“Elric: The Stealer of Souls”, by Michael Moorcock

 

 

625 pages, White Wolf Publishing, ISBN-13: 978-1565041875

 

Over the course of the mid-to-late 90s, White Wolf Publishing produced this massive omnibus collection of Michael Moorcock’s “Eternal Champion” stories, a recurrent aspect in many of his tales. Elric: The Stealer of Souls was the eleventh in this series and the second volume once-more featuring the character Elric of Melniboné, and includes the tales The Sleeping Sorceress, The Revenge of the Rose, The Stealer of Souls, Kings in Darkness, The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams and Stormbringer. In this volume we revisit everybody’s favorite albino antihero and his continuing quest to betray everyone who is loyal to him. As Moorcock’s most famous and intriguing – to say nothing of infuriating – character, it should come as no surprise, I suppose, that we would see more of the bleached-skin bastard and his nefarious ways – because while we may hate to admit it, the best characters are sonsovbitches. Not “best” as in brave, trustworthy, loyal, dutiful, and so on and so forth, but rather driven, tortured, selfish, and etc. etc. etc. It’s impossible to love Elric, but it is equally impossible not to be fascinated by him and even to cheer for him even as you bemoan the manner in which he triumphs over his foes – and friends.

The Sleeping Sorceress (or, if you prefer, The Vanishing Tower) was released in the magnificent 80s – and shows it: as well as you more mundane fantasy-adventure plotting it is also a smorgasbord of Elrician excesses to spoil even the most cynical reader (or author). Instead of one large novel we have here instead three linked novellas that each moves the story along. We begin with Elric’s and “Empress of the Dawn” Myshella’s continuing vendetta against the evil wizard Theleb Ka’arna (last seen in The Dream of Earl Aubec, as you’ll no-doubt recall). We next come across Elric in Nadsokor, the City of Beggars, as he stumbles into a trap laid by its King and the self-same Theleb Ka’arna before moving on to a crossover with the Corum novel The King of Swords in which Elric teams up again with both Corum and Erekosë to battle a sorcerer named (get this) Voilodion Ghagnasdiak (I don’t know either; and when I say crossover, I mean it: read both stories side-by-side and compare the relevant sections). Pretty standard Elric stuff, except that he sounds even more petulant and whiney than ever, so much so that you sometimes wish he’d turn Stormbringer on himself and just end it already.

Next up is The Revenge of the Rose, in which a dragon delivers Elric to the ghost of his father, The Emperor Sadric the Eighty-Sixth, who demands that his son locate his soul, currently chillin’ in a rosewood box in a far distant land (aren’t they all “far distant”?) and restore it to him, or else dear ol’ dad Sadric will haunt the shit out of Elric forevermore (so, ghosts don’t have souls? I think Moorcock has some ‘splaining to do). During his Quest for Dad’s Soul Elric will come across the mysterious warrior princess Rose and face off against their mutual foe Charion, an undead agent of Chaos. Naturally, there are swords and sorcery and blood and guts and action and violence and Elric moping all over the Young Kingdoms, as you would expect from a Moorcock story in general and an Elric story especially. Oh, and the Chaos Gods Count Mashabak and Arioch (Lord of the Seven Darks, Knight of the Swords, Lord of the Higher Hell, etc.) raise all sorts of hell, too. The Revenge of the Rose is rather long on philosophy and short on action (also, the way the narrative slips from past to present tense and back, to no discernible purpose is annoying as all get out). All-in-all this book has the feel of a filler work.

The Stealer of Souls comes next, from which this White Wolf volume gets its title (indeed, in researching this review I found that there have been several editions of Elric books that have been collected underneath the rubric “The Stealer of Souls”). In this story we find our demented protagonist on his usual way, adventuring and killing and brooding and betraying, so much so that it is rather difficult to distinguish this story from many of the others that Moorcock has written about this most infuriating of characters. There are, however, a couple of interesting – if ultimately dissatisfying – elements that stood out for me. The first being that, at long last, Theleb Ka’arna gets his comeuppance in epic fantasy fashion, suitable enough for a Disney villain, if I may be so bold. The other is when Elric the Eighth of the Dragon Isle meets the remnants of Melniboné, something that hadn’t happened since he destroyed it’s capitol of Imrryr. Interesting in that the interaction of these forced-upon mercenaries and erstwhile Emperor was unexpected and promised high-drama – but no; these Melnibonéans are not only fatalistic but forgiving towards their ex-Emperor, a dissatisfying (like I said) arrangement, not to say unrealistic.

Kings in Darkness is next…I suppose, seeing as the chronology of many of Moorcock’s Elric books seems spotty, not helped by the fact that the man would often revisit and rewrite many of the earlier books and and/or subtract ideas and events, and even to reorder when what happened when (this also accounts for why so many of his books have been published and then republished with different titles). So anyway, the story begins with Elric and Moonglum of Elwher (that would be Elric’s most loyal companion thus far and, just possibly, the only true friend he ever had) barely escape with their lives from Nadsokor, the City of Beggars, and find themselves in the cursed Forest of Troos. Whilst traveling this accursed place Elric is able to collect various sorcerous herbs that grow only there; in so doing the pair meet the young and beautiful Lady Zarozinia of Kaarlak, sole survivor of a massacre by the physically and mentally twisted Orgians. From there we have more adventuring and bloodshed – oh, and an undead king that must be vanquished – before Elric and Friends at last triumph…and Elric settles down with Zarozinia in an attempt to lead a quiet and domesticated life. Yeah, right.

Onwards to The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams (or The Flame Bringers; see what I mean?), in which our…hero defeats the Mongolesque barbarian horde that threatens his newfound marital tranquility, a surprisingly vivid battle in which some of Moorcock’s old mojo seemingly returned. We also witness the return of Dyvim Tvar, the Dragon Master and Lord of the Dragon Caves, and his Merry Band of Melnibonéan Mercs, but only for a time. Frankly, I would have loved to have seen more of the erstwhile Dragon Prince and his one-time Emperor interact with one another; I really disliked his seemingly utter forgiveness of the man who destroyed his nation. I mean, he hated Theleb Ka’arna more for whacking Yishana’s suitors more then Elric, a plot device I just didn’t believe. Anyway…by story’s end, Elric thinks he’s found that the herbs he has been using can maintain his strength in place of Stormbringer and its stolen souls (he even thinks he’s finally managed to discard Stormbringer, as he seemingly lost it during the battle), telling Zarozinia that he’s “tired of swords and sorcery” – Zarozinia doesn’t have the heart to tell him that a screaming Stormbringer came back from battle before he did.

And lastly we have Stormbringer, the concluding story in Elric’s saga in which “[t]here came a time when the destiny of Men and Gods was hammered out upon the forge of Fate, when monstrous wars were brewed and mighty deeds were designed. And there rose up in this time, which was called the Age of the Young Kingdoms, heroes. Greatest of these heroes was a doom-driven adventurer who bore a crooning runeblade that he loathed. His name was Elric of Melniboné…”. And so it all officially ended here, in the final battle between Chaos and Law and Winner Take All, and although Elric is ostensibly a servant of Chaos, more often than not he is drafted into the ongoing efforts of the Cosmic Balance to maintain a balance between Law and Chaos, a balance that is ultimately undone by the end of this book. And as series-enders go, this was masterful, as everything that Moorcock brought to his Elric tales culminates with this epic fight at the End Times. It is a fitting end to one of fantasy literature’s most enduring, fascinating, infuriating characters, one that never ceased to keep you bound to him even as you sought release. When closing Stormbringer for the last time, I truly felt that an era had ended and a tale had been told.