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The Elric Saga #1
Elric of Melniboné
Elric of Melniboné is a requisite title in the hard fantasy canon, a book no fantasy fan should leave unread. Author Michael Moorcock, already a major player in science fiction, cemented his position in the fantasy pantheon with the five-book Elric saga, of which Elric of Melniboné is the first installment. The book's namesake, the brooding albino emperor of the dying nation of Melniboné, is a sort of Superman for Goths, truly an archetype of the genre.
The youthful Elric is a cynical and melancholy king, heir to a nation whose 100,000-year rule of the world ended less than 500 years hence. More interested in brooding contemplation than holding the throne, Elric is a reluctant ruler, but he also realizes that no other worthy successor exists and the survival of his once-powerful, decadent nation depends on him alone. Elric's nefarious, brutish cousin Yrkoon has no patience for his physically weak kinsman, and he plots constantly to seize Elric's throne, usually over his dead body. Elric of Melniboné follows Yrkoon's scheming, reaching its climax in a battle between Elric and Yrkoon with the demonic runeblades Stormbringer and Mournblade. In this battle, Elric gains control of the soul-stealing Stormbringer, an event that proves pivotal to the Elric saga. --Paul Hughes
180 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
545 people are currently reading
35026 people want to read
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,203 books3,717 followersMichael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,795 reviews
October 10, 2015
I have spent a long time searching for a modern fantastical epic which is worth reading. It seems like there should be one, out there, somewhere. I have so enjoyed the battlefields of Troy, the dank cavern of Grendel's dam, Dido's lament, Ovid's hundred wild-spun tales, perfidious Odysseus, the madness of Orlando, Satan's twisted rhetoric, and Gilgamesh's sea-voyage to the forgotten lands of death. And so I seek some modern author to reinvent these tales with some sense of scholarship, poetry, character, and adventure.
There are many great modern fantasies, but the epic subgenre lacks luster. In reading the offerings--Martin, Jordan, Goodkind, Paolini, even much-lauded Wolfe--I have found them all wanting. They are all flawed in the same ways: their protagonists are dull caricatures of some universal 'badass' ideal, plot conflicts are glossed-over with magic or convenient deaths, the magic itself is not a mysterious force but a familiar tool, and women are made secondary or worse (though the authors often talk about how women are strong and independent, the women never actually act that way).
But then, they are all acolytes of Old Tolkien, who is as stodgy, unromantic, and methodical as a fantasist can be (without being C.S. Lewis). Though I respect Tolkien's work as a well-researched literary exercise, it is hard to forgive him for making it acceptable to write fantasy which is so dull, aimless, and self-absorbed. It is unfortunate that so many people think that fantasy began with Tolkien, because that is a great falsehood, and anyone who believes it does not really know fantasy at all. It nearly died with him.
Yet there are many who do think he started it. They like to comment on reviews, especially reviews of their favorite books--especially negative reviews of their favorite books--which have, lamentably, become a specialty of mine. And often, they end up asking me "Well, what fantasy do you like?" There are many I could name, numerous favorites which have shocked and overawed me, which have shaken me to my core, which have shown me worlds and magic I dared not dream. But none of them are epics.
I could mention Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a powerfully self-possessed work and one of the only fantasies of the past twenty years that I consider worth reading--the other is China Mieville's Perdido Street Station--but these are a Victorian alternate history continuation of the British Fairy Tale tradition and a New Weird Urban Fantasy, respectively. I could mention Mervyn Peake's Titus books, which so powerfully inhabit my five-star rating that Mieville and Clarke must be relegated to four--but this is a work whose fantastical nature would probably not even be apparent to most fantasy enthusiasts.
Alas they are not good counter-examples. I can (and do) mention Robert E. Howard's Conan, and Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series, but these are fast-paced adventure stories, and though their worlds may be vast, mysterious, and grand, the stories themselves lack the hyperopic arc at the heart of an epic work.
But there have been many suggestions, many readers who have come to my aid, and who have named authors I might look to next, in my quest: Guy Gavriel Kay, Ursula K. LeGuin, Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, Jeff VanderMeer, Michael De Larrabietti, John M. Harrison, Scott Lynch, Patricia McKillip, and John Crowley (Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss have been both suggested and sneered at). It is my hope that, somewhere amongst them, I will find the exemplary epic fantasy I am looking for--but I haven't found it in Moorcock.
Moorcock is good, he has scope, depth, complexity, and long, twisting plots, but at their core, his stories are modern, metaphysical, and subversive. They are light and lilting, ironical and wry--too quick and twisting to be 'epic'. The characters are introspective and self-aware, and it is clear that it is they, and not the world, who will be at the forefront.
It is all so thoroughly modern, so reinvented, full of sprightly ideas and metaphysical brooding. But it is decidedly not modern in the accidental, self-defeating ways of all those pretenders to the 'epic' title. The characters are not merely the male-fantasy counterpart of a bodice ripper, with modern, familiar minds dressed thinly in Medieval costume. The world is not simply our world with an overlay of castles--dragons for jet fighters, spells for guns, with modern politics and sensibilities.
No, Moorcock's world and characters are alien and fantastical, but Moorcock does not achieve this by ripping them whole-cloth from history, but by extrapolating them from modern philosophical ideas. Fantasy stories have always been full of dreamscapes, of impossible places for the reader to inhabit. These places draw us in, somehow we recognize them, like our own dreams, because of what they represent.
Anthropomorphism is the human tendency to see people where there are none: to see smiling faces in wood grain, to assign complex emotional motivations to cats, and to curse at the storm that breaks our window. The 'Other World' of British Fairy Tales is based on the latter: the assigning of our luck--good and bad--to capricious spirits. The world of fairy has rules (as do storms), but those rules are mostly a mystery to man.
But Moorcock's world personifies the ideas of Kant and Nietzsche: his 'Other Worlds' (called 'Planes') are those of the human mind: they are places of morality, like heaven and hell, except he has updated the concept to existential morality. There is Chaos, and there is Law; Chaos is the selfish urge, Law the communal urge, and he arrays his magic, spirits, and dreamscapes along this axis.
Like Milton, he has infused his epic with the latest thoughts and notions, updating it for the modern age. Also like Milton, Moorcock's influence has been felt, far and wide, despite the fact that most people do not recognize it.
The Dungeons & Dragons game prominently used his Law/Chaos dichotomy, among other concepts, and his 'Wheel of Psychic Planes' is an influence on their most audacious and unusual publication, the philosophical 'Steampunk' setting, Planescape. And many of these tropes have filtered down into the grab-bag common to the modern voice of fantasy stories.
Reading Elric, one will invariably be reminded of a dozen other books and games, as Elric drinks endless potions to maintain his strength and vitality, slaying twisted demons on a plane of fire in search of a rune-sword, dressed in ornate black armor and a dragon-helm. Indeed, the central mythology (and much of the plot) of the Elder Scrolls games--in particular Oblivion--owe a vast debt to Elric and his world, and not simply for the land of 'Elwher'.
Clearly, Moorcock's odd vision has been transcribed onto the imaginations of fantasists, but as with those who were inspired by Tolkien, most of his followers have failed to recreate the weight of the original message. Except for a few outliers, like Planescape and Perdido Street Station, most authors have copied the outward appearance of Moorcock's alien world, but were not skilled or knowledgeable enough to take the substance along with the form--the existential ideas, the vital core of his dreamscapes, are most often missing, or at best, faded.
But while the ideas and the overall vision are strong--even compared to the ubiquitous attempts to recreate them--there are a number of flaws in Moorcock's presentation. The first and most damaging is a weakness in the voice. Moorcock has a lot to say, but must sometimes resort to explaining his ideas to us. He is not always able to deliver his world and characters through interactions, hints, tone, and actions. He is hardly an inexperienced enough author to explain to us that which is already self-evident, but it is a weakness in his delivery which sometimes takes us out of the flow of the story, so that we must step back from the world and listen to Moorcock talk about it, though he does do his best to veil it with Elric's thoughts.
Secondly, it can be difficult to get a strong impression of his characters, they are often difficult to sympathize with or to predict. It isn't that they aren't vivid and active, but that their actions are often based around ideas and concepts--the things Moorcock built his world on--which can create a sense of a top-down world, where the characters are there to fulfill a purpose, to explore various notions and philosophies.
The book is certainly not an allegory--there are no easy one-to-one correlations to be made between characters and ideas, but the world does not revolve around personalities--except, perhaps, for Elric's, but his thoughts and motivations are often the most difficult to reconcile. The personalities of all the other characters are, more or less, wholly dependent on him.
To some degree, the characters seem to operate on much older fantasy rules: their capricious yet repetitive acts becoming motifs for the larger ideas in the story, not unlike Tolkien's fantasy forefather, E.R. Eddison, whose characters seem half-mad with heroism for its own sake (another candidate for my favorite epic, if I didn't think his beautiful, deliberate archaism might prove too remote for many readers).
Part of the reason for this is that Elric's personality and world were created as an exercise, and with an explicit purpose: to portray the anti-Conan. He is sickly, weak, pale, effeminate, sorcerous, erudite, cruel, reluctant, intellectual, and hardly promiscuous. Conan becomes king by his own hand, while Elric begins as emperor and we witness the hardships of his downfall.
But this contrariness, while coloring the story, is hardly its center. Moorcock uses it as a springboard--an inspiration to drive him to something greater. It is one more example of the fact that genius is at its best when it has a lofty challenge before it. Moorcock is not interested in making a parody, but in exploring a little-trodden path, operating on the notion that if you start with something familiar and begin to move away from it, you are bound to end up somewhere else.
I must also mention an unbelievable incident involving a group of blind soldiers, which put dire strain to credulity. A bit of creative myth or capricious magic could have saved it, but as it stands in the book, it makes little sense.
But despite the subtle weaknesses in voice and characterization, Moorcock's idiomatic adventure story is eminently enjoyable. There are few fantasy books I could name which suggest such a playful intellect as this, and though it is not as wildly imaginative as his Gloriana, this philosophical exploration disguised as a pulp adventure is a delightful read that never gets bogged-down in indulging its own thoughtfulness.
My List of Suggested Fantasy Books
There are many great modern fantasies, but the epic subgenre lacks luster. In reading the offerings--Martin, Jordan, Goodkind, Paolini, even much-lauded Wolfe--I have found them all wanting. They are all flawed in the same ways: their protagonists are dull caricatures of some universal 'badass' ideal, plot conflicts are glossed-over with magic or convenient deaths, the magic itself is not a mysterious force but a familiar tool, and women are made secondary or worse (though the authors often talk about how women are strong and independent, the women never actually act that way).
But then, they are all acolytes of Old Tolkien, who is as stodgy, unromantic, and methodical as a fantasist can be (without being C.S. Lewis). Though I respect Tolkien's work as a well-researched literary exercise, it is hard to forgive him for making it acceptable to write fantasy which is so dull, aimless, and self-absorbed. It is unfortunate that so many people think that fantasy began with Tolkien, because that is a great falsehood, and anyone who believes it does not really know fantasy at all. It nearly died with him.
Yet there are many who do think he started it. They like to comment on reviews, especially reviews of their favorite books--especially negative reviews of their favorite books--which have, lamentably, become a specialty of mine. And often, they end up asking me "Well, what fantasy do you like?" There are many I could name, numerous favorites which have shocked and overawed me, which have shaken me to my core, which have shown me worlds and magic I dared not dream. But none of them are epics.
I could mention Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, a powerfully self-possessed work and one of the only fantasies of the past twenty years that I consider worth reading--the other is China Mieville's Perdido Street Station--but these are a Victorian alternate history continuation of the British Fairy Tale tradition and a New Weird Urban Fantasy, respectively. I could mention Mervyn Peake's Titus books, which so powerfully inhabit my five-star rating that Mieville and Clarke must be relegated to four--but this is a work whose fantastical nature would probably not even be apparent to most fantasy enthusiasts.
Alas they are not good counter-examples. I can (and do) mention Robert E. Howard's Conan, and Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series, but these are fast-paced adventure stories, and though their worlds may be vast, mysterious, and grand, the stories themselves lack the hyperopic arc at the heart of an epic work.
But there have been many suggestions, many readers who have come to my aid, and who have named authors I might look to next, in my quest: Guy Gavriel Kay, Ursula K. LeGuin, Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, Jeff VanderMeer, Michael De Larrabietti, John M. Harrison, Scott Lynch, Patricia McKillip, and John Crowley (Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss have been both suggested and sneered at). It is my hope that, somewhere amongst them, I will find the exemplary epic fantasy I am looking for--but I haven't found it in Moorcock.
Moorcock is good, he has scope, depth, complexity, and long, twisting plots, but at their core, his stories are modern, metaphysical, and subversive. They are light and lilting, ironical and wry--too quick and twisting to be 'epic'. The characters are introspective and self-aware, and it is clear that it is they, and not the world, who will be at the forefront.
It is all so thoroughly modern, so reinvented, full of sprightly ideas and metaphysical brooding. But it is decidedly not modern in the accidental, self-defeating ways of all those pretenders to the 'epic' title. The characters are not merely the male-fantasy counterpart of a bodice ripper, with modern, familiar minds dressed thinly in Medieval costume. The world is not simply our world with an overlay of castles--dragons for jet fighters, spells for guns, with modern politics and sensibilities.
No, Moorcock's world and characters are alien and fantastical, but Moorcock does not achieve this by ripping them whole-cloth from history, but by extrapolating them from modern philosophical ideas. Fantasy stories have always been full of dreamscapes, of impossible places for the reader to inhabit. These places draw us in, somehow we recognize them, like our own dreams, because of what they represent.
Anthropomorphism is the human tendency to see people where there are none: to see smiling faces in wood grain, to assign complex emotional motivations to cats, and to curse at the storm that breaks our window. The 'Other World' of British Fairy Tales is based on the latter: the assigning of our luck--good and bad--to capricious spirits. The world of fairy has rules (as do storms), but those rules are mostly a mystery to man.
