Corum: The Coming Of Chaos

BOOK 1 Knight of Swords 4 Stars

Sometime in the early 80's I was reading a lot of Moorcock, Elric, Hawkmoon, Count Brass and some of his sci-fi stuff. My buddy Eric Messerol decided to get in on the fun, but didn't want to read the same books I did, so he started reading the Corum books. I'm not sure if he ever finished them, but I do know that I never got around to reading them, even though I've had them on my shelves for more than 30 years.

Obviously, I finally got to them. I would normally give a book like this 3 stars, but I'm giving an extra point for it NOT seeming dated, more than 50 years later. I don't mean that it has a style similar to modern books, I just mean that it wasn't cringy and didn't have me laughing at its show more seriousness. Of course it is nostalgic to hear names like Arioch and Xiombarg so that may have helped too.

BOOK 2 Queen of Swords 3 Stars
This one moved along quicker than the first book. It got a little repetitive with Corum using his special eye to summon one monster to fight the next and then summoning that one to fight the next etc... Jhary and the cat were the best characters in this very linear, swords & sorcery adventure. Nothing really blew me away, but it was kind of fun and nostalgic.

BOOK 3 King of Swords 2.5 Stars
So ends the first Corum trilogy. I didn't like this one as much as the others. It seems like he got lazy with what could have been exciting/interesting battle scenes. I was disappointed that even though some of the other eternal champions incarnations made guest appearances they were treated like minor characters and not given much "personality", they didn't get the "epic-ness" that they deserved. show less

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2921219.html

This trilogy, first published in 1971, is the first of two trilogies featuring Corum Jhaelen Irsei, one of the incarnations of Moorcock's Eternal Champion; the first and third volumes won the first two August Derleth Awards. I'm not super familiar with Moorcock's heroic fantasies; I did find it striking that he successfully takes the traditional storyline of chivalry, questing and manly derring-do, and underpins it with lashings of melancholy, destiny, and cosmic balance. Corum's own hand and eye are replaced by magical substitutes belonging to supernatural beings at an early stage, and this physical change also resonates through the three books. Also, unusually for Moorcock, he rooted a lot of show more the vocabulary in a real language, Cornish, which I felt gave it a bit more sub-surface coherence. I can't argue that it's terribly profound, but I did think it was well done. show less

(Alistair) Well, sometimes I like some good, old-fashioned sword-and-sorcery, and having the two Corum trilogies sitting about on the shelves previously unread by me, I turn to these. One thing I have noted in the past about Moorcock's work is that the worldbuilding is generally both pretty decent and interesting, which is not, I suspect, generally the case for the plenitude of genuine pulp sword-and-sorcery I also have sitting about on the shelves.

It's also good for my regular dose of Humans Are Bastards, because in this trilogy, man ("who in those days, called his race Mabden"), are pure bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling, to quote a quotation from the above-linked TV Tropes page. This trilogy drops us right in the middle of show more what in so many fantasy worlds is implied or backstory, the time at which the humans largely wipe out the older races, and while the more civilized folk of Lywn-an-Esh provide some counterpoint to this, our lovely human envy and xenophobia are shown in full, ugly flower. Anthropophiles be warned.

Anyway, this book is an omnibus, containing the first of the two Corum trilogies, The Knight of the Swords, The Queen of the Swords, and The King of the Swords. It is part of the Eternal Champion cycle, and as such concerns itself with part of the ongoing and eternal struggle between Law and Chaos (as represented by the three eponymous Sword Rules, each of whom governs five of the Fifteen Planes through which the setting of these books moves, and each of whom is eventually overthrown in the appropriate book).

They are, of course, somewhat reminiscent of the Elric books (the primary other part of the Eternal Champion cycle which I have read), but frankly, while I did enjoy Elric's books, I nevertheless prefer these; much as I understand the reasons for it, Elric's angst does not make him terribly good reading for me, and this is a condition Corum does not suffer from, despite having at least as much reason to. This makes it, while still harsh in plenty of places, significantly more enjoyable reading overall.

Recommended for those who like this particular fantasy subgenre.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2009/04/the_swords_trilogy_michael_... ) show less

The Knight of Swords: http://www.librarything.com/review/85471577
The Queen of Swords: http://www.librarything.com/review/25465906
The King of Swords: http://www.librarything.com/review/85471601

I first read these books as a twelve year old. I was fascinated by the darkness they contained. My previous experience in the genre was limited to Terry Brooks and J.R.R. Tolkein - so reading Moorcock was a significant departure. I read Elric and then Corum. Elric was just very depressing and more cerebral. Corum, though, was right up my alley - swords, fighting, revenge. I still remember reading about "the gaping maw of Chaos". That particular image is still the one I see in my head when I read the word "maw". Rereading it now as a forty year old, show more I still find a lot to like about this particular incarnation of the Champion. For all that he's not human, he's very human - full of doubt, hate, rage, lust for revenge, a penchant for sloth and arrogance... Very human. His torture at the hands of the Mabden was gruesome and another vivid image. But he refuses to lie down. When a challenge presents itself, he steps up. He's a man of action, and I very much appreciate that. show less

Corum is my favorite of the Eternal Champions. He's not as evil or twisted or conflicted as Elric, nor does he carry around a soul sucking sword (usually). He's also not quite as damned as Dorian Hawkmoon. In fact, in this trilogy he's determined to get revenge for his people, and wipe out the deities that are Elric's patrons!

Michael Moorcock is my favorite writer, especially of fantasy. In this collection of three tales of Corum, the Scarlet Prince, Moorcock takes us on a journey through a world in which man are slowly wiping out fair folk. Corum, the last of his elfin people, sets out on a quest to seek vengeance for what mankind did to his castle, his family, and his people.

Losing his hand and his eye to a band of warriors, Corum is rescued by a mysterious creature who takes him to an area where the humans are sympathetic to his people. There he learns of the great battle between Chaos and Law, and how the Lords of Law have lost this realm, as well as two others, to three Chaos Lords. It is up to Corum, occasionally aided by a friend, to defeat these show more Chaos Lords and bring Balance back into the realms.

If you are a fan of other work by Moorcock, particularly Elric of Melnibone, you will greatly enjoy Corum: The Coming of Chaos. Additionally, if you prefer Swords & Sorcery to Epic Fantasy (authors such as Fritz Lieber or Jack Vance), you will probably enjoy the works of Moorcock more so than you would the works of Tolkien. show less

Unlike several of the volumes in this collection, the Corum novels are three linear, sequential adventures covering the aforementioned hero's struggle against a Chaos invasion of his home world. It's good old-fashioned sword and sorcery, complete with magic limb replacements, gods good, evil, and capricious, a wisecracking sidekick with a flying cat, a cardboard cutout love interest, etc. All the basics.

It's solid stuff, although I found Corum himself a little flat - Moorcock hit a home run with the Eternal Champion concept, because it means he can put the same broody hero into any possible situation and have a ready-made conflict, but the heroes themselves, with the notable exception of Elric, tend to all blur together. But that show more multifaced hero has definitely grown on me. show less