The Queen of the Swords
The Corum Series, Book # 2
By Michael Moorcock
ISBN: 978-1783291670
Brought to you by Omar
Author’s Website: http://www.multiverse.org/
Review
After the fight with the lord of Chaos Arioch who had control over five planes, one being where Corum is from- and the lord of law Arkyn returned to power, Corum has been trying to adapt to his life with Rhalina and the new hand and eye. From time to time, the hand moves without him moving it and it has saved his life before.
Now with the new task impose on him, which is to defeat the Lords of Chaos and restore the balance between Law and Chaos; the book starts with Corum and Rhalina riding near the woods of Model’s Mount. On their way back to the castle, they come across a giant, which Corum saw in the previous book. Rhalina calls him the “Wading One”, as they see him fish and inspect his catch before letting it go. She tells Corum that the myth says that he is looking for his soul. That night, during dinner, a man knocks on castle door asking for help as he was left on the shore by the Wading One, his name was Jhary-a-Conel. He claims to be a traveler that is destined to move “through all times and planes.”
Jhary brings the news that Glandyth plans to attack Lywm-an-Esh, a continent where Mabdens have adopted the costumes of the Vadhagh and live peacefully. Corum, Rhalina, and Jharly embark on a journey to Lywm-an-Esh, and later to the next five planes domain by the Queen of Chaos Xiombarg to find allies to fight the power of Chaos in their planes.
I liked the character of Jhary-a-Conel, his way of talking was funny and if you know about the Eternal Champion you can see his given away information about the other planes or dimensions; also I liked his wing-cat Whiskers, the face that can be seen on the cover of the book.
“Have you no profession?” Corum asked him. “Well, I have some poetry and plays in my time, but my main profession could be that I am a friend of heroes…”
Corum is still bitter and on his quest to kill Glandyth-a-Krae. It seems that he is not going to be happy or content until that Mabden is dead, and I can see that Rhalina tries to be patient with his outburst from time to time. Over the course of the book we can see that they rely on one another in difficult moments, and try to embrace themselves when they fear death is near.
It seems that the goal for this series is to kill the Lords of Chaos and restore the balance to the powers of Law. An idea of the Michael Moorcock is that the Gods need the help of mortals to exist and do things on Earth.
“And the gods?” Corum asked him eagerly. “I think we create them. But I am not sure. Where primitives invent crude gods to explain thunder, more sophisticated people create more elaborate gods to explain the abstractions which puzzle them. It has often been noted that gods could not exist without mortals and mortals could not exist without gods”
I had some trouble with some names that Jhary mentions because if a person doesn’t have any knowledge about the other series of Michael Moorcock, then the name from other books won’t make sense.
If you are a fan of Michael Moorcock or the Corum Series or any other of his series, I recommend you read, the Queen of the Swords, the second book on the Corum Series. Here, our hero goes in quest to find allies over different planes and even finds people that he thought dead.
