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A review by kylepinion
The Citadel of Forgotten Myths by Michael Moorcock
2.0
I went into this being so stoked. A brand new Elric novel in 2022! But sadly, it’s a bit of a disappointment. Made up of three interconnected stories that find Elric and his pal Moonglum on the bottom end of his world, the centralized premise is aimed at providing more background for Elric’s people and their connections to the dragons (or Phoorn) that they ride and share ancestry with.
That’s all well and good, but how are the stories? The first is just okay, but short enough to not occupy too much time. Honestly, I read it a few weeks ago, and the details are already a bit hazy. The second story is my favorite of the trio, and reminds me the most of classic Elric with a terrific adventure narrative, good supporting cast and a memorable monster to top things off. But the bulk of the book is made up of the third tale, which is a dreary slog and probably needed a tighter editing pass. Critical details are so drowned in overwrought (and repetitive) prose that I found myself not 100% sure I understood what was going on at times.
Maybe when I sit down to really hammer through the Moorcock oeuvre, I’ll revisit this and some of its deeper references to his corpus will land better at least.
That’s all well and good, but how are the stories? The first is just okay, but short enough to not occupy too much time. Honestly, I read it a few weeks ago, and the details are already a bit hazy. The second story is my favorite of the trio, and reminds me the most of classic Elric with a terrific adventure narrative, good supporting cast and a memorable monster to top things off. But the bulk of the book is made up of the third tale, which is a dreary slog and probably needed a tighter editing pass. Critical details are so drowned in overwrought (and repetitive) prose that I found myself not 100% sure I understood what was going on at times.
Maybe when I sit down to really hammer through the Moorcock oeuvre, I’ll revisit this and some of its deeper references to his corpus will land better at least.