Outstanding collection of Moorcock's short stories. Creme de la creme. I'm not sure it has anything to do with The Eternal Champion or the Multiverse but just spectacular storytelling from fantasy to sf to just plain ol' realism. Really shows off Moorcock's range.

Listening to Pure Mania by The Vibrators. ( )

A very large collection of short stories - some set in the "traditional" multiverse, and others not so much. This volume is definitely a mixed bag, which, given the fact that it is the last of the fifteen volumes, is to be expected. Everything that didn't fit somewhere else got thrown in here. I can certainly understand Moorcock wanting to get everything republished perhaps at the request of his fanbase, perhaps at the request of his ego. At the same time, though, there were some writings that were lost that, perhaps, should have remained that way.

Earl Aubec: Also called "Master of Chaos" - http://www.librarything.com/review/25543887

Jesting with Chaos: Elric is called before a gathering of the Lords of Chaos and asked to create something that the Lords of Chaos had never thought to create before. It must be something new and exciting. If he succeeds, he leaves with the all the blessings of Chaos. If he cannot, he roasts for eternity.

The Greater Conqueror: http://www.librarything.com/review/25543887

Going Home: After 300 years, a delegation from a human colony ship decides to head back to Earth. What they find is a stagnant, boring, plain society so intent on maintaining its stability that it had exiled everyone with a genetic disposition to creativity and deviant thought. While the madmen in the colony have thrived and gone on to bigger and better things, Earth remains.

Hanging the Fool: A rather long story, taking place in early 1900's surrounding a small group of characters and a map tatooed on a person's hide. There was an attempt at a come-uppance, but even after rereading the last several pages of the story a couple of time, I wasn't able to fully grasp what had occurred. Definitely one of the more obscure of the stories in this volume.

Consuming Passion: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450539

Wolf: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450539

Environment Problem: Greg Morle thinks he can sell his soul to the Devil and still come out ahead. Who knew a thermostat could be Hell's great equalizer?

The Opium General: A drug dealer and his girlfriend try to make a life in London despite his reliance on smack and his tendencies to fall into militaristic hallucinations as his dependencies get stronger. The girlfriend tries to get at least one of their lives back on track.

A Dead Singer: Jimi Hendrix returns from the dead to take a long, meandering trip around Great Britain with an old roadie friend of his. When the roadie ODs, Jimi goes it alone.

The Lovebeast: With the end of the world in sight, the Lovebeast makes itself known. Humanity finally gives in and allows the Lovebeast to shower them with love - which is unfortunately not salvation.

The Ruins: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450539

The Golden Barge: This is a much expanded version of the Golden Barge. I had first read and reviewed it here: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450539. This version is MUCH longer and is much more interesting. Tallow is given some history and the quest for the Barge is one that essentially takes his whole life. Whereas in the excerpt, Tallow can simply be seen as driven, in the expanded version, we see that Tallow gives up everything that could possibly provide his life with purpose in the vain, hopeless quest for the barge.

The Deep Fix: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450539

The Real Life of Mr. Newman: An American astronaut, living in England after a mission to Mars slowly goes insane. As he is less and less able to cope with the world around him, he retreats into himself, finding, at last, that he has left the outer world and has entered a far less populated world that exists beside the normal realm. He takes a whirldwind tour of the Europe of the mind and discovers that the Man truly is his own worst enemy in any world.

Goodbye, Miranda: Only when Miranda is dead will the wailing cease.

Islands: Apparently paranoid-schizophrenics are the only ones who are actually normal.

Some Reminiscences of the Third World War: Three stories about the run up to and the near-term aftermath of the Third World War. All from the perspective of a Soviet Intelligence officer. Same officer? Dunno. I didn't find the stories particularly interesting.

Mars: An alien ship lands on Mars and creates a stir.

The Frozen Cardinal: An expedition to a far away planet reveals what appears to be a renaissance era Catholic Cardinal frozen into the ice of a crevasse. When removed he sings to the explorers. Apparently his song is beautiful enough to die for.

Peace on Earth: In the distant future man has discovered the secret of immortality. For some, however, there is a strange longing - a sense of wrongness. Following the clues in an old book, two friends journey to ancient, dead Earth looking for a hint of what they might be missing. An old abandoned space ship adds some extra mystery and a jaunt out into the ancient earth countryside finally gives the two friends what they were missing.

The Mountain: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450539

The Time Dweller: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450539

Escape from Evening: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450539

Waiting for the End of Time: The last two humans alive wait for the end of the galaxy.

The Stone Thing: http://www.librarything.com/review/26409820

The Last Call: Apparently, sometimes even the Eternal Champion gets a call for the wrong number.

My Life: And odd little short about a young fellows first forays into sexual relationships. Very, very out of place.

The Museum of the Future: England has become a Disney-fied land of amusement parks. One explorer, trapped in an alternate timeline, pines for his own time stream.

Sir Milk-And-Blood: Elric plays the role of the Cleaner. ( )

The penultimate book in the White Wolf Eternal Champion omnibuses is, by far, the longest. It contains the most stories, and spans from the beginning of time to the end, as well as from the beginning of Moorcock’s career to sometime before the book was published (while he writes about time travel, I don’t yet think he’s mastered it himself).

However, will this massive scale, it lacks the internal coherence of previous volumes. Some stories are linked to previous stories, and others feature notable Moorcockian characters and places (albeit, as supporting cast and locales). All in all, this one, while still a good read, is the least enjoyable of the series. I think that the incongruous blend of different lengths and forms of narrative mixed with the size of the book made it miss the mark that all the previous volumes hit so nicely.

Your Moorcock collection is incomplete without this volume, but probably would suit a non-hardcore fan better as a reference work than something to sit down and read cover-to-cover. I enjoyed it, but found that at times, the nature of the volume was distracting.

Nevertheless, there are some gems to be found in this sea of text. Recommended for readers of the previous omnibuses, as well as fans seeking out those hard-to-find stories that were either never otherwise published, or published in long-gone magazines. However, this latter group will find such action even harder, since this volume itself is out of print. ( )

Though Earl Aubec is included in the Eternal Champion series, it is really a collection of short stories, some which relate to the cycle, some do not. ( )