“Time Moves In One Direction, Memory In Another”
William Gibson
I did something last week that I should probably never do – revisit an old favorite from my teenage years. At that time in my life, I was enthralled with Moorcock’s Eternal Champion / Multiverse stories – Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, Von Bek – could not get enough and read everything I could find and buy. The books were important enough to me that I’ve spent years tracking down all 15 volumes of the hardcover special Omnibus Edition from White Wolf Publishing that collects every word Moorcock’s written about The Eternal Champion – a task I finished recently with a couple of final purchases.
Despite the collecting effort, I haven’t gone back to any of this work in years – I just lived off the good memories. That changed last week. I had just finished the final page of “Autumn In The Eternal Kingdom” by Stephen R. Platt – a long and hard but very rewarding read and I was desperate for a diversion. I was poking around the library and – for no reason that I can explain – I fastened upon those 15 volumes and pulled out the first – a collection of 4 stories beginning with the origin tale of Erekose – titled “The Eternal Champion”.
Erekose is a unique and important incarnation of The Eternal Champion for several reasons. First, he’s the only one of many Champions that actually has any awareness of both his other lives as well as the eternal cycle of war in pursuit of Order and Balance which he serves. Second, in this story, he makes a choice that is morally correct but arguably in defiance of the purpose for which he’s called – leading to the suggestion that all other incarnations of The Eternal Champion are somehow punished for Erekose’s choice. Finally – refreshingly – until he’s once again called – this is the only story in the cycle where The Eternal Champion achieves any degree of peace and happiness. For the cycle, it has defining implications.
I’ll start by saying that I enjoyed the chance to step back into a body of work that I remember so very fondly. It felt comfortable and fun and it left me wanting to push on and reread everything from beginning to end – experience it all over with older eyes. The only problem is that I was forced to acknowledge that the writing just wasn’t all that good. It was highly stylized – artificially archaic – a bit simplistic at times. The concepts still appealed and I appreciated the story every bit as much. I just couldn’t help being more judgmental this time around with respect to technical execution. It didn’t kill the story for me and it didn’t damage the memories I have with respect to the work. It just took a little bit of bloom off the rose.
I’m still a passionate Moorcock fan and I’ll always be thankful for what he did back in the 60’s and 70’s by giving us the Multiverse – we owe him for that and many have built on his work. I read and enjoyed his most recent novel – “The Whispering Swarm” – and all of these books will always have a special place in my heart. I do still plan to go back and reread more of these stories. I just can’t help but feel a bit of sadness about the way my perspective has changed over the years – a very small bit of youthful enthusiasm lost to middle age.
I haven’t read all 15 omnibus volumes, but have read 7 or 8 and I think this was my least favorite.
Glad to hear this didn’t crumble though. Sometimes old favorites really don’t stand up and man, that makes for some miserable reading 🙁