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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Finally, a book that lives up to the promise of the first book of the Elric series.
This one starts out in the familiar way - broken up into a series of short stories. The first one shows us ELric dealing with the leftover troubles from the last book - this time our good friend the Sorcerer Theleb finally gets the death he richly deserves. This particular story was one of my favorites, where Elric teams up with his old friend the Dragon-Keeper from Melnibone and his band of surviving warriors - together they trick their way into an impregnable fortress and bring some justice to the evil Sorceror.
The second story was a real game changer - Elric rescues a princess from a jungle of horrors, but this time he actually sticks around and seems to fall in love with this princess. He even promises to give up his sword!
The third story is the "repercussion" story. Elric has settled down to married bliss, and stormbringer sits unused in the attic! But his new home is threatened by an oncoming horde, and Elric and Moonglum once again carry out a crazy plan to stop the horde. This time with the aid of the ancient dragons of Melnibone!
The last story is odd in that it doesn't actually feature Elric, but features a few characters from previous stories - crossing realms to find allies to rescue the fabled city of Tanelorn.
All in all a great read. Makes me sad that the series is coming to an end. Can Moorcock keep his quality to this level in the last book? Lets find out!
This one starts out in the familiar way - broken up into a series of short stories. The first one shows us ELric dealing with the leftover troubles from the last book - this time our good friend the Sorcerer Theleb finally gets the death he richly deserves. This particular story was one of my favorites, where Elric teams up with his old friend the Dragon-Keeper from Melnibone and his band of surviving warriors - together they trick their way into an impregnable fortress and bring some justice to the evil Sorceror.
The second story was a real game changer - Elric rescues a princess from a jungle of horrors, but this time he actually sticks around and seems to fall in love with this princess. He even promises to give up his sword!
The third story is the "repercussion" story. Elric has settled down to married bliss, and stormbringer sits unused in the attic! But his new home is threatened by an oncoming horde, and Elric and Moonglum once again carry out a crazy plan to stop the horde. This time with the aid of the ancient dragons of Melnibone!
The last story is odd in that it doesn't actually feature Elric, but features a few characters from previous stories - crossing realms to find allies to rescue the fabled city of Tanelorn.
All in all a great read. Makes me sad that the series is coming to an end. Can Moorcock keep his quality to this level in the last book? Lets find out!
This volume of Elric stories felt like Moorcock giving things a tentative ending, with the option for more. Elric finally deals with his sorcerous nemesis Theleb Ka'arna, finds a wife, and saves the city of Karlaak from an invading horde. He even casts away his evil and addictive sword Stormbringer (though it secretly returns of its own volition). However, all of these adventures felt a tad perfunctory to me. The death of Theleb Ka'arna comes too easily given how good he seems to be at escaping in the past. The romance between Elric and Zaroania, feels very forced, uninspired, and unbelievable. Elric's defense of Karlaak is a little better, as he goes undercover and infiltrates the incoming horde to try and take out its secret weapon: a sorceror under the control of the barbarian leader. The epilogue follows a colleague of Elric's (who might also be another incarnation of him?) named Rackhir the Red Archer, who saves Tanelorn from an invading horde, which feels a bit too similar to the third Elric section of this book. Rackhir is not much of a character, although he does go through some cool, inventive realms in order to secure aid for Tanelorn.
Encore une fois trois courts histoires de l'albinos maudit.
Certains aspects chronologiques sont apparemment peu respectés, mais ça n'est pas très grave. L'essentiel étant évidement de voir Elric livrer combat contre son gré pour des causes qui lui sont indifférentes, et tenter toujours de fuir l'influence de Stormbringer qui toujours le rattrape.
Je sais pas vous, mais moi, ces histoires courtes, intenses et passionnées me détendent terriblement : les gentils sont gentils, les méchants sont méchants, Elric tuera tout le monde et Stormbringer boira quelques âmes qu'Elric voulait épargner. Je le sais dès le début, et du coup je profite encore mieux du voyage.
Certains aspects chronologiques sont apparemment peu respectés, mais ça n'est pas très grave. L'essentiel étant évidement de voir Elric livrer combat contre son gré pour des causes qui lui sont indifférentes, et tenter toujours de fuir l'influence de Stormbringer qui toujours le rattrape.
Je sais pas vous, mais moi, ces histoires courtes, intenses et passionnées me détendent terriblement : les gentils sont gentils, les méchants sont méchants, Elric tuera tout le monde et Stormbringer boira quelques âmes qu'Elric voulait épargner. Je le sais dès le début, et du coup je profite encore mieux du voyage.
There is an unusual tonal conflict central to almost all of the Elric series between the complex, metaphysical, magical world and the rather straightforward, formulaic characters. Elric, himself shows some complexity and nuanced introspection in the very first story, but then the focus changes and we embark upon a sequence of adventures where a recognizable pattern emerges.
