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For my review of the first book of the series, Elric of Melnibonesee this post. However, even a comparatively underwhelming Elric book has Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl going for it than your usual high fantasy offering. More about him when we get there. Asking the reader to grow used to one world and one set of circumstances for the protagonist only to turn that on its head by dragging him out of that world entirely is probably a little demanding — and thus risky — in the second book. The reason I chose these particular comments is because they affirm a lot of my own thoughts that I contemplated after I re-read the book. Thematically there is an Eternal Champion Construct story, a medieval romance story, and a Black-Sword-Does-What-It-Wants story, and all jar against each other in a distinct lack of continuity. Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl the re-read, I remembered Sailing to the Future perfectly, most likely because the story is repeated later in Corum and Hawkmoon novels. I had forgotten Sailing to the Present completely, with no recollection of that story whatsoever. The tale I was most looking forward to was Sailing to the Pastas I remembered the ending to be important, but did not recall the events leading up to that ending. As Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl seeks answers to his past, he chooses a path that Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl come back to haunt him in his future. This is where Sailing to the Past becomes essential in establishing events in subsequent books. By the third story, Elric recalls nothing of the happenings within the first story…the events of that first story become fleeting shadows that seem more like a dream. Free will versus fate, opposing forces within the universe at war, and an increasingly sentient sword are explored. In a strong bit of irony, Elric has been fighting the concept of fate and believes that he has free will, but by making an honorable choice through free will, he will unleash a disastrous chain of events and solidify a dark fate. Take this introductory passage, for instance:. A thin rain fell. And the clouds were never still. From dusky jet to deadly white they swirled slowly, like the cloaks of men and Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl engaged in a trancelike and formalistic minuet: the man standing on the shingle of the grim beach was reminded of giants dancing to the music of the faraway storm and felt as one must feel who walks unwittingly into a hall where gods are at play. He turned his gaze from the clouds to the ocean. The sea seemed weary. Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl waves heaved themselves together with difficulty and collapsed as if in relief, gasping as they struck the sharp rocks. Elric himself is a polite yet complex fellow, with a mixture of flowery speech, irony, skeptiscism, wit, wisdom, and world-weariness, with an honor and empathy not found in his people of Melnibone. Yet beneath it all, the cruel nature of his people lurks, and at times he loses himself to that nature. Also, Stormbringer is ever a constant, evil influence on his actions and Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl. Such sorcery is more of a deus ex machina, however, for Elric is able to call on old debts in certain times of need, yet in other Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl he is unable to do so, and it seems to be largely a function of satisfying the plot. The Sailor on the Seas of Fate is not the most satisfying Elric book to read, but it is important in setting into motion the events that will make the albino sorcerer with the black sword one of the most distinctive, influential, and legendary characters ever created in fantasy fiction. Format: Hard Cover, First Edition, The plot revolves around a threat to the Skrayling Tree, an ancient oak whose branches represent the Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl. The setting is ancient America, particularly the Rocky Mountains, and involves time-traveling, as well as many Native American aspects, of which the Tree of Creation Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl one. But the attempt to shoehorn Elric into a Native American setting is ludicrous. This immediately on the heels of Elric battling Nazis feels like Moorcock has jumped the shark. Of all the millions of worlds in the multiverse, Elric visits Earth multiple times? Compounding the problem is a distinct lack of action. In addition I found the story fairly predictable — Moorcock does little to disguise that Gunner the Doomed Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl really Gaynor the Damned…I mean, you can tell by the name for crying out loud…. Classic Review is a feature where I pull a book that is over 20 years old from my collection and re-read it, then review it…. My library had the fourth and fifth books in the series: The Vanishing Tower, with a giant bug on the cover, and Bane of the Black Sword, with a cool-looking, giant lich on the cover. It was those great Michael Whelan covers that sucked me in. Both books functioned well as stand-alone stories, and both immediately captured my imagination. This was a time when I was standing in line to see The Empire Strikes Back, discovering Dungeons and Dragons, and playing my Intellivision game console. It was literally a