Rating: 
Summary: My summary of this book.
Review: This is one of the best books Moorcock wrote. I like Von Beck's stories because they're always very interesting and with a lot of suspense
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Bag
Review: This omnibus edition contains three very different stories. The first, The War Hound and the World's Pain, is possibly the best work of a superlatively accomplished author. Dark and foreboding, filled with scenes of horror and despair, yet still a facinating and captivating work of fantasy. Moorcock's use of Christian mythology as a backdrop for a fantasy story is an inspired stroke of genius, and the character he developed for the fallen angel Lucifer is so believable as to make you question your own ideas as to the nature of evil. The premise of the story is absolutely original, a rare thing in any genre today, but especially rare in fantasy, and Moorcock's masterful writing brings the story to life in your hands.The second book in this omnibus, however, is as bad as the first one is good. The sequel to War Hound, City in the Autumn Stars is a drab, plodding, disappointing piece with all the excitement and suspense of a bad Victorian romance and all the flavor of plain tofu. Moorcock's uncanny flair for descriptive passages becomes a curse here, as he paints image after image of boredom and redundancy. Skip this one, friends. The Dragon in the Sword, although featuring a character named Von Bek and a plot involving the Holy Grail, has very little connection to the other two novels. It is actually the third book of the Eternal Champion Trilogy, following the novels The Eternal Champion and Phoenix in Obsidian. As such, it is more action-oriented than either War Hound or City in the Autumn Stars, as well as being set, for the most part, in strange realms. It is an "average" Moorcock piece, that "average" being about five points higher than your everyday author; not exceptional when compared to Moorcock's work as a whole, but better than a full three-quarters of the fantasy written to date by other authors. The Von Bek omnibus is worth the money, despite the low quality of the middle book (The Pleasure Garden of Filipe Saggitarius is a short story, well written, but little more than a few minutes' diversion). The War Hound and the World's Pain is, itself, worth the price of the whole book, and The Dragon in the Sword is icing on the cake. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A good place to start reading Moorcock
Review: Though this is the second volume of the series, the stories are probably stronger, so if you haven't read Moorcock it is a good place to start. For some mysterious reason (see his multiverse.org website) Mr Moorcock has seen fit to withdraw all his fantasy novels but the new Elric stories from circulation and these are no longer published, so I'd advise you to pick up copies while you can. Hinted is the chance of them becoming available again as single volumes sometime in the future. Meanwhile there is the Elric movie to look forward to (see universal website).
The War Hound and the World's Pain is the first Von Bek story in the book and describes a war-weary veteran of the Hundred Years War who loses his soul to the devil and is offered it back if he can help reconcile Satan and God. This has become a fairly common theme in modern fantasy, but was startling and new when it first appeared and still retains its freshness.
The City in the Autumn Stars is about another member of the Von Bek family, this time a cynic, rogue and soldier of fortune, who escapes the horrors of the French Revolution and comes to the city of Mirenburg where he falls in with another rogue, the charming balloonist St Odhran. Together they concoct a scam, which goes wrong when their balloon actually takes them to another Mirenburg, the City in the Autumn Stars, where a variety of mystical and alchemical action takes place. The ending's a little weak (apparently Moorcock reduced this book from a much longer original narrative) but the atmosphere of the city and the strangeness of the characters dominates. A very fine tale.
The Dragon in the Sword is more like a conventional fantasy adventure in which Moorcock's eternal champion is thrown into a world of warring factions and intelligent bears.
Anyone who finds these books a little like Philip Pullman would be right. They were written years before Pullman but most of the ideas in His Dark Materials can be found here, including, of course, characters who travel between different planes of existence.
The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius is a great short story which exemplifies another strand of Moorcock's extraordinary multiverse and ties in with his 'metatemporal detective' stories such as the one recently published in McSweeney's (The Case of the Nazi Canary). In this a Von Bek who is a detective investigates the murder of Bismarck and is helped by police chief, one Adolf Hitler. Some of Moorcock's most fun stories are in this kind of setting, including his Nomad of the Time Streams stories, which are a later volume in this same series.
