What is this giddy, fast-paced space opera doing in the Eternal Champion omnibus, wedged between the first two John Daker/Erekosë novels?Well, this is the book that introduced the term Multiverse, so I guess placing it after the book that introduced the E.C. makes sense. But man, talk about whiplash! Moorcock does ease the transition a bit by adding some connecting material in which Daker dreams of Worlds' protagonist Renark, now Count Renark von Bek, "scion of an ancient family".
In his introduction Moorcock says writing Worlds taught him that space opera "was harder to write well than I had guessed and that it didn't really lend itself to many of my literary aspirations." Which is a shame, because every cliché is in place here. The last chance planet full of outlaws, gamblers and dreamers. The cosmic anomaly from which no one has ever returned. The hero with a psychic talent and a terrible secret.
The cover. I have a copy of the Mayflower paperback from the seventies (under the alternate title The Blood Red Game). I quite like it, but now that I've read some of the book itself I think this Paperback Library edition from the sixties is more appropriate. I suspect that 20 years ago I would have put this cover in the so-bad-it's-good category. Now it just looks good to me. No doubt my standards aren't what they used to be. I have no idea who painted it.
I didn't get much reading done today. My wife is off on Mondays and insists that we get out of the house, run errands, do things, have "fun", etc. Ugh. Tomorrow, God willing, I'll wrap this up and get a headstart on Phoenix in Obsidian.
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