Hawkmoon: The Mad God's Amulet: The Mad God's Amulet (Hawkmoon, 2)

Hawkmoon, Duke of Koln, is a resistance leader in the fight against the Dark Empire. Knowing this, the Mad God, with the power of the amulet of the Runestaff, arranges to kidnap Hawkmoon's wife, Yisselda. The Eternal Champion has no option but to try and get her back, even in the face of the Mad God's power.

Michael Moorcock, The Mad God's Amulet (DAW, 1968) The adventures of Dorian Hawmoon, last duke of Koln, continue in The Mad God's Amulet, the second novel in the Chronicle of the Runestaff. Hawkmoon, with the immediate dangers of the first novel neutralized, wants nothing more than to return to the Kamarg and his friends. Of course, this is fantasy literature, where nothing is simple. He gets sidetracked a couple of times, we spend some more time in the company of the mysterious Warrior in Jet and Gold, things blow up, old enemies return, new enemies crop up, and then there's the Mad God of the title. All of which, of course, happens at the same time that the full might of Granbretan's army marches on the Kamarg, the last European outpost of independence against the depraved King-Emperor Huon. Fun stuff. Very easy reading. All the womderful things I said about the first book still apply. Unfortunately, so do the pervasive typographical errors in the DAW editions. Whoever was asleep at the wheel the first time must have lapsed into a coma, because they are even more frequent here. I despair, at this point, of any legibility at all by the time I make it to the seventh book in the series. Look for corrected editions, but definitely read this series. *** 1/2