The Elric Saga, Part I (Elric of Melniboné; The Sailor on the Seas of…

1984 Book Club ed. ( )

Original dark fantasy, I love it! Elric is a great protagonist, the world is original, and the demons and different plains of reality are so well described. A character that isn't perfect, that mopes and feels bad at times, that is uniquely different and yet... is still powerful and smart enough to amaze. So different from the mainstream in this genre and a great read! ( )

This book contains the first three, short novels about Elric: "Elric of Melnibone," "The Sailor on the Seas of Fate," and "Weird of the White Wolf." It's a particularly unusual sort of fantasy literature, and it's clear that Moorcock's idea of the character (and the nature of the stories he should tell about Elric) was evolving while he wrote these books.

The first novel is told with a certain distance, as if it were a legend or myth. We never really see inside Elric's head and hear what he's thinking. The story is full of unexpected, powerful magical interventions- sometimes deus ex machinas, sometimes the opposite (unexpected drawbacks). It all has a certain mythic flavor, deriving in part from the world of minor gods and spirits in which Elric lives, but you nevertheless feel like Moorcock didn't entirely know where he was going with his story.

The second and third novels get progressively better, as Moorcock starts to solidify more and more about Elric's universe, and the emotional distance from the protagonist is lessened. It seems to begin settling into a pattern of episodic adventures, as Elric wanders the world (and between the worlds), searching more for redemption and inner peace than for any concrete goal. The monsters and situations Elric encounters are reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft's mythos or Robert Howard's Conan stories, but Elric deals with these situations primarily through the strength of his magic, his connections to spirits and evil demons, or the power of his evil sword. These Elric stories are a bizarre combination, and they work as distracting, one-off tales or inspiration for unique, bizarre, and challenging tabletop RPG encounters (if you happen to be a GM). I'd hesitate to call them great literature, though.

If the trend continues, Moorcock's later stories about Elric are likely to be even better than the ones in these three novels. I'd consider reading them someday, but I'd have to be in the mood for bizarre, dark fantasy with a weak overarching plot but intriguing and weird ideas along the way. ( )

Elric of Melnibone: http://www.librarything.com/review/25450550
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate: http://www.librarything.com/review/25465892
Weird of the White Wolf: http://www.librarything.com/review/25447660 ( )

I took it into my head to reread a bit of Moorcock lately. The stories are fine, short and yummy.And, oddly, not very dark at all, when you compare them to almost anything Neil Gaiman has written. Honestly, THE GRAVEYARD BOOK is quite a bit more disturbing. Funny about that. In THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, one boy is at risk of being killed. In the Elric books, the hero lays waste to lives and souls, serving the evil lord of Chaos, Arioch. A couple of times, the existence of all Earth is up for grabs. But it's all a fun read. Nothing truly disturbing at all.I guess part of it is that in Elric, you know who's evil and who's not. On television, it's not the level of carnage that makes something acceptable for network or restricted to pay cable. CRIMINAL MINDS has horrific torture porn, and it's on broadcast TV at 10 pm. What puts a show on cable is when you're not sure who's good and who's bad. It's the shades of gray. DEXTER is a serial killer, but we like him. That's disturbing. Take NEVERWHERE. Is the Marquis de Carabas a good man? Mmm, no, not really. Is Hunter?Maybe that's why I read right through THE ELRIC SAGA BOOK ONE with great pleasure, and have no need whatsoever to pick up the next compilation. It doesn't leave me with anything. While Neil's stuff pops into my head at odd hours.Not because Neil's trying to slip something by. It's all there, the gods, the fae, London Under. It's not an allegory. But it is a fairy story, in the Tolkien sense. It's a new myth. Or as Puck says in Sandman #19, "It never happened, but it's true!" ( )