time when the world felt open and unscripted to me, as if anything were possible, and my mind openly embraced the Elric novels. Not long after I read books four and five, I was able to track down the rest of the books and start from the beginning — and what a beginning it is. Elric is the ruler of a nation called Melnibone, the Dragon Isle, in a place where we are not really sure of but is later revealed to be one of many planes of existence in the Multiverse with Earth being one such plane. Elric himself is an albino, with pale white skin, red eyes, and less-than-average strength that requires drugs to sustain him and give him energy. Where emporers in the past would have executed such musings from a traitor, Elric dismisses such talk as insignificant. This is our first glimpse into what makes Elric different from his countrymen — that he is lenient and capable of forgiveness and mercy. When the book states that Elric plans to make Cymoril his emporess, you can understand where my inbreeding comment comes from. This early part of the book almost seems to be written in second person. It is somewhat strange to read a story written this way when you are used to first-person or third-person accounts. However, by chapter two the book reverts to a standard third-person format. The plot revolves around pirate raiders seeking to plunder Melnibone and steal its treasures. At the same time, Yyrkoon plots against Elric because he desires the throne. It is here that Elric has his first encounter with Stormbringer, the famous soul-sucking sword, and he also meets Rackhir the Red Archer for the first time Rackhir will appear in later books. We also start to get a feel for the vastness of the Multiverse and the creatures and powerful beings that inhabit it. The Eternal Champion is one of those mirror-type elements: a hero saving the world, in various aspects, across those multiple worlds. Elric is a manifestation of the Eternal Champion concept, though that fact is not fully revealed until the next book in the series. Most of the imagery required for the story the reader needs to imagine, as Moorcock provides enough to get the job done, but could have provided more. Also, the motivations of supporting characters could have been explained in more detail. What you will find is a fast-paced, action-laden adventure full of sword fights and sorcerous duels. Howard with creation of Conan, and who in turn derived it from Greek mythology and Tales of the Arabian Nights. The genre name was coined by Fritz Leiber in an exchange with Moorcock, who wanted a name to define the style. Elric was the first character I read about with serious flaws: the weak strength, the subsistence on drugs, and a naivete that would come back to haunt him. Personally, I feel that there is room for all these types of genres to co-exist, and I think reading only one type is self-limiting. Elric of Melnibone is highly recommended for fans of Sword and Sorcery, and also anyone looking for a brief respite from huge novels. I also encourage people to read this to see where the origins of current fantasy found its inspiration from. Elric was something wonderfully different. Lord of the Rings was a carefully crafted tale full of structured language, culture, and a single, laser- focused plot. Elric, Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl the other hand, was wildly imaginative, adventuring where Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl took him, the plot shifting like the stuff of Chaos to which Elric was beholden. All too soon I had run through the entire Eternal Champion Cycle and was left with fading memories. Time was unkind to the relationship between Elric and I from Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl point; for Elric, he would appear in stories with new titles, but they were the same old stories; for myself, my interests turned to stories of Glen Cook, Robin Hobb, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind. Elric began to fade like an apparition…. I bought it with the full intention of reading it. I was entrenched in so many different series, however, that I could never find the time to revisit the White Wolf. Despite the slow pace and the meanderings, I was still interested. Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl one point I Googled a map of Germany to find out where these places were in relationship to each other, and what they look like now. The fact that Moorcock has tied his Von Bek and Elric storylines to actual places and events in our own world within the last century is rather intriguing. After that the story, in true Moorcock fashion, dives into the fantastic, the imaginative, the absurd. The biggest problem I have with this story as it stands is that it does not fit with other Elric novels. So chronologically there should be at least a book or two after this. The same could also be said of his knowledge that Von Bek is another aspect of himself. In the original series, often external forces would cause Elric to lose memory of meeting other manifestations of himself, but that does not appear to happen here. We shall see, since that book has been added to the queue. But the story is much more than that. It is outstanding commentary and shows that Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl book transcends merely bringing Elric into the now. Format: Hard Cover, First Edition, Pages: Reading Time: about 6 hours This review is going to be brief, because, quite frankly, this book is borderline awful. Post to Cancel. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy. Elric of Melniboné - Wikipedia

