Elric of Melniboné

Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné. Probably one of the most genre defining authors but certainly the least well known. Its a fact that Tolkien's shadow looms large over Fantasy literature even today with so many authors and stories standing upon the foundations he's set. That's partiallywhy I enjoy older fantasy novels. Tolkien's legacy hadn'tbeen fully cementedyet at the time and so we have authors that aren't afraid to try new and weird ideas. Thus Elric is born. The anti Conan, he's a moody introspective sorcerer prince of a morally neutral people. Although I enjoyed my time with this book, I wouldnt recommend this or any other of Moorcock's older writings to newbies of the genre. The novel is quite short and MM plays fast and loose with his ideas, each more strange and unusual than the last but never fully explored. It's almost as if he's bursting with ideas and trying to get them all out so he can move on with the next one. This novel feels like his ambitions outweigh the page count and i would say that about most of his novels. By today's standard I would give this 3 stars but alas this genre fiction book is almost 50 years old but has probably influenced your favorite fantasy author at some point.