This was my first foray into the world of the eternal champion (I have since read The Dreaming City) and I feel it was an excellent entry point.
The story follows Captain Ulrick von Bek, a tired mercenary and veteran of the 30 years war raging across Europe. Abandoning his company, he finds a pristine castle in a forest untouched by war where he encounters Lady Sabrina, an agent of Lucifer whom he eventually falls in love with. Lucifer, tired of the continuous war with his father, wishes to make peace and to find a balance in the world. In exchange for both his own and Sabrina’s immortal soul, Ulrick is tasked with finding the Grail, an artifact which is said to be able to heal the world’s pain.
What follows is a fast-paced adventure back into a world of religious war, where innocence and honour of the 1600s are examined through the modern lens, before leaving the map and exploring Mittelmarch, the places in between. Lucifer’s princes are not in agreement with their master and send their own agents and magics against Ulrick and his allies, with some encounters turning into delightful fever dreams.
This, for me, seemed a beginning of the whole eternal champion cycle, even though stories will be set far before 1631 or in different universes; but from what I understand of Moorcock’s multiverse: beginnings and endings are somewhat fluid. A champion was chosen and given a near impossible quest, which was not just to retrieve the grail but instead to heal the world’s pain—something which can only be done by seeking balance.