E.R. Eddison was a member of the famous group of English writers known as the inklings alongside C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I guess they all had a thing for using initials.
He wrote the Worm Ouroboros in 1922 after the first world war. It became a seminal piece in the fantasy genre. When the Tolkien first started publishing the Lord of the Rings, it was The Worm Ouroboros to which the series was compared.
That is not to say that Tolkien and Lewis and Eddison were of the same mind. While they were part of the same literary circles, their works differ greatly in the underlying philosophies. Where Tolkien builds a world of great and mighty heroes, he also builds weak and uncertain characters who he sets about to accomplish incredible tasks. On the other hand Eddison's work shows a clear love for the might and unstoppable man. In many respects, the characters feel closer cousins to those in The Odyssey or The Aeneid than to those in Middle Earth. Unfortunately Eddison would pass away in 1945 and we would never get a chance to see his writing and characters evolve as he aged.
This last best luck of all: that earth should gape for me when my great deeds were ended.
Still, Eddison's work should not be discounted. He builds a world that makes you want to know more. What is beyond the borders of Demonland or Witchland? Who are the ghouls that Demonland sailed out to destroy and what other enemies lurk in this world?
And the writing is filled with style. I admit that it was hard for me to read at first. I had to get used to the rhythm of the whole work. The long speeches and soliloquies the characters are prone to lost me from time to time. But that's not say that Eddison is bad or doing something wrong. He just never breaks character. Each sentence is a hand crafted brick upon which he builds the rest of the story.
It hasn't entirely held up with age. Demonland and Witchland and Impland are a bit over the top by today's standards. The characters can be one dimensional and, as I said, prone to soliloquies. But it's still a fun read, albeit a long one. It's a book that will give you an appreciation of the many ways in which the genre has evolved over the last century.