But Moorcock's world personifies the ideas of Kant and Nietzsche: his 'Other Worlds' (called 'Planes') are those of the human mind: they are places of morality, like heaven and hell, except he has updated the concept to existential morality. There is Chaos, and there is Law; Chaos is the selfish urge, Law the communal urge, and he arrays his magic, spirits, and dreamscapes along this axis.
Like Milton, he has infused his epic with the latest thoughts and notions, updating it for the modern age. Also like Milton, Moorcock's influence has been felt, far and wide, despite the fact that most people do not recognize it.
The Dungeons & Dragons game prominently used his Law/Chaos dichotomy, among other concepts, and his 'Wheel of Psychic Planes' is an influence on their most audacious and unusual publication, the philosophical 'Steampunk' setting, Planescape. And many of these tropes have filtered down into the grab-bag common to the modern voice of fantasy stories.
Reading Elric, one will invariably be reminded of a dozen other books and games, as Elric drinks endless potions to maintain his strength and vitality, slaying twisted demons on a plane of fire in search of a rune-sword, dressed in ornate black armor and a dragon-helm. Indeed, the central mythology (and much of the plot) of the Elder Scrolls games--in particular Oblivion--owe a vast debt to Elric and his world, and not simply for the land of 'Elwher'.
Clearly, Moorcock's odd vision has been transcribed onto the imaginations of fantasists, but as with those who were inspired by Tolkien, most of his followers have failed to recreate the weight of the original message. Except for a few outliers, like Planescape and Perdido Street Station, most authors have copied the outward appearance of Moorcock's alien world, but were not skilled or knowledgeable enough to take the substance along with the form--the existential ideas, the vital core of his dreamscapes, are most often missing, or at best, faded.
But while the ideas and the overall vision are strong--even compared to the ubiquitous attempts to recreate them--there are a number of flaws in Moorcock's presentation. The first and most damaging is a weakness in the voice. Moorcock has a lot to say, but must sometimes resort to explaining his ideas to us. He is not always able to deliver his world and characters through interactions, hints, tone, and actions. He is hardly an inexperienced enough author to explain to us that which is already self-evident, but it is a weakness in his delivery which sometimes takes us out of the flow of the story, so that we must step back from the world and listen to Moorcock talk about it, though he does do his best to veil it with Elric's thoughts.
Secondly, it can be difficult to get a strong impression of his characters, they are often difficult to sympathize with or to predict. It isn't that they aren't vivid and active, but that their actions are often based around ideas and concepts--the things Moorcock built his world on--which can create a sense of a top-down world, where the characters are there to fulfill a purpose, to explore various notions and philosophies.
The book is certainly not an allegory--there are no easy one-to-one correlations to be made between characters and ideas, but the world does not revolve around personalities--except, perhaps, for Elric's, but his thoughts and motivations are often the most difficult to reconcile. The personalities of all the other characters are, more or less, wholly dependent on him.
To some degree, the characters seem to operate on much older fantasy rules: their capricious yet repetitive acts becoming motifs for the larger ideas in the story, not unlike Tolkien's fantasy forefather, E.R. Eddison, whose characters seem half-mad with heroism for its own sake (another candidate for my favorite epic, if I didn't think his beautiful, deliberate archaism might prove too remote for many readers).
Part of the reason for this is that Elric's personality and world were created as an exercise, and with an explicit purpose: to portray the anti-Conan. He is sickly, weak, pale, effeminate, sorcerous, erudite, cruel, reluctant, intellectual, and hardly promiscuous. Conan becomes king by his own hand, while Elric begins as emperor and we witness the hardships of his downfall.
But this contrariness, while coloring the story, is hardly its center. Moorcock uses it as a springboard--an inspiration to drive him to something greater. It is one more example of the fact that genius is at its best when it has a lofty challenge before it. Moorcock is not interested in making a parody, but in exploring a little-trodden path, operating on the notion that if you start with something familiar and begin to move away from it, you are bound to end up somewhere else.
I must also mention an unbelievable incident involving a group of blind soldiers, which put dire strain to credulity. A bit of creative myth or capricious magic could have saved it, but as it stands in the book, it makes little sense.
But despite the subtle weaknesses in voice and characterization, Moorcock's idiomatic adventure story is eminently enjoyable. There are few fantasy books I could name which suggest such a playful intellect as this, and though it is not as wildly imaginative as his Gloriana, this philosophical exploration disguised as a pulp adventure is a delightful read that never gets bogged-down in indulging its own thoughtfulness.
My List of Suggested Fantasy Books
December 25, 2024
Elric of FREAKIN’ Melnibone.
A supersized but colorless everlasting gobstopper of fantasy have-at-you.
If he were a mongoose, he’d be Elrici-tiki-tavi.
If he were a professional wrestler (pronounced RASTLER in Memphis) he’d be Elric Flair - Wooooooooooooo!
If he were an amateur bowler in California and part time brother Shamus he’d be El Ricerino (and only if we were not into the whole brevity thing.)
If he were anything other than Michael Moorcock’s magnificent Man of Melnibone he’d be a calorie deficient, sorcery and drugs addicted, disabled inbred monarch on a cold seat.
He is Elric.
“Conan! What is best in life?”
“To crush enemy, see him driven before you, to hear the lamentation of the vomen, and to never have to mess with that white guy with the bigass black sword.”
You’re damn skippy, Conan.
Elric sprang forth from the Lovecraftian demented mind of English writer Michael Moorcock. Elric of Melnibone started the ball rolling in 1972 and has been showing fantasy writers how its done ever since.
A MUST read for all fantasy readers.
*** 2024 reread -
You know you’ve gone full fantasy when you dust off the Moorcock (ha!) and spend some time with Elric.
All the law versus chaos narrative certainly inspired Gary Gygax and the D&D clan, who in turn correctly assigned chaotic evil to Elric.
Like I, Claudius and Norman Mailers Ancient Evenings, Moorcock has created a society that is unaffected by Judeo-Christian mores. This is literally tens of thousands of years of survival of the fittest. The psyche from this perspective that the author interjects is evil by our understanding but the Melniboneans are like Nietzschean devils, self centered because that’s what they should be.
And on that foundation Moorcock built this dramatic fantasy that was Game of Thrones before that was cool.
A supersized but colorless everlasting gobstopper of fantasy have-at-you.
If he were a mongoose, he’d be Elrici-tiki-tavi.
If he were a professional wrestler (pronounced RASTLER in Memphis) he’d be Elric Flair - Wooooooooooooo!
If he were an amateur bowler in California and part time brother Shamus he’d be El Ricerino (and only if we were not into the whole brevity thing.)
If he were anything other than Michael Moorcock’s magnificent Man of Melnibone he’d be a calorie deficient, sorcery and drugs addicted, disabled inbred monarch on a cold seat.
He is Elric.
“Conan! What is best in life?”
“To crush enemy, see him driven before you, to hear the lamentation of the vomen, and to never have to mess with that white guy with the bigass black sword.”
You’re damn skippy, Conan.
Elric sprang forth from the Lovecraftian demented mind of English writer Michael Moorcock. Elric of Melnibone started the ball rolling in 1972 and has been showing fantasy writers how its done ever since.
A MUST read for all fantasy readers.
*** 2024 reread -
You know you’ve gone full fantasy when you dust off the Moorcock (ha!) and spend some time with Elric.
All the law versus chaos narrative certainly inspired Gary Gygax and the D&D clan, who in turn correctly assigned chaotic evil to Elric.
Like I, Claudius and Norman Mailers Ancient Evenings, Moorcock has created a society that is unaffected by Judeo-Christian mores. This is literally tens of thousands of years of survival of the fittest. The psyche from this perspective that the author interjects is evil by our understanding but the Melniboneans are like Nietzschean devils, self centered because that’s what they should be.
And on that foundation Moorcock built this dramatic fantasy that was Game of Thrones before that was cool.
March 25, 2016
I have always detested Michael Moorcock.
As a fantasy reader whose passion for Tolkien’s writing knows no boundaries, I have always had a hard time swallowing the venomous spite and blind arrogance with which he’s been denouncing the champion of my fantasy dreams.
Generally speaking, I never felt anything against authors who attempted to step out of Tolkien’s shadow. These separatists, as I enjoy calling them, count shining stars like Mervyn Peake and China Mieville among their ranks, both men I respect immensely. But with Moorcock it’s personal. Whereas Mieville countered his earlier criticism by praising Tolkien to the high heavens, Moorcock remained adamant in his contempt.
And yet I always knew I would one day have to read his work. If for no other reason than to get to know my enemy better. But I think part of me also grudgingly admitted (subconsciously) that there has to be a certain level of awesomeness to a fantasy author writing lyrics for Hawkwind and Blue Öyster Cult.
So I read Elric of Melnibonë. I confess to hoping to hate it so I could totally ravage it in a scathing review. But it was no surprise that when asked on a late night of reading how the book was, I had to reply “annoyingly good.”
For it is good. It has many flaws, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading it. And I can hardly wait to read more about the albino emperor of Melnibonë.
I will probably never like Moorcock. His books, though…
As a fantasy reader whose passion for Tolkien’s writing knows no boundaries, I have always had a hard time swallowing the venomous spite and blind arrogance with which he’s been denouncing the champion of my fantasy dreams.
Generally speaking, I never felt anything against authors who attempted to step out of Tolkien’s shadow. These separatists, as I enjoy calling them, count shining stars like Mervyn Peake and China Mieville among their ranks, both men I respect immensely. But with Moorcock it’s personal. Whereas Mieville countered his earlier criticism by praising Tolkien to the high heavens, Moorcock remained adamant in his contempt.
And yet I always knew I would one day have to read his work. If for no other reason than to get to know my enemy better. But I think part of me also grudgingly admitted (subconsciously) that there has to be a certain level of awesomeness to a fantasy author writing lyrics for Hawkwind and Blue Öyster Cult.
So I read Elric of Melnibonë. I confess to hoping to hate it so I could totally ravage it in a scathing review. But it was no surprise that when asked on a late night of reading how the book was, I had to reply “annoyingly good.”
For it is good. It has many flaws, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading it. And I can hardly wait to read more about the albino emperor of Melnibonë.
I will probably never like Moorcock. His books, though…
December 29, 2024
➽ And the moral of this reread is: Elric's, um, beloved cousin Yyrkoon The Gentle and Magnanimous is one of the most underrated villains in the history of Most Underrated Villains (MUV™). Because I said so and stuff.
Why of course you do, my darling Yyrkie. That's why you're such a scrumptiously delicious villain. Now be a dear and ditch the Skeletor costume post haste, will you? You don't want to ruin your street cred, do you now? That's a good boy!
P.S. Pigs, Snake and Thing FTW!
[January 2019]
🏰 A Scarlet Citadel That Was But Is No More Sob Sob Sob Buddy Read (SCTWBISMSSSBR™) with Elena and Beige 🏰
Okay, so there’s this guy called Elric. (Just pointing this out in case some Clueless Barnacles are in a boozy daze and missed the title of this book and stuff.) He’s a Super Hot Albino Dude (SHAD™) *waves at her ex-boyfriend Geralt of R.* with flesh the color of a bleached skull, milk-white long hair (because he’s, you know, an albino and stuff) and very sexy red eyes. (Told you he was Super Hot.) Elric descends from a long line ofdeliciously ruthless dictators well-meaning Sorcerer-Emperor chaps who have been mercilessly ruling spreading their love and compassion over the world in general and the island of Dragon…err…Isle in particular for ten thousand years and stuff. Oh, and by the way, there are, um, you know, dragons on Dragon Isle. I kid you not. (They were feeling a little lethargic and sleeping off their latest Mikonos escapade in this book, and therefore weren’t around much, so don’t get all excited, you dragon fangirls/fanboys/fanwhatevers.)
See what I mean?
Anyway, Dragon Isle and itswonderfully amoral mostly benevolent leaders and stuff. Poor Elric must be the unluckiest Albino Sorcerer Emperor ever, because the kingdom he inherited is kinda sorta on the decline and about to get its lovely derriere kicked six ways to Sunday before last by the emerging nations of the Young Kingdoms (aka Puny Humans, Inc). It sucks to be him, if you ask me. Especially since he’s not exactly the picture of dictatorial health. He’s a pretty pathetic, decrepit creature, actually. (Hadn’t I known better I could have sworn he was an apathetic barnacle in disguise.) I mean, the dude is so ridiculously weak and frail, he has to take potions *waves at her ex-boyfriend Geralt of R. again* in order to not drop deadly dead and stuff.
Want to know another reason why it sucks to be him? He isn’t what you might call a super fan of the whole Sorcerer Emperor Gig Thingie (SEGT™). He’d rather spend time thinking deep thoughts and reading and meditating and all that kind of silly stuff than engaging in the same delightful activities as his lovely subjects. You know, wonderful hobbies such as rape, cannibalism à la carte, tender torture, “playing” with slaves (no board games involved) and basically anything that involves being good to thy neighbor . What a sweet, pleasant bunch, these Melniboneans.kidnapping temporarily borrowing Jest-the-Hilariously-Named to replace him and stuff. But I digress. So Elric, being the scholarly bore that he is, doesn’t really approve of his peons’ slightly violent, unethical way of life. And his peons, being the moderately unbalanced, homicidal clique that they are, aren’t huge fans of their not-so-beloved Emperor’s despicably principled, philosophizing ways. And that’s where Prince Yyrkoon comes in. He is Elric’s cousin, and next in the line of succession, you see. And worries a whole lot about his beloved relative’s well-being. Of course he does. He’s a kind, loving soul, and completely devoid of personal ambition. The last thing he wants is to kill Elric deadly dead and/or take his place. Obviously.
Such a comedian, that Yyrkoon.
