The Worm Ouroboros book review: The Forever War
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- My review of E. R. Eddison's classic fantasy novel The Worm Ouroboros, a strikingly written work which tells of the war between the nations of Demonland and Witchland; a tale of many deeds of derring-do, albeit with a rather questionable sense of morality behind it.
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Eddison also wrote the Zimiamvia Trilogy, which is a sort-of, maybe-kind-of sequel to "Worm". Zimiamvia is the magical land Lord Juss and Lord Brandoch Daha see in the far distance at one point in "Worm". The Zimiamvia are written in late-1500s Elizabethan prose as opposed to the Thos. Malory 15th-c. prose of "Worm". The philosophy is different, too. The Zimiamvia books are tales of a world that's a lot more Renaissance and maybe Elizabethan and much less Norse/early medieval. The characters are ruthless enough, but in a more political way than the characters in "Worm". Lessingham appears as a character again, both in the framing forewords and as a political player in the intrigues of Zimiamvia. In the Zimiamvia books, Lessingham is also the chosen lover of Aphrodite, who has created all these worlds-- a slightly different early 20th-c. England, Zimiamvia, the Mercury of "Worm" --as gifts for him. The philosophy is a lot more 17th-c. Hermetic, and the wars are much more political and filled with consequences. The language again is just great. Very different books, but also worth reading.
Wow, the complexity of the lore as you make it sounds makes me actually kinda wanna jump into those books at some point. :o That sounds wild! XD
Wow, that print-on-demand book is simply ghastly (and not even gormenghastly) book design. Clearly, as you said, they were trying to keep the page count low by cramming lines onto the page, and the result is pages with inadequate margins, with the typeblock occupying far too much of the page, and probably in a difficult type size to read. A book like The Worm Ouroboros, with its archaic language and aesthetic (and illustrations made for the book) deserves a beautiful edition (Easton Press did a prestige edition a few years ago that seems to have been very good, but is no longer in stock). Or, if you just want to read text, download it from Project Gutenberg and read it on your tablet or whatever; at least you will be able to set margins and type size and typeface.
Oh wow I didn't even know it had accompanying illustrations. Now I really regret buying this cheap knockoff edition. XD
Those naming conventions...yikes. Even if he came up with them as a child, you'd hope he would have laughed it off and came up with some actual names.
I feel like the older fantasy works were still so tied up in mythology that they never fully realized their potential to tell stories that felt "real." Post-Tolkien, you see fantasy writers attempting to make their fiction more akin to other genres in characterization and plot. That said, I find most fantasy pretty bad. Just rehashes of things that have come before or venturing into superhero/anime territory. GRRM is one of the few writers I can stomach in the genre.
I think I actually responded better to The Worm Ouroboros because, being pre-Tolkien, it felt much less predictable and wilder. I'd say you're right though, it definitely doesn't feel quite as "real" as later works in the genre, but then again with fantasy part of me sort of yearns for a little foreignness once in a while. Overall it really worked for me.
Funnily enough, I'm the exact opposite. I generally can't stand fantasy written by an author born after WW2, because the writer generations after that largely succumbed to the trends (worshipping, but fatally misunderstanding Tolkien; every nerd playing D&D, which brought the deracination of the field) that made fantasy the creatively bankrupt shitshow it is now.
Martin really is not the antidote to that most people want to see him as. Taking epic fantasy and merely "deconstructing" the romantic aspects of the genre does not leave one with much. And he did not even have the gal to go all the way with that like M. John Harrison did with the Viriconium series. Hell, as seen with the last book and the later seasons of GoT, the series just falls back into standard high fantasy territory.
The Worm Ouroboros was one of these books I enjoyed reading, but can't really imagine revisiting. The prose is definitely a feat; I think Eddison excels more in static imagery, while the battle scenes for example are surprisingly lame; but whatever misgivings one might have, it's hard not to respect the autistic dedication this must have taken.
I agree that the Witchlanders and Gro are more interesting characters than the Demon lords. My edition has the original illustrations by Keith Henderson, and in his rendition, Lord Juss and his boys, quite fittingly, all look the same. While reading the novel, I got pretty fed up with them quite quickly and thought to myself, "Okay, can we go back to the Witches now; they're so much more fun."
My main problem with the main theme of war and cyclicity was that it's not woven tightly enough into the story; the ending feels a little bit tacked on in my opinion.
Re: Classic Fantasy
As it happens, I'm rereading Jack Vance's Dying Earth books now. Those would be another pick as far as extravagant style and morally reprehensible characters go (allthough Vance is well aware of their failings).
I can see where you're coming from with the cyclicity thing. Like, everyone seems to deplore the war while it's happening, only to do a 180 at the end and suddenly decide they want more. XD And I've sorta debated giving the Dying Earth books a go ever since reading The Book of the New Sun, since those books were a big inspiration for that work.
@@TH3F4LC0Nx Yeah, Eddison plays a little bit with that idea by King Gorice being the same person who just reincarnates troughout history and his Ouroboros ring. But that's not enough; it's just kind of there. That's what I mean: regardless of what one might think of the message, if you read the book closely, it's a pretty bizzare, abrupt conclusion on a purely dramaturgical level as well.
The Dying Earth is series really is one of a kind. The Cugel books in particular might belong to the best picaresque adventures in literature in general, not just SF&F.
I'm not really a big fan of fantasy either. Witchland & Demonland? Yeah...that's why I don't read this stuff.
With such childish names like that you wouldn't think it would be all that compelling, but really it was. Kinda restored my faith that fantasy and I might possibly get on fairly well on some occasions.
@@TH3F4LC0Nx I'm more of a Sci-Fi guy. Funny...I just started reading Joe Haldeman's Military Science Fiction novel "The Forever War".
@@dustinneely I actually picked that up recently. Hope it's good! :)
@@TH3F4LC0Nx "Forever War" is good, and I liked it. A bit unsure about the ending, though. It was a little bit over-infused with post-Vietnam cynicism.
@@TH3F4LC0Nx I liked some of the names: Brandoch Daha, Corund, Corinius, and Carce are all fun words to say.
@someokiedude9549 brought me here. Happy Reading! 😎📚👍
;)
Funnily enough, seems like this correlates to warhammer franchise that fetishizes/glorifies endless wars. One may say this was the beginning of it.
Doesn't seem like it offers much new from that perspective... Especially for someone actively trying to forget stuff like wh exists, don't want any reminders of my dumb teen edginess ;-P
On an side-note. Did you notice how almost every fantasy lore and a lot of si-fi just copypastes roman empire over and over again?
Of everything you've read/watched/played, are there any examples of fictional states/empires with truly unique societies that also feel realistic?
Hmm, interesting question. You're right, most fantasy and space opera sci-fi seem like they tend to use Rome as a template for the evil empire. (Star Wars really comes to mind.) Honestly I'm not even sure if I can name off the top of my head a fantasy work that doesn't abide by that template, but then again I haven't read all that much fantasy, so I won't say there's nothing out there.
What do you mean with "roman empire"? The classical unified one? The Byzantines? The Holy Roman Empire? Tsarist Russia?
Depending on your answer, there are a fantasy IPs that don't have that.
Wow, really going for a deep cut eh? This was one of the books that inspired Tolkien.
Yep, a little known gem, this one. ;)
@@TH3F4LC0Nx I know you're not much of a fantasy guy. But I am curious what you would think of stuff like Conan or Perdido Street Station or Black Leopard, Red Wolf.
@@someokiedude9549 I have thought about reading some of the Conan stories before. Maybe one day I'll give 'em a try. ;)