Elric Reading Order

[Snowdog]

Can anyone put the books from the bibliography in reading order, i.e. chronological order? I was always confused by alternative titles as to which books I actually had. It looks like I missed one entirely (Bane of the Black Sword) so I'll have to get that, plus a couple of the short story collections.

 

[Jack]

Please dont hold me too much in this but -
Elric of Melniboné: Book One
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate: Book Two
The Weird of the White Wolf: Book Three
The Vanishing Tower: Book Four
The Bane of the Black Sword: Book Five
Stormbringer: Book Six

Some stand alone books with the old red eye'd, white soul sucker in them are -

Elric at the End of Time
The Revenge of the Rose
The Dreamthief’s Daughter: A Tale of the Albino
The Skrayling Tree: The Albino in America
The White Wolf’s Son: The Albino Underground

The Fortress of the Pearl is a stand alone book but fits into the main storyline of the first few books so depending on the publisher you may or may not have read it - I surjest you do read it as it does fill one with Elric goodness

And in alot of ways Von beck is Elric in a different form
It also depends on the publisher - Check the spines of your books as some will have the numbers on them for you.

 

[j d worthington]

For the main Elric sequence:

Elric of Melnibone (aka The Dreaming City)
The Fortress of the Pearl
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Weird of the White Wolf
The Vanishing Tower (aka The Sleeping Sorceress)
The Revenge of the Rose
"The Stealer of Souls" (in Bane of the Black Sword)
"Kings in Darkness" (same)
"The Flame Bringers" (same)
"The Last Enchantment" (in Elric at the End of Time)
"To Rescue Tanelorn" (in Bane of the Black Sword)
Stormbringer!

"To Rescue Tanelorn" takes place simultaneously with the opening of Stormbringer! "The Dream of Earl Aubec" is prehistory with Elric's world, but may be read anywhere prior to The Vanishing Tower. "Elric at the End of Time" more properly belongs to the Dancers at the End of Time sequence, as it's placement in Elric's lifeline is left rather vague. As for the new trilogy, The Dreamthief's Daughter, The Skrayling Tree and White Wolf's Son, I've only read Dreamthief's Daughter so far, and it again more properly belongs to another set, the Von Bek novels; others may be able to give you more precise information on where in Elric's own life these belong. He makes appearances in various other works of Moorcock's, as well as the Hawkwind novels by Michael Butterworth (Queens of Deliria). The most notable of these would probably be the graphic novel, Michael Moorcock's Multiverse.
At least, that's it's American title. In the new American omnibus volume, Elric: Stealer of Souls (different from the original collection, Stealer of Souls, the contents of which have been broken up and placed in chronological order in the other books), "The Flame Bringers" has been retitled "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams". I haven't seen a copy of the British omnibus volumes for quite a while, so I can't recall whether this applies there or not. Is this more information than you wanted to know?

 

[Snowdog]

Thanks for the replies.

So... I've got a Mayflower pb called The Stealer Of Souls, which has 5 stories including the title story. It also has Kings in Darkness and The Flame Bringers, but not To Rescue Tanelorn, which is, however, in The Singing Citaldel, which I do have. It doesn't sound like I need Bane after all, except for the sake of completion.

I haven't read Fortress of the Pearl or Revenge of the Rose yet. Elric is the only cycle I've yet to read completely and in the right order, and I'm looking forward to it

 

[j d worthington]

Not really. All the stories in Bane you should have. The Stealer of Souls has the original magazine versions of the stories; the story collections in the series has revised versions (usually small details, such as Elric calling on Arioch to vanquish the swamp demon, etc., nothing particularly affecting the overall story). (This is not the case, however, with Stormbringer!,which was cut down from its original magazine serial form for the novel publication, then revised and expanded to its original length for the later, uniform edition of the series. There are advantages to both versions.) So -- you should be all set! (Until Mike adds another book to the series....)

 

[Jack]

Elric of Melnibone (aka The Dreaming City)
The Fortress of the Pearl
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Weird of the White Wolf
The Vanishing Tower (aka The Sleeping Sorceress)
The Revenge of the Rose
"The Stealer of Souls" (in Bane of the Black Sword)
"Kings in Darkness" (same)
"The Flame Bringers" (same)
"The Last Enchantment" (in Elric at the End of Time)
"To Rescue Tanelorn" (in Bane of the Black Sword)
Stormbringer!

