Customer Reviews

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate 2 (Elric Saga) (Book 2)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you read the rest of the reviews on this page, you may come away with the impression that this book is not very good. This could hardly be further from the truth. The Elric series is not your standard "Here's the plot, here's the hero, here's the bad guy, now lets get busy" story. Elric is a swords and sorcery saga based on earlier pulp novels. These stories are more concerned with action, characterization, and wonder than they are about plodding through miles of dialogue and slowly creeping through many wonderous lands (lands which veteran fantasy readers have all seen many times before). Elric is concise, the stories are almost poetically direct, and the world in which this character lives is more imaginative and suprising than any ten "McFantasy" novels. It's weakness (if it is a weakness) is that the stories are all far too short, leaving you wanting more.

Sailor on the Seas of Fate expands on the poetry of the Elric story with its dreamlike quest to save an ephemeral Tanelorn threatened by two strange beings. The story evokes a dramatic and ghostlike feel, and segues into the next story with a dramatic voyage over a ghastly sea foreshadowing the events in the later Elric books. Each of the subsequent stories only adds to the spectral nature of the world in which Elric exists.

This particular book is my favorite of the Elric Saga, and I heartily recommend it to any true fan of fantasy.

Moorcock wrote in one of his books about how his fantasy novels were intended to confront various personal and human problems, not escape from them. So many of the recent reviews of Elric stories are from people who seem to think they 'fail' by not having the same intentions as fat fantasy escapes. Like Peake and to some extent T.H.White, they are the very opposite of that kind of fiction. They deal with real life, real tragedy, real human concerns. There is almost a division between fantasy readers who use Tolkien as their bench-mark and those who prefer a more literary, symbolic fantasy which concerns itself with the stuff of mythology -- monumental events stemming from the weaknesses of human passion. That's what Moorcock gives you every time. But it's closer, in some ways, to what the mainstream literary novel offers and that is why Moorcock only offers comfort when he's confronted the harsh realities of our lives. Perhaps this is why there is such an aggressive response to his material ?

Let me start by saying that I read the 1976 DAW version of this novel. The Sailor on The Seas of Fate begins with our hero Elric escaping from one of the nations of the Young Kingdoms which took him captive between books 1 and 2. He finally loses his pursuers on a lonely unknown beach. Hungry and cold Elric encounters a strange ship with a blind captain and a crew made up of several of the Eternal Champions. Once aboard, Elric begins a long journey through an alternate world where the boarder between dream and reality becomes blurred. The book is really one story told through 3 separate adventures.

During these adventures, Elric makes new friends, fights powerful supernatural creatures and does his usual summoning of demons and elementals. As usual in the Elric novels the line between good and evil is not clear, nor should it be since Elric's world is based around the conflict between Chaos and Order. Because of this good and evil somtimes share the same host. Elric learns more about the strange black sword Stormbringer and how it's lust for blood has the power to influence his relationships.

This book has the same crisp clean writing style of other Moorcock books. Moorcock's writing style is straight forward and to the point. No wasted dialogue or breathy descriptions. Some people don't like Moorcock because or his tendency to be brief and to the point. I however love this style of writing. Moorcock is a master of the english language and as a result his text and dialogue have a medieval flavor while at the same time being very easy for the reader to understand. Of course at the center of any Moorcock novel is his incredible imagination and his ability to keep you turning the page.

I must confess that I am a major Elric and Moorcock fan. His work moves me in a way Tolkien never has. I recommend this book to all fans of good literature and Fantasy. Now i'm off to read Wierd of the White Wolf !

Like the first novel, this one showcases the same short prose from Moorcock. Yet in contrast to the first book "sailor" exudes a "raw" feel to it. Compared to part one, its sequel is a tad hurried and poorly crafted. The adventure with the other eternal champions is fine, but Elric's decision to hand over the throne Yrkoon stinks of pure logical incoherence. It's as if the Emperor of Melnibone forgave Yrkoon for the numerous attempts on his life. All this done without batting an eyelash.

Moorcock is undoubtedly one of the greatest science fiction/fantasy writers of our time. This time however,his skill at navigating a story met with considerable problems.

I gave the first book of this series three stars for it's promise. Mainly, it got my reading, and it made me want to read on. I had my problems with the story, and I almost didn't continue.

I'm giving this book three stars on it's own merits. I feel that this tale with it's unusual displacement in time and space, is realy going somewhere different in the realm of Fantasy. Elric is rescued by an mysterious ship and paired with different aspects of himself, (although he does not realize this...) and transported to a limbo, to fight a couple of otherwordly foes while attempting to escape. In a certain sense, his foes are also echoes or aspects of himself, and for once Moorcock trusts his reader to discover this, rather than insulting him/her by revealing too much too soon. (A failing of Moorcock, IMHO.) Naturally, Elric has no motivation for this, Limbo is as good as anywhere to him. (I think the idea of "motivating" Elric is Moorcock's greatest challenge, and one that he never really rises to. He's hemmed himself in, wishing to create a dispassionate Non-hero (I can't really say "Anti-Hero," because Elric's NOT an Anti-Hero. Thomas Covenant is an Anti-Hero.) In any case, a hero who is neutral ... or perhaps chaotic neutral. One that cares little about his actions, and yet Moorcock is continually chained to the problem of resolving why Elric would WANT to do anything at all. So Moorcock conveniently dismisses motivation as "Destiny" or fate. He does things because he's no choice. It was Moorcock's only way out, but I think he should have thought a little bit longer about the problem. He'd have a MUCH better story.)

