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69 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Elric, The Special Edition, February 24, 2000
This review is from: Elric: Stealer of Souls (The Tale of the Eternal Champion, Vol 11) (Hardcover)
Think twice about this collection of Elric stories. On the plus side, this and the companion volume (Elric: Song of the Black Sword; Eternal Champion Series, Vol. 5) are the easiest way to get all the Elric stories in one place. Although created on an editor's suggestion that Moorcock imitate Robert E. Howard's Conan, Elric is primo adolescent fantasy stuff, probably the main inspiration for Neil Gaiman's Goth icon Sandman and countless other fantasy characters.
On the down side this is a strikingly unattractive edition, with a horrible cover painting (particularly compared to the phenomenal paintings created by Michael Whelan and Brom for previous editions) and populated by ugly, ill-conceived sketches. Moorcock has retitled, rearranged, and even rewritten parts of his own series, which inspires the same don't-mess-with-my-childhood reaction as the Greedo-shoots-first-now reworking of Star Wars. And while the original six-book series was famously written in under two weeks per volume, it possessed an adolescent urgency that made it seminal - a quality sorely lacking from the equally-hurried but uninspired prose of recent Elric novels The Fortress of the Pearl and The Revenge of the Rose, which are shamelessly pastiched into the original series, diluting and sullying the collection.
Ick. Save your pennies for the individual paperbacks, still in print with a clever jacket design. Or - better - track down the original paperback editions with Michael Whelan covers.
ADDENDUM: As of 2008, the best way to get all the Elric stories in one place is the series beginning with Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Vol. 1).
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A perfect second half of the Elric saga, April 11, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Elric: Stealer of Souls (The Tale of the Eternal Champion, Vol 11) (Hardcover)
This book finishes the Elric saga wonderfully. Moorcock is in top form here as all the various themes of the stories come together here in one gloriously painful coruscation of words. Elric is THE dark fantasy series and this proves why. Here's an analysis of each story individually: The Sleeping Sorceress: Continuing the line of events set into motion by "The Singing Citadel," Elric searches for Theleb K'aarna for revenge. Also sandwiched in here is Elric's view of the quest of the tower of <insert long impossible-to-remember name here> with Corum and Erekose. This view of it has much more impact on the Champion in question than it did on Corum, and makes for some wonderful character and plot development. Overall, the diverse elements synthesize into one fascinating whole. It even has Tanelorn, and that can't be bad. Revenge of the Rose: This is much, much more recent than the rest of the Elric stuff, but it still fits in seamlessly. This is the best side-story Moorcock's ever written, which is saying a lot. It develops Elric's growing discontent with his current solutions to his problems and sets it against a rather amazing adventure story and a tasty bit of Melnibonean background. Combining that with the trademark bits of philosophical food for thought (and, for the less cerebral parts of our minds, cool battles and spells), this story wonderfully fills in a gap in the saga that we didn't even know existed before we read this. The Stealer of Souls: Compared to the longer, more epic stuff, this isn't as great, but its still a nice little Elric story with some good developments, including a meeting we've been waiting for: the other Melniboneans. Kings in Darkness: This is probably the weakest story in the book, and just as well that it's pretty short, but the ending and the storyline with Zarozinia is worth the rest of it, as it does give the one thing we all wanted him to have to Elric, for at least a little while. The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams: This is a prelude to the end, setting up the idea that all isn't as nice and cozy as it seems. As a prelude, its not as good for the actual story as what it hints and sets up, but as that it's quintessential. Stormbringer: This is the point of all the rest you've read. Everything hoped for and feared comes to pass, and then some. All the @#$% hits the fan in this one and the Balance gets thrown out the window in this narrative. The internal and external conflicts finally get resolved, one way or another, and Elric takes part in one final quest that you would never have thought of, but it makes perfect sense. This is a darkly shining piece of literature, a true triumph, and this sums up everything the Elric Saga stood for. The imagery, characterization, and plot are all as good as Moorcock ever was then. I sat awe-struck for fifteen minutes after the final pages, too moved to move(that's a bit awkward, but oh well).
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book will suck out your soul!, July 20, 2004
This review is from: Elric: Stealer of Souls (The Tale of the Eternal Champion, Vol 11) (Hardcover)
Not really, but somewhere there's a great tagline for an ad campaign for this book waiting to be used. Michael Moorcock has a gigantic catalog of novels and short stories, many of them dealing with his Multiverse concept, in which Law and Chaos constantly battle and a fellow known as the Eternal Champion tends to help sort it all out, with varying results. Back in the last decade White Wolf and Moorcock took most of the stories/novels, grouped them by character and concept and then put them out as a series of collections. This is the eleventh of those and second featuring Elric, perhaps Moorcock's most famous creation. While not my personal favorite of Moorcock's many characters (that honor goes to Jerry Cornelius, who I find has more personality) Elric definitely has a loyal following and his stories did a lot to nurse the then fairly low-key epic fantasy genre. Basically, Elric is a weak albino from a very old race that is dying out (and is quite evil) but he carries the magical sword Stormbringer that likes to suck the souls out of people (though Moorcock never says where the souls go, into the sword or straight to hell?), thus giving the sword and Elric vitality. Unfortunately, Elric has a very rough life and that makes him a somewhat dour person, since he's constantly caught between Law and Chaos (technically he's on Chaos' team though he swaps sides often). The stories in this volume depict the end of the Elric saga, when the war between Law and Chaos heats up on Elric's world and finally threatens to come to a conclusion. Moorcock's type of fantasy takes some getting used to, with a lot of really odd place names and bizarre monsters (some sound like they're straight out of Lovecraft) as well as some definitely odd situations. Elric himself seems to act more as an observer in most of these stories, trying to keep out of trouble. The earlier stories are typically the most formulaic (though brilliant for anyone else, as the cliche goes), since Elric generally has to fight Someone Bad and often saves the day by casting a spell or invoking the aid of some Old Elemental Spirit or just wading through crowds of people with his magical intelligent sword (oh by the way, it wants to kill all his friends too). Moorcock has definite style and flair when executing this kind of material but if you read them all at once there can be a definite sameness about them, where Elric just mopes and mopes and goes "wow is me" for chapters on end before getting attacked and summoning dragons or something to save him. The later stories (and Revenge of the Rose, which was written later) are much better, especially when they deal with the Multiverse directly, because the ideas and action and giant battles just keep coming, until it becomes a kind of sensory overload and toward the end of Stormbringer (the last story) everything gets all weird and metaphysical and it's just great. Moorcock can be lauded for bringing a mature sensibility to fantasy (Elric's a dour fellow but he has his passions) and for all of Elric's moping, he's far more memorable than most other fantasy characters. I won't go as far to say that these are his best work (again, I like the Cornelius stuff better and I haven't read Mother London or the Pyat novels yet) but for lovers of fantasy it's basically essential (if you can find them, the White Wolf editions went out of print and apparently command a high price, they must have been rare . . . the British editions are still available, I think) and no matter what you think of his style it's clearly one of the more original concepts in a genre that feels fit to merely repeat the work of a certain hobbit-loving author over and over again. Moorcock stands on his own and to understand fantasy at all, these books are required reading.
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