The Worm Ouroboros

"An eccentric masterpiece" - Ursula K. LeGuin "A new climate of the imagination" - C. S. Lewis "A masterpiece" - James Stephens This is the book that shaped the landscape of contemporary science fiction and fantasy. When The Lord of the Rings first appeared, the critics inevitably compared it to this 1922 landmark work. Tolkien himself frankly acknowledged its influence, with warm praise for its imaginative appeal. The story of a remote planet's great war between two kingdoms, it ranks as the Iliad of heroic fantasy. In the best traditions of Homeric epics, Norse sagas, and Arthurian myths, author E. R. Eddison weaves a compelling adventure, with a majestic, Shakespearean narrative style. His sweeping tale recounts battles between warriors and witches on fog-shrouded mountaintops and in the ocean's depths along with romantic interludes, backroom intrigues, and episodes of direst treachery. Generations of readers have joyfully lost themselves in the timeless worlds of The Worm Ouroboros.

E. R. Eddison (1882-1945) was born in Yorkshire and educated at Oxford. Professionally, he was for many years a civil servant at the British Board of Trade. Privately he was devoted to literature, particularly to the classics, the Icelandic sagas, and the Elizabethan dramatists. He published five novels, of which this is his most famous by far.

COVER ARTIST BIO: Mike Dringenberg is one of the top illustrators in the fantasy/scifi genre. He has done covers for DelRey (three Tolkien covers for "The Silmarillion, Sir Gawain & The Green Knight", and "The Tolkien Reader"); for Bantam (Jeff Vandermeer, "Veniss Underground", a World Fantasy award nominee, Best Novela), for Tor (Kij Johnson, "Fudoki", a World Fantasy award nominee, Best Novel); as well as covers for Night Shade and other publishers. Driingenberg was a co-creator of the Sandman series of books with Neil Gaiman and has also done record album and CD covers, and associated promotional art, for clients as diverse as The Legendary Pink Dots and Tori Amos.