Martian Quest: The Early Brackett by Leigh Brackett

(hb; 2002: science fiction story anthology. "Introduction" by Michael Moorcock.)

From the inside flap

“Martian Quest: The Early Brackett is a long-overdue collection of the twenty earliest stories by the undisputed ‘Queen of Space-Opera.’

“On a Venus that never was, on a Mars that can never be (but should have been), Leigh Brackett’s early stories laid the foundation for her later classic adventures, The Sword of Rhiannon, The Nemesis from Terra, and the 'Eric John Stark' series.

“Other stories in this collection draw inspiration from such diverse sources as the lost-race novels of H. Rider Haggard, the lush fantasies of A. Merritt, and the planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs. With an appreciation for Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, Brackett’s prose is a unique display of vigorous swashbuckling adventure tempered with a harsh, hard-boiled economy.”

Overall review

Brackett’s Forties-era science fiction adventure stories largely stuck to a few basic western genre-born templates: a man of action with a troubling or mysterious past finds himself in dire, violent situations with aliens and (usually) a female romantic interest who may or may not be true to him or his aims. While the female characters are firmly envisioned in the male gaze, Brackett keeps them palatable with knowing winks.

Brackett, an excellent, cut-to-it author, keeps it lean, sometimes twisty─depending on the length of the work─and genre-true. Springing from these early, formulaic beginnings, she would go on to write expanded, more complex works, earning her reputation as a stellar science fiction writer.

Stories

“Martian Quest” [Astounding Science Fiction, February 1940]: A young Earthling (Martin Drake), poor and further saddled with self-doubt, uses his knowledge of chemicals to fend off Khom, giant creatures that devour impoverished Martian settlers’ homes.

“The Treasure of Pkatuth” [Astounding Science Fiction, February 1942]: On Mars, competing adventurerers (Terence Shane, Thaldrek of Ved) seek a legendary, forbidden city (Pkatuth) while contending with a barbaric tribe (the Shunni) and their beautiful leader (Zenda Challoner)─who may be the daughter of a wise, mad god. This is an excellent retelling of the Fountain of Youth story.

“The Tapestry Gate” [Strange Stories, August 1940]: A supernatural tapestry preys on a couple’s mutual loathing.

“The Stellar Legion” [Planet Stories, Winter 1940]: A military group made up of mixed aliens fend off a horde of Nahali (“six-foot, scarlet-eyed swamp dwellers”) while a traitor schemes within their ranks.

“The Demons of Darkside” [Startling Stories, June 1941]: A murder suspect (Barry Garth) steals a ship to Mercury in order to save his girlfriend (Alice Webster) from state execution. This thinly plotted story is especially action oriented.

“Water Pirate” [Super Science Stories, January 1941]: In 2418, a man (Jaffa Gray) and a girl (Lhara) go after whoever is hijacking life-giving water transports, in order to stop them.

“Interplanetary Reporter” [Startling Stories, May 1941]: When Jupiter declares war on Venus, cynical reporter Chris Barton is compelled by a beautiful, hard woman (Kei Volhan) and her idealistic fiancé (Bobby Lance) to further investigate what’s going on─which means that all is not as it seems. Especially exciting, romantic standout work.

“The Dragon-Queen of Venus” [Planet Stories, Summer 1941]: Desperate, starving soldiers try to hold back swamp people and life-draining serpents from their alien outpost fort. If they do not succeed in defeating the invasive creatures, their efforts to colonize Venus means the death of their home-planet people.

“Lord of the Earthquake” [Science Fiction, June 1941]: In this ambitious, tightly plotted Robert E. Howard-esque tale, two submariners travel 12,000 years into the past, just before an ancient civilization (Mu) is shaken into ruins by tremblors, music and treachery.

“No Man’s Land in Space” [Amazing Stories, July 1941]: Monsters and stalk and kill the citizens of Sark, an outlaw town on fragile asteroid. Wartime intrigue, a rogue scientist, Lunar creatures and cynical humor highlight this fast-moving work.

“A World is Born” [Comet Stories, July 1941]: On Mercury, a civilization-building prisoner plots his escape, a scheme hastened when an opportunistic capitalist (Caron of Mars) arrives to use the planet and its inhabitants for his own ends.

Like many of the lead characters in preceding stories, Mel Gray─”World” protagonist─is a hard, cynical antihero with a sense of decency, honor. Fun tale.

