“I go where danger is because I think that an answer might lie there–some reason for all this tragedy and paradox. Yet I know I shall never find it.”

Following on my recent first foray into Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series, with Elric of Melnibone, it was easy and far too compelling (given that I had the next two books in the same collection) to see what the forces of Law and Chaos held in store for this tortured albino anti-hero. Thus I continued on with The Sailor on the Seas of Fate with every intention of getting back to my summer reading list only to find myself turning the page to begin The Weird of the White Wolf.

While this may seem like an accomplishment to have read three novels in less than a week, I must confess that the whole of the trilogy that makes up my book club edition of The Elric Saga: Part 1 weighs in at a mere 374 pages…so less than half of the standard fantasy tomes that are produced today.

Nevertheless, what these stories lack in page count they more than make up for in content, whisking the reader from one adventure to the next, all the while building upon the reputation of Elric and his blood-thirsty sword, Stormbringer. But these are not mere adventure tales, for in the tellings of the tales of Elric of Melnibone we see a great internal struggle of mind and spirit, and a more cosmic struggle with the ideas of fate, destiny and the forces of man’s will.

Continue reading More from Moorcock: Two more travels with Elric of Melnibone →

(Image Credit)

And now opens the tragedy which will close many years from now and precipitate the destruction of this world.

In the land of Melnibone, the Dragon Isle, a man sits on the Ruby Throne contemplating the people before him. This powerful kingdom, after ten thousand years of rule, has for the last half century been in decline from its once lofty place. In the hands of the right man Melnibone might return to its former might; in the hands of a cruel ruler bent upon domination Melnibone might rise again. But this man is not that ruler. For he has raised himself on books, filled his mind with vast sums of knowledge from ancestors going back to Melnibone’s first Sorcerer Emperor, and that knowledge has made him thoughtful, given him a conscience, and plagued the efficacy of his leadership. This Sorcerer Emperor, Elric of Melnibone, cannot simply obey the traditions of his people to live only for the pleasure of self. Instead he doubts and wonders and thinks that, perhaps, there might be a better way…

Continue reading Elric of Melnibone ~Michael Moorcock →