to bring together characters from otherwise incompatible backgrounds, it leads to self-indulgent writing, as in Robert A Heinlein's late novels. The concept, though, has been of great importance to Moorcock throughout his career, right from the very early Rituals of Infinity onwards. He works hard to keep his use of the device within self-imposed limits: for example, different aspects of the Eternal Champion are not allowed to meet or have conscious knowledge of each other. (This does not apply to his companions, particularly the Champion's guide, under any of his names.)
Having made this restriction, an attempt to get around it is the inspiration for the plot of The Champion of Garathorm. After returning from the adventures detailed in Count Brass, making the wish that he would give up anything to see the Count alive and well again, Hawkmoon is stunned to discover that he had returned to a version of his world in which the companion who survived his earlier adventures was Count Brass, rather than his beloved wife Yisselda. Driven almost out of his mind by the loss of his wife and children (who had been born after the battle, so in this world never existed), he pines away, spending his time making models, recreating the battle of Londra to try and come up wish a version in which Yisselda also survives.
In another universe, the forces of Chaos, mustered by the demon Arioch (who appears in a number of Moorcock's stories) have overwhelmed those of Order. Because this has happened, a scientist from another universe has been able to imprison the soul of the incarnation of the Champion there, the warrior queen Ilian of Garathorm. This could mean disaster for the Balance across all the universes, and the companion Jhary has the idea of taking Dorian's soul, which he is hardly using, and temporarily animating Ilian with it.
My feeling about this is that it is not self-indulgent plotting, but an interesting way to get around a restriction that was, after all, imposed by Moorcock. It is using the restriction in a creative way, and that is the opposite of indulgence. The way in which Dorian's soul becomes immersed in the being of Ilian, forgetting his own separate existence is quite fascinating.
However interesting from the point of view of seeing how Moorcock puts together his imaginary worlds, though, I think he is a better writer when he is not being so explicitly clever. He is very good at using subtle hints to tell us something - this is why the backgrounds to his novels are so compelling, even though they are only lightly sketched in.
Though this trilogy is entitled The Chronicles of Castle Brass, the castle itself features very little. Moorcock's interest is in the adventures of Dorian Hawkmoon, which take place on journeys far from the marshes of the Kamarg. His purposes in writing this second series featuring Hawkmoon seems to be to link him more explicitly into his idea of the Eternal Champion. The first stirrings of this idea can be seen in the Runestaff series, but it had developed considerably by the time this trilogy came to be written.
Moorcock's idea of the Eternal Champion is inspired by the ironic juxtaposition of ideas from psychology and comparative mythology with the uninventive duplication of standard characters and plots across the fantasy genre. All heroes are aspects of the one Eternal Champion, doomed to fight to preserve the balance between Chaos and Law across the centuries and in a multitude of worlds. He has a standard group of companions, is inspired by his love for a beautiful lady, and his battles take the form of a small group of heroic comrades fighting faceless and diabolical science or sorcery.
The concept, and particularly this trilogy, is heavily dependent on the idea of parallel universes. This is a highly problematic idea in science fiction, as it has been overused to get a lazy writer out of a difficult situation; it easily can become equivalent to the 'he woke up and it was all a dream' ending which is virtually unusable. By allowing the author to bring together characters from otherwise incompatible backgrounds, it leads to self-indulgent writing, as in Robert A Heinlein's late novels. The concept, though, has been of great importance to Moorcock throughout his career, right from the very early Rituals of Infinity onwards. He works hard to keep his use of the device within self-imposed limits: for example, different aspects of the Eternal Champion are not allowed to meet or have conscious knowledge of each other. (This does not apply to his companions, particularly the Champion's guide, under any of his names.)
Having made this restriction, an attempt to get around it is the inspiration for the plot of The Champion of Garathorm. After returning from the adventures detailed in Count Brass, making the wish that he would give up anything to see the Count alive and well again, Hawkmoon is stunned to discover that he had returned to a version of his world in which the companion who survived his earlier adventures was Count Brass, rather than his beloved wife Yisselda. Driven almost out of his mind by the loss of his wife and children (who had been born after the battle, so in this world never existed), he pines away, spending his time making models, recreating the battle of Londra to try and come up wish a version in which Yisselda also survives.
