The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock

Believe it or not, I was going to take a break from Moorcock and read another story before I started the History of the Runestaff series. I picked up a few different books and started them but I kept wanting to know what happened before the Chronicles of Count Brass series. Then I picked up The Jewel in the Skull just to look at the table of contents. This is when I saw on the left page:

This book is dedicated to Dave Brock

and it was over. I had to read it.
For those of you that don't know, Dave Brock is a member of the legendary Hawkwind...who happens to be a band that I love. Moorcock was friends with the band and even collaborated with them on some tracks. Their album, The Chronicle of the Black Sword is entirely based on Moorcock's Elric character.
So I'm sorry dear readers (all 2 of you) but it's more Michael Moorcock for now. Get used to it.
This story begins with our old friend Count Brass. While out patrolling the Kamarg (his homeland) he comes across a horrifying creature known as a baragoon. These creatures were once men but were taken as slaves by the previous guardian of the Kamarg and transformed in his laboratories and used to terrorize the people of the Kamarg. Moorcock describes them as "eight feet high and enormously broad, bile-colored and slithering on their bellies through the marshlands; they rose only to leap upon and rend their prey with their steel-hard talons. When they did, on occasion, have the good fortune to find a man alone they would take slow vengeance, delighting in eating a man's limbs before his eyes." Count Brass slays the beast of course but even he finds it difficult to kill.
Being the first book in the History of the Runestaff series, we learn much about the history and lands inhabited by Count Brass, Yisselda, Dorian Hawkmoon, and the rest. It was easy to figure out that Granbretan was a future (and possibly other dimensional) Great Britain. However I don't remember knowing that the Kamarg is part of what was once France and that Köln is located in Germany. Perhaps Köln is Cologne but I'm not sure if the Kamarg would correspond to any place in our world.
I found the imagery in this book to be amazing. The bullfight early on in the book was filled with colorful scenery and even more colorful toreadors. In my imagination, the bullfights rivaled any extravagance shown in the recent Hunger Games movies (no, I have not read the books but I've enjoyed the films). We also meet the King-Emperor Huon, an ancient man who lives within a globe of milky white fluid. I get the feeling that his voice was actually not a voice but was telepathic. However, I don't believe this is stated in the book...just my own feeling on the matter.
There is an amazing array of characters within Granbretan and I want to know more and more about them all. Throughout the story, we are told a bit more about the various orders within Granbretan. The bulls, serpents, wolves, etc. Each order has a leader who is typically either insane, outrageously flamboyant in dress/armor, or both. The inhabitants of Granbretan spare no expense and torture and enslave all they conquer.
This book was a great read and I plan to start The Mad God's Amulet (Book 2) tonight.
As a bonus, here is Michael Moorcock performing with Hawkwind on their song Sonic Attack. Enjoy!