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4.0 out of 5 stars
A Seminal work in Sword and Sorcery Fiction - a must read., Jan 12 2002
This review is from: 03 Weird Of The White Wolf (Paperback)
This Story Brings to a climax the first act in the Elric Saga and really ushers in the second. Elric brings down the kingdom he was born to inherit, Melnibone, and slays his rival Yyrkoon. Yyrkoon tests and plagues him in this part of the saga. Stormbringer, his sentient sword, kills his one true love and steals her soul. The Story is really is highlights the best and worst of Moorcocks early work.. The story is not detailed nearly as richly as a reader would like today, and characters are more two dimensional that in Michael's later stories. The Elric Saga was written for a vastly different market 40 years ago. Elric was an original figure in fantasy at that time, an anti-hero in a story that plays out as a Tragedy. This is not LOTR, it is however a wonderful tonic for anyone whose had enough of hobbits for now. The underling idea's are fascinating. By introducing then wrestling with ideas concerning: The necessary balance of Law and Chaos, The Nature of Evil, Hero's, Anti-hero's and the possibility one man can affect great events. A greater Multiverse, in which our Universe is just one small sphere. in the Elric saga and other stories Moorcock helped to create the rich fantasy market we have today. The D&D universes that so many modern stories are set in owe their Law vs. Chaos Duality to Moorcocks stories and influence. The Elric stories are seminal works in fantasy fiction and all fans of Sword and Sorcery should read them.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Great stuff!, Oct 31 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: 03 Weird Of The White Wolf (Paperback)
I guess Elric has stolen my soul, but then I guess I had a soul to steal. That's what these books have. Like good rock and roll, they have SOUL! And nothing can give you that, if you can't get it. Moorcock has never dealt in junk. He keeps his readers by constantly surprising them. These stories, written forty years ago, inspired a genre as much as LOTR and you can see echoes of them in almost every fantasy book written from McAffery to Pullman. Many of those authors acknowledge their debt and Moorcock is one of the most respected writer's writers around (I know, I'm a writer). These are early stories, written when he was scarcely out of his teens, and they still have more vitality than the majority of thin-blooded imitators who followed him.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Wolves are weird, Oct 9 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: 03 Weird Of The White Wolf (Paperback)
I raised a wolf, they like cooked spicy food and beer. I would say they were civilized. A symbiotic relationship with Cor-Magnon, or something I would suppose.
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