What happens next? Well, spoiler spoiler spoiler, obviously. And also Slightly Yummy Sea Battles™ (arrr!!!), elemental gods you don’t want to make deals with (oops, too late), severed heads (yay!), Barbarians (no Cimmerian Sweetie Pie in sight, unfortunately), the “munificence of fear”, good jokes (or bad jokes, depending on one’s perspective), supremely villainous, comic book-type,worms villainous villains, sorcerous stuff (duh), groaning mists, a ship so bloody shrimping cool I’m putting it on my Nefarious Christmas Wishlist, magic mirrors (the Evil Queen should have trademarked them when she had the chance, methinks), thwarted plans (aka fun times), a couple of stubborn, sentient swords, sweet sardonic voices (♫music to my ears♫), baby sacrifices (finally, someone who understands me!),
Pulsing Caverns
(which apparently remind some, um, eccentric people I shall not name *waves at Elena* of a, um, certain female body part), bestial (if a little coarse and stupid) demons, Pig and Snake and Thing (oh my!), and last, but certainly not least, eye-less, vomit-adorned, brain-bashed, self-mutilated corpses. YUM.
➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): the crustaceans and my little self find it stupendously hilarious that Moorcock intended for Elric’s adventures to be the antithesis of my Barbarian Paramour’s, because some of the stuff in this book is just as lusciously clichéd as Robert E. Howard’s most OTT stories. Which is pretty fishing awesome, if you ask me.
· Book 1: Elric of Melniboné ★★★★★
· Book 2: The Fortress of the Pearl ★★★★★
· Book 3: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate ★★★★★
· Book 4: The Weird of the White Wolf ★★★
· Book 5: The Vanishing Tower (aka “The Sleeping Sorceress”) - to be read.
· Book 6: The Revenge of the Black Rose - to be read.
· Book 7: The Bane of the Black Sword - to be read.
· Book 8: Stormbringer - to be read.
· Book 9: Elric at the End of Time - to be read.
· Book 10: Daughter of Dreams - to be read.
· Book 11: Destiny’s Brother - to be read.
· Book 12: Son of the Wolf - to be read.
(Following the Tor reading order)
[Pre-review nonsense]
An albino MC with flesh the color of a bleached skull and slanting, crimson eyes? Yummy.
By the way, young Elric, do you not happen to have a third cousin thrice removed called Geralt of R.? He was one of my High Security Haremslaves boarders for a while (we kinda sorta had a very minor falling-out and I kinda sorta banned him for a somewhat permanent while), and you remind me slightly very much of him and stuff, so I thought you might be related and stuff.
➽ Full There Ain’t Naught Like Classic Sword & Sorcery Tales Methinks Crappy Non-Review (TANLCSSTMCNR™) to come.
Why of course you do, my darling Yyrkie. That's why you're such a scrumptiously delicious villain. Now be a dear and ditch the Skeletor costume post haste, will you? You don't want to ruin your street cred, do you now? That's a good boy!
P.S. Pigs, Snake and Thing FTW!
[January 2019]
🏰 A Scarlet Citadel That Was But Is No More Sob Sob Sob Buddy Read (SCTWBISMSSSBR™) with Elena and Beige 🏰
Okay, so there’s this guy called Elric. (Just pointing this out in case some Clueless Barnacles are in a boozy daze and missed the title of this book and stuff.) He’s a Super Hot Albino Dude (SHAD™) *waves at her ex-boyfriend Geralt of R.* with flesh the color of a bleached skull, milk-white long hair (because he’s, you know, an albino and stuff) and very sexy red eyes. (Told you he was Super Hot.) Elric descends from a long line of
See what I mean?
Anyway, Dragon Isle and its
Want to know another reason why it sucks to be him? He isn’t what you might call a super fan of the whole Sorcerer Emperor Gig Thingie (SEGT™). He’d rather spend time thinking deep thoughts and reading and meditating and all that kind of silly stuff than engaging in the same delightful activities as his lovely subjects. You know, wonderful hobbies such as rape, cannibalism à la carte, tender torture, “playing” with slaves (no board games involved) and basically anything that involves being good to thy neighbor . What a sweet, pleasant bunch, these Melniboneans.
“Doctor Jest returned to his charges and, reaching out with his free hand, expertly seized the genitals of one of the male prisoners. The scalpel flashed. There was a groan. Doctor Jest tossed something onto the fire.”Ah, good old Doctor Jest. The most charming of them all, assuredly. I’m this close to giving Doctor Prawn the boot, and
Such a comedian, that Yyrkoon.
What happens next? Well, spoiler spoiler spoiler, obviously. And also Slightly Yummy Sea Battles™ (arrr!!!), elemental gods you don’t want to make deals with (oops, too late), severed heads (yay!), Barbarians (no Cimmerian Sweetie Pie in sight, unfortunately), the “munificence of fear”, good jokes (or bad jokes, depending on one’s perspective), supremely villainous, comic book-type,
➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): the crustaceans and my little self find it stupendously hilarious that Moorcock intended for Elric’s adventures to be the antithesis of my Barbarian Paramour’s, because some of the stuff in this book is just as lusciously clichéd as Robert E. Howard’s most OTT stories. Which is pretty fishing awesome, if you ask me.
· Book 1: Elric of Melniboné ★★★★★
· Book 2: The Fortress of the Pearl ★★★★★
· Book 3: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate ★★★★★
· Book 4: The Weird of the White Wolf ★★★
· Book 5: The Vanishing Tower (aka “The Sleeping Sorceress”) - to be read.
· Book 6: The Revenge of the Black Rose - to be read.
· Book 7: The Bane of the Black Sword - to be read.
· Book 8: Stormbringer - to be read.
· Book 9: Elric at the End of Time - to be read.
· Book 10: Daughter of Dreams - to be read.
· Book 11: Destiny’s Brother - to be read.
· Book 12: Son of the Wolf - to be read.
(Following the Tor reading order)
[Pre-review nonsense]
An albino MC with flesh the color of a bleached skull and slanting, crimson eyes? Yummy.
By the way, young Elric, do you not happen to have a third cousin thrice removed called Geralt of R.? He was one of my High Security Harem
➽ Full There Ain’t Naught Like Classic Sword & Sorcery Tales Methinks Crappy Non-Review (TANLCSSTMCNR™) to come.
January 21, 2012
After reading and having my hair blown back by The Swords Trilogy (The Knight of the Swords,The Queen of the Swords and The King of the Swords), I decided to dive into the adventures of Moorcock's most famous avatar of the Eternal Champion, Elric of Melnibone.
This first installment serves as a nice introduction to the contemplative albino sorcerer, who rules the ancient, powerful land of Melnibone. It was a nice surprise to learn that in the never ending, multi-dimensional cosmic dust up between the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos, Elric's people, the Melniboneans, are aligned with the bad guys at Chaos and are viewed by the pesky, upstart humans as evil, a perception that has considerable merit. I thought it added a nice shading to Elric's introduction as an anti-hero by showing his as a moral outsider to his own people.
Elric, who assumed the throne upon the death of his father, has always been “uncomfortable” with his people’s darker ways and their allegiance to the Lords of Chaos. While no angel by human standards, his appetites have never run to the less savory customs of his people making him somewhat of a radical among his people. When he tries to introduce reforms to his society, he causes all kinds of pissed off among the "old guard" who view him as weak upstart and troublemaker.
This sets up one of the fundamental themes of the book as Elric struggles with his identity and his place in a society in which he does not feel fully at home.
As with The Swords Trilogy, Moorcock's writing is lush and lyrical without being long-winded. The prose is also infused with just a hint of melodrama that works very well for this kind of sword and sorcery story. In addition, the world-building is jam-packed with idea and concept tidbits that are wonderfully and really add flavor to the narrative. I have become a big fan of Moorcock's style and plan to revisit the world of Elric...often.
One of my favorite Moorcockian nuggets from this book was the concept of the “dream couch” that is used by the Melnibonean rulers. On the dream couch, an hour of "real" time can be the equivalent of “ten thousand years or more” of subjective time to the person using it. It is on the dream couch that the Melnibonean rulers (including Elric) learn the arts of sorcery, combat and other skills that would normally take them more than a lifetime to learn.
I nearly splooged when I read this and thought the concept was a terrific way to plausibly show (within the context of the fantastic) how a young Elric could have attained such a high degree of badassness and jedi mastered so many talents in such a short time. Moorcock's amazing concept was not only fun to read about, but provided credibility for the rest of the story and I was completely sucked in from there. I've always thought that good fantasy should make us suspend our disbelief, not our intelligence. This is GOOD FANTASY.
Bottom-line, this is another high quality sword and sorcery effort by one of the best to ever write in that genre. 4.0 stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
P.S. As a final note, I want to point out that I listened to the audio version of this book read by Jeffrey West (with an introduction by the author) and the quality of the reading was really superb. It included music in the background during the entire reading which could have been a big distraction but in this case added significantly to the “ambiance” of the story. I highly recommend it if you have the chance to check it out.
This first installment serves as a nice introduction to the contemplative albino sorcerer, who rules the ancient, powerful land of Melnibone. It was a nice surprise to learn that in the never ending, multi-dimensional cosmic dust up between the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos, Elric's people, the Melniboneans, are aligned with the bad guys at Chaos and are viewed by the pesky, upstart humans as evil, a perception that has considerable merit. I thought it added a nice shading to Elric's introduction as an anti-hero by showing his as a moral outsider to his own people.
Elric, who assumed the throne upon the death of his father, has always been “uncomfortable” with his people’s darker ways and their allegiance to the Lords of Chaos. While no angel by human standards, his appetites have never run to the less savory customs of his people making him somewhat of a radical among his people. When he tries to introduce reforms to his society, he causes all kinds of pissed off among the "old guard" who view him as weak upstart and troublemaker.
This sets up one of the fundamental themes of the book as Elric struggles with his identity and his place in a society in which he does not feel fully at home.
As with The Swords Trilogy, Moorcock's writing is lush and lyrical without being long-winded. The prose is also infused with just a hint of melodrama that works very well for this kind of sword and sorcery story. In addition, the world-building is jam-packed with idea and concept tidbits that are wonderfully and really add flavor to the narrative. I have become a big fan of Moorcock's style and plan to revisit the world of Elric...often.
One of my favorite Moorcockian nuggets from this book was the concept of the “dream couch” that is used by the Melnibonean rulers. On the dream couch, an hour of "real" time can be the equivalent of “ten thousand years or more” of subjective time to the person using it. It is on the dream couch that the Melnibonean rulers (including Elric) learn the arts of sorcery, combat and other skills that would normally take them more than a lifetime to learn.
I nearly splooged when I read this and thought the concept was a terrific way to plausibly show (within the context of the fantastic) how a young Elric could have attained such a high degree of badassness and jedi mastered so many talents in such a short time. Moorcock's amazing concept was not only fun to read about, but provided credibility for the rest of the story and I was completely sucked in from there. I've always thought that good fantasy should make us suspend our disbelief, not our intelligence. This is GOOD FANTASY.
Bottom-line, this is another high quality sword and sorcery effort by one of the best to ever write in that genre. 4.0 stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
P.S. As a final note, I want to point out that I listened to the audio version of this book read by Jeffrey West (with an introduction by the author) and the quality of the reading was really superb. It included music in the background during the entire reading which could have been a big distraction but in this case added significantly to the “ambiance” of the story. I highly recommend it if you have the chance to check it out.
February 10, 2017
This is some epic awesomeness.
I'm an absolute sucker for the grand sweeping personal quests to gain more and yet more magical power in the service of rescuing your one true love, casting aside morals, the greater good, your own health, and possibly your own sanity.
This tale holds up perfectly after all this time. All the best aspects of modern fantasy are encapsulated and written with such spartan clarity and diamond sharpness within Moorcock's classic. I only needed this one taste and I'm now a lifelong fan. It's that easy.
This is easily one of the classics of all Sword and Sorcery and I knew that people swore by it before I read it, but I was hesitant. Why? Hell if I know. It was such a brilliant, fantastic, imaginative world, but even better than that were the characters. Elric, of course, is the ultimate Nietzsche Super-Man, fully beyond good and evil, but he, like all super-villains, considers himself the ultimate hero of his story, and I have to agree with him. I love the story.
It's really cool that I've finally read something, after all this time, that evokes the same feeling as I get from the classic Star Wars films. When they faced each other with the two uber-powerful runic swords, I got chills. Seriously. I usually don't get suckered in this easy. I've read a LOT of fantasy and a LOT of really great fantasy, but this one was so diamond-hard that it left me speechless. :)
I was even more impressed by the author's command of sheer storytelling. The whole thing actually evoked awe and wonder. Each new mastery of magic came at a cost, and there was so much magic. Like the Ouroboros, Elric kept feeding on himself to gain more and more power, and the cycle repeated and repeated, with future sacrifice for power, now. Is it the ultimate faustian tale? I don't know, yet, but I'll be reading more. As it is here, we've got a meteoric rise from the simple mastery of the kingdom of Melniboné to the mastery of chaos magic, the elementals, and the godlike black sword.
Do you want a character so awfully OP that nothing, absolutely nothing, can stand in his way? Hell yeah. I'm a gamer. Do you want to have a story that manages to take him and never make him boring? Hell yeah! Here you go!
I'm seriously ashamed that I never got into this earlier. I knew it was out there. I know the author is recognized as one of the greats of fantasy. And now I know why, and I'm hooked. :)
I'm an absolute sucker for the grand sweeping personal quests to gain more and yet more magical power in the service of rescuing your one true love, casting aside morals, the greater good, your own health, and possibly your own sanity.
This tale holds up perfectly after all this time. All the best aspects of modern fantasy are encapsulated and written with such spartan clarity and diamond sharpness within Moorcock's classic. I only needed this one taste and I'm now a lifelong fan. It's that easy.
This is easily one of the classics of all Sword and Sorcery and I knew that people swore by it before I read it, but I was hesitant. Why? Hell if I know. It was such a brilliant, fantastic, imaginative world, but even better than that were the characters. Elric, of course, is the ultimate Nietzsche Super-Man, fully beyond good and evil, but he, like all super-villains, considers himself the ultimate hero of his story, and I have to agree with him. I love the story.
