What are you reading right now?

Personally, I've recently started The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock, the first book in The History of the Runestaff series featuring the character of Dorian Hawkmoon. I have read the complete series of Elric of Melniboné novels, but this is my first foray into other Moorcock books. It seems so far, to be a much easier read than the Elric stories, which is good. I found the latter to be rather dense and difficult to push through.

Hawkmoon, like Elric, is an aspect of Moorcock's Eternal Champion concept. In most of Moorcock's stories, the main character is an incarnation of a hero who exists in all planes of the Multiverse. There are literally dozens of such heroes. In this particular series, Hawkmoon is a nobleman in a far future Europe where magic and arcane technology coexist. The dark and decadent empire of Granbretan controls all of Europe except for one small country called Kamarg, in what was once France. Though small, Kamarg is powerful and it is led by a cunning ruler named Count Brass. Unable to conquer Kamarg by force, Granbretan seeks to employ subterfuge, using sorcery to bring Hawkmoon under its control and sending him forth to infiltrate Kamarg. Obviously, the effort fails, but Granbretan is not so easily deterred and the future of Kamarg is far from certain.

-Rognar-