The Elric Saga, Part I (Elric of Melniboné; The Sailor on the Seas of Fate; The Weird of the White Wolf)
by Michael Moorcock
Elric (Collections and Selections — novels 1, 3, novella collection∆*)
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Elric is a "tragic hero" who losses everything, gradually. In this unstable world he seeks some semblance of order but rarley finds it.Tags
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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. show more 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!" show less
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!
I first read this book, as well as part 2, when I was 10 years old... I read both books in about 3 days over a holiday weekend. I could not put it down, up until this point all hero books I had read were the same, hero was big and buff, strives for kingship over his domain and marry a queen... Nope! not here, everything I had ever read or known was tossed out. Elric instantly became one of my favorite SF/F characters. I highly recommend this book to any and all fantasy/Sci-Fi fans.
I first read this book, as well as part 2, when I was 10 years old... I read both books in about 3 days over a holiday weekend. I could not put it down, up until this point all hero books I had read were the same, hero was big and buff, strives for kingship over his domain and marry a queen... Nope! not here, everything I had ever read or known was tossed out. Elric instantly became one of my favorite SF/F characters. I highly recommend this book to any and all fantasy/Sci-Fi fans.
The Elric Saga is a collection of short stories revolving around a sickly, albino king who uses dark magic to become an extraordinary adventurer. It is a dark, adult-themed fantasy that doesn't get as much recognition as it deserves.
Quite a dark novel and very bizare inparts. A good read though
Elric is gloomy.
Elric helps destroy his own civilization.
This makes him more gloomy.
Blech.
Elric helps destroy his own civilization.
This makes him more gloomy.
Blech.
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Michael Moorcock, 1939 - Writer Michael Moorcock was born December 18, 1939 in Mitcham, Surrey, England. Moorcock was the editor of the juvenile magazine Tarzan Adventures from 1956-58, an editor and writer for the Sexton Blake Library and for comic strips and children's annuals from 1959-61, an editor and pamphleteer for Liberal Party in 1962, show more and became editor and publisher for the science fiction magazine New Worlds in 1964. He has worked as a singer-guitarist, has worked with the rock bands Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult and is a member of the rock band Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix. Moorcock's writing covers a wide range of science fiction and fantasy genres. "The Chronicles of Castle Brass" was a sword and sorcery novel, and "Breakfast in the Ruins: A Novel of Inhumanity" uses the character Karl Glogauer as a different person in different times. Karl participates in the political violence of the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, and a Nazi concentration camp. Moorcock also wrote books and stories that featured the character Jerry Cornelius, who had no consistent character or appearance. "The Condition of Muzak" completed the initial Jerry Cornelius tetralogy and won Guardian Literary Prize in 1977. "Byzantium Endures" and "The Laughter of Carthage" are two autobiographical novels of the Russian emigre Colonel Pyat and were the closest Moorcock came to conventional literary fiction. "Byzantium Endures" focuses on the first twenty years of Pyat's life and tells of his role in the Russian revolution. Pyat survives the revolution and the subsequent civil war by working first for one side and then another. "The Laughter of Carthage" covers Pyat's life from 1920-1924 telling of his escape from Communist Russia and his travels in Europe and America. It's a sweeping picture of the world during the 1920's because it takes the character from living in Constantinople to Hollywood. Moorcock returned to the New Wave style in "Blood: A Southern Fantasy" (1994) and combined mainstream fiction with fantasy in "The Brothel of Rosenstrasse," which is set in the imaginary city of Mirenburg. MoorCock won the 1967 Nebula Award for Behold the Man and the 1979 World Fantasy Award for his novel, Gloriana. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Belongs to Publisher Series
DAW sequence of The Elric Saga (omnibus 1-3)
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Elric Saga, Part I (Elric of Melniboné; The Sailor on the Seas of Fate; The Weird of the White Wolf) (Elric of Melniboné | The Sailor on the Seas of Fate | The Weird of the White Wolf)
- Dedication
- 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 obsure reasons, I link with the ot... (show all)her books as being one of the chief influences on the first Elric stories. (Elric of Melniboné) | For Bill Butler, Mike and Tony, and all at Unicorn Books, Wales. (The Sailor on the Seas of Fate) | To the memory of Ted Carnell, editor of New Worlds and Science Fantasy, who published all the early Elric stories and at whose suggestion I first began to write the series. A kind and generous man who gave me much encouragement in my early years and without whom these stories would never have been written. (The Weird of the Wolf)
- First words
- It is the color of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)'I shall be a new man when I return to Melniboné.'
- Disambiguation notice
- This work page is for the omnibus edition containing three novels. Works that have only one, two, or more than these three should not be combined here.
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- Reviews
- 11
- Rating
- (3.99)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 16