It's really cool that I've finally read something, after all this time, that evokes the same feeling as I get from the classic Star Wars films. When they faced each other with the two uber-powerful runic swords, I got chills. Seriously. I usually don't get suckered in this easy. I've read a LOT of fantasy and a LOT of really great fantasy, but this one was so diamond-hard that it left me speechless. :)
I was even more impressed by the author's command of sheer storytelling. The whole thing actually evoked awe and wonder. Each new mastery of magic came at a cost, and there was so much magic. Like the Ouroboros, Elric kept feeding on himself to gain more and more power, and the cycle repeated and repeated, with future sacrifice for power, now. Is it the ultimate faustian tale? I don't know, yet, but I'll be reading more. As it is here, we've got a meteoric rise from the simple mastery of the kingdom of Melniboné to the mastery of chaos magic, the elementals, and the godlike black sword.
Do you want a character so awfully OP that nothing, absolutely nothing, can stand in his way? Hell yeah. I'm a gamer. Do you want to have a story that manages to take him and never make him boring? Hell yeah! Here you go!
I'm seriously ashamed that I never got into this earlier. I knew it was out there. I know the author is recognized as one of the greats of fantasy. And now I know why, and I'm hooked. :)
March 29, 2019
It pleases me to return, after many years, to the saga of Elric VIII, Emperor of Melnibone, the doomed albino with the icy demeanor and imperious nature whose constant companion is Stormbringer, a bloodthirsty sword with a consciousness and will all its own.
Elric is the sickly descendant of a haughty alien race, a long line of amoral conquerors and wielders of magic. Many of his nobles—including his cousin, the accomplished magician Yrkoon—do not think the young emperor is fit for his high task. He is soon challenged by a pirate fleet from The Young Kingdoms, and the threats that that arise from this challenge soon endanger not only the princess Cymoril but the throne of the Dragon Isle itself.
This is an excellent beginning to a first rate series, a series which showed me fantasy could offer alien and uncomfortable beauties, hard pleasures far removed from the comforts of Professor Tolkien’s snug shire.
April 22, 2015
This is the tale of Elric before he was called Woman-slayer, before the final collapse of Melnibone. This is the tale of his rivalry with his cousin Yirkoon and his love for his cousin Cymoril, before that rivalry and that love brought Imrryr, the Dreaming City, crashing in flames, raped by the reavers from the Young Kingdoms. This is the tale of the two black swords, Stormbringer and Mournblade, and how they were discovered and what part they played in the destiny of Elric and Melnibone - a destiny which was to shape a larger destiny: that of the world itself. This is the tale of when Elric was a king, the commander of dragons, fleets and all the folk of that half-human race which had ruled the world for ten thousand years.
This is a tale of tragedy, this tale of Melnibone, the Dragon Isle. This is a tale of monstrous emotions and high ambitions. This is a tale of sorceries and treacheries and worthy ideals, of agonies and fearful pleasures, of bitter love and sweet hatred. This is the tale of Elric of Melnibone. Much of it Elric himself was to remember only in his nightmares.
Elric should sit proudly in a fantasy Hall of Fame. In terms of influence on the development of the genre, Elric has few rivals. Before the rise of the moody albino swordman-sorcerer, there was basically a choice between the brutality of Conan and the knightly scions of Tolkien. In the footsteps of Moorcock I have noticed an increasing preference for anti-heroes, for more nuanced characterization, for 50+ shades of grey. He is reluctant to assume the power he inherited, introspective and plagued by ethical doubts. Even physically, he is sickly, needing daily potions to regenerate his strength. Elric turns his weakness into an advantage by becoming bookish, reading entire libraries on magic, one more reason to consider him atypical of the staple fantasy stable boy with a secret identity.
If the young emperor has found any advantage in his lifelong weakness it must be in that, perforce, he has read much.
One aspect in particular makes me count the Elric saga a watershed moment in fantasy, a splitting of the mainstream in two directions: for Tolkien and his imitators the gods or Fate rule the destiny of the mortals. Elric rebels against prophecy and predestination, and argues for the supremacy of free-will and chance.
The lords of the Higher Worlds have ambitions in our world. Though they have given me aid, of late, I fear them. I should like to see if it is possible for men to rule their own affairs.
I should include in the list of anti-heroes other sword & sorcery founders, like Fritz Leiber or Jack Vance, but this would complicate my theoretical argument of the divided stream. And I don't want to focus too much in my review on generalities, because the appeal of the first Elric book is that in a couple of hundred pages he manages to build an epic scope to the story, to infuse it with a sense of wonder and adventure, to mix magic and gods with martial combat and human passion - love, greed, doubt, pride, friendship, hate.
The epic begins by introducing the reader to the young emperor of 'Imrryr the Beautiful, the Dreaming City, capital of the Dragon Isle of Melnibone.', our future guide through the histories, races and sights of a hundred worlds or more. It may not be apparent in this first novel, but in the universe imagined by Moorcock time and space are flexible, full of portals to parallel realities and alternative timelines. Elric is like The Hero with a Thousand Faces - an avatar, a catalyst of change, a mythical figure that breaks and reconfigures what is real. He is also unique and memorable in his physical appearance:
It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone, resting on each arm of a seat which has been carved from a single, massive ruby.
For a synopsis, my opening quote from the fictional chronicles of his life should suffice. It is also illustrative of the style of writing - a touch too florid at times but clearly the work of a young writer enthusiastic about the genre. I have read a few years ago a book that Moorcock cites as an important influence on Elric: "The Broken Sword" by Poul Anderson. There are indeed similarities in the language used and in the type of hero who refuses to accept predestination. Moorcock I believe is better at capturing the sense of wonder and discovery, as in the description of the 'Ship Which Sails Over Land and Sea' :
The ship was tall and slender and she was delicate. Her rails, masts and bulwarks were exquisitely carved and obviously not the work of a mortal craftsman. Though built of wood, the wood was not painted but naturally shone blue and black and green and a kind of deep smoky red, and her rigging was the colour of sea-weed and there were veins in the planks of her polished deck, like the roots of trees, and the sails of her three tapering masts were as fat and white and light as clouds on a fine summer day. The ship was everything that was lovely in nature; few could look upon her and not feel delighted upon sighting a perfect view.
Another defining characteristic of the Elric saga is the downbeat tone, the sense of an ending of an era: the last dragons are sleeping, the most beautiful city in the world will become a ruin, young lovers are separated and tortured, Elric himself is prone to depression and despair:
Rackhir laughed and slapped the albino upon his black armoured back. "You are a gloomy comrade, friend Elric. Are all your thoughts so hopeless?"
"They tend in that direction, I fear," said Elric with a shadow of a smile.
Don't expect jolly hobbits and lovable scoundrels. The Melniboneans are an old race and jaded to pleasure or ambition, only half-human, closer to Tolkien's elves in their inception, on their way out from the world scene. Elric is the only one who shows signs of a conscience and of curiosity, and these traits will make an outcast of him. Other possible limitations of the series:
- it is addressed mainly to fans of sword & sorcery, so it's appeal outside the genre is limited
- the secondary characters are under-developed
- the style is not as polished and subtle as, for example, in the works of Jack Vance or Karl Edward Wagner. There is a lot of promise and beautiful passages, but this first novel is clearly an early effort.
- it could benefit from a little more humour and less sadness
- it might feel dated as a seventies story, with some drug experimentation and symbolism along the lines of : "Enter the Shade Gate, then you must seek the Tunnel under the Marsh which leads to the Pulsing Cavern. In that chamber the runeswords are kept." The sexual analogy of the womb and rebirth are clear enough.
All in all, a masterpiece of fantasy, but with limited interest for the general public. I look forward to reading the rest of the Elric stories. As a last teaser, Moorcock has this to say about what lays in store for his albino wanderer:
Elric's destiny has been forged and fixed as surely as the hellswords were forged and fixed aeons before. Was there ever a point where he might have turned off this road to despair, damnation and destruction? Or has he been doomed since before his birth? Doomed through a thousand incarnations to know little else but sadness and struggle, loneliness and remorse - eternally the champion of some unknown cause?
December 31, 2020
It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white.
Here is a funny piece of random information: my first introduction to the doomed albino and his demonic sword was not through literature but through music, namely the songs “Black Blade” (Blue Oyster Cult) and “Song Of The Swords” (Hawkwind). As someone who has always enjoyed pulp fiction and old school fantasy, I was very aware of Elric of Melniboné. He is, after all, one of the more iconic of the bunch, so it is a mystery why I only got around to reading any Elric fiction until so late in the game.
But: better late than never.
When Elric arrived back at his apartments it was to discover that Tanglebones had already laid out his heavy, black wargear. Here was the armour which had served a hundred Melnibonean emperors; an armour which was forged by sorcery to give it a strength unequalled on the Realm of Earth, which could, so rumour went, even withstand the bite of the mythical runeblades, Stormbringer and Mournblade, which had been wielded by the wickedest of Melnibone's many wicked rulers before being seized by the Lords of the Higher Worlds and hidden forever in a realm where even those Lords might rarely venture.
It is easy to see that Elric has, to some extent or other, influenced many other fantasy characters. Off the top of my head I’m thinking of Geralt of Rivia (The Last Wish) and Malus Darkblade (The Daemon's Curse). I’m specifically saying “to some extent” because neither of the latter are exact copies, but there are definitely some overlapping traits that appear to be borrowed from Moorcock’s iconic anti-hero.
But back to the book at hand. It was a fantastic read, to be sure. I’m not giving it five stars because the latter half of the novel had some elements that I found juuust a bit hokey. No deal breaker, but, for example the meeting with the Earth King Grome wasn’t nearly as cool as the meeting with the Sea King Straasha earlier in the book, and the battle with Pig, Snake and Thing was just a bit of an acid trip. More importantly though: I wasn’t quite sold on the Mirror of Memory, which is actually quite a huge plot device, explaining how Elric hadn’t been able to locate Yyrkoon. Anyway, these are small gripes and I’m going into detail that is irrelevant to the review. In the end it was still a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to anybody who hasn’t read Elric yet. Especially if you enjoy the older stuff, but with a bit of a dark bent. I do think, however, that I should read the short stories next, before moving on to the next novel; Elric seems like a character that would translate extremely well to the short form.
And in the centre of the cavern, hanging in the air without any support at all were two swords. Two identical swords, huge and fine and black.
Here is a funny piece of random information: my first introduction to the doomed albino and his demonic sword was not through literature but through music, namely the songs “Black Blade” (Blue Oyster Cult) and “Song Of The Swords” (Hawkwind). As someone who has always enjoyed pulp fiction and old school fantasy, I was very aware of Elric of Melniboné. He is, after all, one of the more iconic of the bunch, so it is a mystery why I only got around to reading any Elric fiction until so late in the game.
But: better late than never.
When Elric arrived back at his apartments it was to discover that Tanglebones had already laid out his heavy, black wargear. Here was the armour which had served a hundred Melnibonean emperors; an armour which was forged by sorcery to give it a strength unequalled on the Realm of Earth, which could, so rumour went, even withstand the bite of the mythical runeblades, Stormbringer and Mournblade, which had been wielded by the wickedest of Melnibone's many wicked rulers before being seized by the Lords of the Higher Worlds and hidden forever in a realm where even those Lords might rarely venture.
It is easy to see that Elric has, to some extent or other, influenced many other fantasy characters. Off the top of my head I’m thinking of Geralt of Rivia (The Last Wish) and Malus Darkblade (The Daemon's Curse). I’m specifically saying “to some extent” because neither of the latter are exact copies, but there are definitely some overlapping traits that appear to be borrowed from Moorcock’s iconic anti-hero.
But back to the book at hand. It was a fantastic read, to be sure. I’m not giving it five stars because the latter half of the novel had some elements that I found juuust a bit hokey. No deal breaker, but, for example the meeting with the Earth King Grome wasn’t nearly as cool as the meeting with the Sea King Straasha earlier in the book, and the battle with Pig, Snake and Thing was just a bit of an acid trip. More importantly though: I wasn’t quite sold on the Mirror of Memory, which is actually quite a huge plot device, explaining how Elric hadn’t been able to locate Yyrkoon. Anyway, these are small gripes and I’m going into detail that is irrelevant to the review. In the end it was still a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to anybody who hasn’t read Elric yet. Especially if you enjoy the older stuff, but with a bit of a dark bent. I do think, however, that I should read the short stories next, before moving on to the next novel; Elric seems like a character that would translate extremely well to the short form.
And in the centre of the cavern, hanging in the air without any support at all were two swords. Two identical swords, huge and fine and black.
January 20, 2022
“O quizá sea el dolor de otros lo que me da placer. Qué terror volvería a imponer en la tierra, qué magnífico terror”
Ésta es la historia de Elric antes de que fuera llamado asesino de mujeres, antes del colapso final de Melniboné. La historia de la rivalidad con su primo Yyrkoon y del amor por su prima Cymoril, antes de que esa rivalidad y ese amor provocaran el incendio de Imrryr, la Ciudad de Ensueño, saqueada por las hordas de los Reinos Jóvenes. Ésta es la historia de dos espadas, la Tormentosa y la Enlutada, de cómo fueron descubiertas y del papel que desempeñaron en el destino de Elric y de Melniboné; un destino que iba a conformar otro mayor: el del propio mundo. Ésta es la historia de cuando Elric era el rey, el jefe máximo de los dragones, las flotas y de todos los componentes de la raza semihumana que había regido el mundo durante diez mil años.
Esta primera entrega sirve como una buena introducción al hechicero albino, que gobierna la antigua y poderosa tierra de Melniboné.
Elric, que asumió el trono tras la muerte de su padre, siempre se ha sentido "extraño" con las formas tan oscuras de su pueblo y su lealtad a los Señores del Caos. Elric no es un santo, pero sus ideales y sus actos nunca han rozado el nivel de su pueblo, lo que lo convierte en algo radical entre su gente. Intenta introducir reformas en su sociedad, y provoca todo tipo de negativas que lo ven como un advenedizo débil. Y esto establece uno de los temas fundamentales del libro. Elric lucha con su identidad y su lugar en una sociedad en la que no se siente del todo cómodo.
