Thoughts on Elric, Volume 1
The stories of Elric of Melniboné have long been a hole in my knowledge of the Appendix N. There are more holes for sure, and I have cultivated my own personal set of inspirations over the years. But I had the sneaking suspicion that reading Elric would help me "get" some D&Disms, as many Appendix N books have. And at the very least, they would serve as some fun, pulpy inspiration.
I am happy to say that the first volume of Elric Stories delivered. I had a great time with these first four books. I was slightly annoyed to learn that these were all arranged by the chronology of the story, not in the order of the writing. The style of Moorcock's writing suddenly swerves from a very simplistic fantasy tale in Elric of Melniboné (1972) to a much more flowery prose in The Fortress of the Pearl (1989) and then swings hard back to pulp by The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976).
Here are my thoughts on the stories, with some light spoilers.
Elric of Melniboné
This was kind of a weak start for me. Moorcock's style feels a bit undeveloped, and it's all backstory, little story. That being said, it's still a good yarn, and there are some great ideas. In particular I like the elementals, a monster type I've always struggled with doing anything interesting with. But here, elementals are stubborn, hold grudges, and begrudgingly pay their debts. The earth elementals have a ruler, King Grome, who, through some ancient deal, gave Elric a ship that sails on the earth as if it were water. For the first time, I actually want to put more elementals in my games.
And Stormbringer, the archetypal intelligent sword, is fascinating. Elric feels mandatory just to understand how to run sentient swords. It's all too easy to forget their personalities and let their powers run amok, but here, Stormbringer is more of a cursed item. Incredibly powerful, but always waiting to intrude on the story.
The Fortress of the Pearl
We skip ahead 17 years into the future for this book, so it feels very different. The writing is a little slower and more detailed. Chapters are longer, and it's obviously one continuous story, instead of multiple storied pasted together (like in the next two books). The only thing holding it back for me is the slower pacing.
I was surprised to see Fire Beetles here, which I can only assume is how they ended up in the standard list of monsters (**EDIT - Big dummy, this is the book that came out in 1989, that's impossible. Perhaps it was the other way around!). Though in this story they seem more like combination Fire and Oil Beetles. They're quite fearsome here, stampeding across sand dunes and hunting packs of man-rats.
The bulk of the story is told in the dream lands, which, while evocative, suffer from many dream settings in that the geography and rules are so soft, that much of the tension is undercut. The primary threat in the dream lands is mostly just liking a dream so much that you don't leave, which is not particularly gameable to me.
Lastly, Elric's character shines through here. His lofty ideals undercut by the bloodlust of the sword, he feels much less like a brooding anti-hero and more genuinely sympathetic. Though that may be just because this book is set so early in the chronology.
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
This one slaps. Fast and furious, just a bunch of weird ideas happen in sequence, in between getting lost at sea. According to the back of my collection, this book is actually three novellas edited together, and its pretty obvious. But despite that, the pacing is great.
In particular, the first story is basically a dungeon crawl, with retainers dying left and right as Elric and his party climb the tower and fight monsters.
I'm a sucker for sailing in my stories as well, and this one has plenty of it. Ship to ship combat, magical ships, sailing through weird portals to alien seas. All great stuff. And it culminates in following a mysterious treasure map to a ruined island filled with nasty lizard-men. Chef's kiss. I will be stealing the strange merchant auctioning off a sealed sarcophagus that contains nothing but an ancient treasure map.
The Weird of the White Wolf
This one was alright, probably my least favorite. Like Sailors, it's several novellas jammed into one package, but it feels less cohesive. The first section is pretty important to the overall plot of Elric's story, however, and I'm getting the sense that the following stories will feature sad and angry Elric. The following parts are gloomy and moody tales of the realms of chaos. They're not so self-serious though, and remain a good read. They also introduce the character Moonglum, who I understand is a popular recurring character.
There are some good monsters as well: a golem hooks for hands, terrified of its own reflection, a giant made of mist, a golden beast that attacks by laying on top of Elric and sucking the heat from his body, even a giant butterfly monster (which is defeated, of course, by summoning Haaashaastaak, Lord of Lizards, to eat it).
In conclusion
I was worried getting into Elric that it would be more of a historical curiosity to the development of D&D. But I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed my time with them. I'll probably grab the second volume of Elric books in the future.