“Retreat to the Stars” [Astonishing Stories, November 1941]: A spy for the State is torn between his lust for a rebel soldier (Marika) and fulfilling his cold-hearted mission. Okay read, would’ve been better at a shorter length.

“Child of the Green Light” [Super Science Stories, February 1942]: Son, an energy-born creature with telepathic powers, fends off space-suited invaders who are trying to kill the source light that not only made him, but is slowly killing them. Especially good read.

“The Sorcerer of Rhiannon” [Astounding Science Fiction, February 1942]: A treasure hunter (Max Brandon) is caught between two warring aliens with superior technology (Tobul, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Kymra). His professional rival, a deadly Venusian named Dhu Kar, also complicates Brandon’s trek through a Martian desert. Lots of action in this one.

“Child of the Sun” [Planet Stories, Spring 1942]: On-the-run outlaws land on a planet where an illuminated alien life form holds power. Good, character-twisty read.

“Out of the Sea” [Planet Stories, Spring 1942]:The Japanese use science to direct giant sea creatures to attack US beaches, and it’s up to Webb Fallon (an alcoholic reporter) and Einer Bjarnsseon (a scientist with a submarine) to save the day.

Fun storyline and setup for this, with a parodic tone (making fun of tough guys and sexism).

“Cube from Space” [Super Science Stories, August 1942]: An outlaw is trapped by parasitic aliens (the Rakshi) and forced to help them find new bodies─until he is able to break free and help his fellow humans fight back. Good read.

“Outpost on Io” [Planet Stories, Winter 1942]: On an alien moon, a prisoner (MacVickers) tries to foment revolt among his fellow alien prisoners against their Europan guards.

“The Halfling” [Astonishing Stories, February 1943]: Jade Greene, a carny boss-man, hires a new performer (Laura) who brings dangerous secrets and violent problems into Greene’s traveling show.

“The Citadel of Lost Ships” [Planet Stories, March 1943]: A man (Roy Campbell) helps a Venusian tribe evade the Government patrols who mean them harm.

The Revenge of the Rose by Michael Moorcock

(hb; 1991: eighth book in the Elric series) 

From the inside flap:

"Elric is carried by a dragon to the city of his birth, the Dreaming City, now ravaged by fire and bloodshed. Deep in the catacombs of his ancestors, he hears an impossible sound -- the voice of his father, a spirit, denied the peace of death. His soul is held hostage in a bitter rivalry between the Lord of Chaos and Lord Arioch. His last great spell could save him, giving him refuge in the Forest of Souls. But he needs Elric's help.

"Now, the albino warrior must find his father's soul, hidden away in a rosewood box, in a distant land. But first Elric needs a valuable ally -- a person whose strength and will could match his own. . . a woman called the Rose."


Review:

Note: The events of Rose take place between The Vanishing Tower and The Bane of the Black Sword.

Rose runs too long despite Moorcock's fantastical-cinematic action, its bold themes, multiverse expansion and distinctive characters. The elements that bloat this novel are its speechifying characters (e.g., Wheldrake and Gaynor the Damned) and certain journey and battle sequences, which could have been tightened up, if not cut from the storyline.

Borrow this intermittently entertaining fantasy from a library before committing cash to it if you prefer shorter, sharper novels.

Rose is followed by three more Elric novels: The Dreamthief's Daughter, The Skrayling Tree and The White Wolf's Son.

The Fortress of the Pearl by Michael Moorcock

(hb; 1989: seventh book in the Elric series) 

From the inside flap:

"[Fortress] is set early in the warrior's career, opening as the Lord Gho Fhaazi seeks the principal seat on the ruling Council of Seven of the city of Quarzhasaat. He lures Elric into seeking the Pearl at the Heart of the World -- the price of admission to the council -- by addicting him to a slow-acting poison to which he, the Lord Gho, has the only antidote. Moorcock leads Elric over a course of monstrous and horrifying obstacles, pits him against the Sorcerer Adventurers, servants of Quarzhasaat's jaded rich, and then thrusts him into a dreamworld within the mind of an adolescent girl. Trapped in a comatose state by the Sorcerer Adventurers, she is undergoing her own rite of passage into adulthood. Through the vast and turbulent landscape of the Dream Realm, guided by the Dreamthief Lady Oone, Elric seeks the Pearl."


Review:

Note: Fortress -- written and published as the seventh Elric book -- is a prequel, which chronologically happens in a period of time between Elric of Melniboné and The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (the first and second book in the series).