Sin duda algunos de los clásicos del género se consideran así por algo y sin duda este marcó un inicio, el comienzo de algo nuevo. La prosa de Moorcock es buena, lírica, impregnada de toques de melodramáticos que para este tipo de historias de espadas y brujería le viene bien. La construcción del mundo está repleta de varios detalles, ideas y conceptos que se integran maravillosamente y realmente dan un punto muy adecuado a la narrativa. Quizás en este comienzo eché en falta algo más de información.
Puede ser difícil obtener una gran impresión de sus personajes, como difícil es simpatizar con ellos. Son vívidos y están trabajados, pero sus acciones a menudo se basan en ideas que pueden sentirse predecibles y, todo en Elric me dio la sensación de estar viendo un mundo de arriba hacia abajo.
Los personajes parecen operar con reglas de fantasía antiguas. Sus actos caprichosos pero repetitivos se convierten en motivos para las ideas más importantes de la historia. Parte de la razón de esto es que la personalidad y todo lo que rodea el mundo de Elric fueron creados con un propósito, retratar una versión opuesta a Conan. Elric es alguien enfermizo, débil, albino que roza un pálido enfermizo, gran hechicero, erudito, cruel e intelectual. Conan se convierte en rey por su propia mano, Elric comienza como emperador nosotros seremos testigos de las dificultades de su caída.
Una de las cosas mas curiosas de este libro fue el concepto sueños que utilizan los gobernantes melniboneses. Una hora de tiempo real puede ser el equivalente a mil años o más para la persona que lo hace. Es el medio donde los gobernantes incluido Elric, aprenden las artes de la hechicería, el combate y otras habilidades que les llevaría más de una vida aprender.
Empujado hacia un poder que realmente no quiere pero que está decidido a mantener. Elric lucha con un tipo de moralidad a la cabeza de un pueblo que ciertamente no lo hace. Los seguidores de los dioses del caos desde hace mucho tiempo son la gente de Melniboné y años de superioridad los han mantenido en lo alto.
La saga de Elric está formada por ocho novelas organizadas cronológicamente, y todas con un final. Estas historias fueron publicadas como relatos en una famosa revista, Science Fantasy.
Seremos testigos del trágico destino de Elric, Emperador Brujo de Melniboné, enamorado de su prima y cuyo trono pretende su intrigante y ambicioso primo Yyrkoon, la terrible aparición de Arioch, el Señor del Caos, conoceremos cómo consigue Elric a Tormentosa, su brutal espada mágica. Seguiremos este tortuoso recorrido a través de una prosa fluida y elegante, estamos ante un curioso e interesante personaje con toques poco vistos, es reflexivo y complejo, eso no obstaculiza para nada la acción.
Elric no es un caballero de brillante armadura. Antihéroe quizás sea una designación adecuada. A menudo hace cosas que se considerarían de cierto nivel moral, como mostrando misericordia en ocasiones que no se le daría ninguna. Pero a su vez en su búsqueda de mantener cierta moralidad, parece menos preocupado por las personas que están debajo y más sobre si mismo y su vida y gobernar Melniboné haciendo que resurga de sus cenizas, pues el reino yace perdido desde hace ya demasiado en su propia arrogancia.
Esperaba quizás algo todavía aun más oscuro en Elric. Con su albinismo y su dependencia de un cóctel de drogas para mantener su fuerza, su propia gente lo considera débil, una raza segura de su superioridad e insegura de la sangre débil que perciben en Elric. Aún así lo considero un gran clásico de espada y brujería al que sin duda el género de la fantasía y muchos autores le deben tanto. Interesante lectura, volveré a Melniboné para saber que le espera a Elric.
Se agradece que no sean libros muy extensos. Clásico de espada y brujería al que se le debe mucho, aún leyéndolo y pensando que esta es una de tantas historias que hemos leído en la fantasía, pero es uno de lo orígenes de tantas que hemos leído, con ciertos toques poco vistos, una lectura entretenida. Por ello lo valoro.
Ésta es la historia de Elric antes de que fuera llamado asesino de mujeres, antes del colapso final de Melniboné. La historia de la rivalidad con su primo Yyrkoon y del amor por su prima Cymoril, antes de que esa rivalidad y ese amor provocaran el incendio de Imrryr, la Ciudad de Ensueño, saqueada por las hordas de los Reinos Jóvenes. Ésta es la historia de dos espadas, la Tormentosa y la Enlutada, de cómo fueron descubiertas y del papel que desempeñaron en el destino de Elric y de Melniboné; un destino que iba a conformar otro mayor: el del propio mundo. Ésta es la historia de cuando Elric era el rey, el jefe máximo de los dragones, las flotas y de todos los componentes de la raza semihumana que había regido el mundo durante diez mil años.
Esta primera entrega sirve como una buena introducción al hechicero albino, que gobierna la antigua y poderosa tierra de Melniboné.
Elric, que asumió el trono tras la muerte de su padre, siempre se ha sentido "extraño" con las formas tan oscuras de su pueblo y su lealtad a los Señores del Caos. Elric no es un santo, pero sus ideales y sus actos nunca han rozado el nivel de su pueblo, lo que lo convierte en algo radical entre su gente. Intenta introducir reformas en su sociedad, y provoca todo tipo de negativas que lo ven como un advenedizo débil. Y esto establece uno de los temas fundamentales del libro. Elric lucha con su identidad y su lugar en una sociedad en la que no se siente del todo cómodo.
Sin duda algunos de los clásicos del género se consideran así por algo y sin duda este marcó un inicio, el comienzo de algo nuevo. La prosa de Moorcock es buena, lírica, impregnada de toques de melodramáticos que para este tipo de historias de espadas y brujería le viene bien. La construcción del mundo está repleta de varios detalles, ideas y conceptos que se integran maravillosamente y realmente dan un punto muy adecuado a la narrativa. Quizás en este comienzo eché en falta algo más de información.
Puede ser difícil obtener una gran impresión de sus personajes, como difícil es simpatizar con ellos. Son vívidos y están trabajados, pero sus acciones a menudo se basan en ideas que pueden sentirse predecibles y, todo en Elric me dio la sensación de estar viendo un mundo de arriba hacia abajo.
Los personajes parecen operar con reglas de fantasía antiguas. Sus actos caprichosos pero repetitivos se convierten en motivos para las ideas más importantes de la historia. Parte de la razón de esto es que la personalidad y todo lo que rodea el mundo de Elric fueron creados con un propósito, retratar una versión opuesta a Conan. Elric es alguien enfermizo, débil, albino que roza un pálido enfermizo, gran hechicero, erudito, cruel e intelectual. Conan se convierte en rey por su propia mano, Elric comienza como emperador nosotros seremos testigos de las dificultades de su caída.
Una de las cosas mas curiosas de este libro fue el concepto sueños que utilizan los gobernantes melniboneses. Una hora de tiempo real puede ser el equivalente a mil años o más para la persona que lo hace. Es el medio donde los gobernantes incluido Elric, aprenden las artes de la hechicería, el combate y otras habilidades que les llevaría más de una vida aprender.
Empujado hacia un poder que realmente no quiere pero que está decidido a mantener. Elric lucha con un tipo de moralidad a la cabeza de un pueblo que ciertamente no lo hace. Los seguidores de los dioses del caos desde hace mucho tiempo son la gente de Melniboné y años de superioridad los han mantenido en lo alto.
La saga de Elric está formada por ocho novelas organizadas cronológicamente, y todas con un final. Estas historias fueron publicadas como relatos en una famosa revista, Science Fantasy.
Seremos testigos del trágico destino de Elric, Emperador Brujo de Melniboné, enamorado de su prima y cuyo trono pretende su intrigante y ambicioso primo Yyrkoon, la terrible aparición de Arioch, el Señor del Caos, conoceremos cómo consigue Elric a Tormentosa, su brutal espada mágica. Seguiremos este tortuoso recorrido a través de una prosa fluida y elegante, estamos ante un curioso e interesante personaje con toques poco vistos, es reflexivo y complejo, eso no obstaculiza para nada la acción.
Elric no es un caballero de brillante armadura. Antihéroe quizás sea una designación adecuada. A menudo hace cosas que se considerarían de cierto nivel moral, como mostrando misericordia en ocasiones que no se le daría ninguna. Pero a su vez en su búsqueda de mantener cierta moralidad, parece menos preocupado por las personas que están debajo y más sobre si mismo y su vida y gobernar Melniboné haciendo que resurga de sus cenizas, pues el reino yace perdido desde hace ya demasiado en su propia arrogancia.
Esperaba quizás algo todavía aun más oscuro en Elric. Con su albinismo y su dependencia de un cóctel de drogas para mantener su fuerza, su propia gente lo considera débil, una raza segura de su superioridad e insegura de la sangre débil que perciben en Elric. Aún así lo considero un gran clásico de espada y brujería al que sin duda el género de la fantasía y muchos autores le deben tanto. Interesante lectura, volveré a Melniboné para saber que le espera a Elric.
Se agradece que no sean libros muy extensos. Clásico de espada y brujería al que se le debe mucho, aún leyéndolo y pensando que esta es una de tantas historias que hemos leído en la fantasía, pero es uno de lo orígenes de tantas que hemos leído, con ciertos toques poco vistos, una lectura entretenida. Por ello lo valoro.
March 23, 2022
“Man may trust man, Prince Elric, but perhaps we'll never have a truly sane world until men learn to trust mankind. That would mean the death of magic, I think.”
Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné has everything you'd want in high fantasy adventure, a conflicted hero as well as fantastic worlds filled with strange monsters and ancient magics. I flew through this first Elric story. I read lots of Michael Moorcock in junior high and high school (both the Elric series as well as other novels). I always wonder about revisiting books that I think of as part of my youth, whether they will disappoint a much older me; however, I found Elric of Melniboné very satisfying. I will continue the series and I'm confident I will also continue to enjoy! 4.5 stars
“Why should their pain produce such marvelous beauty? he wonders. Or is all beauty created through pain? Is that the secret of great art, both human and Melnibonen?”
Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné has everything you'd want in high fantasy adventure, a conflicted hero as well as fantastic worlds filled with strange monsters and ancient magics. I flew through this first Elric story. I read lots of Michael Moorcock in junior high and high school (both the Elric series as well as other novels). I always wonder about revisiting books that I think of as part of my youth, whether they will disappoint a much older me; however, I found Elric of Melniboné very satisfying. I will continue the series and I'm confident I will also continue to enjoy! 4.5 stars
“Why should their pain produce such marvelous beauty? he wonders. Or is all beauty created through pain? Is that the secret of great art, both human and Melnibonen?”
June 28, 2024
بالاخره چلنج امسالم تموم شد و صدمین کتابم خوشبختانه یکی از بهترینهای امسال بود.
من نزدیک یک سال و نیم تعریف الریک رو از بقیه شنیدم، به خاطر همین سطح انتظاراتم خیلی بالا بود و قبل از خوندنش میدونستم این داستان با هر اشتباه کوچیکی باعث میشه من ازش بدم بیاد... ولی حدس بزنین چی شد؟ مشکل خاصی توی کلِ کتاب پیدا نکردم!
الریک پیرنگ فوقالعاده قوی و خوبی داشت و مایکل مورکاک هیچ جایی وقت رو تلف نکرده بود و زیاده گویی کنه، همین باعث میشد کل داستان ریتم سریع و خوبی داشته باشه. همین ایده و پیرنگ رو اگه به برندون سندرسون بدین ازش دوتا رمان هزار صفحهای در میاره که پر از شخصیتپردازیهای غیرضروریه.
خلاصه که الریک از خوبای فانتزیه، شاید خیلی غنیتر از رمانهایی که الان اسم "فانتزی حماسی" رو کنار خودشون دارن ولی نمیتونن یکی از اصلیترین کارها، تنظیم ریتم، رو انجام بدن.
در ضمن من ترجمهی این کتاب از نشر کران رو خوندم، دقیقا همونقدری که خودشون اصرار دارن ترجمه خوبه، خوب بود. من هیچ عیب و ایرادی نتونستم پیدا کنم.
امیدوارم زودتر چاپ بشه و همه بتونن ازش لذت ببرن.
من نزدیک یک سال و نیم تعریف الریک رو از بقیه شنیدم، به خاطر همین سطح انتظاراتم خیلی بالا بود و قبل از خوندنش میدونستم این داستان با هر اشتباه کوچیکی باعث میشه من ازش بدم بیاد... ولی حدس بزنین چی شد؟ مشکل خاصی توی کلِ کتاب پیدا نکردم!
الریک پیرنگ فوقالعاده قوی و خوبی داشت و مایکل مورکاک هیچ جایی وقت رو تلف نکرده بود و زیاده گویی کنه، همین باعث میشد کل داستان ریتم سریع و خوبی داشته باشه. همین ایده و پیرنگ رو اگه به برندون سندرسون بدین ازش دوتا رمان هزار صفحهای در میاره که پر از شخصیتپردازیهای غیرضروریه.
خلاصه که الریک از خوبای فانتزیه، شاید خیلی غنیتر از رمانهایی که الان اسم "فانتزی حماسی" رو کنار خودشون دارن ولی نمیتونن یکی از اصلیترین کارها، تنظیم ریتم، رو انجام بدن.
در ضمن من ترجمهی این کتاب از نشر کران رو خوندم، دقیقا همونقدری که خودشون اصرار دارن ترجمه خوبه، خوب بود. من هیچ عیب و ایرادی نتونستم پیدا کنم.
امیدوارم زودتر چاپ بشه و همه بتونن ازش لذت ببرن.