Ahh! So thats where 'the revenge of the rose' goes! Always wondered that, it makes sense now that I think about it - Thanx
(Until Mike adds another book to the series....) No! Do not speak such evil words! They are confusing as hell as they stand now - If he does anything he should mesh them into one or two big stories like Hawkmoon and so on. Anyway if you read the newer stories he does kind of make an ending of it all - Well as much as the eternal champion has an end???
Anyway as said Elric turns up all over the place in moorcocks books and in some very surprizing places...

others may be able to give you more precise information on where in Elric's own life these belong

Any real time after the first series of books and the The Fortress of the Pearl as they deal with his offsping 'wink wink' So you really do need to read Fortress of the Pearl my friend to understand. As for belonging to Von Beck, hmmm a bit of both when you think about it, as they are both...But reading Von Beck would not hurt but is not as needed as the fortress of the pearl to the story-line.

 

[j d worthington]

Correct, and thanks for clearing that up. One doesn't have to have read any of the Von Bek books to follow the story as, while these also are interrelated to some degree, they deal with different members of the family through generations, rather than a single individual's life. As I've said before, nearly everything Moorcock as written has, at this point, been subsumed into the Champion cycle at least thematically, and if you read all his work, you'll find some surprising connections; this even includes his non-fiction writings (much as was the case with James Branch Cabell, interestingly enough).

And, for anyone who's interested in such trivia and doesn't already know it, the first two books of Elric were originally The Stealer of Souls (1963) and Stormbringer! (1965); then came The Singing Citadel (story collection; 1970), The Sleeping Sorceress (1971), and Elric of Melnibone (1972). He'd pretty much decided to leave it at that, but then Lin Carter asked him for a novella for the Flashing Swords set, when he wrote "The Jade Man's Eyes" (later considerably revised as the final part of Sailor on the Seas of Fate), which was published separately in GB as a small paperback. This got him back to writing about Elric again, and that's when he put out the revised 6-volume set in the mid- to late-1970s, which have been frequently reprinted. In the 1980s he wrote The Fortress of the Pearl and The Revenge of the Rose (as well as The Dragon in the Sword, the "final" story of the Eternal Champion, as it was called, about yet another incarnation holding Erekose's/John Daker's memories)... and then in the mid- to late-1980s he began putting together a revised, uniform set of his fantasies in omnibus editions (which differed seriously between British and American editions), and then wrote The Dreamthief's Daughter, and .... Is it any wonder this is confusing?

So, no, I don't rule out Moorcock writing another story of the White Wolf -- Elric's been part of his career since "The Dreaming City" was published in Science Fantasy back in June 1961; "The Eternal Champion" (short story) dates back even farther, though published later. These were by no means written in order; but then, with Moorcock's philosophical concepts underlying his work, this actually works to their advantage, I think. (But, then, I'm rather fond of his short story "Flux", not to mention "The Deep Fix", so I may be in the minority here.)

Now that I've given you this mass of useless information .... anyone else here need an aspirin?

 

[Snowdog]

J.d., I assure you your info was interesting and useful

As a side note, I popped into my local bookshop this morning (not a huge shop, but better than Smiths) and there was NO Moorcock in the SF section. In fact I noticed that all the books were pretty thick and most of Moorcock's early stuff was thin, though at the time they were considered normal - around 180 pp. Maybe shorter books are simply not stocked these days except in specialist bookshops, because it's harder to justify the exhorbitant prices for a 180-page book. That doesn't explain why there were no omnibus editions though.

eBay to the rescue, I hope...

 

[j d worthington]

I've had pretty good luck finding some hard-to-find Moorcock for good prices on Alibris and Abebooks or Biblio as well, including a replacement copy of The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell graphic novel he did with Howard Chaykin what -- 25? -- years ago, and at rather good prices. I believe that the British omnibi were from Orion/Millennium (at least, my copy of The New Nature of the Catastrophe, the only one of the set I have, is); whereas the American set is from White Wolf/Borealis. The lists I have of each set are as follows:

British:

1. Von Bek
2. The Eternal Champion
3. Hawkmoon
4. Corum
5. Sailing to Utopia
6. A Nomad of the Time Streams
7. Dancers at the End of Time
8. Elric of Melnibone
9. The New Nature of the Catastrophe
10. The Prince with the Silver Hand
11. Legends from the End of Time
12. Stormbringer
13. Earl Aubec
14. Count Brass
and for some reason not officially part of the series: A Warrior of Mars

American:

