Elric of Melnibone-- Which to Read?

[Nathanael Love]

So, I finally decided I want to tackle the Elric saga, but there's a ton of different versions, collections, ect.

Which one should I go with that will let me read the thing start to finish in story chronilogical order without having to read in additional stuff?

[DungeonmasterCal]

IMHO, just read the first six novels in chronological order. The rest just seemed to not capture the flavor and adventure of those.

[thejeff]

It's kind of complicated, because the original series came out mostly in the form of novellas and short stories back in the magazine days, that were then repackaged into books.

There were also later books, that had a different less classic sword and sorcery, more experimental style.

I'd actually advise reading the original series first and then delve into the later books if you want to continue. I think it's more coherent that way. And it's that original series that was influential on D&D and other fantasy.

Basically:
Originals
I) Elric of Melniboné
II) The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
III) The Weird of the White Wolf
IV) The Sleeping Sorceress (aka The Vanishing Tower)
V) The Bane of the Black Sword
VI) Stormbringer

Elric at the End of Time (crossover with a more new wave sf series of his - between II & III)
The Fortress of the Pearl (Between I & II)
The Revenge of the Rose (between III & IV)

The Dreamthief's Daughter (aka Daughter of Dreams)
The Skrayling Tree (aka Destiny's Brother)
The White Wolf's Son (aka Son of the Wolf)
(I only vaguely recall these, if I ever read them all, but they cross over with other characters of his in an alternate Earth and involve, among other things Elric vs Nazis. It's not clear where they fit chronologically.)

If you're not going to read the whole original series first, I'd stick in Fortress of the Pearl and Revenge of the Rose and still skip Elric at the End of Time and the last trilogy. Those are both very much out of Elric's main story and want knowledge of his other series and characters.

Damned if I know what collections are out at the moment, but that's roughly my take on it. I'd actually just been through this, thinking of reading back through a bunch of Moorcock stuff, filling in some holes I'd missed back in the day.

[David knott 242]

There is this list. Note that the last three books were retitled from their original versions.

There are a few complications that you will have to live with:

1) Elric does not remember all of his adventures clearly later, so reading the stories that he does not remember (such as "Sailors on the Sea of Fate") in their correct order is not really crucial.

2) When other incarnations of the Eternal Champion show up, they will reference events from their own series of novels. There is no way to sort them all out properly (especially given that the meetings with the other incarnations do not even happen in the same order for all of them).

3) Moorcock's style definitely evolved over the years. To me, the Elric stories actually flow better when read in order of publication rather than in chronological order from Elric's personal timeline, but I may be biased because I read the first six novels before any of the others were published.

[thejeff]

David knott 242 wrote:

There is this list. Note that the last three books were retitled from their original versions.

There are a few complications that you will have to live with:

1) Elric does not remember all of his adventures clearly later, so reading the stories that he does not remember (such as "Sailors on the Sea of Fate") in their correct order is not really crucial.

2) When other incarnations of the Eternal Champion show up, they will reference events from their own series of novels. There is no way to sort them all out properly (especially given that the meetings with the other incarnations do not even happen in the same order for all of them).

3) Moorcock's style definitely evolved over the years. To me, the Elric stories actually flow better when read in order of publication rather than in chronological order from Elric's personal timeline, but I may be biased because I read the first six novels before any of the others were published.

3) Do you think that's true within the first six novels? Their order of publication isn't their chronological order either.

Other than that I agree.

That goodreads order doesn't include Bane of the Black Sword. Which seems weird.

[David knott 242]

Good catch -- I think I should look elsewhere for the best order then.

I probably should have gone to Wikipedia first for this one.

And from that page I can see that my suggestion for reading all of the novels in publication order could be problematic -- I cannot imagine reading any book but Elric of Melnibone first.

[thejeff]

David knott 242 wrote:

Good catch -- I think I should look elsewhere for the best order then.

I probably should have gone toWikipedia first for this one.

And from that page I can see that my suggestion for reading all of the novels in publication order could be problematic -- I cannot imagine reading any book but Elric of Melnibone first.

It's also complicated in that I'm not sure the novel publication order is actually the order the stories in the novels were published.

I stick with:

I) Elric of Melniboné
- The Fortress of the Pearl
II) The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
III) The Weird of the White Wolf
- The Revenge of the Rose
IV) The Sleeping Sorceress (aka The Vanishing Tower)
V) The Bane of the Black Sword
VI) Stormbringer

Preferably leaving the two unnumbered for last.