July 23, 2025
Questi sono i romanzi che compongono la saga dark fantasy di M. Moorcock:
- Elric di Menliboné (1972)
- Veleggiando sui mari del fato (1976)
- L'arcano del lupo bianco (1977)
- La torre Evanescente (1977)
- La maledizione della spada nera (1977)
- Tempestosa (1977)
Il personaggio di Elric e molte caratteristiche della saga stessa sono state fonte di ispirazione per innumerevoli altri scrittori. Senza Elric non avremmo avuto:
Drizzt do'Urden di Salvatore, Anomander Rake di Erikson, i Valyriani di Martin, Geralt di Rivia di Sapkowski, personaggi decadenti e solitari, solitamente con stretti rapporti con i draghi e fisicamente caratterizzati con lunghi capelli bianchi. Ve ne vengono in mente altri?
Sull'opera in se poco da aggiungere: imprescindibile opera del filone Sword and Sorcery, una pietra miliare del genere fantasy, da avere e assaporare con animo sognante.
Un lungo viaggio negli onirici e barbarici Regni Giovani fin attraverso i vari livelli della realtà che compongono il multiverso creato da Moorcock seguendo le avventure del principe albino dall'animo più tormentato della letteratura fantasy.
- Elric di Menliboné (1972)
- Veleggiando sui mari del fato (1976)
- L'arcano del lupo bianco (1977)
- La torre Evanescente (1977)
- La maledizione della spada nera (1977)
- Tempestosa (1977)
Il personaggio di Elric e molte caratteristiche della saga stessa sono state fonte di ispirazione per innumerevoli altri scrittori. Senza Elric non avremmo avuto:
Drizzt do'Urden di Salvatore, Anomander Rake di Erikson, i Valyriani di Martin, Geralt di Rivia di Sapkowski, personaggi decadenti e solitari, solitamente con stretti rapporti con i draghi e fisicamente caratterizzati con lunghi capelli bianchi. Ve ne vengono in mente altri?
Sull'opera in se poco da aggiungere: imprescindibile opera del filone Sword and Sorcery, una pietra miliare del genere fantasy, da avere e assaporare con animo sognante.
Un lungo viaggio negli onirici e barbarici Regni Giovani fin attraverso i vari livelli della realtà che compongono il multiverso creato da Moorcock seguendo le avventure del principe albino dall'animo più tormentato della letteratura fantasy.
July 1, 2009
You know, I kept seeing Moorcock's Elric stories referred to by authors I enjoyed greatly as being totally inspirational and important to the beginnings of "New Weird" fiction (which is what people who write Urban Fantasy but want to be taken seriously call their work). So I'm going on vacation and I think to myself "This'll be the perfect thing to read on the beach or in transit; fun, surprisingly good, etc etc etc".
As it turns out I'm just not seeing it. I know that issue may be that I'm reading the first volume of the stories, and the author just hadn't gotten his pacing or style down, but man so far these are just slightly above average at their best. I'm being very kind in that last sentence.
It's like, yeah, he's an albino, woooo, yeah, vampire sword, woooo, yeah, killed his loved ones, wooo. It's not that I'm dulled because other people have done bits and pieces of this kind of thing since they were written, so there's an impact that I'm incapable of getting, it's just that all of this isn't done particularly well. Moorcock tells the reader EVERYTHING, there's not the slightest bit of subtly to the work, and the world creation isn't that vividly painted or novel (race of wing people, fire demons, city whose magic evoked by having towers, sigghghhhhhh). The action set pieces aren't very good either, standard vague swinging of swords and then slightly gross accounts of brain matter splattering. I read Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories and they're wonderful, so it's not the sword and sorcery genre that isn't doing it for me.
I dunno, I hate it when I can't see what the fuss is about...
Ohhhh also, my version of this book isn't the one in the picture here. It has the dorkiest cover ever (looks like a World of Warcraft elf dipped in bleach), and these absolutly totally mediocre fantasy art illustrations inside. Which also ticked me off because with the slightest bit of effort or creativity you could have done images that elevated the stories.
As it turns out I'm just not seeing it. I know that issue may be that I'm reading the first volume of the stories, and the author just hadn't gotten his pacing or style down, but man so far these are just slightly above average at their best. I'm being very kind in that last sentence.
It's like, yeah, he's an albino, woooo, yeah, vampire sword, woooo, yeah, killed his loved ones, wooo. It's not that I'm dulled because other people have done bits and pieces of this kind of thing since they were written, so there's an impact that I'm incapable of getting, it's just that all of this isn't done particularly well. Moorcock tells the reader EVERYTHING, there's not the slightest bit of subtly to the work, and the world creation isn't that vividly painted or novel (race of wing people, fire demons, city whose magic evoked by having towers, sigghghhhhhh). The action set pieces aren't very good either, standard vague swinging of swords and then slightly gross accounts of brain matter splattering. I read Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories and they're wonderful, so it's not the sword and sorcery genre that isn't doing it for me.
I dunno, I hate it when I can't see what the fuss is about...
Ohhhh also, my version of this book isn't the one in the picture here. It has the dorkiest cover ever (looks like a World of Warcraft elf dipped in bleach), and these absolutly totally mediocre fantasy art illustrations inside. Which also ticked me off because with the slightest bit of effort or creativity you could have done images that elevated the stories.
Read
December 26, 2018Signed edition is limited to 300 copies, each signed by Michael Moorcock, Piotr Jablonski, and Holly Black.
This copy is numbered 40 of 300 produced.
Bound in full black cloth, stamped in three colors.
Color illustrations hand-tipped into the book with translucent overlays.
Introduction by Holly Black.
Oversize at 6½ × 9½ inches.
Head and tail bands, ribbon marker.
Top-edge stain.
Contents:
007 - Introduction - Holly Black
011 - "Master of Chaos"
029 - "And So The Great Emperor Received His Education"
035 - "Elric of Melniboné"
This copy is numbered 40 of 300 produced.
Bound in full black cloth, stamped in three colors.
Color illustrations hand-tipped into the book with translucent overlays.
Introduction by Holly Black.
Oversize at 6½ × 9½ inches.
Head and tail bands, ribbon marker.
Top-edge stain.
Contents:
007 - Introduction - Holly Black
011 - "Master of Chaos"
029 - "And So The Great Emperor Received His Education"
035 - "Elric of Melniboné"
July 2, 2023
I really wanted to like this book.
*SPOILERS*
I was hearing the usual things that everyone hears about Elric : it's supposed to be the birth of dark fantasy, its hero is complex and morally ambiguous, there are adult themes, and so on, and so forth.
And I found almost nothing to like about this book.
The characters were worse than two dimensional : the fragile princess that gets to be rescued, the evil moustache-twirling cousin, the noble right-hand man, and Elric himself, a brooding, relentlessly emo hero with no likeable features about him whatsoever.
I thought he was supposed to be complex! Instead, he clearly enjoys killing his way to anything, has nothing worthy to quest about and his supposedly "philosophical" musings are only skin-deep. The worst thing might be that he doesn't seem to care about anything else than himself. You have to be a VERY good author to make such a hero compelling to the readers. I was also highly intrigued by the fact that he's supposed to be physically weak and almost crippled without his elixirs, I thought "a crippled hero, now THAT's interesting". But in the first half of the book, he already has a cool shiny sword that renders him strong and fast and physically perfect, so that one remaining conflict? All gone.
I didn't understand any of Elric's motivations. Why would you decide to be noble and leave your crazy cousin alive, only to kill it several chapers later while screaming "monsteeeeer!"? Why leave your girl in the aformentioned crazy and incestuous cousin's hands and then curse yourself when she gets killed? I didn't understand anything Elric did or felt or thought, and I just didn't care, as he was one stupid, selfish, whiny, unlikeable bastard.
The world-building was laughable. The Chaos/Order dichotomy is the most trite thing ever, and of course, that doesn't make it bad in and of itself, you can always add new twists on old tropes. However, here, it's done in a dull way.
The story is told in a jerky and hyperactive way. Every other minute, Elric is in trouble, and a new side-kick/demon is invoked to move things along, potentially intriguing creatures, ennemies and people are presented in two seconds and thrown aside one second later, never to be heard about again.
Even worse, I've found plenty of strange errors or at least extremely unclear passages. Things like time and space don't always make sense, and it's not because of magic or something. There is one particular instance I remember now : Elric & co arrive to some ancient island and spend DAYS walking from its shore to the city that's in the middle of it. Then, some events later, Elric sends one of his men to go back to the boat on the shore and tell what happened to the men who remained there, and the messenger is gone and back BEFORE MIDDAY. Those sorts of errors just make me think that the author was in hyperactive fanboy mode, writing as quickly as possible to showcase all his cool creatures and magic tricks, without bothering with earthly things like editing or doublechecking your story's consistency. It certainly doesn't make me respect him.
To sum it all, I felt like I was reading some teenager's fanfiction. An imaginative teenager, of course, one who recently got into D&D and wanted to showcase all the cool stuff he could possibly imagine.
Sorry, I just couldn't get ito Elric's nonsensical, gleefully fanboy-ish and flat world.
*SPOILERS*
I was hearing the usual things that everyone hears about Elric : it's supposed to be the birth of dark fantasy, its hero is complex and morally ambiguous, there are adult themes, and so on, and so forth.
And I found almost nothing to like about this book.
The characters were worse than two dimensional : the fragile princess that gets to be rescued, the evil moustache-twirling cousin, the noble right-hand man, and Elric himself, a brooding, relentlessly emo hero with no likeable features about him whatsoever.
I thought he was supposed to be complex! Instead, he clearly enjoys killing his way to anything, has nothing worthy to quest about and his supposedly "philosophical" musings are only skin-deep. The worst thing might be that he doesn't seem to care about anything else than himself. You have to be a VERY good author to make such a hero compelling to the readers. I was also highly intrigued by the fact that he's supposed to be physically weak and almost crippled without his elixirs, I thought "a crippled hero, now THAT's interesting". But in the first half of the book, he already has a cool shiny sword that renders him strong and fast and physically perfect, so that one remaining conflict? All gone.
I didn't understand any of Elric's motivations. Why would you decide to be noble and leave your crazy cousin alive, only to kill it several chapers later while screaming "monsteeeeer!"? Why leave your girl in the aformentioned crazy and incestuous cousin's hands and then curse yourself when she gets killed? I didn't understand anything Elric did or felt or thought, and I just didn't care, as he was one stupid, selfish, whiny, unlikeable bastard.
The world-building was laughable. The Chaos/Order dichotomy is the most trite thing ever, and of course, that doesn't make it bad in and of itself, you can always add new twists on old tropes. However, here, it's done in a dull way.
The story is told in a jerky and hyperactive way. Every other minute, Elric is in trouble, and a new side-kick/demon is invoked to move things along, potentially intriguing creatures, ennemies and people are presented in two seconds and thrown aside one second later, never to be heard about again.
Even worse, I've found plenty of strange errors or at least extremely unclear passages. Things like time and space don't always make sense, and it's not because of magic or something. There is one particular instance I remember now : Elric & co arrive to some ancient island and spend DAYS walking from its shore to the city that's in the middle of it. Then, some events later, Elric sends one of his men to go back to the boat on the shore and tell what happened to the men who remained there, and the messenger is gone and back BEFORE MIDDAY. Those sorts of errors just make me think that the author was in hyperactive fanboy mode, writing as quickly as possible to showcase all his cool creatures and magic tricks, without bothering with earthly things like editing or doublechecking your story's consistency. It certainly doesn't make me respect him.
To sum it all, I felt like I was reading some teenager's fanfiction. An imaginative teenager, of course, one who recently got into D&D and wanted to showcase all the cool stuff he could possibly imagine.
Sorry, I just couldn't get ito Elric's nonsensical, gleefully fanboy-ish and flat world.
March 25, 2022
I love other people's excitement about things. I find it delightful, and engaging. When that passion turns into an insistence that I will love those things, that I must love those things, I get obstinately, irrationally resistant. I jokingly ascribe this to my trip through the 90's - that time of angsty music, angry plaid and baggy Levi's so weighted with indifference that they could hardly be bothered to hold onto our hipbones. The truth is, though (despite a lingering love of plaid), that I was never angsty, rarely angry, and enjoy being able to walk quickly without mooning anyone. What I am is consistently, habitually, nearly instinctually contrarian. It's honestly a problem, (albeit a fun one), and I've been working really hard at taming the urge, a little.
I was introduced to Moorcock by a rabid fan many years ago, and his persistent insistence that Elric was THE shit, that it would be heresy to call myself a fantasy fan if I didn't enjoy it...well, this pretty much guaranteed that I would read it with as much indifference or scathing disdain as I could muster. And so I did, and thought it just so much melodramatic tripe.
I was wrong.
This really is seminal sword and sorcery. The sheer imaginative power of the story is tremendous. I first read this coming off a rip of Martin, Jordan, and Goodkind, and the difference in worldbuilding is honestly remarkable. With grand but stark language, Moorcock manages to convey a richly envisioned world using only about 20% of the words that those other Purple Prosers use, and the reader is thrown in without elaborate explanations of how everything works. ( Though, there are some quirks in Elric, too - "The Warrior Priest Of Phum drew a red kerchief from within his tunic and blew his nose for some time. When he had finished he put down a hand, helped Elric to his feet, and began to walk along the rim of the marsh, keeping the black monument ever in sight" Wtf? I giggled a lot over this.)
It has the feel, often, of a fable or an oral tale, and the tone in which it is told stands up well despite the 45 years that have passed since it was first written.
I'm really glad I gave Elric another try, and wasn't purposefully resistant. I'm curious to see where his story goes from here.
I was introduced to Moorcock by a rabid fan many years ago, and his persistent insistence that Elric was THE shit, that it would be heresy to call myself a fantasy fan if I didn't enjoy it...well, this pretty much guaranteed that I would read it with as much indifference or scathing disdain as I could muster. And so I did, and thought it just so much melodramatic tripe.
I was wrong.
