The Worm Ouroboros (Dover Literature: Science Fiction/Fantasy)
by E.R. Eddison

2.5 out of 5 stars

The lords of Demonland go to war against the necromancer King of Witchland. The Witch King uses dark magic to carry off one of the Demon lords, Goldry Bluszco, and his brothers vow to find him. Lord Juss and Brandoch Daha travel past the inhospitable Impland to the dangerous mountains, searching for Goldry, while Lord Spitfire continues the war against Witchland at home. They fight manticores, search for a hippogriff egg, and face ghostly apparitions and enchantments in their search through the mountains to find Goldry. Several magical ladies and queens assist them in their quest, but the war is not going well for Lord Spitfire back in Demonland.
Lord Gro is a traitor from Goblinland who has joined the Witchland court and is counselling the Witch King and other Witch generals in the war. He plays against both sides, always with his own agenda to latch onto any high official and play puppet master.

This book has so many problems, but one of the things I really loved was the archaic language. It’s beautifully Shakespearean and rich, so that you can just let the beauty of the language wash over you. If you have trouble reading Elizabethan English, you might not enjoy this book so much, but I really loved the writing style. It’s definitely the best thing about this book.
I also really loved the descriptions of mountains as if they were queens of the earth. It’s so poetic and really captures the grandeur of the mountains they travel through.

One of the problems I had with this book was the names. The different nations are called Witches, Demons, Goblins, Ghouls, Imps, and Pixies, but they aren’t actually anything like what their name suggests. They are just humanoid aliens on Mercury. They are all basically humanoid, with a few small changes in their appearance, such as the Demons having small horns on their heads. It was very confusing though, to be reading about Demons and Goblins as the good guys.

Although technically, there are no “good guys” in this book. There are bad guys and worse guys. They are all horrible immoral people, except for a couple of the ladies who are actually nice, like Lady Mevrian and Queen Sophonisba.
Tolkien also complained about the poor morals in this book saying that the characters are cruel and arrogant. Most of the Witches are drunk all the time, and I mean, ALL the time. Constantly. I also really hated how they are all sleeping around and sleeping with “wenches” all the time. The spice is closed door/ fade to black, so it is not explicit, but I still really hated how casually they toss people aside after using them. Even the supposedly good guys have no respect for anyone, and just selfishly take whatever and whomever they want.

There is also a lot of graphic violence in this book as they are fighting in big battles and people get beheaded and wounded and sliced open and their guts come out and everyone is drenched in blood for half the book.

This book has been screened on the Screen It First website, so you can check it out to see exactly what objectionable content is in the book! https://screenitfirst.com/book/the-worm-ouroboros-2395833

Another problem with this book is the structure. We start off with a framing story about a man from Earth named Lessingham who magically travels to Mercury and begins to observe the Demon court, but he gradually fades out of the story and never returns. This is similar to the Induction in Taming of the Shrew where we start the story with that drunk guy and they trick him into thinking he’s a nobleman, but then he never returns back into the story. Now with Lessingham, I’ve been told that he does actually return as a character in other books in the series, so… make of that what you will. It was still really annoying though to have that open frame that was never closed.

I really love the mystery and magic and all the adventures. The hippogriffs and enchantments and old legends are all so wonderful! The worldbuilding itself is great, I just hated all the stupid names. And I really hated all the characters. Well, most of them anyway.

I was very intrigued by the villain character of Lord Gro. He is known as a traitor to Goblinland who went over to the Witches and became influential in their court, but then he turns traitor again and again, and every time I was just like, “What! What?” I don’t know what he was doing. He just hitches along with anybody that is in power. He reminds me a lot of Shakespeare’s Iago, playing against both sides and leaving destruction in his wake.

So the title comes from a ring that the Witch King wears with a symbol of a snake eating its tail, symbolizing an eternal circle, because the Witch King believes that he is in a long line of reincarnated Kings all bearing the same name. But the story is also told in a loop, since the ending of the story is a return to the beginning.

SPOILERS:
So at the end, the Demons have defeated the Witches and now they are sad because there is no one left to fight. They don’t want peace or rest. They are bored. They want to kill people in a war. It literally says that they “fight for fighting’s sake.” So they pray to the gods and the gods resurrect all the Witches they killed and now they get to start the whole war over again and have the fun of killing people again. This is so backwards from the philosophy of Tolkien, whose character Faramir says that he doesn’t “love the bright sword for its sharpness, or the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” But in Eddison’s philosophy, we are supposed to admire the Demons for their high-minded nobility and bloodthirsty courage. No, thanks. They are gross.

So overall, some things to love. Some things I really really hated. It’s a mixed bag. I probably will not read anything else from this author after seeing how toxic and evil his philosophy is. Which is a shame, because the writing itself is so beautiful.

I can’t understand why anyone would compare this to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It is literally the complete opposite of Lord of the Rings in every way!