This is an omnibus volume containing three books: The Warhound and the World's Pain, A City in the Autumn Stars, and The Dragon in the Sword. There's also a short story at the end: "The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius."

The Warhound and the World's Pain

Ulrich von Bek, a mercenary captain during the Thirty Years War in Europe flees his men, deserting them. He makes his way to a strange castle in the middle of an equally eerie forest where he meets Lucifer. The Prince of Lies commissions von Bek to find the Cure for the World's Pain, i.e., the Holy Grail. Von Bek's journey takes him to the edge of reality itself, pursued by dark forces who prefer the status quo.

A City in the Autumn Stars

Manfred von Bek, a descendent of Ulrich, flees Paris during the French Revolution. He's pursued by royalists (I think--it's actually a bit hazy on which side he was fighting) and flees to Switzerland (neutral territory, of course). Through a series of midadventures, he and his companions find themselves stranded in the "Middle Marches," a strange realm that exists between Heaven and Hell, but is very far from Earth. Here, he become embroiled in a scheme by mad alchemists to use the Holy Grail in a demonic ritual that would allow someone to gain control over all reality.

The Dragon in the Sword

The viewpoint changes quite a bit in this story as the main characters is no longer von Bek. Instead, it's John Daker, who goes by many names, and is an incarnation of the Eternal Champion. He's quite literally a fulcrum arond which the entire multiverse revolves. The Eternal Champion serves as the avatar of the Balance between Good and Evil, Law and Chaos. Daker's mission is to prevent Sharadim, who may or may not be his twin sister, from seizing control over the multiverse. It's a strange story.

Although I enjoy Michael Moorcock's stories, over 700 pages in a single volume was a bit much. I prefer smaller bite-sized stories. Fortunately, his stories tend to move pretty fast, so there is rarely any "slog." He's very efficient with his story-telling. Epic in scale, but compact oin form, if that makes sense.

This is a Michael Crichton-style science fiction thriller. What if we were wrong about evolution? What if there was some OTHER mechanism driving the change in the human genome over the millennia? Human women all over the world are experiencing much higher rates of pregnancies resulting in miscarriages through a virus that has suddenly awakened in humanity. We all carry it in our cells, but its mostly dormant. Now it's causing strange effects in pregnancies, resulting in babies that are not quite as human as their parents.