This word-spare, surrealistic and metaphor-deft prequel shows Elric not only trying to save himself from a poisonous death, but also a Quarzhasaatim boy (Anigh) and a Bauradiam "Holy Girl" (Varadia, a citizen of the Silver Flower Oasis) from equally horrible, if different, fates.

In order to do so, he must travel down the deadly Red Road (where bizarre, armed attacks can take place at any moment), as well as the expansive Sighing Desert to the Silver Flower Oasis, where the wise folk of Bauradim hold vigil over Varadia, a "Holy Girl" whose dream-coma fragility and inevitable disintegration threatens all of existence. This compels Elric and Oone (an experienced Dreamthief, who may be more than a traveling companion) to astrally traverse the seven, surrealistic lands of the Dream Realm to not only find the Pearl, which will save Elric's life and end Anigh's captivity, but shatter the paralyzing hold of whatever layers Varadia in life-draining slumber.

What sets Fortress apart from most of the previous Elric books is that it is a whole novel: it is not broken up into a series of tightly linked novellas, like Books two through six. Elric, in this seventh work, also possesses a hope that he lost early on in the series (Cymoril -- his fiancée -- is still alive and Melniboné has not yet fallen), which lends a different side-tale feel to these new adventures -- adventures whose events further shape and deepen readers' understandings of what was previously shown in Books two through six.

This, like previous Elric works, is excellent, word-efficient and otherwise masterful, a book worth owning.

Followed by The Revenge of the Rose.

Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock

(hb; 1977: sixth book in the Elric series) 

Review:

The first story, "Dead God's Homecoming," pits Elric, his cousin Dyvim Slorm, and Jharkorian Queen Yishana and her many White Leopard guards against the combined armies of Kings Sarosto (of Dharijor) and Jagreen Lern (of Pan Tang). These savage regents, also allied with a planet-decimating "Dead God" (Darnizhaan), threaten the balance of the known world. Elric's situation is further exacerbated by the fact that Darnizhaan has kidnapped his wife, Zarozinia.

"Dead" not only brings together the Melnibéan's past-tale companions, but serves as a major turning point in the series: Elric, an Eternal Champion (as revealed in The Vanishing Tower), gets his first real understanding of his destiny -- this comprehension comes courtesy of Sepiriz, an ancient Nihranian, one of the "Ten who sleep in the mountain of fire," an ally whom Elric has not seen the last of.


In "Black Sword's Brothers," Jagreen Lern's Chaos-bodied (and ever-growing) army of darkness is running roughshod over the worldwide Young Kingdom, possessing -- incorporating -- those fallen soldiers into its black, murderous mass.

Fighting against this world-ravaging tide is Elric, Moonglum, Dyvim Slorm (who bears Stormbringer's brother blade, Mournblade), Rackhir the Red, Kargan Sharpeyes (spokesmen for the Eastern Sealords) and their forces, whose men stand little chance of holding back Lern's monsters. While Elric is guided by Sepiriz's seer-like visions, Lern is guided by enfleshed gods of Chaos.

When Sepiriz tells Elric that his cursed sword, Stormbringer, has spirit brothers in an alternate realm that might help them cast out the Dukes of Hell from this largely-toxic planet, the pale ex-emperor does what he must to summon the spirit-blades.


"Sad Giant's Shield" and "Doomed Lord's Passing" details the fallout from the events of the preceding tales. Elric, once again aided by Straasha (King of the Water Elementals)**, seeks the shield of a battle-inclined giant, Mordaga (whose castle lies in -- of course -- in a far-away realm). This shield, Sepiriz has claimed, is resistant to the evil magick of Chaos, as practiced by Jagreen Lern ("the Theocrat") and his ally, the powerful Lord Pyaray, who have taken Elric's wife, Zarozinia.

Elric, Rackhir, Moonglum and Sepiriz, in order to continue combatting Lern and Pyaray, also seek aid from the White Lords of Law (the deities who oppose -- provide counterbalance to -- the Lords of Chaos).

Stormbringer is an excellent, satisfying closer volume to the first cycle of the Elric saga. The pacing, structuring and other story-telling elements of the stories are inventive, the writing is crisp, exciting and succinct and the characters are reader-familiar and worth rooting for (or hissing at). Not only that, Moorcock keeps the albino ex-regent's adventures fresh by foreshadowing and increasing the stakes of Elric's quests: in this final (timeline-wise) tale, if Elric and his allies don't win, everyone -- literally everyone -- will likely die.