This really is seminal sword and sorcery. The sheer imaginative power of the story is tremendous. I first read this coming off a rip of Martin, Jordan, and Goodkind, and the difference in worldbuilding is honestly remarkable. With grand but stark language, Moorcock manages to convey a richly envisioned world using only about 20% of the words that those other Purple Prosers use, and the reader is thrown in without elaborate explanations of how everything works. ( Though, there are some quirks in Elric, too - "The Warrior Priest Of Phum drew a red kerchief from within his tunic and blew his nose for some time. When he had finished he put down a hand, helped Elric to his feet, and began to walk along the rim of the marsh, keeping the black monument ever in sight" Wtf? I giggled a lot over this.)
It has the feel, often, of a fable or an oral tale, and the tone in which it is told stands up well despite the 45 years that have passed since it was first written.
I'm really glad I gave Elric another try, and wasn't purposefully resistant. I'm curious to see where his story goes from here.
May 14, 2014
This is THE classic sword and sorcery tale that came about in the early 1960s. Note that I am referencing when Elric first appeared which was in Moorcock’s novella, "The Dreaming City" (Science Fantasy #47, June 1961 (Wiki).
Note that this is one of my early reviews so the format is different.
CONCEPT: Very interesting. This one was done in the 60s before there were a lot of Sci fi/Fantasy writers. Moorcock is definitely one of the older writers and his works range in quality though fortunately this one is quite evocative of the genre.
MARKETING APPEAL: This story came about in the 60s, I believe, when pulp sci fi magazines were a big thing; I doubt it made a lot of money at first but it became a cult classic. Elric appealed to readers b/c: (1) Unlike Tolkien, it dealt with grayish characters; no big struggle between good and evil; more of protagonist vs. Antagonists; (2) it dealt in an unknown world where there were lots of cool planar areas; (3) Elric was somewhere between good and evil; and (4) the swords and context of the storyline were actually quite well done.
SCORING: Superb (A), Excellent (A-), Very good (B+), Good (B) Fairly Good (B-) Above Average (C+), Mediocre (C ), Barely Passable (C-) Pretty Bad (D+), Dismal (D), Waste of Time (D-), Into the Trash (F)
DIALOGUE: B+ STRUCTURE: A- HISTORY SETTING: B+ CHARACTERS: A- EVIL SETUP/ANTAGONISTS: B+ EMOTIONAL IMPACT: B; SURPRISES: B+ MONSTERS: A PACING: A- THE LITTLE THINGS: A OVERALL STYLE: A- FLOW OF WORDS: B+ CHOICE OF FOCUS: A- TRANSITIONS/FLASHBACKS/POV: B COMPLEXITY OF WORDS/SYMBOLISM/THEMES: A-
OVERALL GRADE: B plus to A-
DIALOGUE: Dialogue was pretty good. Sometimes it would get formal but in other times it would relax a bit. Overall though, it didn’t get too contemporary as some authors are very guilty of doing. I hate it when slang or sayings from our times are used if it's supposed to be a totally different world.
PACING: The book is sparse to begin with; only 160 pages but it moves fast. I think the pacing is great. Of course, the pacing is so good b/c Moorcock doesn’t give us a lot of details. Everything is so succinct that I wonder if he ever wrote screenplays.
Sometimes though; I’d like more details.
Have to be fair here in comparison to authors who have meatier texts; 160 pages; it’s easier to move fast compared to 900 pages as the typical epic fantasy. And when Moorcock was writing it was for magazines with limited space so I'm not going to dock his grade for it.
OVERALL STRUCTURE: First half is Elric dealing with his evil cousin and trying to deal with Melnibonean attitudes which disturb him. The latter half is rescuing Cymoril (the love of his life) from Yrkoon and acquiring the long lost soul blades. For the most part, I didn't have any problem with the story structure of this series. It was a pleasurable read and while it wasn't great (Zelazny) nor superb (GRRM) it did fall between good and very good. Rousing dark swords and sorcery.
COMMENTS: Apparently, Moorcock was never big on Tolkien so he took the opposite approach in his works; far darker; less details; more gore; not as happy.
What follows are spoilers and is intended for people reading this who don't remember the novel too well and wish to go down memory lane.
Note that this is one of my early reviews so the format is different.
CONCEPT: Very interesting. This one was done in the 60s before there were a lot of Sci fi/Fantasy writers. Moorcock is definitely one of the older writers and his works range in quality though fortunately this one is quite evocative of the genre.
MARKETING APPEAL: This story came about in the 60s, I believe, when pulp sci fi magazines were a big thing; I doubt it made a lot of money at first but it became a cult classic. Elric appealed to readers b/c: (1) Unlike Tolkien, it dealt with grayish characters; no big struggle between good and evil; more of protagonist vs. Antagonists; (2) it dealt in an unknown world where there were lots of cool planar areas; (3) Elric was somewhere between good and evil; and (4) the swords and context of the storyline were actually quite well done.
SCORING: Superb (A), Excellent (A-), Very good (B+), Good (B) Fairly Good (B-) Above Average (C+), Mediocre (C ), Barely Passable (C-) Pretty Bad (D+), Dismal (D), Waste of Time (D-), Into the Trash (F)
DIALOGUE: B+ STRUCTURE: A- HISTORY SETTING: B+ CHARACTERS: A- EVIL SETUP/ANTAGONISTS: B+ EMOTIONAL IMPACT: B; SURPRISES: B+ MONSTERS: A PACING: A- THE LITTLE THINGS: A OVERALL STYLE: A- FLOW OF WORDS: B+ CHOICE OF FOCUS: A- TRANSITIONS/FLASHBACKS/POV: B COMPLEXITY OF WORDS/SYMBOLISM/THEMES: A-
OVERALL GRADE: B plus to A-
DIALOGUE: Dialogue was pretty good. Sometimes it would get formal but in other times it would relax a bit. Overall though, it didn’t get too contemporary as some authors are very guilty of doing. I hate it when slang or sayings from our times are used if it's supposed to be a totally different world.
PACING: The book is sparse to begin with; only 160 pages but it moves fast. I think the pacing is great. Of course, the pacing is so good b/c Moorcock doesn’t give us a lot of details. Everything is so succinct that I wonder if he ever wrote screenplays.
Sometimes though; I’d like more details.
Have to be fair here in comparison to authors who have meatier texts; 160 pages; it’s easier to move fast compared to 900 pages as the typical epic fantasy. And when Moorcock was writing it was for magazines with limited space so I'm not going to dock his grade for it.
OVERALL STRUCTURE: First half is Elric dealing with his evil cousin and trying to deal with Melnibonean attitudes which disturb him. The latter half is rescuing Cymoril (the love of his life) from Yrkoon and acquiring the long lost soul blades. For the most part, I didn't have any problem with the story structure of this series. It was a pleasurable read and while it wasn't great (Zelazny) nor superb (GRRM) it did fall between good and very good. Rousing dark swords and sorcery.
COMMENTS: Apparently, Moorcock was never big on Tolkien so he took the opposite approach in his works; far darker; less details; more gore; not as happy.
What follows are spoilers and is intended for people reading this who don't remember the novel too well and wish to go down memory lane.
April 23, 2022
I read this one years ago. When I ran across this audio version I picked it up. Having not read any of the Eternal Champion volumes for a long time it sort of "reminded me" how much I liked many of them.
This short book serves as a sort of "intro" to the entire Elric saga and we get a look at much of the character Mr. Moorcock was building for Elric (and I'd forgotten how annoying Elric could be).
This (these actually as it applies to the Elric series) is a book I'd recommend for anyone who likes high fantasy or epic fantasy. A good read and this was a well done audio with an intro by Moorcock himself.
(By the way, I've been mispronouncing "Melnibone" for years.)
This short book serves as a sort of "intro" to the entire Elric saga and we get a look at much of the character Mr. Moorcock was building for Elric (and I'd forgotten how annoying Elric could be).
This (these actually as it applies to the Elric series) is a book I'd recommend for anyone who likes high fantasy or epic fantasy. A good read and this was a well done audio with an intro by Moorcock himself.
(By the way, I've been mispronouncing "Melnibone" for years.)
November 6, 2015
I read this edition years ago. I loved it. I have also reviewed the omnibus volumes that came out recently. While I like some Elric stories better than others I believe "he" (this character, you know "Elric") holds a special place in the annals of fantasy characters. Or maybe I should say tragic fantasy characters.
I just noted this review and thought I'd add this to my earlier comments. There was a time when (back in the '70s and '80s) when the Eternal Champion books were a "must read" among fantasy readers/fans. I was reading and looking for fantasy (Sword and Sorcery, Epic Fantasy etc.) as early as the 1960s. We had to search for it back then. Lancer books and few others "discovered" the market and we (fantasy readers) began to find interesting reads. The Amber books by Zelazny, The Eternal Champion books by Moorcock, reprints of Robert E. Howard's works, also reprints of things like Lord Dunsany, Hope Mirrlees and others.
Now I'm not a fan of all Moorcock's works, I'm not even a fan of all the books peripherally connected to the Eternal Champion cycle but some of them are really not to be missed by fantasy fans. Elric, Corum, Lord Erekosë, Duke Dorian Hawkmoon and so many more really aren't to be missed.
Really. There's a reason why fantasy classics are classics.
I just noted this review and thought I'd add this to my earlier comments. There was a time when (back in the '70s and '80s) when the Eternal Champion books were a "must read" among fantasy readers/fans. I was reading and looking for fantasy (Sword and Sorcery, Epic Fantasy etc.) as early as the 1960s. We had to search for it back then. Lancer books and few others "discovered" the market and we (fantasy readers) began to find interesting reads. The Amber books by Zelazny, The Eternal Champion books by Moorcock, reprints of Robert E. Howard's works, also reprints of things like Lord Dunsany, Hope Mirrlees and others.
Now I'm not a fan of all Moorcock's works, I'm not even a fan of all the books peripherally connected to the Eternal Champion cycle but some of them are really not to be missed by fantasy fans. Elric, Corum, Lord Erekosë, Duke Dorian Hawkmoon and so many more really aren't to be missed.
Really. There's a reason why fantasy classics are classics.
December 8, 2023
راستش من اصلا نمیدونم چجوری باید به کامیک بوک نمره داد، خب تجربه زیادی از خوندن اینحور کتابا ندارم، فکر کنم آخرین هاش کتابای تن تن بوده که صد سال پیش خوندم، اما واقعا حال داد. دوس دارم ادامه این مجموعه رو بخونم و تماشای نقاشی ها هم که اصلا نگم چقدر جذاب بود♡♡
September 13, 2022
Reading this a second time after reading quite a few other iterations of the Eternal Champion multiverse really hits differently. On its own, Elric can be a vague, confusing and bizarre experience that feels like reading a fever dream in motion. Read in the context of the greater multiverse, you begin to piece together all the missing gaps, mind-bending world building and the strange array of mysterious magic, demons, sorcery and evil gods. I enjoyed it even more on my second reading because I now have a much better grasp on how this universe functions.
Elric is a cynical and melancholy king, heir to a nation whose 100,000-year rule of the world ended less than 500 years hence. Born as a crippled albino do to inbreeding, he's kept alive only by powerful drugs and potions. Elric is a reluctant ruler, but he also realizes that no other worthy successor exists and the survival of his once-powerful nation depends on him alone. Elric's cousin Yyrkoon has no patience for his physically weak kinsman, and he plots constantly to seize Elric's throne by lethal force. Thus begins a power struggle between Elric and his wicked cousin, both wielding incredibly powerful swords by the names of Stormbringer and Mournblade.
On a surface level, it's a straightforward sword & sorcery tale. The characters are simplistic and the plot is all about badass dudes with magic swords fighting monsters, wielding forbidden sorcery, traveling through nightmarish dimensional portals, getting revenge and looking awesome while doing it. It takes pride in its simplicity and isn't afraid to flaunt its flashiness. Its prose and settings are heavily influenced by classic fantasy and horror such as Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and Robert E. Howard's sword & sorcery tales. It's a fun read.
On a deeper level, you realize that the characters are intentionally one-dimensional, as they are nothing more than set pieces for higher powers playing games with human lives. In the grand scheme of the universe, they're essentially fragile little puppets for gods to do with as they please, regardless of the amount of death and suffering it causes. While the simplistic characterization and blunt Shakespearian dialogue can be a turn off to people, I eventually learned to appreciate the unique style in which the story is told.
Elric is a cynical and melancholy king, heir to a nation whose 100,000-year rule of the world ended less than 500 years hence. Born as a crippled albino do to inbreeding, he's kept alive only by powerful drugs and potions. Elric is a reluctant ruler, but he also realizes that no other worthy successor exists and the survival of his once-powerful nation depends on him alone. Elric's cousin Yyrkoon has no patience for his physically weak kinsman, and he plots constantly to seize Elric's throne by lethal force. Thus begins a power struggle between Elric and his wicked cousin, both wielding incredibly powerful swords by the names of Stormbringer and Mournblade.
On a surface level, it's a straightforward sword & sorcery tale. The characters are simplistic and the plot is all about badass dudes with magic swords fighting monsters, wielding forbidden sorcery, traveling through nightmarish dimensional portals, getting revenge and looking awesome while doing it. It takes pride in its simplicity and isn't afraid to flaunt its flashiness. Its prose and settings are heavily influenced by classic fantasy and horror such as Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and Robert E. Howard's sword & sorcery tales. It's a fun read.
On a deeper level, you realize that the characters are intentionally one-dimensional, as they are nothing more than set pieces for higher powers playing games with human lives. In the grand scheme of the universe, they're essentially fragile little puppets for gods to do with as they please, regardless of the amount of death and suffering it causes. While the simplistic characterization and blunt Shakespearian dialogue can be a turn off to people, I eventually learned to appreciate the unique style in which the story is told.
Read
April 11, 2024The Multiverse vs. Middle Earth
Michael Moorcock has been dubbed the "anti-Tolkien," a label he embraced. From aesthetics to ideology to literary methodology, his oeuvre can be easily seen as a total inversion of Tolkien's. The one important similarity between these British writers is that they both wrote fantasy stories.
