A review by scott_scott
Elric of Melniboné and Other Stories by Michael Moorcock
4.0
Good! I enjoyed the actual text of the novel "Elric of Melnibone" quite a bit, the start was a little slow and seemed to be already familiar from the "volume 0" script from the graphic novel explaining Elric's ancestors and their dealing with the elementals and Arioch.
But once the action really kicked in I enjoyed the main story a lot. The first 2 introductions are written by alan moore and john clute ABOUT michael moorcock, and so you can get the impression that theyre really bigging him up, but don't worry, moorcock's own essays aren't self-agrandising. he writes about the history of fantasy as a style, his aims for using it, it's historical forms, and other inspirations he had when writing, or helping with comic versions being made.
The little Earl of Aubec chapter at the start was OK, but again like the main novel, i enjoyed the second half a lot more because that's when moorcock's use of supernatural settings for describing the subconscious get more obvious.
I would recommend it, and the inside first few pages also give you the reading list for the order to read elric and his other stories in , in terms of in-story timeline as opposed to writing order, since the graphic novel script and "elric of melnibone" itself are both taking place as prequels to the first elric serialisations that later got published as novels.
I think it is a good balance of what you traditionally consider fantasy from that time in the 20th century, but also has interesting events that you didn't expect, or panned out in a way that leads on to something you can't easily predict.
I would recommend someone to read this if they want to know what exactly Moorcock aimed to do with his stories, and also the significance of Elric for future stories if they have just heard either name mentioned and want to know more without feeling like the have to buy the whole series second-hand or something just to work out what the point of it all is.
But once the action really kicked in I enjoyed the main story a lot. The first 2 introductions are written by alan moore and john clute ABOUT michael moorcock, and so you can get the impression that theyre really bigging him up, but don't worry, moorcock's own essays aren't self-agrandising. he writes about the history of fantasy as a style, his aims for using it, it's historical forms, and other inspirations he had when writing, or helping with comic versions being made.
The little Earl of Aubec chapter at the start was OK, but again like the main novel, i enjoyed the second half a lot more because that's when moorcock's use of supernatural settings for describing the subconscious get more obvious.
I would recommend it, and the inside first few pages also give you the reading list for the order to read elric and his other stories in , in terms of in-story timeline as opposed to writing order, since the graphic novel script and "elric of melnibone" itself are both taking place as prequels to the first elric serialisations that later got published as novels.
I think it is a good balance of what you traditionally consider fantasy from that time in the 20th century, but also has interesting events that you didn't expect, or panned out in a way that leads on to something you can't easily predict.
I would recommend someone to read this if they want to know what exactly Moorcock aimed to do with his stories, and also the significance of Elric for future stories if they have just heard either name mentioned and want to know more without feeling like the have to buy the whole series second-hand or something just to work out what the point of it all is.