brianmagid 's review for:

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock

4.0

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highly engaging pulp with flashes of total acid creativity but I guess I was hoping for like, THE high fantasy epic of the sex drugs & rock n roll era, like something w the scope and ambition of LOTR (or at least like, the sword of shannara lol) but filtered back through the realm of all the rock music hippie burnout counterculture it inspired, unifying the original creation w its bastard popcultural offspring. it also doesn't help that many of Elric's once original touches have become so part of the grab-bag of modern "low art" fantasy, trickled down through DnD runoff and video games (there are countless moments in this that read like we're encountering an NPC or taking a health potion or leveling up weaponry before a boss fight) that the whole thing arrives sort of half formed. although LOTR has become even more cannibalized by the things it influenced and it still reads as highly original, like some kind of Big Bang. I do really like moorcock and might continue reading this series because it seems like something I am destined to take into my heart eventually. maybe I'm a little too old for this, I can see fourteen year old me falling in love and never looking back.