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Title: Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0-425-06559-6 Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: March, 1984 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: 6 of 6: The conclusion to the series maes it all worthwhile.
Comment: Michael Moorcock, Stormbringer (DAW, 1977)
Moorcock, in his acknowledgements, calls Stormbringer the first novel he ever wrote. (Much of what has come before in this series, in truth, is collections of shorter works.) It makes sense, in that Stormbringer, the last of the classic Elric novels, is a more coherent piece of work than those that have come before it, and is thus an easier read despite its being forty to seventy pages long than the other books in the series.
As the novel opens, Elric, Moonglum, and Zarozinia, with some other old friends and a large delegation from the southern and eastern continents, are trying to figure out what to do about Jagreen Lern, the sorceror king of the island nation of Pan Tang. Lern has allied himself with Elric's old masters, the Lords of Chaos, and Lern and his army are taking over the planet, piece by piece, with Chaos reshaping the planet into formless mass wherever it goes. The Lords of Law are stuck behind barriers raised by Chaos, and unable to communicate with earthbound folk; is the fate of the world sealed?
Of course not, this is fantasy literature.
Much of the pleasure of reading Stormbringer comes from seeing all the elements of the previous five books wrapped up into one neat package. I have mentioned before Moorcock's inability to foreshadow without hitting one in the face with a week-old herring with "FORESHADOWING" writ large in purple gothic script, but the effect of that is lessened greatly when the payoff is so much fun.
There are, once again, two factors which keep Stormbringer from a leap from the world of good, solid fantasy into the world of immortal literature. The first is the final battle between Elric and Jagreen Lern, which takes place over, essentially, the whole novel. The ability to draw such a thing out to almost two hundred pages is a rare quality in itself, but one cannot read of war on such an epic scale in a fantasy setting and not compare it to the final battle in Tolkein's The Return of the King; whereas much writing in any genre would be found wanting when compared to that scene, it seems more so when the subject matter is so parallel. Second, after it's all over, there is the inevitable denouement (as there must be in any classic tragedy). Again, Moorcock has set it up well, and with slight modifications it would have stood up to the rest of the novel; in fact, the rest of the series (and one of the tests of a truly great series is whether its last scene is a fitting, and well-scripted, ending to the whole schlemiel). Unfortunately, the last line of dialogue in the novel is unforgivably cheesy. All the more so because it's followed up with a perfect last sentence.
But the series ends, all is right with the world, and the reader must sit back and marvel at how well executed the whole thing is. Astounding, to say the least. ****
Rating: 5
Summary: The paradoxal tragedy reaches its climax!!!
Comment: Wow! That was what I thought when I had read the final page of "Stormbringer" the last of the 6-books-long Elric saga. Moorcock keeps up his powerful writingstyle to the very end in this novel where we finally discover the amazing destiny of the white faced albino Elric of Melniboné. I really didn't see it coming and was pleasently surprised, even filled with strong emotion when I realized what the fate of this Doom-driven Hero was...
The story: There is a new antagonist Jagreen Lern, a Pan tangian sorcerer which Elric has sworn to destroy, with the help of his three friends, Moonglum, Rackhir and his kinsman D. Slorm.
Chaos and Law play an important part in this act of vengeance, read for yourself how. The pace of the book is fast and filled with action and unbearable emotion (e.g. Elric and his love for Zarozinia). Why it is so paradoxal, I cannot say, then I would reveal too much, but it has all to do with the the Destiny of Elric and his hell-forged runeblade Stormbringer.
Not like Tolkien for example, Moorcock always surprises with bold, powerful descriptions and fresh ideas around every corner. You will be gasping for breath when this "Stormbringer" bends the incredible Saga of Elric into its final twist. After a month or so you will be reading it again. Astonishing stuff!!
Rating: 5
Summary: Real tragedy
Comment: Moorcock says he wrote these because he was disappointed with Tolkien (who had been supportive of him in his boyhood) because Lord of the Rings didn't have the acceptance of death of the Eddas, Beowulf and so on. Stormbringer very closely echoes the Norse myths where heroes have to die in order to renew the world and while Moorcock lacks the sophisticated Anglo Saxon scholarship of Tolkien, he responds better to the raw subject matter of myth and legend. That is why Elric, while not as consistently written as Lord of the Rings, has its power and why all Moorcock's books have their power. He never avoids the fundamental realities of life. Indeed, they are his subject matter. As a result he can't provide the levels of escape Tolkien and his imitators offer. It is why Hamlet is at every level a superior work to Lord of the Rings. It is why Dickens was greater than his imitators and it is why Robert Louis Stevenson, H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle continue to last where there more favoured literary contemporaries have disappeared -- those writers rooted their adventure fiction in a solid acceptance of the real world, the harshness as well as the romance. Stormbringer is a fine, vivid read and it works, in spite of its origins almost. It is a significant book because it was Moorcock's first full-length novel and it contains most of the obsessions which he develops both through his Eternal Champion series and his mainstream literary novels like King of the City. In Moorcock there is no difference between fantasy and reality because his fantasy actually addresses the realities we all have to deal with and his realistic fiction frequently addresses our common fantasies. Above all, however, Stormbringer is a fast, furious, emotionally engaging and wildly exhilerating Good Read!
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Title: The Bane of the Black Sword (Elric Saga, Book 5) by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0441048854 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: May, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Weird of the White Wolf by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0441888054 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: May, 1997 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0441748635 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: November, 1990 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0441203981 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Elric at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock ISBN: 0886770408 Publisher: Daw Books Pub. Date: May, 1985 List Price(USD): $2.95 |
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