The Eternal Champion (Eternal Champion, #1) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Dec 03, 2017 Joseph rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A very short novel that is itself an expansion of an earlier novella. John Daker, a salaryman from our world, is called by the collective will of Humanity to a distant ... past? future? other? to take up his role as Erekosë, the Eternal Champion, to take up his sword Kanajana, and to aid Humanity in their fight against the alien and treacherous Eldren.

Unlike many of Moorcock's novels, this is written in first person; and unlike many of his other appearances, this incarnation of the Eternal Champ ...more

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Jun 17, 2019 S.E. Lindberg rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-by-se, sword-and-sorcery

Michael Moorcock has been dishing out pulpy fantasy since the 1960's. Perhaps his most famous brand is his skein of adventures from "The" Eternal Champion--which actually refers to many heroes (Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, Erekose, etc.) not just this book; the anti-Conan hero called Elric is arguably the most recognizable. The champion mashup is huge, although many are short stories or collections of them, the bibliography has >100 entries. Despite the huge popularity of these, there is a dearth of ...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Greg rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy

While this is very much a heroic fantasy story it also has certain science fictional elements to it. The plot is rather predictable apart, perhaps, from its denouement. A twentieth-century urban man is apparently summoned either from another dimension, or from another time, to act as Erekosë, the Champion of Humanity, and to lead human armies against a mysterious humanoid race called the Eldren. While the world he finds himself in is at first alien to him it becomes increasingly familiar as he r ...more

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Dec 17, 2014 Derek rated it liked it · review of another edition

Cracks quickly appear in this glorious high fantasy: the resurrected hero Erekosë starts wondering at humanity's obsessive war against the Eldren menace, even as he leads vicious battles against them. Poignant scenes of Eldren treachery and evil confirming the humans' one-sided statements, such as would litter a conventional high fantasy, are notably absent. Moorcock works reversals, first by tearing down what was built, ripping up the majesty and honor of the humans and showing them as savage i ...more

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