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drowqueen's review
4.0
Review by the founder of Inkling Scrolls: https://leonahenry.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/book-review-the-elric-saga-part-1-by-michael-moorcock/
goodmanspellane's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
bioniclib's review
3.0
The writing style is in the traditional high-brow style of epic fantasy. Though this book is really 3-book-in-1, each book is rather short (>200 pages) for epic fantasy. But it works.
The world building focuses on the fading from power Melnibone race and the Young Kingdoms made of humans. The former also have innate sorcery skills (and dragons that make but a fleeting appearance) and are closer to the Lords of Chaos. The Lords of Choas are in battle with the Lords of Law. Because so much of the focus is on Elric's relationship with The Lords of Choas, the story travels realms.
I usually don't prefer books that take place in other realms where the author paints a picture of things that don't exist. But it actually worked fairly well here. The saga reminds me of Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. I enjoyed this book and will continue on with the saga.
The world building focuses on the fading from power Melnibone race and the Young Kingdoms made of humans. The former also have innate sorcery skills (and dragons that make but a fleeting appearance) and are closer to the Lords of Chaos. The Lords of Choas are in battle with the Lords of Law. Because so much of the focus is on Elric's relationship with The Lords of Choas, the story travels realms.
I usually don't prefer books that take place in other realms where the author paints a picture of things that don't exist. But it actually worked fairly well here. The saga reminds me of Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. I enjoyed this book and will continue on with the saga.
deathbyspreadsheet's review
1.0
I get the whole anti-hero backlash thing Moorcock is going for here. Problem is, the story still falls flat. Paper-thin characters, nill character development, and disgustingly thin "coincidences" that move the story forward. Oh, and misogynistic to boot? This isn't worth the paper it was printed on.
tylerjames27's review
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ogreart's review
4.0
I haven't read this in 20 years. It has stood the test of time. I think I will need to dig out all my Eternal Champion books.
dantastic's review
5.0
The 2011 Re-read:
Elric of Melnibone: Elric, the sickly albino emperor of Melnibone, combats his cousin Yrkoon's machinations for his throne and winds up on a quest across dimensions for a pair of magical black swords.
In the long, long, long, long wait between volumes four and five of The Dark Tower, a friend of mine told me about Elric, an albino with a soul-sucking sword that kept him alive. Intrigued, I took advantage of my Science Fiction Book Club membership and bought the two collected volumes they had. I was not disappointed.
Elric was created by Michael Moorcock to be the anti-Conan. Where Conan is strong, Elric is sickly. Conan distrusts magic where Elric embraced it. Conan is noble while Elric is... less than noble some of the time.
The first book in this collection deals with Elric and Yrkoon battling for the Ruby Throne. Moorcock builds his multiverse world by world, taking Elric across planes and into encounters with elementals and Lords of Chaos in his quest to foil Yrkoon.
Moorcock manages an epic feel despite the small size of the individual books. Not only was it influential when it first appeared, it's still a damn good story. The dying culture of the Melniboneans and the magical system were both really interesting to me, both during the initial reading and in the subsequent re-reads.
Blood and souls for Arioch!
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate: After leaving Melnibone behind, Elric ventures into the Young Kingdoms. While exhausted on a lonely shingle, Elric boards a mysterious ship. What will he encounter on his voyage before he returns to Melnibone?
Sailor on the Seas of Fate is what hooked me and made me a permanent Moorcock fan. Moorcock introduces the concept of the Eternal Champion and introduces three of them: Erekose, Corum, and Hawkmoon, and does some foreshadowing of things to come. Smiorgan Baldhead is introduced and Elric and Arioch become further entwined. Elric travels to even more planes and explores the ancestral home island of the Melniboneans. Good stuff!
Weird of the White Wolf: Elric leads the Sea Lords of the Purple Towns against his own homeland, Melnibone, seeks The Dead God's Book, and braves the Singing Citadel.
The tragedy and the cosmic scope of the Elric saga become even more apparent with the Weird of the White Wolf. How many other fantasy tales feature an emperor in exile committing genocide on his own people? Elric accidentally slays Cymoril, betrays his Sea Lord allies, and abandons his new lover to roam the world with his new friend Moonglum. The Cosmic Balance is introduced, Elric does more plane-hopping, and tangles with more entities beyond the mortal ken. By the end, he's apparently done with adventuring... until the next volume!
The 2022 Re-read:
Eleven years and several emotional centuries later, I'm rereading the Elric books. I just throw some thoughts in this section since I've already covered a lot up above.
