Elric!

A while ago, I posted a picture of Michael Moorcock's book, The Silver Warriors. That was the first Moorcock I had read, but it was certainly not the last! Since then, I've read just about the whole of the original six book series starring Moorcock's greatest protagonist, Elric- this series has quickly become one of my favorites. Elric is an albino, the last Emperor of a decadent, elf-like race, the Melniboneans. I'll try not to give the story away, but, before long, Elric is in a self-imposed exile, and has gained a sentient soul-drinking runesword called Stormbringer, which urges Elric towards his final doom.

The books highlight the eternal struggle of two opposites- but, rather than the usual Good and Evil, this battle rages between the Lords of Law and Chaos- neither of these factions are good or evil, but balance between the two. In fact, it's suggested that the victory of either would result in the cessation of life. Elric reflects this conflict, constantly see-sawing between a fairly well-developed conscience (not as much a good conscience, as a lawful one) and the bloodthirsty and Chaotic urgings of his heritage and hellsword.

One of my favorite parts of 'swords and sorcery' style fantasy is the extremely memorable monsters and villains- Moorcock has an excellent imagination for these, and creates some of the most vivid adversaries I've heard of. Two of my favorites would be the Hill-King of Org from Bane of the Black Sword, and Voilodion Ghagnasdiak's Vanishing Tower, from the book of the same name.

All the book covers (save the last, by Michael Whelan) shown in this post are by Robert Gould. I really enjoy his art, and his depictions of Elric are spot-on.

On a final note, these books are a foundation of modern role-playing games, especially Dungeons and Dragons. I use them frequently when Dungeon Mastering (even going so far as to run entire stories), and I'd suggest anyone with an interest in these games to try these books out.