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

By: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman - Foreword

Narrated by: 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

A new Audiobook for classic stories

The tone of these stories is gloomy and melancholy but they have a beauty to it that is captivating once you put yourself in the proper mindset. The narration style (I believe) is called third person objective where characters are mentioned by name and the reader is unable to get into the characters heads and hear their thoughts and feelings. I have not encountered this style very often but I liked it after awhile.

The foreword written by Neil Gaiman was (in my opinion) filled with disgusting and disturbing anecdotes and I would recommend skipping and just starting in chapter 2.

The narrated was fantastic. Was familiar with him from the Sun Eater books and thought he did a excellent job there as well. His regal voice was perfect for Elric.

Looking forward to the two other collections that will hopefully be coming out later this year.

Timeless

I have waited so long for this to arrive. Moorcock and his heir Gaiman are exquisite perfection.

AVOID the opening story!

The opening story—I’m not sure who wrote, and I don’t care to know—is utterly disgusting, and borders on CP. It has absolutely nothing to do with Elric, and I felt blindsided by it. I’d have given this production five stars were it not for that filth. Whoever decided to include that story here should be fired. Such a shame.

Pulp stories shined brighter in my memories

I just finished listened to the first few books in the Eric of Melnibone books. I remember, in junior high school, loving these books. They were first multiverse stories I ever stumbled upon with multiple incarnations of the eternal champion in multiple dimensions with time lines that did not flow in parallel such that when characters met it was often the first meeting for one, but not the other. All of this seemed mind blowing back then, but now the stories, characters, and scenes all seem tissue paper thin. I won't bother continuing the stories.

everything is amazing except for Gaimon's forward

This story is incredible and an enduring masterpiece. I had no idea what Gaimon was even trying to say

The opening story by Neil Gaiman reminded me

Of this mystical book that grabbed my attention at a teen. There are a lot of strange boys in the world who read an #ElricofMelniboné book as an unwitting primer for their future personality traits and I to am one of those and so seems to be is Neil who wrote a story about a boy who fell into that world like I did as an opening story to this Audible collection. A set of books that changed you but no one ever talks about it, we sort of just pass these paperbacks around like they have their own flavor of mystical power. In fact, I even have a couple in the back seat of my car that just lurk there for an appropriate moment. Us Michael Moorcock urchins, it's like some secret code running in the background that we don't notice till it's actually identified. Thanks Neil, I needed some magic inserted in my life tonight and it was a fine visit to a lost land that I had mostly forgotten in dreams.

Product of its time

This is by no means a bad set of stories, however a lot of tropes that eventually become common place occur here. These stories may of set these tropes, but that doesn't degrade the fact that these tropes have been expounded and done better elsewhere, leaving the story feeling a bit lackluster and piled high on tropes.

great again

great again..

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Fantastic with a few flaws

A great recording, though the production had a few flaws: Audible page turning at times, the narrator clears his voice loudly at one point, at times it sounded like he was calling Elric "Aric".

Tales of the millenium

A great compilation of Elric stories, ordered chronologically with respect to Elric's timeline.

To me, it was a great coming back to this fascinating character, of which maybe many of us have read some books here and there, but very few of us have sat down and read the "whole thing". Part of the reason is that, back in the day, these books had various degrees of popularity, and they could only be found in specialized bookstores to begin with. Therefore, the work put into this volume is very much appreciated.

I must say some stories are much better than others. One can notice the style of the writer drastically improving, depending on the story. Also, most of the stories really cry out for a comic book adaptation.

Now, on to the important stuff. Elric itself is a tech enthusiast, and here we read about his adventures with his favourite gadget, Stormbringer.
Ever since Elric manages to grab Stormbringer after a very difficult queueing process and in the middle of an atrocious silicon shortage, Stormbringer quickly becomes Elric's daily driver, his favourite piece of tech that he owns, and quite possibly his endgame gear.
Unsurprisingly, Stormbringer's manufacturers quickly realize the success of their product and keep finding more and more means of monetization through it. As our hero becomes more and more dependent on Stormbringer, he begins to get buried under all new kinds of microtransactions, and other not-so-small transactions.

A very relatable character, indeed.