Anyhow, I don't find this to be such a problem here. This tale shows much more mature writing than the earlier work, and in hindsight, than the later ones as well. (It could have been written later and inserted.) Moorcock deviates from his normal course to indulge in this distraction of time shift and displacement. He finds a way to use this device to illustrate the idea that we ourselves are our best true friend and our worst true enemy. A mature and thoughtful concept that is faced and handled well, with Elric eventually triumphing with effort, and defeating his enemies, and advancing out into the world without learning anything at all or observing the lessons that the reader has leaned. This is a fitting end to the tale, and one that carries over into the rest of Elric's trials, such as they are.

Michael Moorcock's Sailor on the Seas of Fate continues the adventures of Elric the albino emperor of Melniboné. While his ambitious cousin Yyrkoon sits as regent, and his consort Cymoril doesn't know if he's dead or alive, Elric is in self-exile, exploring other lands so that he can better understand his subjects. He hopes to become a more worthy emperor and, perhaps, to discover why his own race has lost what he calls its "humanity." For his ancestors are said to have been noble people, but that nobility has been lost and modern Melnibonéans are greedy, selfish, and decadent, lording it over the humans they rule.

At the beginning of Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Elric has just escaped prison and is being pursued by his captors. Just as all looks lost, a strange ship appears and rescues him. This is a spooky ship -- shrouded in mist and mystery -- and aboard its ancient timbers are three of the Eternal Champions who travel between the universes and appear at different times and places to fight the forces of Chaos: Hawkmoon, Corum, and Erekosė. They have fought side-by-side many times before, but since time flows differently in the different worlds, their memories are not all the same. Elric doesn't even realize he's one of them, but the captain of the ship has brought them together and leads them into battle against an enemy that threatens to take over the Multiverse.

After that episode, Elric meets an adventurer and treasure-hunter who wants to sail to the fabled island of R'lin K'ren A'a, the original homeland of the Melnibonéans. Elric accompanies him, hoping to discover more about his race and the events that occurred to change his peoples' proclivities and drive them a bit mad.

The Elric stories are fun for readers looking for short, fast-paced, episodic sword & sorcery adventures with fantastic scenery, but they go deeper than that. Elric is not only brave, he's complex and introspective. He likes to think of himself as a humanist, yet he also has the cold and selfish tendencies evident in other Melnibonéans. For example, he carries a sentient sword named Stormbringer who gives him the strength to overcome his frailties, but demands souls in return. Elric's remorse about this is not quite convincing. Does he truly care about people? Or is he more concerned with feeling good about himself by satisfying his own self-concept of nobility?

I listened to Audio Realms' production of Sailor on the Seas of Fate which is beautifully narrated by Jeff West and introduced by Michael Moorcock's dreamy and languorous voice. The music and sound effects in this Audio Realms production were less bothersome to me this time. I'm not sure if they were toned down, or if I was just prepared to accept them.

Michael Moorcock, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (DAW, 1974)

The second novel of the Elric series picks up where the first left off. (There is one major detail regarding Elric's betrothed, Cymoril, that seems to have shifted back in time, but Moorcock resolves it later; still, it seems to have been something of a gaffe.) Here we are introduced, for those who have never read any of Moorcock's other fantasy series, to the idea of the Eternal Champion, and that many of Moorcock's heroes and antiheroes are facets of the same personality throughout time and space. Moorcock meets up with three other incarnations of the Eternal Champion-Corum, Hawkmoon, and Erekose. (Excellent advertising for the other series, whether intended that way or not.) Things get confusing here, as some of the others mention events that haven't happened yet in the Elric series, but just ride with it. It'll all come clear eventually. Needless to say, having read (or reading just after the Elric books) the Hawkoon, Corum, and Erekose series will deepen one's appreciation for this part of the Elric series.

The main complaint I have about Moorcock's writing, while not to be found solely in this novel, is most notable here. Moorcock's action scenes, for all that they are some of the book's turning points, are often described minimally, even sparely. The climax of a battle is often given one sentence, as is the death of a companion, no matter how long that companion has known the characters in the story. (I have made mention many times of what I call characters who enter stories with "kill me now" tattooed on their foreheads. This is the opposite extreme-Moorcock will sometimes spend chapters building up a character, only to treat him as if he did have "kill me now" tattooed on his forehead. It can be disconcerting, to say the least.)

Still, the originalities in the premise, the unique take on the antihero along with the whole concept of the Eternal Champion, coupled with the simple readability of the series, make them all worth picking up. Each can be gotten through in a single afternoon, for most people. ****

This book is devided into three sections with three different plots. While they are loosely related to each other they could stand alone (I have a feeling Moorcock published them seperately). This is an observation not a criticism. The first and last are excelent. The middle one drags a bit. The first is interesting since Elric teams with three other incarnations of the Eternal Champion (Erekose, Corum, and Hawkmoon). The last fleshes out the multiverse more.

This is the best Elric book of the series. It incorporates the other heros from Moorcock library, and puts them is a memorable adventure. A must read!!!

ok if you have not read moorcock listen up
read corum swords trilogy, 6 hawkmoon books, and finish elric through book 5, then go grab all the dying earth by jack vance you can
ignore othe moorcock stuff as it is suspect, I personally think he got ghost writers for some of his random books and have not read his jherry cornelius books
Elric in the first 5 books is some of the sickest scifi ever.
You have of course read the robert E Howard conan book, the original 14 along with conan fearless, conan unconquered, and some of the other tor paperbacks are worth reading, but I love steve perry ones
then try the black company 1-3 and the silver spike by glen cook
whew
Those pretty much sum up the memorable ones in 30 years I have been reading scifi.