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Elric of Melniboné (1972)

by Michael Moorcock

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Elric (novel 1), The Eternal Champion (Elric novel 1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,570595,677 (3.67)83
Fantasy. Fiction. HTML:

It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair that flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody....

He is Elric, Emperor of Melnibone, cursed with a keen and cynical intelligence, schooled in the art of sorcery -- the hero of Michael Moorcock's remarkable epic of conflict and adventure at the dawn of human history...

Included is a dramatic introduction read by Michael Moorcock over 10 mins in length.

.
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    andomck: Brooding,introspective sci fi/fantasy
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    andomck: Sword and sorcery meets sword and planet.
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    artturnerjr: Spinrad takes the deliberately exaggerated phallic symbolism of the Elric stories to extremes that Moorcock never dreamed of.
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» See also 83 mentions

English (53)  French (2)  Dutch (1)  Hungarian (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (58)
Showing 1-5 of 53 (next | show all)
Liked it for what it is, very cheesy & melodramatic at times, but good if one's in the mood for fantasy action. This seems to be held in the same regard as Conan & Fafhard series, and maybe it was as popular and influential, but those other series have MUCH MUCH better writing. ( )
  dtscheme | Sep 24, 2023 |
It would be really easy to dismiss Elric as tropey pulp fantasy. I mean, it absolutely IS that. But this is a character that first appeared in 1961 and a book that only came together in the early 70s. If anything D&D owes more to Moorcock than even Tolkien.

This is why when Elric is doing some his most stupid emo-princelinging, it helps to remember that pretty much everyone from Drizzt to Lotar and even Kylo Ren can trace their creative lineage back to the original mopey prince of pulp. ( )
2 vote Kavinay | Jan 2, 2023 |
Wonderfully inventive and surreal, it's not hard to see why this is a cult classic. Moorcock's prose is a pleasure to read and his characters are vivid and memorable. ( )
  whatmeworry | Apr 9, 2022 |
When I first read this book around forty years ago, I was looking for an epic fantasy like LOTR and I didn't care for this flawed and tragic hero Elric, but now I can appreciate this novel for the great work of fantasy that it is and my favorite Sword and Sorcery series. ( )
  kevn57 | Dec 8, 2021 |
Mature fantasy with some great original world building. Really liked the start and end.
The opening is like some super-over-the top Conan novel but the last third felt more darkly humorous, as if the characters had wandered into Time Bandits or Labyrinth or something.

The main problem in my opinion is that at the start you really get to know the main hero but once the central plot gets going there seems to be a change in style and the reader gets pushed away. I never really felt connected to the protagonist after the first third.
Its also quite a random and fragmented story, as if it was a much longer book that was heavily pared down.

An interesting and unique feel, but it didn't make me care enough to want to read the rest of the saga. ( )
  wreade1872 | Nov 28, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 53 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (16 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Michael Moorcockprimary authorall editionscalculated
Gould, RobertCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hurtig, LouiseTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sabaté, HernánTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
West, JeffNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Whelan, MichaelCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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To Poul Anderson for "The Broken Sword" and "Three Hearts and Three Lions". To the late Fletcher Pratt for "The Well of the Unicorn". To the late Bertolt Brecht for "The Threepenny Opera" which, for obscure reasons, I link with the other books as being one of the chief influences on the first Elric series.
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It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
This "Elric of Melniboné" contains one novel (of that title), do NOT combine with the omnibus titled "Elric of Melniboné" which has been published under the ISBNs 1857980379, 1565041801, 156504195X and 1857983343, as those also includes other novels ("The Fortress of the Pearl" and "The Sailor on the Seas of Fate").
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Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Fantasy. Fiction. HTML:

It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair that flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody....

He is Elric, Emperor of Melnibone, cursed with a keen and cynical intelligence, schooled in the art of sorcery -- the hero of Michael Moorcock's remarkable epic of conflict and adventure at the dawn of human history...

Included is a dramatic introduction read by Michael Moorcock over 10 mins in length.

.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
The first book in the Elric sequence (by its internal chronology). (Not to be confused with the Millennium omnibus of the same name!)
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