In another universe, the forces of Chaos, mustered by the demon Arioch (who appears in a number of Moorcock's stories) have overwhelmed those of Order. Because this has happened, a scientist from another universe has been able to imprison the soul of the incarnation of the Champion there, the warrior queen Ilian of Garathorm. This could mean disaster for the Balance across all the universes, and the companion Jhary has the idea of taking Dorian's soul, which he is hardly using, and temporarily animating Ilian with it.
My feeling about this is that it is not self-indulgent plotting, but an interesting way to get around a restriction that was, after all, imposed by Moorcock. It is using the restriction in a creative way, and that is the opposite of indulgence. The way in which Dorian's soul becomes immersed in the being of Ilian, forgetting his own separate existence is quite fascinating.
However interesting from the point of view of seeing how Moorcock puts together his imaginary worlds, though, I think he is a better writer when he is not being so explicitly clever. He is very good at using subtle hints to tell us something - this is why the backgrounds to his novels are so compelling, even though they are only lightly sketched in.
January 23, 2008
Michael Moorcock, The Champion of Garathorm (Berkley, 1973)
Moorcock continues the Chronicles of Castle Brass with this odd little novel, perhaps one of the riskiest novels of Moorcock's career. Dorian Hawkmoon, united with his old friends, has paid a deep price-the loss of his wife and children. Or did he ever have them in the first place? Many at Castle Brass say he's been mad for the past five years, inventing the marriage and children after the death of his betrothed at the Battle of Londra (in the novel The Runestaff). Brought back to what they consider sanity by the arrival of a guest, an old friend of Count Brass', Hawkmoon feels that adventuring may be the best thing for him, and goes off into what is certainly the eternal champion's oddest adventure yet.
The oddities begin about a third of the way into the book, and explaining them would be impossible without major plot spoilers. Suffice to say that originally, the oddities seem as if Moorcock has just spliced together-badly-a series of unrelated stories. Such is not the case. Everything ties together, and as strand after strand comes full circle, the reader will get the idea of what Moorcock is on about. Once the whole weave is in place, the picture is staggering. ****
Moorcock continues the Chronicles of Castle Brass with this odd little novel, perhaps one of the riskiest novels of Moorcock's career. Dorian Hawkmoon, united with his old friends, has paid a deep price-the loss of his wife and children. Or did he ever have them in the first place? Many at Castle Brass say he's been mad for the past five years, inventing the marriage and children after the death of his betrothed at the Battle of Londra (in the novel The Runestaff). Brought back to what they consider sanity by the arrival of a guest, an old friend of Count Brass', Hawkmoon feels that adventuring may be the best thing for him, and goes off into what is certainly the eternal champion's oddest adventure yet.
The oddities begin about a third of the way into the book, and explaining them would be impossible without major plot spoilers. Suffice to say that originally, the oddities seem as if Moorcock has just spliced together-badly-a series of unrelated stories. Such is not the case. Everything ties together, and as strand after strand comes full circle, the reader will get the idea of what Moorcock is on about. Once the whole weave is in place, the picture is staggering. ****
December 1, 2008
A very interesting early book in the Eternal Champion series, and one of the very few that features a female Champion, albeit one who lost her soul to an enchanted jewel and had it replaced by that of Dorian Hawkmoon, the hero of Chronicles of Castle Brass and another incarnation of the Champion.
May 8, 2012
The Champion of Garathorm is the second novel in the The Chronicles of Castle Brass series by Michael Moorcock and featuring Duke Dorian Hawkmoon and Ilian of Garathorm. It is a sequel to both Count Brass and to the Erekosë novel Phoenix in Obsidian,[1] and is followed by The Quest for Tanelorn.
October 6, 2012
I really enjoyed this book, as it explored the concept of the Eternal Champion and the multiverse a lot more than the previous books in the series. Of course, not everything makes sense quite yet, and there is still some tragedies that will hopefully be reversed in the last book.
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