Also titled, “The War Hound and the World’s Pain.”
What I most appreciated about this book by Michael Moorcock is its eerie similarities to my own perspective on the world and those that “rule” it.
The book reads like a movie and is the fastest I’ve ever read a book.
The theme of the book, in my eyes, is about being honest to yourself and others.
For what I would call a dark comedy, I think we are missing more stories like it that give hope as well.
It’s one of those books where the cynicism lands harder because it’s paired with sincerity, so the hope feels earned rather than tacked on.
I agree!
Of all fantasy writers, Moorcock is my favorite.
His ability to utilize the language of fantasy to tell deeper tales of colonialism and the decline of empire are unparalleled.
I just picked up Eternal Champion and Hawkmoon. His writing is becoming one of mine as well.
I love Moorcock for the Elric books but The Eternal Champion was a bit rough. I need to move on and read the rest but the Erekose books really stopped me carrying on.
Ok interesting thanks for the heads up
It was the Micheal Whelan cover for The Sailor On the Seas of Fate that hooked me on Elric, and the Moorcock multiverse.
But the Dying Earth vibes of the Runestaff novels make them my personal fave’s, especially the hilarious callouts to various British conventions and figures.
The Final Programme is great fun too, a remix of The Dreaming City and While the Gods Laugh with Jerry as Elric and Miss Brunner as Stormbringer.
I loved The War Hound and the World's Pain. I also liked it's sequel "The City in the Autumn Stars" but I feel like that one dragged on for a quite awhile before I got invested.
I love the historical setting. Satan in particular is a fascinating character in the way that Moorcock writes him. Very sympathetic in his regret and his longing for Heaven.
Satan was written so mysteriously yet also being familiar which was what I enjoyed about the character as well.
Satan was written so mysteriously yet also being familiar which was what I enjoyed about the character as well.
Agreed, I also found this book recently and read it knowing nothing about it. What an incredibly gripping read, I was really caught off guard. The scene where he meets Satan is just fantastic, truly disconcerting and strangely numinous, Moorcock really gets the atmosphere just right. (Side note, I wondered if Robert Eggers used that scene as inspiration for the woozy nightmare where we meet Count Orloc in Nosferatu.) Definitely want to read the other Von Bek stories and also a lot of other Moorcock.
Robert Eggers would be perfect to direct this as a movie! I pictured Christoph Waltz as the quirky antagonist when I was reading.
Yes, it's one of my favourite Moorcock books, too.
Agreed, love the Von Bek books. Some of Moorcock's best imo
I got into Moorcock through his "Dancers at the End of Time" series and he eventually became one of my favorite writers.
I just finally got to "The War Hound and the World's Pain" recently too, and I agree with your take about it reading like a movie, with a great flow.
I'd just come off of reading a bunch of eternal champion novels, so I was interested in how von Bek fit in as a champion, and I found it fun to focus on how Moorcock blended the medieval European Christian belief system in with his broader cosmology.