So the order I read these books in is not the written (or released) order but the generally accepted internal chronology (in that order I laid down the volumes on my table in the photo a bit above).
That means the second volume I read was “The Fortress of the Pearl” which was released way later but takes places after the first novel and concerns Elrics journeys outside of his own kingdom. That second book is perfectly alright even though it is more of a sidestory with completly different characters that only appear in that. It however sets up at the ending for a very late sequel trilogy that was only written a couple of years ago. But I liked the arabian inspired setting and it was interesting that the majority took place in some sort of Dante-esque dreamrealm.
The third book which I only just started is where things begin to get crazy! “Sailor on the Seas Of Fate” is a three part story originally consisting of 3 short stories that were linked to a short novel. I only read the first third now but it opens open the world of Moorcock´s multiverse immensely.
In it Elric encounters three other Avatars of the Eternal Champion namely Erekosë, Hawkmoon and Corum each of whom have their own subseries (at least a trilogy each) of novels with stories about adventures in their own worlds! Together they sail to another plane to fight a being that threatens the fabric of all the multiverse which they only can defeat by uniting their powers.
I feel this is the part where things really start to get going. This was released in the mid 70s and back then it was the second in the chronlogical sequence. The volume I have is followed by 4 of the earliest short stories about Elric including the very first “The Dreaming City” released in 1961.
Really curious to see where this is going because at this point it could go anywhere. I really don´t believe that it´s possible that Stephen King wasn´t influenced by this for his Dark Tower series.
Update after finishing half of the books because I´m not allowed to add another reply:
Finished the third volume which contains the novel Sailor On The Seas Of Fate as well as stories that used to make up the collection Weird Of The White Wolf.
The second story of “Sailor” had elements of The Mummy (Boris Karloff) and Dracula (by Francis Ford Copolla) with love and reincarnation.
The third story previously known as “The Jade Man´s Eyes” detailed more origins of The Melnibonés and their bonding with the demon lords of chaos. As well as an early example of Elric losing control over Stormbringer.
The short stories that follow include the very first one “The Dreaming City” which funnily enough is too spoiler heavy for me to detail here. Let´s just say it set the stage for the rest of Elric´s journey out of the Dragon Isle and into the Young Kingdoms.
It also is a typical early story as the following ones in that Elric more often than not does not get what he sets out to find. Moorcock had a concept of conciously inverting heroic fantasy tropes and while the Dreaming City is super dark in that the other ones like While The Gods Laugh show some of the dark and ironic humour some of those tales can have. This one and The Singing Citadel also introduce Elric´s rather comical sidekick Moonglum who will follow him on many journeys to come.
Next up is “The Sleeping Sorceress” another novel from the 70s. And two more after that.
I really love this series so far!
Some of the afterwords of my edition even detail about some of the Faustian and even Freudian undertones of those tales. They make a lot of sense actually even though I mostly saw some allegories on hard drugs like heroin in this so far. But there is obviously much more to this.
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. Seems Elric is back on my to read list, which is getting rather long, lately.
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