En aquellos días había océanos de luz, ciudades en el cielo y salvajes bestias voladoras de bronce. Era un tiempo en que los dioses se manifestaban en nuestro mundo con todos sus atributos; un tiempo de gigantes que caminaban sobre el agua; tiempo de magia, fantasmas, naturaleza inestable, sueños frustrados, pesadillas corpóreas. Era el tiempo de los Señores de las Espadas. El tiempo en que los Vadhagh y los Nhadragh, enemigos seculares, se extinguían sin darse cuenta de ello. Y los recién llegados Mabdén les envidiaban. Y los Grandes Dioses Antiguos empezaron a conocer el Miedo. Y Hombre, el esclavo del miedo, orgulloso en su ignorancia, continuó su progreso a tropezones. Pero siempre habrá seres que intenten combatir y destruir lo invulnerable. El Príncipe Corum Jhaelen Irsei fue uno de ellos. Quizá fuera el último de la raza Vadhagh, y a veces era llamado el Príncipe de la Túnica Escarlata.

Review from 2012

Difficult to read in places but still exciting throughout. Very creative. ( )

The first Moorcock book I read. I was 13 and it was bloody fantastic. ( )

Great read. Very fast-paced for the fantasy genre. Almost too fast - at times all kinds of fantastical things happening at breakneck speed and it's a little hard to keep up. For all that it's great fun and keeps you interested. ( )

I went into this expecting to enjoy it a lot more than I did. The story seemed interesting at first, in fact, the concept(the battle between the forces of Law and Chaos, new races replacing the Old)was what got me to pick up the book in the first place. True enough, for the first dozen or so pages it was entertaining enough, some of the world-building I enjoyed quite a lot and it did get me involved in the story.

The last two books were not at all enjoyable to read in my case. I found it's the case with most of the fantasy classics I read, they start with an interesting/thought-provoking premise, which then devolves into pointless stereotypes, forced plot points, mindless and in some cases annoying heroics. The characters feel stiff and lifeless, and any character development there is just feels forced and rushed. The absence of romance in this book could have only made it leagues better. Instead, we have to deal with entire sections of the book occupied by this contrived and not at all intriguing part of the story. All the characters personalities are made of glass, except poor old Hanafax and to some extent Glandyth, the big baddy. I only give this two stars because of its age, and the fact that I did enjoy the first part of this book. Of course, if I had read this in the '70s I most likely would have rated it higher, but as it is there are bigger and better things out there. ( )