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A review by asylumrunner
The Elric Saga Part II by Michael Moorcock, Robert Gould
5.0
Man this was *really good*
If I had a complaint with the first triumvirate of books, it's that the adventures of Elric therein were a little meandering. Elric stumbles into a thing, almost dies, summons some elemental lord or Chaos god that had gone previously unmentioned that saves the day, then he goes on with his life. Some fun swords-and-sandals stuff, but nothing that really made it all the way to amazing for me.
A problem *absolutely solved* by this set of books. These books are bound together by Elric's quests first against Theleb K'aarna and then against the end of the world itself, and manage to tie together a lot of the interesting one-off ideas of this universe into a sweeping epic that transcends the "threat-of-the-week" model of earlier books and into an honest-to-god saga. Stormbringer especially, the final book of the series, is an absolute masterpiece, a story that manages to unite all of the disparate ideas of this series together and tell a story that feels equal in scope to the mythological vibes this series has always had. Stormbringer is the moment that Elric genuinely feels like a tragic hero on the level of those of myth, and where his character is at its deepest and most interesting.
Man, this was *really good*. Genuinely adored reading this. I don't know if I should delve into some of the other Eternal Champion books, or if I should avoid risking disappointment after loving this so much.
If I had a complaint with the first triumvirate of books, it's that the adventures of Elric therein were a little meandering. Elric stumbles into a thing, almost dies, summons some elemental lord or Chaos god that had gone previously unmentioned that saves the day, then he goes on with his life. Some fun swords-and-sandals stuff, but nothing that really made it all the way to amazing for me.
A problem *absolutely solved* by this set of books. These books are bound together by Elric's quests first against Theleb K'aarna and then against the end of the world itself, and manage to tie together a lot of the interesting one-off ideas of this universe into a sweeping epic that transcends the "threat-of-the-week" model of earlier books and into an honest-to-god saga. Stormbringer especially, the final book of the series, is an absolute masterpiece, a story that manages to unite all of the disparate ideas of this series together and tell a story that feels equal in scope to the mythological vibes this series has always had. Stormbringer is the moment that Elric genuinely feels like a tragic hero on the level of those of myth, and where his character is at its deepest and most interesting.
Man, this was *really good*. Genuinely adored reading this. I don't know if I should delve into some of the other Eternal Champion books, or if I should avoid risking disappointment after loving this so much.