With a battle cry that’s the scream of a hawk followed by shouting, “”Hawkmoon! Hawkmoon,” Dorian Hawkmoon, the Duke of Koln and hero of Michael Moorcock’s History of the Runestaff, series–reprinted from the 1960′s–takes one back to yesteryear, though they’re still as great and entertaining to read today as they were when they first were published. Moorcock has been called “The greatest writer of post-Tolkien British fantasy,” and, who knows, that just might be true. I haven’t read all British works of fantasy since (let alone previous to) Tolkien’s epic, so I can’t honestly say if this statement is true or not. But, Moorcock’s vision, skill at writing complex and carefully plotted novels, and his dramatization of Dorian Hawkmoon’s metaphysical quest has to rank him very close to the top of the heap of post-Tolkien British fantasy authors.
The first two books in the series are called The Jewel in the Skull and The Mad God’s Amulet. The Sword of the Dawn is the third book in the series. It’s the only one I’ve had the chance and pleasure to read thus far, also. There are enough references back to the first two novels of the series that I’d say it can be fairly called a book that can “stand on its own,” as being one that you can enjoy without having read the other books in the series. The Sword of the Dawn is short at 221 pages, some of which are excellent black and white illustrations by Vance Kovaks (who also did the cover art) that complement the plot very well. Despite its brevity, Moorcock does a great job handling the important aspect of world-building.
Using a powerful magical crystal, Dorian Hawkmoon and the people of Lamarg have escaped to an alternate world, and possibly an alternate time. Still, they fear they can never be fully safe from the Dark Empire ruled over by the evil King-Emperor Huan, Baron Meliadus, and the other psychotic leaders of the Granbretan army. Hawkmoon and his good friend, D’Averc, decide to travel back to Granbretan to see how close their enemies are at figuring out how to also travel through time and space (and perhaps alternate dimensions) and attack them, and to try to prevent them from succeeding.
They are very bold and audacious, disguising themselves as foreign diplomats from Asiacommunista. Asiacommunista (like another continent that Hawkmoon and D’Averc voyage to in their quest for the Sword of the Dawn later on in the novel, Amarehk) seems for the most part to be relatively unknown by the denizens of the Dark empire, and the people of Kamarg. This kind of puzzled me as I read, in that the characters in the novel include scientists, and magicians, and the science is akin to magic, and vice-versa. I thought why don’t the characters have more knowledge of their own planet, if they’re so cognizant about science and magic? Of course, I suppose it might be due, in part, to what characters in the book refer to as the Tragic Millennium, which appears to refer to an apocalyptic era of warfare and man-made plagues which led to many people dying, and much knowledge lost.
One aspect I liked about the novel is that some of the story is told from Baron Meladius’ POV, and we get to see the political intrigues that swirl around the power matrix of the Dark Empire.
One flaw Hawkmoon has, which is one many other literary heroes have, is that he tends to act before he thinks sometimes. This results in several cliff-hanging types of encounters in the novel, when you wonder how anyone can get out of the jam they have gotten themselves into. The brave Hawkmoon and D’Averc attack whomever or whatever opposes them no matter how outnumbered they are, though they somehow always manage to miraculously escape. This adds to the suspense, but if you think about it too much, as I sometimes do, it’s not a major credit to our heroes’ level of intelligence.
The concluding book in the series, The Runestaff, will be out in December. Until then, if you haven’t read them yet, I highly recommend that you read The Sword of the Dawn and the first two novels of the series. They’re action-packed and filled with heroic and villainous characters, magic, and technology. Hawkmoon and D’Averc reminded me, as they did other reviewers in their reviews of this novel, of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Also, there’s a bit of Flash Gordon-like qualities in the novel, in that the heroes are definitely heroic, the villains are quite evil, and no matter what the odds might be, the heroes always prevail. If you’re a fan of Moorcock’s writing, or are unfamiliar with it but are a fan of great, classic Sword & Sorcery novels, you should check out The Sword of the Dawn–you’ll be glad you did!