Later stories by Moorcock marked Elric as a facet of the Eternal Champion. Moorcock's Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl albino antihero is one of the better known in fantasy literature, having crossed over into a wide variety of media, such as role-playing gamescomics, music, and film. The stories have been continuously in print since the s. It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone. Physically weak and frail, the anemic Elric must use drugs special herbs to maintain his health and vitality. From childhood he read freely in the immense royal library and learned of Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl world outside the Dreaming Isle. Perhaps due to this in-depth study, unlike other members of his race, Elric has a conscience. Complicating matters is Yyrkoon's sister Cymoril, who is deeply in love with Elric; Yyrkoon covets her, and part of his plan for usurpation is to marry Cymoril himself. In addition to his skill with herbs, Elric is an accomplished sorcerer and summoner. From the first story, Elric uses ancient pacts and agreements with not only Arioch, but various other beings—some gods, some demons—to help him accomplish his tasks. Elric's finding of the sword Stormbringer serves as both Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl greatest asset and greatest disadvantage. The sword confers upon Elric strength, health, and fighting prowess, allowing him to do away with his dependence on drugs, but it must be fed by the souls of intelligent beings. In the end, the blade takes everyone close to Elric and eventually Elric's own soul as well. Most of Moorcock's stories about Elric feature this relationship with Stormbringer, and how it—despite Elric's best intentions—brings doom to everything he holds dear. Moorcock has referred to Elric as a type of the "doomed hero", one of the oldest character-types in literature, akin to such hero-villains as Mervyn Peake's Steerpike in the Titus Groan trilogy, Poul Anderson's Scafloc in The Broken SwordT. The story of Kullervo from Finnish mythology [6] contains elements similar to Elric's story, such as a talking magic sword and fatal alienation of the hero from his family. Moorcock has stated that "Anderson's a definite influence [on Elric], as stated. But oddly, the Kalevala was read to us at my boarding school when I was about seven", and "from a very early age I was reading Norse legends and any books I could find about Norse stories". Elric's albinism appears influenced by Monsieur Zenithan albino Sexton Blake villain whom Moorcock appreciated enough to write into later multiverse stories. In fact it was a friend who found it under lock and key and got a copy of it to Savoy who are, at last, about to reprint it! Why I have spent so much energy making public the evidence of my vast theft from Anthony Skene, I'm not entirely sure For the rest of the character, his ambiguities in particular, I based him on myself at the age I was when I created Elric, which was 20". Elric first appeared in print in a series of six novelettes published in Science Fantasy magazine:. After these initial Elric tales, Moorcock Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl published short tales throughout the s and early s, such as 's "The Singing Citadel" and 's "The Jade Man's Eyes". Meant to be placed in between the initial stories but before the Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl of "Doomed Lord's Passing", these later stories would frequently be edited, retitled, and combined together with other material to form fix-ups as part of later republication campaigns. The main sequence, according to the saga's Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl chronology, comprises the following books. Bold roman numerals indicate the six-book sequence of the DAW paperbacks. The dates following each story refer to the date of original publication. In those cases where a book was assembled from several pre-existing stories, each story is given along with its original date; when an original novel is subdivided into parts, the parts are named but not given individual dates. The first five novelettes were originally collected in The Stealer of Souls and the later four novellas were first published as Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl novel in an edited version called Stormbringer The novel had about a quarter of the text removed for reasons of length mostly in the second and third novellas and the remaining text rearranged with new bridging material added to make sense Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl the restructuring. InDAW Books republished Elric's saga in six books that collected the tales according to their internal chronology. These paperbacks all featured cover art work by the same young artist, Michael Whelanand helped to define the look of both Elric and his sword Stormbringer. The DAW edition of Stormbringer restored some of the original structure and text compared to the release, but other revisions were performed and other material excised. It includes two Elric-related tales: the title story and 's "The Last Enchantment", originally intended as the final Elric story but put aside in favour of those that eventually made up Stormbringer ; it was not published