I hope you make an Elric video at some point because I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also, what you say is true. The disjunct nature of Elric is definitely a staple of that period in fantasy and SF publishing. Cheers, and thanks for the kind words. :)

Totally agree. A real achievement and such a compelling, weird world. Thanks for watching!

I'm so glad to hear that. Also, I'm impressed to hear that you published a new Elric story. Which story, and what publishing outlet do you work for? Cheers, and thanks for watching. :)

I also didn't know this. Always nice to learn new trivia. Thanks for watching!

I totally agree. Me too. Perfect comparison.

Yeah, that’s not ideal, haha, but it looks so good on the shelf it might be worth it just to have it! :)

Indeed. I did notice, to your point, that there was a character shift, especially in books 3 and 4. What did you think of volume 2? Cheers, and thanks for watching!

@@iWizardI read the entire series before Book Two came out! The “original” six books are my favorites: Elric of Melnibone, Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Weird of the White Wolf, The Vanishing Tower, The Bane of the Black Sword, and Stormbringer. The Fortress of the Pearl and The Revenge of the Rose were not my favorites though I enjoyed them. Stormbringer is technically the final novel btw! I have never made it all the way through the final series, included in the final volume in this new edition as The White Wolf, which are strange books that tie into Moorcock’s Von Bek novels and which are really a separate series from main series included in the first two volumes. Btw the first of the Von Bek novels, The War Hound and The World’s Pain, is probably my favorite novel Moorcock has written-a brilliant historical fantasy. Elric remains close to my heart though because I first read him as an nerdy disaffected teen, and, as you note, he’s ready built to appeal to that audience!

Fortress of the Pearl is definitely one I could see enjoying more on a reread. Sailor on the Seas of Fate was a lot of fun, too.

Thanks for watching!

Yes, you're right. The disjointed nature of the series is certainly an artifact of the time period and the unique way in which these stories were written.

I just don’t care about what is happening. It’s just random ramblings with a cool character tying them together. The settings are even nonsensical at worst and at best are barely explained before Elric leaves to go to some newly named place. Fortress of Woe, Dreamland, Sea of Sentiments. Mostly these stories are just fantasy word salad. It reads like he made up the stories in one night while playing DND and drinking liquor. He would make a great dungeon master but he is a terrible author.

⁠@@germanicusternus1982 Elric isn’t for everyone. But I dont really see his adventures or locales as random. His primary Iinear timeline is pretty well thought out with a very nicely organized mythology: theres the gods of law (e.g. Donblas) and gods of chaos (Arioch) , various demons of other dimensions, elementals (Straasha), and the Dead gods (Darnizhaan) who ruled before man had language. Spoilers: . Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Elric’s ultimate destiny is to put an end to his entire world, which is part of prehistory, in order to allow for a new world to appear millennia later, a world with much less magic in it, where physics and free will can reign. All the men of Elric’s time, even the young kingdoms, are pre-humans. But many of Moorcock’s books are part of a multiverse, with infinite alternate worlds with different rules and even laws of physics and magic. Fortress of the Pearl is actually not part of the original narrative.

Don’t get me wrong there are great ideas in there. But reading the novels is like watching a DandD session. It’s just one place that is unconnected to the previous after another. It’s very episodic. I don’ doubt that there is some overarching plot, but there is too much that I have to sift through that is inconsequential to that for me to get into it as a new reader. Because there are so many settings and rules I never really get invested in any of them or their consequences. The author frankly seems univested in them too because they just disappear for the most part. Making up interesting lore and rules does not make a good story. Setting up consequences is what storytelling is. Elric seems to start over every episode. I made it through four novels. Maybe they are just arranged in an order that makes them seem unrelated but that it the authors fault at the end of the day. There are numerous other authors who are better at connected various plots together, who create equally compelling characters and lore. @@djdoc06

@@germanicusternus1982 to each his own. I personally love the fact that he travels through a multiverse (I think it’s the first popular work of fiction to use a multiverse the way DC and Marvel use the concept of multiverse, with alternate versions of hero in different infinite possible worlds), where the rules change on different worlds, and the rules themselves are not spelled out, but need to be worked out. Inception really reminds me of the dream thief story in Sailor on the seas of fate where they enter a girl’s dreams, there are liquid rules, and there are defenders from her mind that kick them out. Elric’s story is more about the character than it is about a specific world and gameplay. I like that in other planes, science may supersede magic. I like that Elric has many adventures that are episodic, just as my own life doesn’t fall into a single straight narrative with just a few themes, that every action I take somehow magically reinforces. Elric is a functional drug addicted genius rockstar warrior, going through wondrous adventures, and I feel he has agency and motivations outside of his main narrative. And the multiverse stuff… when he goes to an alternate realm to retrieve a sword buried with a dead legendary hero of that realm, and Elric’s sorceries don’t work and Stormbringer is just a regular sword that can’t fight on its own or steal souls, and he can’t understand the language of the people but it’s familiar… there’s just this cool feeling of excitement and surprise and danger of the unfamiliar. For me it’s nowhere near as disjointed as it is for you. I’m open to this eternal hero of an ancient prehistory, who is somehow part of our modern multiverse, and has multiple counterparts with legends from other alternate realities. And it’s all tied up with a beautiful metaphor of Elric’s time being one when chaos dominated, and that the age where Order and natural laws can prevail, where justice is an actual thing that could be aspired to, is our actual real history, and can’t exist until Elric essentially destroys himself and his entire universe.

Lol.

I had no idea the HeMan action figure was originally inspired by Elric. How neat! Thanks! :)

Is this the author of Dwarves? I haven't read him yet, but I've heard good things. What do you think? Should I read him?

@@iWizard His Ulldart series is my all time favorite fantasy series, but the Dwarven books are great as well. He definitely knows how to design an interesting plot, but his humor might not be for everyone.