Elric of Melnibone

Rating:
Summary: REFRESHING!
Review: In a genre that is POLLUTED with dragons, sorcerers, evil priests, and the like, this book is a breath of fresh air. Battle barges, an albino elf who has to have drugs to stay alive, an evil man who wants to take over the throne. If you've read anything by Harlan Ellison or Philip K. Dick then you've probably come across Moorcock's name either in a dedication or a praise report. Moorcock writes DARKER FANTASY than most authors. The protagonist is two-sided, capable of both good and evil, but mostly good. Lots of blood and gore and flying body parts... If you like Robert E. Howard, Conan, formula-type stories with interesting twists, then this is a good series. Not the best, by any means, but far better than a lot of the garbage on the shelves. Moorcock has been writing for many years and is a very talented and experienced writer who knows the fantasy genre....END

Rating:
Summary: Different Style, Just as Good
Review: Mr. Moorcock's delfinately has a different style of writing than most other authors and if you're only familiar with the traditional approach to fantasy then you're going to have to make some adjustments in your thinking, I know I did. All in all I really enjoyed this story. Our hero is a dark and sad character who is in a really bad situation that just gets worse. The story has a quality to it I am finding hard to articulate. Once you read one book you have to read them all. It's not quite a complusion, not quite and addiction. All in all I don't think Mr. Moorcock will win many awards for literary merit but he gets his five stars on story alone. Check him out, the cover art is almost worth the price alone.

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Summary: Fox Put In Charge Of Chicken Coop
Review: Let me start by saying that this is only my first Elric book. My opinion may change if, and when, I read more. That stated, I must say that I found this to be a very curious "classic". For me, fantasy starts with Tolkien. Tolkien's stories have vast scope, likeable characters (hateable ones, too),and interesting plots. They also have a light, humorous touch. An element of playfulness. Thus, we get Bilbo hosting an unexpected gathering of dwarves and we get the incident involving the trolls Tom, Bert and William.

Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone also benefits from interesting plot twists and some very creative ideas. Further,Moorcock is technically an elegant writer. His prose borders on the poetic, at times. Elric, however, was a boor in my opinion. He is "cynical and melancholy" and riddled with self-doubt. He hardly ever makes a move without second-guessing himself. Some will argue that this makes him more real that the typical fantasy hero, but this IS fantasy, after all. I don't read fantasy to get "real life" thrown back in my face.

Elric, along with the rest of his people, is cruel. They think nothing of drugging galley slaves so that they give a super-human effort in battle, then drop dead afterward. They use sadistic forms of torture routinely, both to punish and to extract evidence from prisoners. This isn't very heroic,and heroes should understand that torture doesn't elicit evidence, only whatever the torturer wants to hear. A torture victim will say anything, whether it's true or not. A sorceror king shouldn't need to resort to physical torture.

Then there is Elric's evil cousin, Yyrkoon. Elric must repeatedly defend himself against Yyrkoon's treacherous betrayal, yet every time he defeats Yyrkoon, he lets him off the hook. In the end, we are to believe that Yyrkoon has changed his stripes, and Elric goes off seeking adventures leaving Yyrkoon to rule in his stead. Right! Farmer catches fox in coop eating chicken. Farmer puts fox in charge of chicken coop while he goes on vacation. Seems stupid to me.

Finally, there is no humor in this book. At all. Elric ponders. He doubts. He regrets. His kingdom is in decline. All is dark and humorless. Outside of Imrryr, Elric's capitol, all is shabby and dreary. And, ultimately, all are pawns of greater powers that care nothing for humans, anyway.

This is an imaginative, well-written, dreary story that is ultimately not very satisfying. The hero is foolish and unsympathetic. When all is said and done, you find it hard to really care what happens to him. I already have the next two books in the series, so I will read them. Perhaps Elric will become more sympathetic, but I'm not counting on it.

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Summary: Alone On His Ruby Throne
Review: I first read the Elric saga when I was 16 years of age. I just read Elric of Melnibone again today and enjoyed it every bit as much as I did 17 years ago.

Elric the Melnibonean, pawn of the Lords of Chaos, is unlike his predecessors on the Ruby Throne. Elric is the first of the line that is troubled by conscience. He is a living affront to the Melnibonean ideal of a haughty distain for all that reeks of morality. A man does what he does, and that is good enough for any Melnibonean sitting on the Ruby Throne, except for Elric.