until Both would appear in later collections with "The Last Enchantment" occasionally retitled "Jesting with Chaos". Both of these two-volume compilations are arranged according to the internal chronology of the saga. The White Wolf text has minor revisions when compared to the Millennium release. The early version of the Elric saga, Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl. This series arranged the stories in the sequence they were originally published, along with related fiction and nonfiction material. The version of Stormbringer featured in this collection restored all the original material missing since the DAW edition — which had Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl the basis for all later editions — as well as Moorcock's preferred versions of all the revised material in an attempt to produce a definitive text. In AugustVictor Gollancz Ltd. A video game based on Elric was in development by Psygnosis for the PlayStation during the late s. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Fictional character. For other uses, see Elric disambiguation. See also: Michael Moorcock bibliography. For the French death metal band, see Yyrkoon band. Moorcock's Miscellany. Archived from the original on 16 April Retrieved 18 November Kullerwoinen Son of Evil". Kullerwoinen's Victory and Death". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 May Fantasy Magazine. Adam Warlock"Who Would Win? Elric BD Facebook. Retrieved 15 February Retrieved 13 July Retrieved 6 October Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis. December I don't mind, since the Elric reference is clearly straight Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl, and I'd do the same myself in the circumstances. As he knew. He'd been a little charey of what I'd think of it and I thought it was tremendous. I even bought the Elrod T-shirt. I never forgave him for that hat. Image here Archived 27 September at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 19 November Retrieved 13 December Bibliography of Michael Moorcock. England Invaded Before Armageddon. Categories : Eternal Champion character Michael Moorcock characters Novels by Michael Moorcock Michael Moorcock's Multiverse Fantasy books by series Fictional characters with albinism Fictional emperors and empresses Fictional swordsmen Fictional mercenaries Fictional characters who use magic Characters in fantasy literature Dark fantasy Literary characters introduced in Characters in American novels of the 20th century Sword and sorcery. Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata EngvarB from September Use dmy dates from April All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from July Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. The Dreaming Citystory. Emperorsorcererwarrior. Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl - Michael Moorcock - pocket () | Adlibris Bokhandel Finally, one of the true classics in the sword and sorcery genre gets the deluxe presentation that it has always deserved. The s was the heyday of the digest magazine, the successor to the pulps of a previous era. There were a lot less titles published as the digest magazines had a new and formidable competitor for entertainment in leisure hours, more and more homes were installing televisions and Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl the most obvious victim of the TV revolution was the movie theater, the printed word and the expense of same was also having a rough go of it. As is often Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl case there were blessings in disguise, the s and s saw the worst aggregate of bad fantasy and science fiction to ever see print. In the era of the digests, editors were having none of it and dozens of the old guard fell by the wayside losing their positions to writers who could actually write. In the U. Goldsmith to start publishing him. The early Elric stories were gathered in a Lancer paperback under the title of Stealer of Souls, this led to a follow-up novel Stormbringer which apparently brought things to their logical conclusion. What we have in Fortress of the Pearl is Moorcock now at the height of his prowess as a novelist revisiting the early history of a young Elric. The stories and novels that Moorcock wrote to fill in the blanks in the Elric saga are very obviously necessary pieces of the puzzle that had been left out. Without these revisions, it is literally impossible for the Elric of Stealer of Souls to become the Elric of Stormbringer. These are archival editions, with gorgeous illustrations and featuring guest introductions from some of the top writers in the field. Each volume will be signed by the author, introducer and artists. The complete contents pages of each book are shown below. The titles, contents, and order of the works appear, for the first time, exactly as Michael Moorcock has long intended, making these the most definitive sets of these books ever made available. Information on The Fortress of the Pearl. Books authors genres Contact Cart. The Fortress of the Pearl Michael Moorcock. Bound in full black cloth, stamped in three colors. Color illustrations hand-tipped into the book with translucent overlays. Introduction by Neil Gaiman. Gorgeous dustjacket. Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl and tail Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl, ribbon marker. Top- edge stain. Published December ISBN