Again and again we see Elric battling against difficult odds, his terrible sword at first ably defending him, but soon its strength fails, and he is compelled to call upon pacts with spirits for aid, never certain whether they will obey or abandon him. Sometimes this is done well, and the summoned creature gives us an insight into how Moorcock's world works--and while it may temporarily solve Elric's problem, another conflict often develops from that solution.
When it is not done as well, it becomes predictable, a standard way to resolve story conflicts. Yet, I am reluctant to entirely condemn it, even then, since it is really no more repetitive than the fantasy hero who fights his way out of everything, or who calls upon some inner magical strength to inevitably overcome.
In addition, there is something mythic in the formulaic way that Moorcock constructs his stories and characters. It reminds me of how Howard always refers to Conan as 'panther-like', sometimes several times a story. At first this just looks redundant and sloppy, until one begins to think in terms of Homer or other classic epics, where the repetition of certain elements, particularly descriptions, becomes a character motif, like the epithet of a king.
Moorcock's stylistic formula extends beyond this convention, however. After the first book, I kept waiting for Elric's character to catch up with the complex metaphysics of his world, but he never does. It never quite extends down to the characters, because they are not created with the same philosophical outlook.
They are not, fundamentally, characters of existential realism and modern psychology, but mythic, archetypal figures, who develop friendships or rivalry insouciantly, who bear loves and hates that are ultimately facile. Like Beowulf or Roland, they are beholden to the plot, and their motivations, more often than not, are not willful, but received.
Which is why it is all the more unusual that the world, the cosmology, the many dimensions and realities, the magic, the gods, and the spirits tend to be so strikingly modern, owing more to quantum theories than to the great traditions. The characters cast their eyes back, while the world is halfway into an unknown future, which produces a rather strange effect. It is not that the characters are never existential, it is rather that, if they do have existential thoughts, they approach them like mythic archetypes would.
So, to some degree, I have stopped waiting for Elric to become a fully-fleshed, modern character, realizing that I only expected it because of the modern philosophy which underpins Moorcock's world. However, I am wary about declaring this experiment of his a total success. It is certainly interesting, unusual, and thought-provoking, but I am not sure that these two parts ever find a real common ground.
One definition of genius is 'the ability to take disparate ideas and synthesize them into a single, new idea', and while Moorcock sometimes approaches this, he never quite succeeds so fully that it satisfies, and so the core of the world and the characters are always strangely at odds.
More than this, the stories sometimes lack focus. They do not always have a central tone or idea that ties them together, even if there is a progression of plot, it can be somewhat arbitrary. Yet in this book, we get some of the most vibrant, cohesive tales in the entire series, reminiscent of the sort of focused excitement that make the Conan and Lankhmar stories so delightful.
These stories were almost enough to pull out a four-star rating, but it still felt rather patchwork, with some stories running too long, others feeling rushed, and rarely a strong enough central tone to tie them together into a larger arc. I have one more story to read before I try one of the much later Elric stories, and I am very curious to see whether Moorcock is able to tighten his ideas into a more streamlined conceptual whole, as he did in Gloriana.
My List of Suggested Fantasy Books
Again and again we see Elric battling against difficult odds, his terrible sword at first ably defending him, but soon its strength fails, and he is compelled to call upon pacts with spirits for aid, never certain whether they will obey or abandon him. Sometimes this is done well, and the summoned creature gives us an insight into how Moorcock's world works--and while it may temporarily solve Elric's problem, another conflict often develops from that solution.
When it is not done as well, it becomes predictable, a standard way to resolve story conflicts. Yet, I am reluctant to entirely condemn it, even then, since it is really no more repetitive than the fantasy hero who fights his way out of everything, or who calls upon some inner magical strength to inevitably overcome.
In addition, there is something mythic in the formulaic way that Moorcock constructs his stories and characters. It reminds me of how Howard always refers to Conan as 'panther-like', sometimes several times a story. At first this just looks redundant and sloppy, until one begins to think in terms of Homer or other classic epics, where the repetition of certain elements, particularly descriptions, becomes a character motif, like the epithet of a king.
Moorcock's stylistic formula extends beyond this convention, however. After the first book, I kept waiting for Elric's character to catch up with the complex metaphysics of his world, but he never does. It never quite extends down to the characters, because they are not created with the same philosophical outlook.
They are not, fundamentally, characters of existential realism and modern psychology, but mythic, archetypal figures, who develop friendships or rivalry insouciantly, who bear loves and hates that are ultimately facile. Like Beowulf or Roland, they are beholden to the plot, and their motivations, more often than not, are not willful, but received.
Which is why it is all the more unusual that the world, the cosmology, the many dimensions and realities, the magic, the gods, and the spirits tend to be so strikingly modern, owing more to quantum theories than to the great traditions. The characters cast their eyes back, while the world is halfway into an unknown future, which produces a rather strange effect. It is not that the characters are never existential, it is rather that, if they do have existential thoughts, they approach them like mythic archetypes would.
So, to some degree, I have stopped waiting for Elric to become a fully-fleshed, modern character, realizing that I only expected it because of the modern philosophy which underpins Moorcock's world. However, I am wary about declaring this experiment of his a total success. It is certainly interesting, unusual, and thought-provoking, but I am not sure that these two parts ever find a real common ground.
