Rating: 
Summary: Not an escape route
Review: Moorcock wrote in one of his books about how his fantasy novels were intended to confront various personal and human problems, not escape from them. So many of the recent reviews of Elric stories are from people who seem to think they 'fail' by not having the same intentions as fat fantasy escapes. Like Peake and to some extent T.H.White, they are the very opposite of that kind of fiction. They deal with real life, real tragedy, real human concerns. There is almost a division between fantasy readers who use Tolkien as their bench-mark and those who prefer a more literary, symbolic fantasy which concerns itself with the stuff of mythology -- monumental events stemming from the weaknesses of human passion. That's what Moorcock gives you every time. But it's closer, in some ways, to what the mainstream literary novel offers and that is why Moorcock only offers comfort when he's confronted the harsh realities of our lives. Perhaps this is why there is such an aggressive response to his material ?
Rating:
Summary: Not for the average fantasy reader
Review: The second book of Elric is totally excellent. The story line sets him off on a magical ship, which uses the sea to travel around the Multiverse. The story needs alot of digging into.
Rating: 
Summary: Three stories in one.
Review: This book is devided into three sections with three different plots. While they are loosely related to each other they could stand alone (I have a feeling Moorcock published them seperately). This is an observation not a criticism. The first and last are excelent. The middle one drags a bit. The first is interesting since Elric teams with three other incarnations of the Eternal Champion (Erekose, Corum, and Hawkmoon). The last fleshes out the multiverse more.
Rating:
Summary: The best Elric story!!!
Review: This is the best Elric book of the series. It incorporates
the other heros from Moorcock library, and puts them is a
memorable adventure. A must read!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A Fate I'd Rather Not Share
Review: [....]Fantasy stories, by their very nature, require that the reader grant the author a great deal of latitude. There are limits, however. When we start crossing almost seamlessly through multiple "planes of existence", whatever that means, and meeting various aspects of ourselves, whatever that means, my credibility reaches its breaking point. What does all this mean? Some will call it "deep", but if you read the various reviews here, you'll see that no two people agree on what it means. To me, that indicates that it objectively meant very little, allowing folks to read in whatever they want. Some writers get credit for being deep when, in reality, they are just vague and/or absurd. Good writers tell good stories and, if there is any special meaning to be gleaned from their work, it is clear for the reader to see. The social evils or personal and emotional issues that Shakespeare, Dickens, Doyle, Defoe, etc. address are plainly discernable. Moorcock, in contrast, writes aimless tales and his main character,Elric, is a dull, frustrating main character. He wanders from one adventure to another. He doesn't seem to have any motivation for what he does, and he is always second-guessing his own actions. His actions are often inexplicable to the reader, as well. At one point in this story, he orders Arioch to leave a city in order to release another character from a curse. When Arioch warns him that his action will bring down a far greater curse on the entire world, he forces Arioch to depart anyway. Some hero. He allows himself to be ruled by his "fate" and, at times, his sword, then feels guilty when the consequences are bad. Consider the fate of Duke Avan. Even the real world is better than this. I already have the next book in this series, so I will go ahead and read it. I expect it will be the last Elric book I will read, though. I have not liked either of the first two books in this series. Obviously, some people do, and I will happily leave Elric to them. I would rather read Tolkien again and again if the rest of the fantasy genre had nothing better to offer than this. The only recommendation I can make regarding these Elric books is to avoid them.
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