This is worth owning, just like the preceding Elric books. Followed by the first of several prequels, The Fortress of the Pearl.


(**previously seen in Elric of Melniboné)

The Bane of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock

(hb;1977: fifth book in the Elric series)

Review:

Warning: possible spoilers in this review.

Like The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, The Weird of the White Wolf and The Vanishing Tower, Bane is divided into a series of connected stories -- this time, a quadrilogy, not a trilogy.

The first tale, "The Stealer of Souls," takes place three years after the events of The Vanishing Tower; it has been five years since Elric led his fellow Imrryrians as their emperor.

"Stealer" begins in Bakshaan, a city "rich enough to make all other cities in the North East seem poor." Four merchants hire Elric to kill a rival merchant (Nikorn of Ilmar), whose dirty tactics have outraged them -- it seems that Nikorn has employed a private army, as well as Theleb K'aarna, a treacherous wizard, to do his bidding.

K'aarna, as Elric-familiar readers know, is one of Elric's most elusive and bitterest enemies, since his first appearance in Weird.

Elric, with help from his fellow Melnibéans (led by Dyvim Tvar) and Moonglum (Elric's companion since Weird), battle the slippery, treacherous K'aarna by attacking Nikorn's castle. Also aiding the ex-emperor are "Misha and Graoll, [elemental] Kings of the Wind," also called "Wind Giants," who deal with K'aarna's elemental, "Kakatal, the Fire Lord."

Queen Yishana (another character sprung from Weird) further livens up this story.


"Kings in Darkness," the second tale, begins in the Forest of Troo, a dark and deadly forest. Elric and Moonglum agree to escort Zarozinia Voashoon, a rich "daughter of the Senior Senator of Karlaak," through this forest.

The threesome find themselves at odds with the forest-familiar Orgs, a crude people led by the  especially-imperious King Gutheran. Thrown into this unpleasant mix are the Doomed Folk, the ghoulish undead citizens who live beneath the "looming Burial Hill," near Gutheran's citadel.


"The Flamebringers" takes place three months after the happenings of "Kings". Elric and Zarozinia (now Elric's wife) are living in her home city of Karlaak, a trading city ("not a warrior's fortress"). The physically weak ex-emperor is content and strong, his soul-thirsty black sword replaced with natural healing drugs he got from the forest of Troo.

Elric and Zarozinia's peace is broken when Moonglum, disheveled from his desperate ride across the nearby Weeping Wastes, bursts into their castle to inform them that Kaarlak is under threat. The source of this threat is the cruel barbarian Terarn Gashtek (a.k.a. "the Flame Bringer") whose massive, brutal army is augmented by the sorcerous magick of a kidnapped wizard (Drinij Bara), who has been prevented from using his knowledge against Gashtek and his men.

Because of this, Elric is forced to wield Stormbringer anew, to confront Gashtek. Dyvim Slorn, a Melnibéan and Dragon Master like his dead father (Dyvim Tvar), commits himself and his dragon-riding army to help the ex-regent and Moonglum (whose homeland has been ravaged by Gashtek, two years prior).


"To Rescue Tanelorn. . ." revolves around Rackhir the Red Archer (from Elric of Melniboné and The Vanishing Tower) and his further adventures, sans Elric.

Like the other books in this series, Bane is an intense, lean-prosed and hard-to-put down read -- one worth owning.

Followed by Stormbringer.

The Vanishing Tower by Michael Moorcock

(1970: fourth book in the Elric series. An alternate version of this novel, titled The Sleeping Sorceress, was published by Lancer Books in 1972, "without reference to the author.")

Review:

Warning: possible spoilers in this review.

Elric's grim pursuit of the Pan Tangian sorcerer Theleb K'aarna, begun in The Weird of the White Wolf (specifically the tale "The Singing Citadel"), continues. Along for the ex-emperor's dark ride is Moonglum, a devil-dog killing warrior, whom Elric also met in Weird ("While the Gods Laugh").

Like The Sailor on the Seas of Fate and Weird, Vanishing is divided into a trilogy of connected stories.

In the first of these stories, "The Torment of the Last Lord," Elric and Moonglum encounter the seductive Myshella, also known as the "Dark Lady of Kaneloon," who has been imprisoned in castle-bound sleep by K'aarna. If Elric and Moonglum can defeat the Pan Tangian sorcerer and his ally, Prince Umbda (the Chaos-serving "Lord of the Kelmain Hosts") and Umbda's monstrous army, Elric might not only get his revenge on K'aarna, but receive further peace from Myshella, who resembles the kinslayer's dead beloved, Cymoril (from Elric of Melniboné and Sailor).

