| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Elric Of Melnibone (The Tale of the Eternal Champion) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A stunning collection of tales from the master of heroic fantasy - featuring Elric of Melnibone the first hero-villian star of song, story, rock show, pc- and role-playing-games and graphic novels...
About the Author
SALES POINTS
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I decided to reread all the Elric stories this year, having completed the latest trilogy, and while it's true that the writing of this book can be uneven (given that it was written over a long period of time) it still holds up very well. These are the books which changed our expectations about heroic fantasy. Elric is a hero tormented with ambiguity, still very representative of modern times. The fundamental argument of the books is one which is still very much in the forefront of our thinking, these days: How to survive in a violent world without turning to violence ourselves, how we should use our knowledge, whether our 'magic' brings us a better world or whether it merely complicates. And the pace of the writing is superb. You plunge straight into Elric's world and are absorbed immediately in vividly described alien cultures, with characters who represent every shade of human complexity. Moorcock remains one of the Big Three of heroic fantasy writing, with Tolkien and Robert E. Howard, and has still to be bested.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have actually read most of the stories in this collection before, the first story, Elric of Melnibone, I was reading for the third time. It is not your usual "Tolkien" style fantasy, although unlike Michael Moorcock I loved "The Lord of Rings", but I do dislike most of Tolkien's imitators intensely. The 1st story must be one the best fantasy stories ever written, it is quite short but it contains a lot of action, and Michael Moorcock's world is far more original than your typical pseudo medieval Europe setting, I just wish that he would flesh it out a bit more. On the other hand that might be part of the fun, I wasted many hours as a teenager imagining the world of Melnibone, and drawing the various characters. I did notice that Elric's earlier stories are far more fun than the later ones, they are straightforward fantasy adventures, although with a much harder "edge" to them than anything currently available, his newer stories i'm not really sure about, they are somewhat (dare i say it) tedious, and they seem to repeat ideas from other stories. But overall this book is brilliant, for those of you who are wasting their time with books by inferior writers like Terry brooks and David Eddings, drop them, and go out and buy this one.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When all the other fashionable fantasy of our time is forgotten three writers will be remembered and read -- Tolkien, Peake and Moorcock. And perhaps the most interesting of these is Moorcock, since he has written such a wide variety of fiction, including some of the best literary fiction of our time. If you want to find out about his fantasy, this is probably the best collection to begin with. It is about as fat as the average first volume of a Tolkien-clone but contains an amazing amount of substance. Read with the second volume (Stormbringer) it forms an epic which knocks all others out of the ring (and I'm
including LOTR). Elric's father, Sadric, has already begun the rot before the series opens, finding himself unable to sacrifice the usual number of brides and bridegrooms to bring good luck to his own wedding. This, many at court believe, has meant that his wife not only gave birth to a feeble albino, but died herself. Now that albino sits on the Ruby Throne of Melnibone and his subjects wonder whether he will restore the old customs or continue the rot. In particular his cousin Yyrkoon and Yyrkoon's sister (Elric's betrothed) are curious about this,
for Cymoril, the sister, loves Elric while Yyrkoon not only hates him, he covets the throne of Melnibone, pledged to return the Empire to its former glory, through sorcery, cruelty and compacts with the forces of evil. So the saga begins, with Elric forever ambiguous, yet still having many of the traits of the unhuman Melniboneans, not least a penchant for cruel slaughter. This trait will be emphasised when he at last discovers Stormbringer, the black runesword which drinks souls and passes their vitality on to Elric himself, allowing him to sustain himself without drugs or charms.
My advice is to dive in with this book and then read Stormbringer. When you've done with the two omnibuses there are still two fine Elric novels to be read, which develop the ideas both dramatically and intellectually (for Moorcock is that rare thing, an intellectual fantast working in a popular mode). In
my humble opinion The Dreamthief's Daughter is one of the finest Elric novels, yet only written a couple of years ago, while The
Skrayling Tree is its worthy companion. If you are not familiar with Elric, now's the time to start. Moorcock has been called the Boss fantasy writer by many greater critics than me. I assure you, you won't be disappointed.
including LOTR). Elric's father, Sadric, has already begun the rot before the series opens, finding himself unable to sacrifice the usual number of brides and bridegrooms to bring good luck to his own wedding. This, many at court believe, has meant that his wife not only gave birth to a feeble albino, but died herself. Now that albino sits on the Ruby Throne of Melnibone and his subjects wonder whether he will restore the old customs or continue the rot. In particular his cousin Yyrkoon and Yyrkoon's sister (Elric's betrothed) are curious about this,
for Cymoril, the sister, loves Elric while Yyrkoon not only hates him, he covets the throne of Melnibone, pledged to return the Empire to its former glory, through sorcery, cruelty and compacts with the forces of evil. So the saga begins, with Elric forever ambiguous, yet still having many of the traits of the unhuman Melniboneans, not least a penchant for cruel slaughter. This trait will be emphasised when he at last discovers Stormbringer, the black runesword which drinks souls and passes their vitality on to Elric himself, allowing him to sustain himself without drugs or charms.
My advice is to dive in with this book and then read Stormbringer. When you've done with the two omnibuses there are still two fine Elric novels to be read, which develop the ideas both dramatically and intellectually (for Moorcock is that rare thing, an intellectual fantast working in a popular mode). In
my humble opinion The Dreamthief's Daughter is one of the finest Elric novels, yet only written a couple of years ago, while The
Skrayling Tree is its worthy companion. If you are not familiar with Elric, now's the time to start. Moorcock has been called the Boss fantasy writer by many greater critics than me. I assure you, you won't be disappointed.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
You've bought the T shirt, read the comic, heard the album...
Now I've bought the book! Back in the early eightees a mate tried to persuade me to try an Elric story but being sixteen and still knowing everything I sneered at him and carried... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. A. I. Harrison
Wrong book
Although I am happy at receiving my book in good delivery time, I was upset to see that it was not the book that I had wanted. Read more
Published 19 months ago by D.h
Plotless Nonsense
The only reviewer of this book that seems to live on planet earth is Jambo (review entitled 'Let's not kid ourselves about the quality'). This book is appallingly badly written. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2010 by Rehan
Elric - Awesome, dude!
I missed this in earlier years, but because of the hype finally got round to reading it. Wow. Just brilliant. Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2009 by Jonny R
A great introduction to Michael Moorcock
What makes this book such compelling reading is that the hero, Elric, is a soul in turmoil, he is not at peace even with himself, let alone others, and as such is far removed from... Read more
Published on 14 April 2008 by N. Burgess
The begining of a great series.
The entire saga is one of the best. And this book begins it.... you will want to read them all. I love the Robert Gould covers. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2007 by M. A. Ramos
Elric review
It is interesting to re-read this book after so many years, and it is amazing how it stands out in the ocean of generic fantasy novels weighing down book shop shelves these days. Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2007 by Books these days are mostly rubbish
Let's not kid ourselves about the quality.
I loved fantasy when I was younger, but as the years passed, the formulae started to tire and wear thin, and I slowly lost interest in the genre. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2006 by Jambo
Pale prince of ruins
The achingly beautiful city of Melnibone, the Byronic hero, full of angst, self-doubt, violence and moral enquiry, in thrall to his great black sword and never quite able to give... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2004
And soon to be a major movie!!
News that the Elric stories were at last to be filmed, after Michael Moorcock has for years refused to let them appear on the silver screen, must have pleased all his fans. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2003 by John Conquest
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
![Some of my favourite fantasy authors / books [1]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Qzg7cO2wL._AA60_.jpg)
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Fantasy > Anthologies
- Books > Fiction > Anthologies
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
