
The Dragon in the Sword
core novel 1987 The Eternal Champion
Record
| First published | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Original language | |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.87 (1,055 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 272 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781783291632 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
John Daker, the aspect of the Eternal Champion who retains conscious awareness of his many other incarnations, is drawn into a new dimension where he takes on the identity of Prince Flamadin. There he meets Ulrich von Bek, an exile from mid-twentieth-century Earth following his own attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and the two men become uneasy traveling companions in this unfamiliar realm. Daker discovers that Flamadin has been declared an outlaw, and possibly killed, by his ruthless sister Sharadim, who is scheming to dominate the realm with power drawn from the Lords of Chaos. As Daker and von Bek work to counter Sharadim's ambitions, Daker also wrestles with the fractured, overlapping memories of his many past selves, including his enduring longing for Ermizhad from his life as Erekose.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Eternal Champion
- Series: The Erekose Trilogy core; position 3 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Michael Moorcock
Notes
- From the series record (The Erekose Trilogy): John Daker, an ordinary 20th-century man, discovers he is the reincarnation of the ancient hero Erekose -- one of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion incarnations, distinct from the already-admitted Elric Saga, Hawkmoon and Corum. Phoenix in Obsidian was retitled The Silver Warriors for its US edition (same text, not a separate work). No in-story crossover with Elric/Corum/Hawkmoon occurs within these 3 books themselves -- see the related_universes crossover entries instead, which record the meeting from Corum's own Core Canon side.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Erekose Trilogy: position 3 of 3: previous Phoenix in Obsidian (1970)
- Internal chronology, within The Eternal Champion: position 14 of 30: previous The King of the Swords (1971) · next The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)
Sources
- Wikipedia: The Eternal Champion (novel)
- Wikipedia: The Dragon in the Sword
- Moorcography.org: Phoenix in Obsidian
- https://www.stevenhsilver.com/dragonsword.html
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