Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars “Fate was teaching him strange lessons.” The Elric Saga Volume 1: Elric of Melniboné (2022) presents in internal chronological order the following compact novels: Elric of Melniboné (1972), The Fortress of the Pearl (1989), The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976), and The Weird of the White Wolf (1977). Each novel features Michael Moorcock’s surreal imagination, bleak vision, vivid description, violent action, and pulpy characterization. The albino wizard warrior Elric broods over it all: self-exiled, self-loathing, philosophizing, peripatetic; hating his decadent Melnibonéan home but unable to fit into the barbaric Young Kingdoms; asking existential questions; existing in an unhealthy symbiotic relationship with his moaning, singing, shrieking, and soul-eating Chaos-forged sword Stormbringer (don’t be standing next to Elric when he draws it). Without the vitality gained from rare drugs and his demonic blade, Elric wouldn’t even be able to lift the sentient sword, which he talks to “as another might talk to his horse or as a prisoner might share his thoughts with a cockroach in his cell.” As he says in one way or another more than once, “I am nothing without this blade,” and “I am not fit to live.” The collection begins with an odd introduction-story by Neil Gaiman, “One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock” about a loner book worm suffers boarding school while idolizing the consummate outsider Elric for living in “real” stories. Elric of Melniboné introduces Elric, the physically weak, magically strong, and inappropriately thoughtful Emperor of the 10,000-year-old Melnibonéan Empire, now reduced to its capitol city Imrryr, the Dreaming Isle, and subject to the aggressive envy, hatred, and lust of the up-and-coming human Young Kingdoms. Elric loves his beautiful cousin Cymoril, while her ambitious brother Yrkoon loathes Elric (because he’s not cruel enough to rule) and yearns to replace him on the Ruby Throne. Sea and land battles, treachery, mercy, magic, a mirror that steals memories, another plane, Elric’s patron deity Duke Arioch of Chaos, and—finally—Stormbringer. The Fortress of the Pearl begins with Elric dying in the city of Qvarzhasaat, which is at least as decadent and proud as Imrryr, when he’s “saved” by being made to agree to steal the Pearl at the Heart of the World for the ringleted, lipsticked, and giggling Lord Go. A trip to a desert oasis, a holy girl in an enchanted sleep, a dangerous dream quest with a beautiful dream thief through various realms of dream, and questions about reality and dreams. Finally, “More than pearls can be conceived in dreams.” Sailor on the Seas of Fate is made of three novellas that could almost happen in any order. In the first, Elric joins Team Eternal Champion to try to prevent sibling sorcerers from consuming all the energy of our universe. In the second, he cruises around in a Limbo world with Count Smiorgan trying to solve the mystery of a stallion with an invisible rider, an obsessive love-sick Earl, and the daughter of a merchant’s daughter. In the third, Elric and Smiorgan join an adventurer to sail on his yacht to a legendary western continent to find a legendary city which may have a legendary statue with legendary jewels for eyes. Elric hopes to learn the origins of his people and their madness. The Weird of the White Wolf is also comprised of three novellas. In “The Dreaming City,” instead of trying to reform his people (his mission hitherto), Elric has decided to lead a fleet of 500 reaver ships to sack Melniboné’s capital, ostensibly to get revenge on Yrkoon and to save Cymoril. In “While the Gods Laugh,” Elric agrees to accompany a beautiful “wingless woman of Myyrrhn” (an outcast among her winged people) on a quest for a “holy and mighty book” so he might learn whether or not an ultimate God exists. The third story, “The Singing Citadel,” features a tower that plays irresistible music, a charismatic queen, a vengeful wizard, the Jester of Chaos, and the Duke of Chaos. Samuel Roukin reads the audiobook fine, with a pleasing voice and sensitivity to the text, but he does tend to too often pause pregnantly in places without punctuation to warrant pausing, as in “You Prince Yrkoon (pause) will be the first to benefit (pause) from this new rule of mine.” Finally, I have mixed feelings about the Elric stories. On the one hand, Moorcock coolly subverted the sword and sorcery genre, writing an anti-Conan the Barbarian. (Can you imagine Robert E. Howard’s black-maned muscle-bound hero accidentally killing his friends or lovers, castigating himself, uttering pick-up lines like, “I should tell you that I scream at night sometimes,” relying on drugs and a demonic sword for energy, summoning aid from elementals and Chaos Lords, or speculating about an ultimate god and the meaning of life?) On the other hand, it isn’t often much fun hanging out with the white-haired albino “nigromancer” and his sentient blade. Too many of his quests are too dreamlike, with too many action scenes that get too boring too soon. Furthermore, Moorcock’s female characters are unimpressive. Una the ace dream thief is rather interesting, but Elric’s great love Cymoril is a cypher, only warning the obtuse Elric or being kidnapped or sleeping enchantedly. Shaarilla loses heart during her quest with Elric. The ruthless queen who wants Elric can’t hang onto him. Etc. In short, I found the Elric books less impressive and more contrived than when they enchanted junior high school me. That said, I am glad to have reread the books, for their great lines, like-- “…for it is only about things which concern us most profoundly that we lie clearly and with profound conviction.” “Attempts to make [legends] real are rarely successful.” “In his wisdom he had chosen to cross the desert in a time of drought.” And their great creepy fantasy, like-- “The fly settled on Elric's forehead. It was a large, black fly and its buzz was loud, obscene. It rubbed its forelegs together, and it seemed to be taking a particular interest in Elric's face as it moved over it. Elric shuddered, but he did not have the strength to swat it. When it came into his field of vision, he watched it. When it was not visible he felt its legs covering every inch of his face. Then it flew up and, still buzzing loudly, hovered a short distance from Elric's nose. And then Elric could see the fly’s eyes and recognize something in them. They were the eyes—and yet not the eyes—he had seen on that other plane. It began to dawn on him that this fly was no ordinary creature. It had features that were in some way faintly human. The fly smiled at him.” View all my reviews
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