"To Snare the Pale Prince," the second story, pits the elusive K'aarna and Urish the Seven-fingered (greedy king of Nadoskar, whom Elric has supposedly wronged) against Elric, Moonglum and Rackhir the Red Archer, when K'aarna and Urish send Urish's hellish soldiers to attack Rachkhir's supply caravan, en route to "tranquil Tanelorn".

(Rackhir originally appeared in Elric of Melniboné -- he was with the albino ex-monarch when Elric became bonded with his black demonic sword, Stormbringer. Once a Warrior Priest in the Eastlands and a servant of Chaos, Rackhir now serves Chaos' antithesis divinities, under the aegis of Law.)

The third story, "Three Heroes with a Single Aim," takes place a month after the events of "Snare".

Elric leaves his companions (Moonglum and Rackhir) in Tanelorn to commit suicide in the Sighing Desert. While he is there, delirious, Myshella -- rescued by Elric and Moonglum in "Torment" -- appears to him and tells him that the Lawful city of Tanelorn is still under threat from K'aarna and his most recent allies, an assortment of Chaos gods. Elric goes to end that threat and, after an interrupted battle with K'aarna, is accidentally transported into a strange, alternate world.

In this alien world, Elric meets Prince Corum, an anti-Chaos hero who "must banish the domnation of Chaos from the Fifteen Planes of Earth," otherwise known as the multiverse. He and Elric, in order to fulfill their convergent quests, work with another warrior, the amnesiac Erekosë, to do so.

Voilodion Ghagnasdiak is the main villain in this piece. Ghagnasdiak, an evil "dwarf clad in puffed multicolored silks, furs and satins," lives in the Vanishing Tower, which randomly appears and disappears in different realms every few hours.

Within these brief hours, Corum, Elric and Erekosë must defeat Ghagnasdiak's treacherous magick and rescue Corum's kidnapped companion, Jhary-a-Conel, before resuming their separate quests.

The writing in these tales is, once again, action-intensive, cut-to-it-lean, fantastic in its imagery and supernatural beings, and reader-hooking. What makes this Vanishing stand out from the other excellent books in this series is that it introduces the idea of alternate selves and worlds (the Fifteen Planes of Earth), an expansion that promises to take Elric beyond his soul-harrowing goal of absolution -- whether it be death or something less grim.

Followed by The Bane of the Black Sword.

The Weird of the White Wolf by Michael Moorcock

(hb; 1977: third book in the Elric series)

Review:

Warning: possible spoilers in this review (if you haven't read the first two Elric books).

The third book in the Elric series is divided into three directly linked parts. First I will describe the storylines of these works, then actually review them.

In the first story, "The Dreaming City," Elric (with the aid of Count Smiorgan Baldhead, who teamed with Elric in The Sailor in the Seas of Fate, and a fleet of Purple Town ships) lay siege to Imrryr, the capital city that Elric once ruled and lived in.

When Elric left Imrryr at the end of Elric of Melniboné, he installed his cousin, Prince Yyrkoon, on the Ruby Throne as a temporary ruler of the Dragon Isle of Melniboné (on which Imrryr is located). Elric's plan was that he would learn about the hostile Young Kingdom that surrounds the Melnibéans' home for a year, then return to Imrryr to resume ruling the Dragon Isle as its emperor. Not only that, he would marry his incredibly patient fiancée, Cymoril, and make her empress.

Since that time, Yyrkoon has grown bolder and (once again) power-hungry and declared Elric a traitor and an outlaw. Hence, Elric's assault on Imrryr, to retake his throne and his bride -- unaware of the cataclysmic tragedy that will result from his actions.

In the second tale, "While the Gods Laugh," Elric travels with Shaarilla "of the Dancing Mists, wingless daughter of a dead necromancer" to seek out the Dead Gods' Book, which may undo some of the tragedy from the first story ("The Dreaming City"). In order to do so, they must pass through The Silent Lands and its Marshes of the Mist, where they must battle an out-of-its-area Mist Giant (with its wormlike, fanged and amorphous body) and, later, the beak-jawed, taloned "devil dogs of Dharzi."

Joined by a sword-capable, friendly human, Moonglum (whom they met while putting down the devil dogs), they find the gem-encrusted, "throbbing" book -- and further grim-humored tragedy.

