Doom. Blood. Fury. Sorcery. Drugs.
Decadence. Dead Gods. Doom.
Elric of Melniboné is an
incarnation of Michael Moorcock's "Eternal Champion," the mythical
character unifying his life's work. And he's a mess.
Elric lives in the dreaming capital city Immyr. Its citizens are far beyond decadent. They've lived so long and done so much, they wonder why they bother with anything.
Everyone is up to something and everywhere there's some weird cultural or religious thing going on. As Elric explores his world, seeks the MacGuffins, and quests the quests, Moorcock keeps the scenery vibrant, the atmosphere dark, and the action intense. Almost never a dull moment.
And the major element that sets this apart from Tolkien-esque heroic/high fantasy is the unsympathetic protagonist and his narrative's crooked arc. Elric has moments of introspection and kindness, but he's mostly amoral and constantly compromising with evil.1 And he's not seeking objects or journeying to find glory or bring peace to his kingdom. Elric's quest is a doomed one and he's never fully able to escape the knowledge of his bleak fate.
The books were written totally out of order.2 They started in the early 60's and continued for decades. I'm not gonna review by publishing order, I'll review them in the order of the stories' events, which I recommend as the best way to take this dark ride.3
If you like gritty or well-written fantasy, you will not be disappointed. Unless you demand f-bombs, which Moorcock keeps out of this particular series.
"Elric of Melnibone"
Great start. Elric sits on his huge ruby throne overseeing a kingdom due for a shakeup after centuries of stagnancy. And then his cousin starts some trouble. Elric trades his drug addiction for a sword addiction as his soul-sucking blade, Stormbringer, starts to share its power with him. Every chapter is a new adventure and they're all vivid and compelling. A wild ride through a mad world.
"Fortress of the Pearl"
A major tonal shift, as this was written 20 years after the previous tale. Makes good use of the villain-poisons-the-hero-to-force-him-into-service-in-exchange-for-the-antitdote trope. Elric seeks the pearl at the heart of the world and gets trapped in a cosmic dream dimension where we start to understand the nature of Elric's reality. A bit overlong, but very colorful and intense.
"The Sailor on the Seas of Fate"
Elric's blade first betrays him here as he takes a pleasure cruise of doom. We get some time-shifting, for good measure. As one reviewer put it, Elric cements his status here as a "Non-Hero," which is trickier than the more common "Anti-Hero." Moorcock triumphs by taking a character with unclear motivations on a doomed quest and still making him interesting.
"Elric at the End of Time"
In what amounts to an afterthought to the series,3.5 Elric finds himself crossing paths with other Moorcock incarnations of the Eternal Champion. Lotsa cool high-level cosmic metaverse stuff going on. Short and vividly written.
"The Dreaming City"
This is the big one right here. This story is only 30 pages long, but it changes everything. Elric returns home, tragedy ensues. His beloved [SPOILER DELETED] when his sword violently betrays him by [SPOILER DELETED] and then his entire city [SPOILER DELETED]. If you're impatient, you can get the full scope of Elric's story by reading "Elric of Melnibone," this story, and "Stormbringer." That's the tragic beginning, middle, and end.
"I am an evil man, lady, and my destiny is hell-doomed, but I am not unwise, not unfair." Boom. Elric is pulled out his funk from the last story's events by a quest for the Dead Gods Book. Mucho metaphysical. Also we meet Elric's companion, Moonglum, and there are flying attack monkeys like something out of "The Wizard of Oz."
"The Singing Citadel"
Elric takes on a missing persons case in this comparatively lighthearted romp. We also meet Elric's sorcerer nemesis here, a guy with a nonsense first name and apostrophes all over his last name. That kind of name is mandatory in high fantasy these days, but I'm pretty sure it was new and unique in Moorcock's day.
