“Hawkmoon” by Michael Moorcock

 

504 pages, White Wolf Publishing, ISBN-13: 978-1565041936

Over the course of the mid-to-late 90s, White Wolf Publishing produced this massive omnibus collection of Michael Moorcock’s “Eternal Champion” stories, a recurrent aspect in many of his tales. Hawkmoon was the third in this series featuring the character Dorian Hawkmoon, Duke of Köln, and includes the tales The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God’s Amulet, The Sword of the Dawn and The Runestaff. The protagonist is another incarnation of the Eternal Champion; born into the World of the Dark Empire, and bearing the Black Jewel embedded in his skull, Hawkmoon’s world is in fact a future, post-apocalyptic Earth which has regressed to a neofeudal era in which higher technology (flame lances, or laser weapons, and ornithopters, flying machines powered by flapping wings) exists alongside sorcery. The Empire of Granbretan is hell-bent on conquering the world at the command of the immortal King-Emperor Huon, who dwells in a fluid-filled sphere in Londra, the capital. The aristocracy of Granbretan are renowned for their cruelty and for their practice of hiding their faces behind beast-inspired masks at all times; these masks correspond to chivalric orders, and the aristocrats at the head, along with the soldiers they lead, form the armies of the King-Emperor. At the time of the first book, Köln is the last holdout in Europe as Granbretan has succeeded in conquering everyone else.

The Jewel in the Skull is the first of the “History of the Runestaff” books and features a bit of contrariness on Moorcock’s park, seeing that this Englishman has made Granbretan – Great Britain, of course – the heavies, while the German Duke of Köln (that would be Cologne) is the hero. The tale begins in Kamarg where its ruler, Count Brass, is visited by an emissary of Granbretan, Baron Meliadus, who wants to use the Count’s knowledge of the courts of Europe to better conquer them. Brass would rather like to see Europe united, but not through force, and sees the Granbretans as nothing more than degenerate barbarians. From there, all hell breaks loose as Granbretan seeks to conquer all and Dorian Hawkmoon comes to the aid of his ally. As with most of Moorcock’s books early on in his career, there is a blending of sorcery and technology in an amalgam that is just cool as hell. Hawkmoon’s distinctive “jewel in the skull” is, or course, a part of this amalgamation, while his descriptions of the barbaric and ruthless Granbretans is both distinctive and revealing (Moorcock moved to Texas in the 1990s, for reasons unknown to me), as is the city of Hamadan and the strange post-apocalyptic creatures he briefly shows. But, as usual, it is in his characterizations that Moorcock shines: heroes are heroic and villains are villainous, while supporting characters are fleshed out and given their due, especially Bowgentle, the hirsute Oladahn and the ever-mysterious Warrior in Jet and Gold.

The Mad God’s Amulet is the second of the Runestaff books and picks up the adventures of Dorian Hawkmoon immediately following The Jewel in the Skull and follows his and Oladahn’s journey back to Castle Brass in Kamarg. As with The Jewel in the Skull, an aspect of The Mad God’s Amulet is the inclusion of esoteric artifacts, amongst them the “Soryandum Machines”, which act as the MacGuffins that drives the plot along. As the story progresses, Moorcock subtly makes clear that many of the “magical” items the adventurers encounter along the way are supposed to have a foundation in technology, especially the Soryandum Machines that transformed the people of Soryandum into “ghosts” (actually, humans transformed by their own science so that they exist in another dimension). This, then, is SciFi for fans of fantasy, melding as it does two seemingly opposing genres into one. While Hawkmoon and Count Brass only had to face Baron Meliadus and the forces of Granbreton in the previous novel, Moorcock has created a broader group of villains for the follow-up, including the treacherous Sir Huillam D’Averc and, of course, the “mad god” himself. And despite Baron Meliadus’ return in true supervillain fashion, he is not the empire’s sole operative, nor is Granbreton the only baddie in this post-apocalyptic world. There’s a lot going on in The Mad God’s Amulet, but it is rather obvious that it is a “part two”, a filler novel needed to set up future works and the grand finale. For all that, good stuff.

The Sword of the Dawn is the third of the Runestaff books and finds our heroes safe, but with the Empire of Granbretan still seeking revenge. Hawkmoon and the redeemed D’Averc still oppose them, but the mysterious Runestaff has plans of its own, and Hawkmoon will find that before he can turn his attention to the Dark Empire he must first seek out the fabled “Sword of the Dawn”. One seemingly universal trait of the many different Eternal Champions is their hankering after unfinished business (retirement is not an option); this is particularly true of Hawkmoon, who doesn’t seem to be able to deal with inactivity that well. Where The Sword of the Dawn is, perhaps, better than its predecessors is in retelling the character’s motivations; while the previous books were not just mindless hack’n’slash free-for-alls and featured both protagonists and antagonists that were really three-dimensional, there was something a little lacking into just why they did what they did. The Empire of Granbretan is shown in all its dark glory, as we see that the subjects hunger for conquest with their accompanying atrocities, are caused by sheer decadence and ennui, making their crimes all the more repellent as we find out that they are motivated by the fact that the Granbretans, of the Dark Empire, are bored and fancy a change. They’re scared of running out of ideas so have made it a competition of excess instead. The Sword of the Dawn, thus, feels rather more complete as a story and a continuation of the Runestaff series, rather than as mere filer.

The Runestaff is the final volume in the Runestaff series continues the adventures of Hawkmoon as he endeavors to defeat the evil Baron Meliadus and the empire of Granbretan. Once again there’s plenty of swashbuckling from Hawkmoon and crew and braggadocio in abundance from the villains. The climax is suitably grand in scale and fitting as a conclusion to Moorcock’s enjoyable fantasy series. This is perhaps the best of the four volumes, due mainly to the fullness of the story and the consistently fast pace, although some elements are rather hurriedly wrapped-up. As a whole the series is great fun, and an ideal escapist read. But lo, you may think the adventures of good old Dorian Hawkmoon come to an end with the fourth and final novel of the Runestaff; likely, so did Moorcock (the fifth book in the series, the start of a new trilogy, wasn’t released for another four years, while these four were released over a period of a little more than twelve months). Now, with everything in place, it’s time for Hawkmoon and his friend Huillam d’Averc to seek out the Runestaff itself; the problem is that Hawkmoon isn’t fond of the idea as he’d rather go back to Castle Brass for a spell and see the rest of his friends. In the course of his erratic journey, we meet a new main character, Orland Fank (the brother of Hawkmoon’s longtime advisor The Warrior in Jet and Gold), a few brand-new monstrosities, and the like. The series comes to a conclusion that is surprisingly, in retrospect, satisfying; had Moorcock never taken up the pen and applied it to Hawkmoon again, readers of the series would likely have been satisfied with what’s here (well, perhaps “satisfied” is not the correct word; longtime fans of the Eternal Champion books will understand what I mean). In either case, a good conclusion to the series, and one of the more worthwhile books in Moorcock’s vast (and expanding) repertoire.