In the ensuing eleven years, I forgot how much I enjoyed this saga. There are some nuances I may not have picked up on in previous reads or just understand them better with my accumulated wisdom and decrepitude. Elric turning his back against the traditions of his people could be interpreted as the conflict of Chaos vs. Law, progress vs. stagnation in this case. There is also an unsubtle gay subtext to Elric and Yrkoon fighting inside the Pulsing Cavern with giant black swords.
Anyway, I finished Elric of Melnibone earlier and it does a lot of heavy lifting for the rest of the series. There are already hints about the saga's ending. It's also a damn fine adventure tale in its own right. Elric is kind of a dumbass regarding Yrkoon but it fits his character.
Sailor on the Seas of Fate is still an ass kicker, with its team-up of various Eternal Champions and the first of Elric's many betrayals. I've forgotten so much of this stuff.
The final book, Weird of the White Wolf, brings Elric closer to his destiny in adventures with wingless girl and Moonglum, a thief that will be his companion for adventures to come, in addition to making the enemy of Theleb K'aarna and the sorcerers of Pan Tang.
Twenty two years after I first read it, this remains one of my favorite epics. I'm bumping it up to five stars. It's not perfect but it's much loved in my house.
Elric of Melnibone: Elric, the sickly albino emperor of Melnibone, combats his cousin Yrkoon's machinations for his throne and winds up on a quest across dimensions for a pair of magical black swords.
In the long, long, long, long wait between volumes four and five of The Dark Tower, a friend of mine told me about Elric, an albino with a soul-sucking sword that kept him alive. Intrigued, I took advantage of my Science Fiction Book Club membership and bought the two collected volumes they had. I was not disappointed.
Elric was created by Michael Moorcock to be the anti-Conan. Where Conan is strong, Elric is sickly. Conan distrusts magic where Elric embraced it. Conan is noble while Elric is... less than noble some of the time.
The first book in this collection deals with Elric and Yrkoon battling for the Ruby Throne. Moorcock builds his multiverse world by world, taking Elric across planes and into encounters with elementals and Lords of Chaos in his quest to foil Yrkoon.
Moorcock manages an epic feel despite the small size of the individual books. Not only was it influential when it first appeared, it's still a damn good story. The dying culture of the Melniboneans and the magical system were both really interesting to me, both during the initial reading and in the subsequent re-reads.
Blood and souls for Arioch!
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate: After leaving Melnibone behind, Elric ventures into the Young Kingdoms. While exhausted on a lonely shingle, Elric boards a mysterious ship. What will he encounter on his voyage before he returns to Melnibone?
Sailor on the Seas of Fate is what hooked me and made me a permanent Moorcock fan. Moorcock introduces the concept of the Eternal Champion and introduces three of them: Erekose, Corum, and Hawkmoon, and does some foreshadowing of things to come. Smiorgan Baldhead is introduced and Elric and Arioch become further entwined. Elric travels to even more planes and explores the ancestral home island of the Melniboneans. Good stuff!
Weird of the White Wolf: Elric leads the Sea Lords of the Purple Towns against his own homeland, Melnibone, seeks The Dead God's Book, and braves the Singing Citadel.
The tragedy and the cosmic scope of the Elric saga become even more apparent with the Weird of the White Wolf. How many other fantasy tales feature an emperor in exile committing genocide on his own people? Elric accidentally slays Cymoril, betrays his Sea Lord allies, and abandons his new lover to roam the world with his new friend Moonglum. The Cosmic Balance is introduced, Elric does more plane-hopping, and tangles with more entities beyond the mortal ken. By the end, he's apparently done with adventuring... until the next volume!
The 2022 Re-read:
Eleven years and several emotional centuries later, I'm rereading the Elric books. I just throw some thoughts in this section since I've already covered a lot up above.
In the ensuing eleven years, I forgot how much I enjoyed this saga. There are some nuances I may not have picked up on in previous reads or just understand them better with my accumulated wisdom and decrepitude. Elric turning his back against the traditions of his people could be interpreted as the conflict of Chaos vs. Law, progress vs. stagnation in this case. There is also an unsubtle gay subtext to Elric and Yrkoon fighting inside the Pulsing Cavern with giant black swords.
Anyway, I finished Elric of Melnibone earlier and it does a lot of heavy lifting for the rest of the series. There are already hints about the saga's ending. It's also a damn fine adventure tale in its own right. Elric is kind of a dumbass regarding Yrkoon but it fits his character.
Sailor on the Seas of Fate is still an ass kicker, with its team-up of various Eternal Champions and the first of Elric's many betrayals. I've forgotten so much of this stuff.