"The Sleeping Sorceress"
Pulpy, vibrant, full of blood and iron. Zippy short chapters keep the doom-haunted protagonist's story rocking along. Elric's soul-hungry sword swallows a demon, nearly overdosing Elric on the demonic power it absorbs. He later kills even more powerful and more evil creatures, filling himself to the brim with demonic energy. He ends up taking on an entire army single-handed with the power of his sword, overwhelming his blade's soul storage capacity after a few hundred casualties. Gotta hate it when that happens.
"Revenge of the Rose"
Elric rides a dragon this time out. Some fun stuff, but this one drags. It shows that it was written three decades after the earlier books. It's the work of a more mature, thoughtful writer. The paragraphs are longer, there's more multiverse meshing, and people talk more than fight. All well and good, but once the MacGuffin goes into play in the first chapter- Elric has to find his father's soul- the book ignores that driving plot device until almost the very end. Feels scattershot. Like Moorcock had some things to say and this happened to be the book he said them in.
"Stealer of Souls"
And we're back. This one and the next two are fast, mean, and punchy shorts written in 1962. Elric gets caught between scheming merchants and a manipulative wizard and loses his legendary blade in the process. Mucho mayhem ensues.
"Kings in Darkness"
If there hasn't been enough doom for you so far, this story features the Doomed Folk. Doom, doom, DOOM! An evil king gets resurrected and Elric finds himself helpless to defeat him. Neither his sword nor magic are any help. Will he be able to overcome?4
"The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams"
Elric gets a couple pages of domestic bliss5 before getting yanked into an epic conflict with a conquering warlord. He ends up riding a dragon at the end and blasting the entire invading army to ashes with dragon fire. Not too shabby.
"Stormbringer"
A wonderfully grim, cataclysmic
grand finale to the tale. Chaos has taken control of the world, turning the
ground to dark mush and the inhabitants to mangled mutants. Evil armies march,
dragons scorch the skies, and so many main characters perish, even Joss Whedon
would be upset. Lots of great revelations, such as the truly doomed fate of
Elric and his entire world, along with the true identity of his cruel and
soul-devouring sword. Best part was this exchange, abridged here:
“The earth’s history has not even
begun. You, your ancestors...you are nothing but a prelude to history. You will
all be forgotten if the real history of the world begins...We are all of us,
gods and men, but shadows playing puppet parts before the true play
begins...Elric...Keep the swords and all of us will be as we had never
existed.”
“So be it.”
“We shall be obliterated!”
“Good!”
Brutal and totally satisfying.
* * *
1. And unlike George R.R. Martin's characters, Elric never gets so bad that we lose interest or disengage. Moorcock can write an interesting, flawed, sometimes evil protagonist without throwing rape into every chapter.
2. You could say the books' publication history is "chaotic neutral."
3. There's a new softcover "Elric" reprint series that looks great and is filled with bonus features and essays...but it prints the stories in the order they were written, not according to the story's chronology. So with this new series, you would read the grand finale to Elric's story before even reading the story that introduces Elric and his world. It's all very confusing, so I recommend you follow my example and read the tale, complete and in order, in these two volumes:
3.5. Only available in a tiny paperback collection that contains this story and a bunch of scattered, mostly mediocre Moorcock non-fiction and juvenilia. So it's fun but skippable.
4. Yes. Yes, he will.
5. Elric also gets free from his addiction to his demonic sword by snagging some heavy-duty vitality drugs.
6. Bonus footnote- Moorcock wrote another Elric trilogy in the 2000's- "The Dreamthief's Daughter," "The Skrayling Tree," and "The White Wolf's Son"- but I'm gonna skip 'em here. Most Elric collections leave them out of their chronology, I'm already perfectly satisfied by how Moorcock wrapped up the character's fate in "Stormbringer," and I tend to be not-so-crazy about Moorcock's more recent output, so I'm guessing I'm better without those books in my brain. If I ever do read 'em, though, you'll be the first to know. Stay tuned!
-Phony McFakename
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