Elric of Melniboné

Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf

De: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman - Foreword

Narrado por: Samuel Roukin

From World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Moorcock comes the first volume in his Elric of Melniboné series.

It is one of the most well-known and well-loved fantasy epics of the twentieth century: the story of Elric, emperor of the dying kingdom of Melniboné. For a hundred centuries the Melnibonéans have ruled from the Dragon Isle of Imrryr.

Now, after years of corruption and decadence, Elric’s amoral cousin Prince Yyrkoon, the brother of his beloved Cymoril, sets his eyes on the Ruby Throne.

Elric must face his treacherous cousin not as a warrior but as a sorcerer king once again in league with the ancient gods of Melniboné, the Chaos Lords, and thus sealing his inexorable fate.

Elric of Melniboné is the first volume in Michael Moorcock’s incredible chronicle, which created fantasy archetypes that have echoed through the genre for generations.

Volume one of the Elric Saga contains the first novels in the series: Elric of Melniboné, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf.

©2021 Michael Moorcock and Neil Gaiman (P)2021 Recorded Books

Preachy but fun

I wish I could give a 4.5/5

These stories are fun. The intro by Gaiman is a load of crap, but it can be skipped. The books manage to be light and adventurous (most of the time) while maintaining a gloomy dark fantasy mood that is enjoyable in its own right. The settings and challenges are creative and fun, and Elric is easy to root for, most of the time.

Unfortunately, while these stories are supposed to be imaginative for imagination's sake, unpolluted by a hidden message or religious suggestion, they are absolutely filled to bursting with sermons in soliloquy. Elric is brooding, that's in the very foundation of his character, but all of the deep-thinking observations are childish attempts at humanism, existentialism, relativsim, and dualism. I know Moorcock was young and heavily inebriated when he wrote the early Elric stuff, but it's still pretty absurd to hear the intro insult C. S. Lewis for hiding Christianity in Narnia, then to listen to prolonged pitches from the dead and rotting first principles of New Age thought, outdated psychology, and Eastern mysticism. But, without the intro, I would not have been alerted to Moorcock's hypocrisy toward hidden messages and teaching through story, so I guess that irritation can be chalked up to Gaiman's interference as well. At least, on a surface level.

The narrator, Roukin, is passable. He makes the action scenes really fun and punchy. That's important, when the action is central to most of the enjoyment in the books. He stumbles here and there, and I can say honestly that this is the first book I've heard where the narrator cleared his throat while reading, but I guess that's an editing slip. In the neutral category, sometimes you can hear him turn the page as he reads. I like that, but some might be annoyed by it. Sometimes, Roukin missunderstands the structure or intent of a sentence and delivers it very oddly, but these things happen to most narrators. No big deal, don't worry about his quality.

4.5/5, fun but occasionally annoying and childish.

Excellent Telling of the First Part of Elric’s Wyrd

5/5 for story, performance, and overall!

This is a good introduction to Elric if you’ve never heard of him. It is also a welcome companion to the published compendium. I look forward to to hearing the second volume, ‘Stormbringer’.
I’ve read all of the Eternal Champion I could find and was ecstatic when the compendiums were published in Moorcock’s chosen order. The Audible versions are the icing on the cake. The story line is excellent as is the character development. Moorcock is a Past Master at these.

Elric is a haunted soul, living hand to hilt across many planes. He eventually is joined by another of many names who journeys with him. This volume ends with his companion being Moonglum.

The narration is excellent as it draws you on. The forward gives you some history of the Eternal Champion and Moorcock’s rationale for the story line.

🌈💖🏳️‍⚧️⚧

Elric is classic dark fantasy at its best.

please ignore the intro niel gaman story and skip ahead to the main story. I could.see why some.reviews were poor.. but it has nothing to do.with the full story

Skip the first 30 minute extremely inappropriate story

I love this series.Secondly only to Lord of the Rings, the Elric saga has inspired, motivated, captivated and enthralled my imagination. Having said that, the 30 minutes Gaiman chapter should be removed from the excellent series. I normally like Gaiman’s writing. But this was pure crap. It was inappropriate, vulgar, uncalled for, and seemingly obscene just for the sake of being obscene. I don’t want to listen to stories about schools boys masterbating themselves, each other or their teachers ( who - of course is also a Man of Christian faith). What the hell? If I could remove that complete trash from my download while keeping Moorcock’s excellent work, I would. SMH.

good high fantasy

I can read this type of fantasy over others. moorcock plays with a lot of philosophy and moral elements. environments and worlds are very well colored. extremely creative work.

That moment when …

That exact moment when you realize you mispronounced most of the names in a book when you read it back in high school.

Great reading of a fun story.

Very good… except the forward

Love the stories and was a fun dark fantasy adventure
The only issue I have is with the forward which was written by a sick freak, the individual who wrote is weirdo who should be on a list and should not be someone’s first thing they experience for this book series, and he should feel great shame for ever writing it.

Elric of Melnibone

I just love Eric's story. His loyalty, struggles, magic, need for Stormbringer, royalty, fearlessness, need to discover and travel. I can visualize his painful journey. Always rooting for Elric King of Melnibone!

Nice read

It was more than pleasing to hear Elric brought to life!! Can't wait to hear more!!

read it 20 years too late.

i always heard how great Elric was. After reading it, the structure and story is fine but i struggled to "like" Elric. not a very likeable character in the end.