Note: Below, my review is split into two parts. The first gives my general thoughts on the book and series, and the second details spoilers and major plot points. Be warned.

This should be a relatively short review (at least for me).

Part One: Overview

I rounded up the star rating to four, because I considered this book to be better than the previous one. The Queen of the Swords picks up a few months after the previous book, and once the story gets going, it doesn't stop until the end. The second book of Corum does a great job of expanding the world, and is quite good at world building for such a short novel. The story increases the stakes in this middle volume, since now Corum and company are battling against the Queen of the Swords herself, a more powerful Goddess of Chaos than Arioch in the first book. And this conflict takes Corum, Rhalina and Jhary to the Five Planes that the Queen rules. And it is here that I must address something that I brought up in my review of The Knight of the Swords: this book, in regards to its imagery and settings, could well have been written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I read another review that made the same comparison, so I know I'm not alone in drawing this parallel. Or parallels, since there are several. Once more, the settings are as alien as Burroughs's Barsoom, with some bizarre elements at which the reader can't help but be fascinated. I'll detail these elements in my spoiler section below. And more than its predecessor, The Queen of the Swords is much more action-driven, with Corum and his fellows going from battle to confrontation to showdown. We get to see more of Corum's Summoning power, which was one of the things I found most interesting in the first book.

Another parallel I'd like to draw is, surprisingly, to the young adult book series Deltora. Much like Corum, Deltora is almost insane in its settings. The creatures that Emily Rodda (the author of the Deltora series) describes and invents are so strange and bizarre in their own unique way that, even if they're grotesque and evil, I can't help but love them. Likewise, Moorcock does something similar in this book, bringing to light creatures that are as nonsensical and illogical, whose evolutionary history would drive Darwin to insanity, that I simply want to know more about them. Some of these creatures are named and even described to some extent, through Jhary who, being the Companion to Champions, has seen most of them before. This is perhaps what I liked most about this second volume in the Corum series: it doesn't shy away from the strange and even capitalizes on the fear of the unknown (more detail below). I've read primarily modern fantasy, and one thing I've noticed most authors do is try to normalize the fantastic, they attempt to make the awe-inspiring and uncanny more grounded. In short, modern fantasy mainly tries to mirror our world. The Corum books so far, as far as I can tell, turn our world on its head. Whereas humans are typically the good guys, the ones who know better and can fix whatever problems there exist (LOTR and the Barsoom series have humans dealing with the main conflict), here, humans are the problem. This isn't exactly a new concept, of course. Countless forms of media have utilized humans as the primary antagonists, a type of horde that consumes and destroys, but in most of these mediums there is usually one human who is good, one human who makes it worthwhile to save the rest. Corum's world doesn't work that way. While technically Rhalina and her people are of the Mabden race (humans), the barbarians and their atrocities make me want to side with Corum and his people almost exclusively. This theme isn't exactly dominant in this book, but it was a big part of the beginning of Knight.

I really don't have that much to say about Queen of the Swords, so I'll end the Overview here. It's a good piece of the Corum series, and I'm already looking forward to reading the third. It's a really fun, action fantasy with enough steampunk-like science fiction to make it uniquely its own.

Part Two: Spoilers

First, I'll address the parallels I found with the Barsoom series. Corum, much like John Carter, has certain enhanced abilities that give him status and power over most. Both encounter otherworldly creatures that couldn't even be found in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Specifically, the creatures that chant and sing before they attack (these are maybe on the same level of strangeness as the Plant Men of Mars), and the Ghanh, which was described as a flying monster with the head of a shark. And both of them go into an ultimately alien world and both resolve most of their conflicts through fighting, though neither of them particularly enjoys bloodshed. Corum leaves his own Five Planes, recently released from the malicious rule of Arioch by Corum himself, and goes to the Queen of the Swords's realm. Unlike Corum's own world, however, the Queen's Five Planes are absolute chaos. The land is blasted and there is no clear measure of time, since the Queen stopped the sun in its tracks. In these Five Planes, two specific adventures were quite memorable to me: The Lake of Voices and the Plain of Blood.

In several works of fantasy, it's been said that a battle was so-and-so brutal, and that the ground was drenched in blood. But the assumption is usually that the fields eventually recuperated. In the Queen's realm, there is an entire desert of red dust that is actually the dried blood of the fallen mortals who died in battle. This was both harrowing and chilling. While it's mentioned that this was a full battle between Law and Chaos, I found myself intrigued to find out why this battle occurred at all. Through this plain runs a milk-white river, which is allegedly the blood of the gods who fought in the battle. Since they're gods, however, their spilled blood doesn't dry up.

The Lake of Voices is what firmly reminded of me Rodda's Deltora. While Deltora is aimed to a much younger audience and it clearly isn't as dark as Corum, it also has surreal elements of the inexplicable and the fantastic. This lake makes no splashing noises nor ripples, but rather it screams with the voices of all those claimed by the spirit who inhabits the lake. This particular chapter was chilling, since Jhary himself (who judging by his behavior in this book has seen enough to be okay with virtually anything) is disturbed and deeply affected by the screams and pleas of the voices in the lake (hence the name).

I cannot say much more about this book. Anything that drew my attention I have already discussed it (in more length and probably depth) in my review of The Knight of the Swords. Overall, I liked this second book a little more than the first if only because The Queen of the Swords was much easier to read and get through, and it is more fun because of the almost non-stop action.

Closer to 3.5 stars. Not quite as compelling at the first book, but still very enjoyable. I really liked how the story used Corum’s magical eye, and I liked Gaynor’s appearance in the book. The end felt a bit deus ex machina (literally), but the way it was explained tied in to the themes of the story and foreshadowing, making it work well enough. Still, as I read this one, the struggle against the invading forces of chaos reminded me a lot of Stormbringer, but without the same impact. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s the lack of Elric’s sense of doom and dread. While Corum’s stories can be very dark at times (e.g. the summoning of the dog and the bear), they feel more upbeat than Elric, especially with Jhary becoming a major character. I’ll see if that trend continues later in the series.

Exceeded my expectations. Very impressive how Moorcock is able to build out these big worlds and grand stories with so few words. The character crossover in this also made my jaw drop. 2/2 so far in the Corum books.

More formulaic waffle. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/the-vengeance-of-cornwall/

Still love these, 30 years on 8)