Tolkien's outlook is Eurocentric. Moorcock's is cosmopolitan.
Tolkien is conservative to the point of reaction. Moorcock is a self-declared radical.
Tolkien found Anglicanism too forward thinking and converted to Roman Catholicism. Moorcock found materialism too repressive and drifted towards quantum mysticism.
Tolkien's great theme is the war of good against evil. Moorcock's is the struggle to balance Chaos and Law.
Tolkien labored over his books for decades, meticulously sculpting his imaginary world, its languages, geography, history and myths; The Lord of the Rings exists to showcase his Middle Earth. Moorcock gutted out his fantasies in spasms of creative improvisation, producing worlds and books in just weeks or even days; the Multiverse exists to stage his tragic tales of the Eternal Champion.
Moorcock's most famous character, Elric of Melnibone, however, can be seen as a point-by-point refutation of another pillar of the modern fantasy genre: Conan the Cimmerian.
Conan is (famously) a barbarian from a savage land who wanders into civilization and usurps the throne of its mightiest kingdom. Elric is the hereditary ruler of an ancient decadent empire, who surrenders his throne to pursue the life of a vagabond.
Conan is pulpishly strong and durable. Elric is weak, sickly, an albino who must rely on drugs (or vampirism) to sustain his life and energy.
Conan dreads and detests magic. Magic permeates Elric's everyday reality.
Conan's career culminates with saving the world from an undead sorcerer. Elric's with unleashing an Armageddon of sorcery that destroys the world and everyone in it.
Michael Moorcock's career provides an interesting case study of negative influence.
Michael Moorcock has been dubbed the "anti-Tolkien," a label he embraced. From aesthetics to ideology to literary methodology, his oeuvre can be easily seen as a total inversion of Tolkien's. The one important similarity between these British writers is that they both wrote fantasy stories.
Tolkien's outlook is Eurocentric. Moorcock's is cosmopolitan.
Tolkien is conservative to the point of reaction. Moorcock is a self-declared radical.
Tolkien found Anglicanism too forward thinking and converted to Roman Catholicism. Moorcock found materialism too repressive and drifted towards quantum mysticism.
Tolkien's great theme is the war of good against evil. Moorcock's is the struggle to balance Chaos and Law.
Tolkien labored over his books for decades, meticulously sculpting his imaginary world, its languages, geography, history and myths; The Lord of the Rings exists to showcase his Middle Earth. Moorcock gutted out his fantasies in spasms of creative improvisation, producing worlds and books in just weeks or even days; the Multiverse exists to stage his tragic tales of the Eternal Champion.
Moorcock's most famous character, Elric of Melnibone, however, can be seen as a point-by-point refutation of another pillar of the modern fantasy genre: Conan the Cimmerian.
Conan is (famously) a barbarian from a savage land who wanders into civilization and usurps the throne of its mightiest kingdom. Elric is the hereditary ruler of an ancient decadent empire, who surrenders his throne to pursue the life of a vagabond.
Conan is pulpishly strong and durable. Elric is weak, sickly, an albino who must rely on drugs (or vampirism) to sustain his life and energy.
Conan dreads and detests magic. Magic permeates Elric's everyday reality.
Conan's career culminates with saving the world from an undead sorcerer. Elric's with unleashing an Armageddon of sorcery that destroys the world and everyone in it.
Michael Moorcock's career provides an interesting case study of negative influence.
August 16, 2020
"We are victims cousin, of a conspiracy, a game played by gods, demons and sentient swords."
Although not a frequent reader of high or epic fantasy, this turned out to be an unexpected surprise. In fact, I will generally drop any book at the first sign of dragons. And while dragons are mentioned on several occasions in Elric of Melniboné, they never actually make an appearance. Apparently, they are too exhausted from a previous battle to be bothered with events here. Suits me just fine.
First and foremost the plot of Elric of Melniboné is tightly focused, and the cast of characters limited enough that I could actually recall the names of all (okay, most) of them throughout the story. A very gloomy feel takes hold from the outset, with Elric brooding excessively on his gentle, learned soul being a poor fit as an emperor for the arrogant, harsh people of Melniboné. This evolves into a power struggle with his devious cousin, and a quest for two magical blades which turn out to be sentient and a little on the bloodthirsty side. Ultimately, it's a story of Elric's inner struggles, refusing to be a pawn of the gods and learning to take his fate into his own hands.
Although not a frequent reader of high or epic fantasy, this turned out to be an unexpected surprise. In fact, I will generally drop any book at the first sign of dragons. And while dragons are mentioned on several occasions in Elric of Melniboné, they never actually make an appearance. Apparently, they are too exhausted from a previous battle to be bothered with events here. Suits me just fine.
First and foremost the plot of Elric of Melniboné is tightly focused, and the cast of characters limited enough that I could actually recall the names of all (okay, most) of them throughout the story. A very gloomy feel takes hold from the outset, with Elric brooding excessively on his gentle, learned soul being a poor fit as an emperor for the arrogant, harsh people of Melniboné. This evolves into a power struggle with his devious cousin, and a quest for two magical blades which turn out to be sentient and a little on the bloodthirsty side. Ultimately, it's a story of Elric's inner struggles, refusing to be a pawn of the gods and learning to take his fate into his own hands.
March 25, 2022
دوستش داشتم :)
شروع جذابی داشت
ترجمهاش واقعا خوب بود
روایت بعضی جاها عجیب میشد ولی بهطور کلی لذت بردم
شخصیتها یکم نیاز به پردازش بیشتر داشتند.
خلاصه که تجربهی بدی نبود و ازش لذت بردم :دی
شروع جذابی داشت
ترجمهاش واقعا خوب بود
روایت بعضی جاها عجیب میشد ولی بهطور کلی لذت بردم
شخصیتها یکم نیاز به پردازش بیشتر داشتند.
خلاصه که تجربهی بدی نبود و ازش لذت بردم :دی
August 21, 2008
This book and I . . . disagreed. I tend to dislike fantasy books whose language is flowery, whose characters are coarse and papery, and whose plots are obviously constructions of the authors to be used with appropriately puppet-like characters. But my friend liked this story, so I said I'd read it. :) I don't understand how this stuff got popular. Not at all. I read some of it out loud to a discerning friend of mine, sometimes in disbelief and unable to stop from laughing, and to this day we make fun of some of the phrases. For example, you have this scene where Elric is drowning and a vision "came unbidden to his dying mind." Later, when describing the vision, Elric announced, "It came unbidden to my dying mind." Waiiiiit, did the character read the narration of his near-death? Michael, seriously, your characters can't have read your book! How about when the word "white" was used about fifty times when describing the scary torture artist? Enough already.
December 31, 2024
Der Einstieg war ungewöhnlich und faszinierend in diesen Fanatsy-Klassiker. Kein episches Worldbuilding, sondern gleich rein in den zwischenmenschlichen Konflikt zwischen Herrscher Elric und seinem machthungrigen Cousin. Das war düster, spannungsgeladen und weckte mein Leseinteresse.
Leider nahm es dann im weiteren Verlauf eine Wendung. Die Geschichte wurden episodenhafter. Und vorallem märchenhafter. Elric streicht durch die Welt, trifft Wesen und Gottheiten, man redet, handelt schnell und die Karawane zieht weiter. Da war plötzlich die Atmosphäre flöten. Ob Hand im Glück, der dicke fette Pfannkuchen oder Candide, diese Art der Erzählweise liegt mir nicht. Und so blieb es am Ende eine interessante Lektüre, die ich aufgrund der Kürze auch beendet habe, aber nun schwanke, ob ich weitere Bände Elric folgen will. Denn seine Entscheidung um die Zukunft des Inselreichs Melnibone war Ende so törricht und melodramtisch, dass mir gerade die Lust verging.
Leider nahm es dann im weiteren Verlauf eine Wendung. Die Geschichte wurden episodenhafter. Und vorallem märchenhafter. Elric streicht durch die Welt, trifft Wesen und Gottheiten, man redet, handelt schnell und die Karawane zieht weiter. Da war plötzlich die Atmosphäre flöten. Ob Hand im Glück, der dicke fette Pfannkuchen oder Candide, diese Art der Erzählweise liegt mir nicht. Und so blieb es am Ende eine interessante Lektüre, die ich aufgrund der Kürze auch beendet habe, aber nun schwanke, ob ich weitere Bände Elric folgen will. Denn seine Entscheidung um die Zukunft des Inselreichs Melnibone war Ende so törricht und melodramtisch, dass mir gerade die Lust verging.
March 7, 2011
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
Elric, emperor of Melniboné, is not your typical fantasy hero. He’s an albino with white skin, long white hair, and slanting red eyes. He’s weak and has to take drugs every few hours just to maintain the strength of a normal man. He’s a brooding and contemplative scholar, which makes him dull at parties.
Some people think Elric is a demon — he sure looks like one — and many of his subjects would prefer to have the throne of Melniboné occupied by Elric’s charismatic cousin Yyrkoon who looks and acts like a leader should. He’s strong, agile, and nationalistic, and he wants to restore Melniboné to its former greatness.
While Yyrkoon is dancing, acting like a proper nobleman, and plotting to kill Elric, Elric spends his time thinking about tradition, social justice, and his duty to his country. Is it Elric’s job to give the people of Melniboné what they want — tradition, a powerful leader, war, and dominance over smaller states — or is it better to be universally humanistic and to try to lead Melniboné, against its wishes, into cooperation and peace with its neighbors? Should Elric sacrifice his personal ideals in order to be the leader his people demand? Is his responsibility to his country or to the world at large?
Elric of Melniboné, by Michael Moorcock, is a thought-provoking work but, at the same time, it’s appealing to those who just want to read a good sword & sorcery story — sea battles in grottos, ships that sail on land or sea, magic mirrors that wipe out memory, and fights with demons in the underworld. Many of the Elric stories were originally published in pulp magazines or as novellas, so they are fast-paced with sketchy scene and character development. This is likely to be unsatisfying to some readers, but I enjoyed the quick pace and appreciated Elric’s introspective concerns about his duties.
I listened to Audio Realms’ production of Elric of Melniboné. Jeff West was an excellent narrator, but I was annoyed by the music which plays behind the entire book’s text — not just at the beginning of chapters or scenes (listen to sample). It is soft and doesn’t cause any trouble with hearing the narration, but it’s clearly designed to add drama and emotion to the story and I prefer to let Moorcock do that himself. I would have enjoyed Elric of Melniboné more if there had been no music at all and I’ll be careful about Audio Realms’ productions in the future.
Elric, emperor of Melniboné, is not your typical fantasy hero. He’s an albino with white skin, long white hair, and slanting red eyes. He’s weak and has to take drugs every few hours just to maintain the strength of a normal man. He’s a brooding and contemplative scholar, which makes him dull at parties.
Some people think Elric is a demon — he sure looks like one — and many of his subjects would prefer to have the throne of Melniboné occupied by Elric’s charismatic cousin Yyrkoon who looks and acts like a leader should. He’s strong, agile, and nationalistic, and he wants to restore Melniboné to its former greatness.
While Yyrkoon is dancing, acting like a proper nobleman, and plotting to kill Elric, Elric spends his time thinking about tradition, social justice, and his duty to his country. Is it Elric’s job to give the people of Melniboné what they want — tradition, a powerful leader, war, and dominance over smaller states — or is it better to be universally humanistic and to try to lead Melniboné, against its wishes, into cooperation and peace with its neighbors? Should Elric sacrifice his personal ideals in order to be the leader his people demand? Is his responsibility to his country or to the world at large?
Elric of Melniboné, by Michael Moorcock, is a thought-provoking work but, at the same time, it’s appealing to those who just want to read a good sword & sorcery story — sea battles in grottos, ships that sail on land or sea, magic mirrors that wipe out memory, and fights with demons in the underworld. Many of the Elric stories were originally published in pulp magazines or as novellas, so they are fast-paced with sketchy scene and character development. This is likely to be unsatisfying to some readers, but I enjoyed the quick pace and appreciated Elric’s introspective concerns about his duties.
I listened to Audio Realms’ production of Elric of Melniboné. Jeff West was an excellent narrator, but I was annoyed by the music which plays behind the entire book’s text — not just at the beginning of chapters or scenes (listen to sample). It is soft and doesn’t cause any trouble with hearing the narration, but it’s clearly designed to add drama and emotion to the story and I prefer to let Moorcock do that himself. I would have enjoyed Elric of Melniboné more if there had been no music at all and I’ll be careful about Audio Realms’ productions in the future.
October 30, 2011
I have this feeling that my luck is none too good. This sword here at my side don’t act the way it should. Keeps calling me it’s master, but I feel like it’s slave.
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave.
And it howls! It howls like hell!
"Black Blade" by Blue Öyster Cult, lyrics by Michael Moorcock
How many authors do you know who gets to write lyrics for a song based on his book to be record by a legendary metal band? Elric has to be just about the coolest most bad ass mofo in the history of fantasy fiction. He is clearly not a graduate from the Cimmerian School Barbaric Fantasy Heroism though, he is more the regal melancholy type, a tall red eyed albino with a penchant for navel-gazing between slicing & dicing sessions. Elric is armed with an accursed soul sucking black sword called Stormbringer, a weapon so fearsome Excalibur would want to put a restraining order on it.
Considering the gargantuan length of your average fantasy epic these days it is amazing how much plot, characterization and action Moorcock managed to squeeze into less than 200 pages. Elric's character its developed quickly and vividly. The plot of this book is like Games of Thrones on speed and the end is a beginning for many more adventures to come.
Elric is one of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champions, essentially one hero in different versions protecting parallel universes. Most Eternal Champions books do not have to be read in order but as far as Elric is concerned this one is the best starting point. I am looking forward to reading them all.
July 27, 2023
this was fine, it had an interesting plot but i thought the characters were so boring. it’s clear they were there to move the plot along and not to actually be apart of the story.
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