Fantasy fiction featuring Elric of Melnibone and Ulrich von Bek. Set in World War I and II and the rise of Nazi Germany we learn the origin of Stormbringer, Elric's black, soul-stealing runeblade and Mournblade, its sister sword. This is the first book of a new trilogy.
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Elric, the albino sorcerer, last prince of the inhuman empire of Melnibone, was the creation of Michael Moorcock's adventurous pot-boiling inventive youth, just as the vonBek family featured in the heroic fantasies of his more thoughtful middle-life. Yet, in the elaborate fictional cosmos Moorcock has created, Elric and the various vonBeks are all aspects of the Eternal Champion who fights for the Balance which prevents both Law and Chaos from dominating the universe and trapping it in either barren sterility or pointless fecundity. In The Dreamthief's Daughter, he brings together Elric and Ulric vonBek, last scion of the family, and we finally learn the sin for which the perpetual villain Gaynor the Damned was doomed; Nazi occultists are searching for the Grail and the Black Sword, and must be prevented from attaining them. Ulric seeks allies wherever he can find them, including Oona, who wanders through dream realities and with whom he falls in love. This is fast-moving phantasmagorical stuff with ambiguously virtuous heroes and baddies whose villainy and charm is total. Moorcock's immensely powerful visual imagination and sense of the innate drama of crucial scenes make this a breathtaking read. --Roz Kaveney
About the Author
Michael Moorcock was born in England in 1939. He has written many novels and has won the Guardian Fiction Award for Condition of Musak and was short-listed for the Whitbread Prize for Mother London. In recent years he has achieved an international reputation and is now recognised as a major contemporary novelist. A longtime resident of London, he now lives near Austin, Texas, with his wife.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I've just finished this. Not only is it the best Elric I've ever read, the best Moorcock fantasy I've ever read, but it could well be the best fantasy novel I've read in years. There was a time when only Moorcock and Tolkien filled the shelves and they were the two giants who ruled, but Moorcock slipped out of the limelight somehow and now it seems he's coming back with a vengeance. King of the City last year and the King of Fantasy Heroes this year. This story is full of complexity, yet it is one of the smoothest, easiest, fastest most GORGEOUS reads I've ever experienced. Moorcock's visual imagination is a seemingly endless cornucopia of stunning scenery, absolutely believable characters (both good and bad) and a wonder on almost every page. What's more we get a soliloquy of sorts on the nature of Nazism and its relation to heroic fantasy fiction, some of the best dragons you've ever seen, one of the most extraordinary scenes involving the Battle of Britain, and something more than a glimpse of the Gray Fees, the primal matter of the multiverse, and those who dwell there. You can jump into this novel without ever having read a Moorcock book before and nothing in it will give you a sense that you should have read other books by him. Mind you, if you want to start -- this would be one of the best places. And if you don't usually read fantasy -- have a look at this one -- it obeys all the rules of a good adventure story but it is infinitely more than that. Totally recommended!!!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Joe Sith
Format:Paperback
This book brings me back to my high school years, many evenings of which were spent completely immersed in the multiverse of the White Wolf. Moorcock takes us once again to a richly imagined world where the hero/heroes takes up his sword against the forces of evil while simultaneously measuring Romantic optimism against Existential agnst. Micheal Moorcock has lost none of his magic nor wit. This strange, fantastic reflection of the world we live in deserves your full attention.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The vigor and dynamic thrust of this book is astonishing with Moorcock tackling the internal anomolies of much fantasy fiction by having Elric and his other troubled hero von Bek actually confront the Nazis and what appeal this kind of fiction has to the ultra-conservatives, like the Italian neo-fascists who 'adopted' Tolkien. But Moorcock is a story-teller first and he never loses sight of his first purpose -- to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end -- give you a brilliant, unexpected ending, and leave you hungry for the next one. This is as good as Revenge of the Rose and almost as good as Stormbringer and if you think Moorcock was just a youthful fancy, you'll be very pleasantly surprised at your good taste. There is always more to a Moorcock novel than meets the eye. It is at once his strength, as an original writer, and his weakness, in terms of his accessibility, but the trick is to let him do the work and just
go along for the ride. Everything is explained sooner or later. Sometimes, of course, there are several explanations, several resolutions. In this particular incarnation Elric has a relatively simple task -- to stop the Nazis winning World War Two! How he does it fits so neatly into the mythos that you'll be amazed! Great stuff. Makes you realise that good, adult fantasy exists along with good, adult detective stories. If you like this you might well like China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, another well grown up feast of intelligent, gorgeous fantasy. Salammbo written by Dickens!
go along for the ride. Everything is explained sooner or later. Sometimes, of course, there are several explanations, several resolutions. In this particular incarnation Elric has a relatively simple task -- to stop the Nazis winning World War Two! How he does it fits so neatly into the mythos that you'll be amazed! Great stuff. Makes you realise that good, adult fantasy exists along with good, adult detective stories. If you like this you might well like China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, another well grown up feast of intelligent, gorgeous fantasy. Salammbo written by Dickens!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unbelievably tacky
I love Michael Moorcok and have read most of his novels, starting nearly 35 years ago when I was a teenager at the free festivals in England hanging out with Hawkwind at the... Read more
Published on 14 July 2008 by Bibi
3.0 out of 5 stars
Out of the ordinary realms
You can always identify a good author by the quality of his or her fans and on the evidence of the intelligent reviews on this page (plus my own personal enjoyment of this novel) I... Read more
Published on 3 May 2008 by Fantasy Lore
1.0 out of 5 stars
A terrible beauty
Great story. Original fantasy by a guy who has been turning it out for over forty years! Shows he's just as good now as he ever was. Elric meets the Nazis. Read more
Published on 13 April 2003
3.0 out of 5 stars
Going Underground
A German veteran of World War One, Count Ulric von Bek views with dismay the rise of Nazi Germany. When his Nazi cousin Gaynor demands that Ulric hands over the black sword... Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hidden depths
Since he wrote Gloriana, The Warhound and the World's Pain and The City in the Autumn Stars, Michael Moorcock has become a deeper writer than in the work he did earlier. Read more
Published on 11 July 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
One dish in a feast!
I went from Moorcock's brilliant new collection London Bone, which I read after Mother London and King of the City, to this pure fantasy. Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful atmosphere, complex plot
This gets better and better as it progresses. It starts out in Nazi Germany where the Eternal Champion's contemporary avatar, Count Ulrich von Bek, is courted by Hitler's... Read more
Published on 25 May 2002 by "conny300"
1.0 out of 5 stars
Weak Storyline. 1st Person Perspective. Definately a Miss.
I have been and still am a fan of MM's Books for well over 20 years now. I have found his style of writing to be one in which, in no time, I find I am captivated within the story... Read more
Published on 21 May 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Towers over all other towers!
Moorcock is the master fantasist of our age, influencing all the adult fantasy and science fiction that has come after him. Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2002 by "jugadora"
5.0 out of 5 stars
The darkest, the deepest, the most uplifting!
I approached this a bit warily. Hmm. Hasn't written an Elric in ten years, getting close to
bus-pass -- then I thought, hang on this was about the same age Tolkien was at... Read more
bus-pass -- then I thought, hang on this was about the same age Tolkien was at... Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2002
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