Review: Von Bek

Von Bek by Michael Moorcock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a actually a collection of two books. The first is The War Hound and The World's Pain starring Count Ulrich Von Bek. Second book is The City in the Autumn Stars starring Count Ulrichs descendant Manfred Von Bek. The first book with Ulrich establishes a few things about him. He is a gallant, brave, daring and courageous man who left his German home in Bek to fight as a mercenary across Europe. For nearly any righteous cause that would need a man willing to fight with sword, musket and strength of will he would pledge himself to defend the righteous causes of humanity. This is all fine until you learn one key thing about Count Ulrichs character. Ulrich is also a giant dick. As you start the book he seems like a lost soldier looking for his next war to fight. When he does find a cause at the behest of Lucifer that's where his true colors start to reveal themselves. It's not just the murders, sedition, or rape that he perpetrates in the book that makes him a dick. It's that he inspires others to do the same. And when they pay the price for their crimes his reaction can be summed up in a simple phrase, 'Oh, Well!' His reasoning being, he's doing this for love so it's alright.

Manfred starts off in the same vein as Ulrich. A brave soldier of fortune whose fought with the Americans in their rebellion against the British. Only to now have run away from the French Revolution because of his objections to the methods of Robespierre. When we find him he views his predecessors work in the name of Lucifer as only a folktale. Only to be bewitched by a beautiful, mysterious, sensual, all knowing Duchess. In simpler terms he's pussy whipped. Manfred is impressionable to a fault. Give him some food, wine, a sword, musket and a fight he's all good. Have a pretty woman with a sweet pair of tits wink at him, he's a love sick puppy ready to pledge his life and soul to the life and soul devouring maw if she tells him to do so. That last part is only 95% true but it's a big part of this story.

The Von Beks have admirable qualities but those all just go away when Lucifer and the promise of a beautiful woman are involved. Both involve the search for The Grail but this is far from a Arthurian tale. They involve characters willing to sell their souls to authority and for authority. The Von Beks both stand as spectators to the folly of those characters. The madness that claims those characters is what stays with the Von Beks. They themselves only view their involvement in the events as coincidental. To the reader you'll see that they are far from innocent in what takes place.

The writing in the first book is fine. If you've read the Elric books this is standard fair. The writing in the second book borders on being a Monty Python skit set in 1770s era England. There's a lot of, 'good day, sir','ah, yes good morning sir', 'oh dash it all man send for my carriage'. It's something that either keeps you in the story or takes you out of the story. Reading about a love struck German in a zeppelin with a Scottish dandy as a pilot is enough. Now throw in all the high brow Englishmen speak and you've got to plow through certain paragraphs where your not sure what just happened. Overall I liked it but it's not for everyone. Maybe watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail before reading the second book. It might better prepare your mind for the second part of this book.

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