I have just finished this third art of the Elric Saga, given to me for free by a friend that loves fantasy as much as I do. I've reviewed each as I finished them. You can read the other reviews if you'd like, by clicking on my name. I must warn you they are not pretty, and I am loosing patience with the series.

I caution those of you that are not fans of the other books, this read may not be worth your while. This is the worst of the lot so far, and that's saying a bit. The first tale was weighted down with many, many, literary albatrosses, and the second, while lightening a little on the cheesy fantasy rhetoric, and actually taking some interesting twists, continued the insulting trend of revealing too much of future plots, and then taking to long to get to the fufilment of these dropped hints of prophecy. This third book totally trashes any progress made by the second, and gives birth to a few defects in the main character that are unforgivably preposterous given his earlier actions.

First we are given the unattached (yet relevant, Moorcock hastens to inform us,) tale of Aubic carving lands from chaos, then we are given the ridiculous conclusion of Elric's tale involving his cousin yrkroon (or some such ridiculous name.) For those not in the know, Elric is almost murdered by his cousin for his throne, and returned from near death to topple his foe in the first tale, only to willingly relinquish his throne at the end to this same traitor, saying essentially that the playing field was level once more. Now he's returning for "revenge" (Revenge? For What? Gee, I gave you my throne, and now I don't wnat it back, but I will kill you for accepting my offer. By making elric not care about his throne at the end of the first book, the author diffuses the need for any "revenge" here in the third, and this makes any motivation for vengance, and actions that follow from it, non-sequitors.) Anyhow, we must put that aside, for Elric , rightfully or no, does desire revenge, so in a singularly bold move, Elric decides to destroy his own homeland in a thirst for blood and vengance. In the process he kills his only love, which he really didn't care about anyway. But in any case, he acts shocked, although her death could hardly have been a suprise, he should have known it was coming, because he himself (in the guise of his future self, Erikose,) told him (Elric) he would kill the woman he loved. Or are we to believe that Elric is as silly as Moorcock thinks his readers are? In any case, perhaps you should put that aside as well. In the flight from his city, as his troops are routed, he betrays his companions in a feat of totally uncharacteristic, and therefore unbelievable, cowardice. (Elric earlier alligned himself with three or four guys he met on a boat and had no real allegiance to, and fought a pair of otherworldly sorcerers for no real reason at all, in that case many of his companions died, and Elric had as much chance to fear for his life then as he does during the rout of his forces, yet now he flees where before he stood fast? I don't think so. Get some constancy in your character, he's a man who will stand, or one who will flee.)

Anyhow, put all of that aside too. After this fiasco, Elric goes out in search of his never outlined Destiny, (That's what "Weird" means in the title, you know. It's not just alliterative, or maybe it is...,) which seams to simply be Elric wandering around becoming not-involved with various women he can never love, and adventures he doesn't care to resolve or has no motivation to begin, yet he does anyhow, and attempting to kill various conjured things and failing and then calling on his gaurdian for help, and sometimes getting it, sometimes not, but always Elric gets hints and etc dropped his way from his pet god, about his greater bolder destiny. Well get to it I say! We're what, three books in an no word of it? How long must we suffer this tripelike filler to reach the meat of the tale?

Ah well, suffice it to say that this third book is simply awful, and only true Elric fans could find anything redeeming about it. With some great reluctance, I will start on the fourth book.

I must say that Elric of Melnibone is one of the most tiresome heroes or even antiheroes I have ever come across...his self-pity, fatalism and incessant whining and angst are easy to identify with, but can also be quite heavy-going...this is not to say that this book is bad, it is exceedingly well written, and Elric is an interesting character, i like the emphasis on his demon origins and natural ancestral cruelty especially...I liked this book better than the Sailor on the Seas of Fate, though both that one and Weird of the White Wolf are a bit disjointed since it was originally a number of stories written by Michael Moorcock for fantasy magazines. I think i liked the first book the best, because I loved the vivid portrait he painted of the ancient, decadent Island of Melnibone, with their pre-human inhabitants and elaborate, cruel pleasures...they were evil all right, and you knew they were doomed as a race, but they certainly had style. I was very disappointed that Imrhyrr fell in the Weird of the White Wolf...I felt a great civilisation and era were gone forever. The humans just dont seem as interesting...too clumsy. As for Elric, I believe the tragedy of him is that he is the main source of his misery and undoing...Watching him go down is almost painfully annoying...you want to shout at him or something to stop being such a fool. Its also is a bit boring and monotonous hearing his constant whining, but it somehow makes it even more tragic. He knows he's doomed and yet he doesnt quite have the courage to commit suicide and end it all. His indecision defeats him. He's sort of like Hamlet that way. All in all its a great read...Michael Moorcock is a fantastic writer. I sometimes read him just for the great descriptions

Michael Moorcock, The Weird of the White Wolf (DAW, 1977)

The third book in the Elric series introduces the reader to Moonglum, Elric's longtime companion (and, thanks to AD&D's Deities and Demigods book, the companion most readers can't imagine him without). Much of the second novel moved away from the events of the first, and concentrated Elric's character on other adventures. The Weird of the White Wolf brings Elric back to Melnibonë along with Moonglum, their friend Smiorgan Baldhead, and an army of raiders bent on overthrowing Yyrkoon, who stole the throne when Elric left Melnibonë for a year to travel the world. For those wondering, whether you've read the book or not: the "weird" of the title is an archaic definition of the term, given by Merriam Webster as "One's assigned lot or fortune, especially when evil." And when he finds it, he's not all that happy about it. But that's to be expected when one's antihero has a crisis of conscience, I guess.

Certainly not a slow book by any means, nor a weak one in the context of the series. And it's definitely a necessity as a prelude to what comes after it. But I still felt there was something missing here; some pieces of description left out, a few places where things could have been filled in better. All of the Elric novels are short, to say the least (Stormbringer, the last and longest of them, clocks in a 217pp.), and feel as if they could use some fleshing out; this one, however, gives that feeling the most. One wonders if the brevity of them was not the insistence of the publisher, and what Moorcock would do with them, given the opportunity (a la King's unexpurgated edition of The Stand). Loads of fun, and highly recommended for fantasy and non-fantasy readers alike, as is the whole series. ****

Quirky books always get my attention, and this one had lots of promise. However, the victorian language was so stilted and verbose it was hard to appreciate the story. I kept plowing through it, hoping to get to the quirky, fun part of the story, and it never came! The story begins with a charming premise: The pet chimp is jealous of the simpering fiancee. The chimp's machinations to foil the fiancee are amusing at first. Then, it is as if the author got tired of being clever and merely wrote to get the story finished. The story goes beyond quirky and into the truly bizarre. I was disappointed.