This is the second in a new series of post I am going to try here on Mighty Thor JRS, Definitive Sword and Sorcery. At least what is definitive in my opinion. I will spotlight some of the best authors and books fantasy has ever known. I can’t wait to share these amazing books, authors, and the amazing cover art and artist. For my second post I am going to go with Michael Moorcock and his Elric stories.
As I become more and more disenchanted with modern fantasy and modern fantasy authors, I find myself going back to the books and authors that got me into fantasy in the first place. So I decided to shed some light on these books and authors. I am going to try and do this on a weekly/monthly basis but we will see how it goes.
If you have some comments, suggestions, recommendations, let me know!
Are you are a modern author that writes books/stories like the ones I will spotlight here? Get in touch. I want to work with you and spread the word. There has to be something new out that I can read and love. Short stories, collections, magazines, whatever! Let me know what you got and are working on.
Thanks,
James – Mighty Thor JRS
(mightythorjrs@gmail.com)
Check out my other Definitive Sword and Sorcery post:
Definitive Sword and Sorcery: Kane by Karl Edward Wagner
Definitive Sword and Sorcery: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber
Definitive Sword and Sorcery: Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore
Definitive Sword and Sorcery: Bran Mak Morn by Robert E. Howard
Definitive Sword and Sorcery: Kull by Robert E. Howard
Definitive Sword and Sorcery: Conan by Robert E. Howard
Calling all Sword and Sorcery fans!
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Definitive Weird Fiction: Clark Ashton Smith
Definitive Weird Fiction: H.P. Lovecraft
Definitive Heroic Fantasy: The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
Definitive: The John Carter/Martian/Barsoom tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Elric by Michael Moorcock
Elric of Melniboné
Cover Art – Michael Whelan
It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair that flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody….He is Elric, Emperor of Melnibone, cursed with a keen and cynical intelligence, schooled in the art of sorcery.
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate 
Cover Art – Michael Whelan
Leaving his cousin Yrkoon sitting as regent upon the Ruby Throne of Melnibone, leaving his cousin Cymoril weeping for him and despairing of his ever returning, Elric sailed from Imrryr, the Dreaming City, and went to seek an unknown goal in the world of the Young Kingdoms where Melniboneans were at best, disliked.
The Weird of the White Wolf
Cover Art – Michael Whelan
“We must be bound to one another then. Bound by hell-forged chains and fate-haunted circumstance. Well, then – let it be thus so – and men will have cause to tremble and flee when they hear the names of Elric of Melnibone and Stormbringer, his sword. We are two of a kind – produced by an age which has deserted us. Let us give this age cause to hate us.”
Imrryr, the dreaming city; Yyrkoon, the hated usurper; Cymoril, the beloved… all had fallen to the fury and unearthly power of the albino prince and his terrible sword. An Elric faced at last the fate that was to be his in this haunted era – that he must go forth, sword and man as one, and havoc and horror would be forever at his forefront until he found his Purpose that was yet obscured to him.
The Vanishing Tower
Cover Art – Michael Whelan
Elric of Melniboné, proud prince of ruins, last lord of a dying race, wanders the lands of the Young Kingdoms in search of the evil sorcerer Theleb K’aarna. His object is revenge. But to achieve this, he must first brave such horrors as the Creatures of Chaos, the freezing wilderness of World’s Edge, the golden-skinned Kelmain hordes, King Urish the Seven-fingered with his great cleaver Hackmeat, the Burning God, the Sighing Desert, and the terrible stone-age men of Pio. Although Elric holds within him a destiny greater than he could ever know, and controls the hellsword Stormbringer, stealer of souls, his task looks hopeless – until he encounters Myshella, Empress of the Dawn, the sleeping sorceress…
The Bane of the Black Sword
Cover Art – Michael Whelan
Stormbringer is brought Home! Elric returns to Yishana, and finds peace at last. Meanwhile, at the world’s rim, dragging red horror in its wake, a horde unimaginable moves on the fabled, gentle, impossible city, Tanelorn.
Stormbringer
Cover Art – Michael Whelan
The epic tale of Elric of Melnibone, albino prince of ruins, moves to it’s awesome conclusion -with the whole of the natural and supernatural world in mighty conflict – the final conflict, Armageddon. Elric holds the key to the future: the new age which must follow the destruction.To turn that key he must sacrifice all that he loves and risk his very soul.
Some art from the upcoming Elric books from Centipede Press.
Art by Piotr Jabłoński
http://www.centipedepress.com/
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published literary novels. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s.
As editor of the British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction “New Wave” in the UK and indirectly in the United States
mightythorjrs - The Black Blog of Nameless Cults 
Is Michael Shea’s “Nifft the Lean” on your list?
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No, I will have to add it. Thanks!
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Ahh, Elric. The thing I love most about this character is how properly messed up he is. He is flawed, he’s constantly dealing with it, and if you cross him he is so going to take it out on you. lol
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Yes, we all sometimes need a character that can make us feel better about ourselves by making us think “hey I am not so bad after all” Thanks!
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Speaking of tormented characters, have you read Robert E. Howard’s The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane? Good stuff.
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I have read a few stories. Got the complete collection a little while back. Need to read it soon!
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Reblogged this on F.T. McKinstry and commented:
Elric of Melniboné. One of my favorite series… Thanks for the post, James!
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I share that disenchantment, my friend, and Elric is a fantastic cure. I liked the madness of Erekosë, although his stories don’t live up to Elric standards, but the Hawkmoon saga is a worthy companion read.
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Thanks! I love getting back to all of these books.
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You can’t go wrong with Elric or anything Moorcock wrote really. Corum has always been my favorite of the bunch, but I second Hawkmoon, whose adventures are damn interesting. I really need to go back to the old stuff. Like everyone else here, I’m just not getting into most of the new releases I’m reading these days. 😦
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Yes, I need to get into some of his other stuff. I always hear great things. New books and authors these days just seem to be missing something. Some good ones out there but few and far between. Thanks brother!
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Elric is one of my absolute, all-time favorites. I think I read Elric after Tolkien, Dragonlance, and some others, and it was such a marked difference it blew me away. I’d already read Conan by that time, so shifting from a character that is so physically powerful to one that is not was also an intriguing change.
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Definitely a different character than what you usually think of in S&S. But so great! Thanks!
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Reblogged this on .
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Reblogged this on The Andy Crowley Saga.
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Check out the band CIRITH UNGOL if you dont already know about them – they have sword and sorcery themed lyrics and album covers.
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Awesome, thanks! I will have to check it out.
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