And yet, Elric is not good either. He is pragmatic. He is in love. Aside from that, he doesn't know what he is or who he is. Thus begins the Elric saga of six books of which this is the first.

This book puts Elric's struggle with himself on display. In the end, Elric makes a deal with Chaos. The ramifications of this deal and the black soul stealing sword that comes with it are yet to be realized in this book.

In the end, Elric is not satisfied though his enemy is vanquished. The end of this book seems to bring Elric to the realization that he is the product of generations of Melnibonean tradition. This he is and no more. He can act no different than his emperor fathers. Nonetheless, Elric leaves to find himself and the first book ends.

This book is an introduction to Elric. Moorcock is a wonderful writer who can convey a story without the necessity of using up half of a tree to do it. This book is introspective in that it looks upon the thoughts of an emperor who would later become the Eternal Champion.

It does offer a complete story within the saga so the reader won't leave this book thinking that he was denied a proper ending to the story.

Those who love sword play and combat will not be disappointed. Moorcock's presentation of Melnibonean society should also intrigue the reader. Melnibone's indifference to good or evil is much different than what one usually finds in a fantasy novel.

Moorcock plays upon this wonderfully. I find Moorcock's perspective refreshing. His books are a far cry from the canned fantasy which involves a quest through predictable obstacles. And that, dear reader, is why I like Moorcock the best. Read the book.

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Summary: Once there was only Tolkien and Moorcock
Review: One thing nobody seems to have mentioned in these well-reasoned reviews which give a rounded picture of the book, is that Moorcock was, after Tolkien, the first English writer to produce this kind of work. Moorcock, in fact, dominated the 60s and 70s and became unfashionable (punk songs villified him yet his band was one of the few the punks admired!) by the late 70s. Elric and Lord of the Rings are the twin wellsprings of modern fantasy, which had virtually no readership in the late 50s and early 60s. For a few short years both were known only to a very few number of readers. Moorcock knew Tolkien and liked him but didn't like the books when they came out. Some of the reason for creating Elric was not simply to produce a counter to Conan, but to produce something that, as Moorcock put it in one of his introductions, was a true tragedy rather than a grown up fairy story. These stories essentially were exercises demonstrating some of Moorcock's already made points in his non-fiction (see Wizardry and Wild Romance). Moorcock's non-fiction puts him solidly in the romantic tradition, along with the magic-realists he did so much to promote in his magazine New Worlds. You can read all his books on more than one level and enjoy them at whatever age. The more mature Elric books lack some of the fire of the earliest ones, but they show that Moorcock hasn't abandoned his character and turned him into a cipher, that he still cares about what happens to him and how he thinks -- the thoughts just get a bit deeper as real time goes by! These are books everyone I ever knew who never read fantasy used to read. They have been overshadowed by Tolkien and the writers who admired Moorcock (such as Eddings and Golding)as a master. Moorcock can be a brilliant writer. He has a superb control of romantic language, bringing elements from pulp and poetry. Only the truly cultured -- those of us who enjoy the best of popular culture as well as the best of 'high' culture -- can appreciate Moorcock at his best. He is a constant revelation, no matter how many times you read him or on what level. I have already read the beginning of The Dreamthief's Daughter in Black Gate, the new fantasy magazine, and it promises to be one of the best Elric books yet.

Rating:
Summary: Decent, worth a read. Nothing to write home about
Review: The Elric saga is one of the most famous series in Fantasy. The tales of the Eternal Champion definitely deserve to be, but I don't think they are the best around by far. Corwin of Amber could kick Elric's but anyday!

If you've already read other books of the Eternal Champion, becareful with a few of the Elric ones. They are the same book, different view point. That really gets annoying, and why this book gets only 3 stars. I think Moorcock has only written 4 real books, everything else is a find/replace job!

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Summary: A Wonderful Surprise!
Review: This book was given to me as a gift, and I was a bit hesitant to read it as I am not a huge fan of fantasy type books. Once I began reading, my own pessimism at first was shining which I had critiqued in my own head the writing, which was nothing incredible, and some of the dialogue was hokey, while the characters were less than intriguing. But as I read on I began to gain sense of what the book was there for. Its not going to sit amongst James Joyces Ulysses so why critique it like it would? I began to enjoy it. It was all about the action of the characters and the magic within that I found marvelous! In fact, the ritual in which Elric does to conjure the Chaos Lord was fairly accurate, and the response and states of consciousness that were described were well on the mark. I just found this book to be great right to the end! I dont know who I could suggest this book to besides sci-fi fans who probably already know about it, but it sits among one of my own personal favorites.