1. The Eternal Champion
2. Von Bek
3. Hawkmoon
4. A Nomad of the Time Streams
5. Elric: Song of the Black Sword
6. The Roads Between the Worlds
7. Corum: The Coming of Chaos
8. Sailing to Utopia
9. Kane of Old Mars
10. The Dancers at the End of Time
11. Elric: The Stealer of Souls
12. The Prince with the Silver Hand
13. Legends from the End of Time
14. Earl Aubec
15. Count Brass

Keep in mind that with some of these, the contents are radically different (especially Earl Aubec). Note also that this set does not contain the most recent Elric trilogy, as they were written after this set was released. There are some good websites devoted to Moorcock and his work; and from what I understand, he's also very good about interacting with his readers on them (or at least, those he's connected with himself). Having met the man a couple of times, I can say he tends to be friendly and to enjoy dealing with people (as long as they aren't rude, etc.).

Much of a Moorcock nut as I am, there are plenty of people out there who are much more into this than I, people who have some of the original pieces he did under various house names when he was working for Fleetway, his political broadsides, etc. (By the way, even of this sort of thing, the ones that I've seen are often quite interesting. Except for some very early stories -- the Sojan stuff, for example -- Moorcock has seldom written anything I found boring; and even there they improved toward the end of the set as he began to introduce his serious philosophical points, giving the stories more depth and texture.)

And, if you're interested, there's been a new edition of his Wizardry and Wild Romance, a non-fiction book he wrote on fantasy. For lovers of the genre -- and especially Tolkien, with whom Moorcock has some decided differences -- some of his opinions may be abrasive, but they are interesting. And, if you can find a copy, Colin Greenland did a book talking with Moorcock about writing. (Moorcock is very prolific, to say the least; if I remember correctly, he wrote his Michael Kane trilogy in one week!) Any other questions you think I may be able to help with, PM me, and I'll get back to you as soon as I'm able.

(Do I hear a loud "Oh, God, Noooooooo!" from somewhere???)

 

[Jack]

(Do I hear a loud "Oh, God, Noooooooo!" from somewhere???)

Not at all - and they are from Orion, though the 'masterworks' series does a few of them if I remember rightly.

Having met the man a couple of times, I can say he tends to be friendly and to enjoy dealing with people

My thats just great! It must have been a once in a lifetime moment - Ok a bit jellos haha! But he seems a very nice chap on some of the official web sites, you must have been a just a tiny bit honored to meet him in the flesh.

 

[j d worthington]

It was indeed quite nice; though, since there was a huge line waiting for his signature, I didn't get much of a chance to talk to Moorcock himself; just a few minutes. However, I did end up talking a lot to his wife Linda (just as I had at an earlier time with Catherine Crook de Camp when Sprague was busy); the neat thing about this sort of thing is that you get to hear all sorts of very interesting stories about things the writer themselves may not even think of.

The amusing thing is that I still have my copy of that Flashing Swords that got me into Moorcock in the first place, back in 1973; when I presented it for autographing, he'd forgotten even having a story there until Linda opened it up for him; he was quite amazed that I'd held onto the thing that many years. I also have one of the tabloid-format copies of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (Jerry Cornelius), and he hadn't seen one himself since shortly after it was published, apparently. I had no idea those were that rare. It seemed to give him a lift; so I was able to do something to boost his spirits for a change. Sort of a minor payment for what I've got over the years from his books....

 

[Snowdog]

I now have a full set of Elric books, thanks to eBay. Amongst those I bought were a set of three new (as in mint/unread) Grafton reprints of The Weird Of The White Wolf, The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate and The Bane Of The Black Sword, all signed by Mike.

Actually I only needed Bane, but I couldn't resist, being as all three cost me £3.00, plus £1.49 p+p, which I thought was a bargain.

 

[j d worthington]

Congratulations. You should be able to get it all read before he adds the next one....

 

[Jack]

Congratulations. You should be able to get it all read before he adds the next one....

I would start now my friend haha

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

There is a couple of reference books you get that list all of MM's books in.
MM A readers guide by John Davey ,and more recently The Age of Chaos the Multiverse of M.Moorcock.
Oh plus one more The Tanelorn Archives but that one is a 1981 edition by Richard Bilyeu. hope the info is of use to you.

 

[Blue Tyson]

At multiverse.org

They have a fair crack at a reading order, and there is an Elric site linked from there in the FAQ I think that does a chronology.

Can't link it, I am too new apparently.