All in all tremendous value for money and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A good place to start reading Moorcock
Review: Though this is the second volume of the series, the stories are probably stronger, so if you haven't read Moorcock it is a good place to start. For some mysterious reason (see his multiverse.org website) Mr Moorcock has seen fit to withdraw all his fantasy novels but the new Elric stories from circulation and these are no longer published, so I'd advise you to pick up copies while you can. Hinted is the chance of them becoming available again as single volumes sometime in the future. Meanwhile there is the Elric movie to look forward to (see universal website).
The War Hound and the World's Pain is the first Von Bek story in the book and describes a war-weary veteran of the Hundred Years War who loses his soul to the devil and is offered it back if he can help reconcile Satan and God. This has become a fairly common theme in modern fantasy, but was startling and new when it first appeared and still retains its freshness.
The City in the Autumn Stars is about another member of the Von Bek family, this time a cynic, rogue and soldier of fortune, who escapes the horrors of the French Revolution and comes to the city of Mirenburg where he falls in with another rogue, the charming balloonist St Odhran. Together they concoct a scam, which goes wrong when their balloon actually takes them to another Mirenburg, the City in the Autumn Stars, where a variety of mystical and alchemical action takes place. The ending's a little weak (apparently Moorcock reduced this book from a much longer original narrative) but the atmosphere of the city and the strangeness of the characters dominates. A very fine tale.
The Dragon in the Sword is more like a conventional fantasy adventure in which Moorcock's eternal champion is thrown into a world of warring factions and intelligent bears.
Anyone who finds these books a little like Philip Pullman would be right. They were written years before Pullman but most of the ideas in His Dark Materials can be found here, including, of course, characters who travel between different planes of existence.
The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius is a great short story which exemplifies another strand of Moorcock's extraordinary multiverse and ties in with his 'metatemporal detective' stories such as the one recently published in McSweeney's (The Case of the Nazi Canary). In this a Von Bek who is a detective investigates the murder of Bismarck and is helped by police chief, one Adolf Hitler. Some of Moorcock's most fun stories are in this kind of setting, including his Nomad of the Time Streams stories, which are a later volume in this same series.
All in all tremendous value for money and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Mirenburg is forever!
Review: To get the most out of this book, you should read it (especially the section _City in the Autumn Stars_) in conjunction with _The Brothel in Rosenstrasse_. _City_ and _Brothel_ run parallel to each other in certain ways. I didn't really appreciate _City_ until I reread it after reading _Brothel_. _Brothel_ is one of Moorcok's very best, I think. Incidentally, there are also a number of purely coincidental parallels between _City in the Autumn Stars_ and David Lodge's book _Small World_.
Rating:
Summary: The War Hound and the World's Pain, book 1 of this omnibus.
Review: Von Bek was the first true "dark fantasy" I ever read. (Elric doesn't count for some reason). It was interesting to read although the parts with the minotaur and him being androgynous etc. was a little freaky, but if you make it through this book you are rewarded by hawkmoon and nomad of the time streams. Yhe best in the series. (thus far, I am just starting #7.)
Rating:
Summary: It is spelt bek not beck!
Review: Von Bek was the first true "dark fantasy" I ever read. (Elric doesn't count for some reason). It was interesting to read although the parts with the minotaur and him being androgynous etc. was a little freaky, but if you make it through this book you are rewarded by hawkmoon and nomad of the time streams. Yhe best in the series. (thus far, I am just starting #7.)
Rating: 
Summary: Worth getting for the first volume
Review: Worth getting for War Hound, which presents one of Moorcock's most appealing protagonists, the cynical, weary Ulrich Von Bek. City is a fine evocation of a certain style of writing, but it's an overlong, tedious read. Dragon in the Sword, the final chapter in the John Daker/Erekose sequence, is decent but unexceptional.
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