Von Bek is an anthology of two full-length novels plus a very short story involving characters of that name.

The first novel, The Warhound and the World's Pain is much like many Michael Moorcock stories. An unsuspecting hero, Ulrich Von Bek, soldier of fortune during the 30 Years War, falls under the control of Lucifer. His mission is to find the Holy Grail that will end the world's pain and allow the devil to resume re-take his place with god in heaven. As with many Moorcock tales, Bek has many interesting journeys on his path to find the Grail and eventually is pursued by most of the hosts of chaos, or hell, or some other nasty place. In Moorcock's stories such as this there are always interesting folks, interesting weapons and interesting settings that make the read fun if a bit formulaic. I give it a four.

"The City in the Autumn Stars" is much longer and a bit more tedious. It is the "other" kind of Moorcock story. The story offers arcane world views, that are simply bizarre, while the bewildered main character is faced with sorting out what has happened to him. Maybe I'm just too dumb to enjoy it. Not terrible but not great either. I give it a three.

Moorcock is a genius at creating creatures and heroes of ambiguity--those with elements of good and evil who engender feelings of sympathy and revulsion simultaneously. His snapshots of Lucifer are particularly compelling. ( )