One definition of genius is 'the ability to take disparate ideas and synthesize them into a single, new idea', and while Moorcock sometimes approaches this, he never quite succeeds so fully that it satisfies, and so the core of the world and the characters are always strangely at odds.
More than this, the stories sometimes lack focus. They do not always have a central tone or idea that ties them together, even if there is a progression of plot, it can be somewhat arbitrary. Yet in this book, we get some of the most vibrant, cohesive tales in the entire series, reminiscent of the sort of focused excitement that make the Conan and Lankhmar stories so delightful.
These stories were almost enough to pull out a four-star rating, but it still felt rather patchwork, with some stories running too long, others feeling rushed, and rarely a strong enough central tone to tie them together into a larger arc. I have one more story to read before I try one of the much later Elric stories, and I am very curious to see whether Moorcock is able to tighten his ideas into a more streamlined conceptual whole, as he did in Gloriana.
My List of Suggested Fantasy Books
Michael Moorcock, The Bane of the Black Sword (DAW, 1977)
The fifth of the six classic Elric novels picks up, as is usual with these books, where the fourth leaves off. Moorcock sets the last pieces of the puzzle into place (and here, we get a chance to see how everything that has come before is building to the climactic novel, Stormbringer), introducing us to Zarozinia, the love of Elric's life (and most of his motivation for continuing on the path upon which he was set in The Vanishing Tower). Much of this is setup for Stormbringer, but that's in no way to say this isn't good stuff. Once again, Moorcock takes his already intriguing concepts that he's built up throughout the series (unique hero, solid motivation, the excellent concept of the Eternal Champion, et al) and adds a few more twists and turns, to make them even more intriguing than they already were. Unfortunately, the series' main problem-its penchant for not going into detail on some of the truly fun stuff mentioned (e.g., the Forest of Troos, in the barren land of Org, where Elric and Zarozinia meet, both trying like mad to avoid the denizens of the forest)-is here in spades. But there's enough detail for the reader to get the general gist of what's going on and eventually hope Moorcock will write some stories set in Elric's world that have to do with these ancillary details. This would not be unprecedented; a story with Elric's friend Rackhir as its main character is included as an epilogue to one of the books, for example.
There is one other annoying thing about the series I haven't yet touched on. It's ultimately annoying that Elric, no matter what he's faced with, has some form of supernatural ally who can help him with it. (You're attacked by lizardmen who are unaffected by normal weapons? Call on the god of the insects and get the help of millions of mosquitoes!) Never fails. This particular convention pops up in a number of places in the series, not just here.
Still, overall, the book is good, it's readable, and the payoff, in Stormbringer, is astounding. ****
The fifth of the six classic Elric novels picks up, as is usual with these books, where the fourth leaves off. Moorcock sets the last pieces of the puzzle into place (and here, we get a chance to see how everything that has come before is building to the climactic novel, Stormbringer), introducing us to Zarozinia, the love of Elric's life (and most of his motivation for continuing on the path upon which he was set in The Vanishing Tower). Much of this is setup for Stormbringer, but that's in no way to say this isn't good stuff. Once again, Moorcock takes his already intriguing concepts that he's built up throughout the series (unique hero, solid motivation, the excellent concept of the Eternal Champion, et al) and adds a few more twists and turns, to make them even more intriguing than they already were. Unfortunately, the series' main problem-its penchant for not going into detail on some of the truly fun stuff mentioned (e.g., the Forest of Troos, in the barren land of Org, where Elric and Zarozinia meet, both trying like mad to avoid the denizens of the forest)-is here in spades. But there's enough detail for the reader to get the general gist of what's going on and eventually hope Moorcock will write some stories set in Elric's world that have to do with these ancillary details. This would not be unprecedented; a story with Elric's friend Rackhir as its main character is included as an epilogue to one of the books, for example.
There is one other annoying thing about the series I haven't yet touched on. It's ultimately annoying that Elric, no matter what he's faced with, has some form of supernatural ally who can help him with it. (You're attacked by lizardmen who are unaffected by normal weapons? Call on the god of the insects and get the help of millions of mosquitoes!) Never fails. This particular convention pops up in a number of places in the series, not just here.
Still, overall, the book is good, it's readable, and the payoff, in Stormbringer, is astounding. ****
A collection of short stories. Elric and Moonglum come up against Theleb Kaarna again.
Elric finds a degree of peace after he gets married, but has to take up Stormbringer once again.
Finishes with a Rackhir the Red Archer story as Tanelorn comes under threat from Chaos.
The stories are well written and move along at a good pace. Elric seems less tortured than usual, so there's less of the philosophical discussions.
Elric finds a degree of peace after he gets married, but has to take up Stormbringer once again.
Finishes with a Rackhir the Red Archer story as Tanelorn comes under threat from Chaos.
The stories are well written and move along at a good pace. Elric seems less tortured than usual, so there's less of the philosophical discussions.