Eternal Champion Books In Order

Publication Order of Eternal Champion Books

The Eternal Champion series is a series of literary works by Michael Moorcock, the influential and celebrated author of fantasy and science fiction from England. With a belief that science fiction and fantasy need to include all orientations, genders, and races Moorcock developed the idea of a confused paradoxical being struggling to find balance in an unordered world. In this regard, he made the Eternal Champion character, who is the lead protagonist in most of his multiverse works. The different incarnations of the Eternal Champion appear in several of his series of novels that include Jerry Cornelius, The Dancers, Gloriana, Hawkmoon, Corum, and the most popular Elric. The first novel published in the series was the 1970 published titular novel “Eternal Champion”, that went on to spawn the tens of characters and novels in the series. Going back and forth between the series, the author would write in different multiverses and from character to character over the years. Even though Moorcock’s works have been re titled, repackaged, and reordered, a dozen times they are connected by the multiverse. The novels are set in a singular realm of countless multilayered dimensions where chaos and law are in a constant struggle for supremacy. It is the job of the Eternal Champion who takes various incarnations both bad and good, to ensure that the universe is in balance. Even though all of his protagonists are Eternal Champions, they often interact with each other across space and time through visions, dreams, and soirees.

The Eternal Champion fictional multiverse has several universes with a universal struggle for Law and Chaos, the two main forces that influence the Moorcock worlds. It is important that balance be maintained since having one dominate would result in a multiverse that is totally formless, or permanently static. The three aspects of balance, chaos, and law are seemingly non-sentient forces that provide the different representatives and champions with their power. Just like your ordinary human, the Eternal Champion who lives in the different world, times, and dimensions fights for Cosmic Balance, even as he is often unaware of his role even sometimes struggling against it in vain. While he goes through long periods of relative quiet, he is doomed to always have destruction and strife as constant companions in his quest for balancing chaos and law. Just like the Eternal Champions are different incarnations of each other, so are his companions and his romantic interest, all of whom cross from one universe to another. They are deemed actors in various cataclysmic events even as they are serial incarnations for the single consciousness of one entity. They may be brought together by these cataclysmic events such as the invasion of their different worlds by enemies from a different multiverse or the end of the ultimate cycle in their multiverse’s progression. Such events while having the potential to amplify the Champion’s power significantly are just as dangerous, in that they also mess with the mental balance of the Champion.

The most popular of the Eternal Champion series of novels are the Elric of Melnibone series of novels. The novels were written as a rebellion against the clichés of the adventure and fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien, and as an antithesis to “Conan the Barbarian” by Robert E. Howard. The Elric series has so far been Moorcock’s most commercially successful work. Nonetheless, some aspects of the Elric novels have made it into other novels such as “Corum” and “Hawkmoon”. The series of novels has been compiled into two collections with a British and US omnibus version. In 2003, Universal films contracted the Weitz brothers to produce a series based on the Elric series that they had recently optioned. Another very popular creation of the Eternal Champion series is Jerry Cornelius an ambiguous gender character that features as the Champion’s romantic interest in several of the works. Even as the series are more of a satire on modern happenings such as the Vietnam War the story lines of some, its novels such as “The Final Program” are identical to some of the Elric novels, and are set in a variation of the multiverse. Since 1998, Jerry Cornelius has appeared in several novellas that were featured in “The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction” published in 2008, and “The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius” published in 2003.

“The Eternal Champion” is the introduction to the fascination intricate universe of the Eternal Champion series of novels. The Eternal Champion is a fascinating character who fights with a special weapon that is often a manifestation of the Black Sword. The stories in “Phoenix in Obsidian” and “The Eternal Champion” are particularly enchanting with the character struggling against his destiny as he vaguely remembers his past, and has no inkling of what is to come. Event though the Champion has the advantage of knowledge and perspective that gives him acute knowledge of current happenings, he is in constant torment of a fate he cannot escape and his past losses. The Champion is something of a badass with an interesting personality, and a powerful weapon that he can wield in different incarnations; he is a very vicious opponent in any battle where he seeks to fulfill his destiny. The novel is the best introduction to Moorcock’s concept of the multiverse and makes for interesting reading. The second half is particularly fascinating with its narrative of the life and death stakes that humans are forced into as they seek to settle a new universe.

“Von Bek” the second novel in the series is set in dark days of Britain’s decline before the EEC took Mercy on the lonely and wild goddess and invited her into their community. Fast forward to the present and the EEC has failed becoming a patchwork of tiny but frequently warring nations. Britain has reverted to its dominant position and now deals with Europe as a violent ruler thinking only of its interests. Having built a massive bridge from the British Isles right through Europe, its brutish soldiers can surge into the continent to wreak havoc any time they feel like it. They are different from the general shy nature of their ancestors as they wear animal masks to camouflage their harmless demeanor. Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, and the Beattles are distant memories who are thought of as Granbretan on the continent and gods in Britain. The Duke of Cologne whose name is German Hawkmoon leads a resistance against the British, determined to restore the concepts of duty and order. Over the course of about four titles and with the help of the French, they finally manage to throw off the yoke of the devilish Britons.