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Summary: Great Story, Horrible Storytelling
Review: I just finished reading The Elric Saga and I have to say that the story itself is superb. Elric, last sorceror-king of the ancient race of Melniboneans, with his evil, soul-stealing sword, Stormbringer, ventures out amidst the human kingdoms to fulfill his destiny as the Champion Eternal. I absolutely loved the storyline. Unfortunately I hated the way Mr Moorcock told the story. None of the interesting details that would normally flesh-out a great story like this were provided. On numerous occasions Elric is challenged with an exciting, complex and extremely difficult quest but 4 or 5 pages later that quest is completed. All the reader gets in the way of detail is, "Elric does this...", "Elric does that...", "Elric is depressed", "Elric is angry" and finally, "Elric kills that...". With that said, the story itself was strong enough to pull me through the overly-simplistic storytelling and compel me to read the rest of the series.

Rating:
Summary: a little overrated
Review: I'll get panned for this, I know, but I thought I should voice an opposing opinion to the many five star reviews. I am truly reading this on it's own merits, I have not read the other books in the series, but I do have them, and will report on them as I finish reading each volume, for as long as I can stand it.

The book is not all that great. The writing is very high-and-mighty, with some of the characters giving voice to pretentious "thees" and "thous" for their megalomaniacal expositions, and at other times using normal language. The plot is rather simple, a derivative of the sort of thing one would find in the Silmarillon or in Greek Mythology, with warriors played like puppets against one another by higher powers, and outside of that it's fairly transparent. The conflict is essentially missing, giving us a "Flawed" hero with so many advantages over his adversary, that there is little doubt who will emerge as the victor. Fantasy is usually formulaic, but at least in the case of Eddings or Brooks (Who I might also call a little overrated,) there are at least some obstacles that stand in the way of the hero. In this book, I was rarely concerned that Elric would triumph. And if I was, the chapter ended, and Moorcock conveniently included a nice summary of events to come at the beginning of the next chapter telling me "not to worry, Elric will be okay." The secondary characters are often interesting and creative, as are some of the creatures and magical devices, like the Boat that Sails on Both Water And Land, and the Mirror of Memory... But they are introduced and then dispatched in almost the same paragraph, with an ease that makes one wonder why they were included at all, or at least, wonder about the lack of intellegence concerning the persons weilding them. When writing, one should make an opponent as clever as the hero, don't insult our intellegence with an overly evil person who acts like an idiot and makes poor choices because of his flawed overconfidence and pride. The main characters are dry and impassionate, and one ceases to care what happens to any of them. Why should we care for Elric? He's not kind or cruel, he's just bored. Don't give me the line that this is typical pulp anti-hero behaviour. Read Howard's conan, and you are interested in him despite of his flaws. He has style and achieves victory when none is possible. Elric hemms and haws and lets fate toss him about witth a sort of bored ambivalence. This is not the way to create an anti-hero.

So for all this, why three stars? Because I started to read the second book, and that means that there was enough there to hold my interest. Namely, I wanted to know what happens next! So in that regard at least, this book is successful. The second book appears to drop some of the pretentions, and is therefore easier to read. Hopefully the plots take a few more twists, and the writing becomes more inventive. But I don't think so, and I'll tell you why.

First, it's thinly disguised, but there are some moments of real writing here. Mainly in descriptions and internal dialogues. Moorcock is not ignorant of the craft. Also, the references that Morcock gives for writing this book, namely Brecht's "Three-penny opera," make me wonder if this series isn't an inside and veiled jab at the fantasy writer's world, and the posturing and plasticity of the tale isn't just a mockery of the entire genre. If so, all the five star reviews do him a credit. But I doubt it, time will tell. I will for now, give the series the benefit of the doubt and continue reading.

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Summary: Fantastic Evil Fantasy
Review: What can I say? I've read it all - Tolkien, Asimov, Shakespeare . . . and this is one of my favorites. I picked up the entire Elric saga a couple of days ago and I cannot put it down. It's not just the fantasy, it's the unexpected twists and the excellent characterization. It rings like ancient tragedy, and above all that's what the book is, a tragedy - in the literature sense. You'll find less black and white here, more shades of grey. I defy anyone not to enjoy this book. It would make a great film too. Long live Moorcock.