The final book, Weird of the White Wolf, brings Elric closer to his destiny in adventures with wingless girl and Moonglum, a thief that will be his companion for adventures to come, in addition to making the enemy of Theleb K'aarna and the sorcerers of Pan Tang.
Twenty two years after I first read it, this remains one of my favorite epics. I'm bumping it up to five stars. It's not perfect but it's much loved in my house.
heregrim's review
3.0
Book 2 & 3: Focusing on Elric's wanderings in the New Kingdoms. Much of the same as the first, with the same positives and complaints.
hagcraft's review
adventurous
dark
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
tgestabrook's review
3.0
I'd give it 2.5 stars if I could.
First, a disclaimer: I'm predisposed to dislike Moorcock for being a Tolkien-hater and for apparently inventing the 'multiverse' trope (which I find tedious and lazy most of the time). With that said, I've been into Sword and Sorcery lately and genuinely wanted to enjoy Elric.
Unfortunately, these books left me cold. I was promised a 'bad writer with big ideas' and (with a few exceptions) found mostly mediocre ideas.
The high point was book one, 'Elric of Melnibone'. Melnibone's decadence is genuinely weird and interesting, and the story had an actual plot; the conflict between Elric and Yyrkoon makes sense and I found myself rooting for Elric and Cymoril's doomed love.
After that, everything dropped off. Elric goes somewhere, twists his ivory face into a moody scowl, inexplicably befriends one of a menagerie of colorfully clad warriors from the young kingdoms, maybe flirts with a seductive damsel, journeys somewhere mildly weird, kills some monsters with stormbringer, sorcerously saves himself with an appeal to the chaos gods, and wanders somewhere else. This in itself isn't bad (formulaic stories can be fun) but everything moves at such a clip that it blurs together into a watery paste. The characters are flat and forgettable, the danger rarely feels genuine, the weird sorcery is ephemeral, and the romance come off as juvenile. By the time Elric/stormbringer finally slayed Cymoril I felt nothing.
Instead of, say, Conan's boisterous schlock, Elric's tales have a dour cast that saps them of what little fun could be salvaged. If there is a literary dimension here (Moorcock cites Brecht as an influence) it only shows through in moments.
With all that said, there are a few truly cool moments and ideas. The first duel between Stormbringer and Mournblade was genuinely exciting. I enjoyed the descriptions of Melnibone's decadence and Arioch's uncanny manifestations. The bizarre castles bookending 'The Weird of the White Wolf' were great. And I appreciate a fantasy setting that isn't full of thinly-veiled analogues to historical countries and peoples. But the narrative glue that would weld these cool bits into a satisfying tale just wasn't there for me.
First, a disclaimer: I'm predisposed to dislike Moorcock for being a Tolkien-hater and for apparently inventing the 'multiverse' trope (which I find tedious and lazy most of the time). With that said, I've been into Sword and Sorcery lately and genuinely wanted to enjoy Elric.
Unfortunately, these books left me cold. I was promised a 'bad writer with big ideas' and (with a few exceptions) found mostly mediocre ideas.
The high point was book one, 'Elric of Melnibone'. Melnibone's decadence is genuinely weird and interesting, and the story had an actual plot; the conflict between Elric and Yyrkoon makes sense and I found myself rooting for Elric and Cymoril's doomed love.
After that, everything dropped off. Elric goes somewhere, twists his ivory face into a moody scowl, inexplicably befriends one of a menagerie of colorfully clad warriors from the young kingdoms, maybe flirts with a seductive damsel, journeys somewhere mildly weird, kills some monsters with stormbringer, sorcerously saves himself with an appeal to the chaos gods, and wanders somewhere else. This in itself isn't bad (formulaic stories can be fun) but everything moves at such a clip that it blurs together into a watery paste. The characters are flat and forgettable, the danger rarely feels genuine, the weird sorcery is ephemeral, and the romance come off as juvenile. By the time Elric/stormbringer finally slayed Cymoril I felt nothing.
Instead of, say, Conan's boisterous schlock, Elric's tales have a dour cast that saps them of what little fun could be salvaged. If there is a literary dimension here (Moorcock cites Brecht as an influence) it only shows through in moments.
With all that said, there are a few truly cool moments and ideas. The first duel between Stormbringer and Mournblade was genuinely exciting. I enjoyed the descriptions of Melnibone's decadence and Arioch's uncanny manifestations. The bizarre castles bookending 'The Weird of the White Wolf' were great. And I appreciate a fantasy setting that isn't full of thinly-veiled analogues to historical countries and peoples. But the narrative glue that would weld these cool bits into a satisfying tale just wasn't there for me.