Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Eternal Champion (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Random review
Review: A very good book, same with the first Elric. I can't rate it perfectly though as some of the stories have parts which sort of clash with my sense of taste ;) Though even then, if the elements seem bizarre to me, they fit in with Moorcock's multiverse and help paint it better. And some of the stories are simply excellent.

I've introduced several friends (who normally don't read) to Elric and they've read the first text as well as the second. A good story with action elements with deep underlying themes, with fun stylistic device, but it's good even if you don't care about such things =)

Rating:
Summary: Did not live up to hype.
Review: I have read much in these reviews and fan websites to led me to believe that I was about to read the Holy Grail of Fantasy and I was understandably dissapointed. Those expectations are much to high. I was intrigued by the character and was immersed in the universe so adeptly created by our illustrious author. All the tales leading up to Stormbringer were at times quick paced, brooding, and always fascinating. Mr. Moorcock has a knack for character development but I found Stormbringer to be at times awkward and unwieldly. Almost as if he tried to pour too much into one novel. I have to believe that if he were to write the end of the Elric Saga today it would be much different and a little more developed. My greatest dissapointment was the end..the almost melodramatic line "I was always more evil than you" sounded horribly stiff after so much wonderful writing. I put the book down and felt empty. It was just too abrupt a finish for something that was so grand in scale. I would encourage anyone with a taste for fantasy to read the Elric saga but to judge for themselves whether or not it is worthy of all the acclaim given.

Rating:
Summary: Greatest climax ever created!
Review: I totally disagree with the previous reviewer. For me the later Elric books show maturity, wonderful writing, and deeper understanding of Elric's character. Revenge of the Rose has beautiful prose, much of it rhyming when you start to realise it! I found Fortress of the Pearl a little disappointing -- but it sets the scene for the new Dreamthief's Daughter, which if anything is the best Elric since Stormbringer. It also develops and matures its themes. Of all popular and prolific writers only Moorcock and King seem constantly to be engaging with the modern world through their fantasy stories, maturing their own world views, offering us their consideration. You don't get that from many big-selling popular writers and we should be deeply grateful for the ones we have! There's scarcely a writer in the genre who doesn't acknowledge Moorcock's influence and his extraordinary and constant originality (I know because I have my own debt to him) and many of us thought it rather belated of the World Fantasy Convention to wait until last year to make him a Grand Master, since the genre owes as much to Moorcock as it does to Tolkien. And Moorcock offers a rare maturity only found in a few writers like the outstanding Gene Wolfe, whose work is equally interesting, equally ambitious. Most of this stuff, like LOTR, was written before there WAS a fantasy genre and to a degree it has been buried under its imitations. In my view Moorcock is an incredibly underestimated writer, except in his literary fiction, which continues to get great reviews in England but which we hardly ever see over here.