"The Singing Citadel" --  Elric and Moonglum, after battling a Pan Tangian trireme (sailing ship), wind up in Pan Tang, "an isle of sorcerers, fully human, who sought to emulate the old power of the Melniboné." There, the sensuous and crafty Queen Yishana (of Dhakos) convinces the ex-emperor and his friend to end the ongoing disappearance of Pan Tangian citizens. At the center of these strange disappearances is a distant tower of swirling light, whose sweet song draws its victims within it.

It is bad enough that Balo, fugitive divine "Jester to the Court of Chaos" (which includes Arioch, Elric's patron demon) rules this seemingly fatal abode, but there is another seemingly-minor-in-comparison complication: Queen Yishana's jealous lover and sorcerer, Theleb K'aarna, who would see the albino kinslayer's existence ended, even if it means the death of Queen Yishana.

What sets Weird apart from the two previous Elric books is its grimness. Prior to the events of "The Dreaming City," the corpse-pale regent had hope -- now he doesn't. What he has now (besides notoriety for being a "kinslayer") is a death-wish, if he can't get back what he lost. Once again, Moorcock keeps the prose clean and cut-to-it lean, with an impressive array of surrealistic monsters and supernatural beings that Elric must, through metal, wit and mettle, defeat.

As with Elric and Sailor, this is a superior, reader-hooking novel. Own it, already.

Followed by The Vanishing Tower.

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock

(hb; 1976: second book in the Elric series)

Review:

The second book in the Elric series is divided into three directly linked parts. First I will describe the storylines of these works, then actually review them.

The first part, "Sailing To the Future," opens with Elric fleeing the "city of Ryfel in the land of Pikarayd" where he was wrongly accused of being a "Melnibéan spy." After being rescued and hired onto a galleon of country-mixed mercenaries, he and his shipmates, utilizing wit and steel, battle the bejeweled brother-sister beast-wizards Agak-Gagak in their island temple. 

In the second part, "Sailing To the Present," Elric is no longer on the Dark Ship with its mixed-hireling swords (and its blind, wise "Captain").

Elric now travels with the amiable and battle-ready Smiorgan Baldhead, "once a sea-lord of the Purple Towns." While pillaging a coast-wrecked ship, the Count and the albino emperor uncover a half-Melnibéan, half-human woman (Vasslis of Jharkor) who is fleeing a deluded ancient Melnibéan earl, the legendary Saxif D'Aan, who believes Vasslis to be his storied "stolen" lover ("Graytesha, Princess of Fwem-Omeyo"). Included in this supernatural plot-stew is Prince Carolak, an also-legendary ghost-being, a royal whom the real Graytesha loved while she lived.

Having taken on Vasslis' protection as their cause, Baldhead and Elric engage in a (reluctant, on their part) galleon battle with D'Aan, near the red-lit, ship-crushing Crimson Gate -- a portal that can take Baldhead and Elric back to their realm-world, away from the Unmapped Kingdom.

This part ends on a semi-cliffhanger note, leading into "Sailing To the Past," where . .

. . . rescued by "Avan Astran of Old Hrolmar" -- a duke, "an adventurer -- explorer -- trader" -- Elric and Baldhead join Astran in his cross-the-Young-Kingdom quest to find R'lin K'ren A'a, the mythical jungle city from which Elric's ancestors first came. Along the way, on a river near their destination, they are attacked by the Olab, "club-wielding. . . essentially [hissing] reptilian [beings] but with feathery crests and neck wattles, though their faces were almost human. . . Their forelegs were like the arms and hands of men, but their hindlegs were incredibly long and storklike."

Once in R'lin K'ren A'a, they encounter the ten-thousand-year-old Creature Doomed to Live (who may or may not be the naked, possibly-leprous J'osui C'reln Reyr), as well as the Jade Man, a stories-tall statue who guards "the place where the High Ones [the Melnibéans] meet."

Like its source novel, Elric Melniboné, the adventures in Sailor  are word-lean, with their effectively-sketched and -built-upon characters, their surrealistic and distinctive supernatural elements and beings and their epic tone. What sets Sailor apart from Elric (besides its section-fractured tales) is that the pale emperor's travels are increasingly colored by his deal with his patron demon Arioch (whose curious links to the Jade Man deepen the backstory) and the fact that Elric is learning more about the personality of his soul-stealing sword, Stormbringer.

This is an excellent, hard-to-put down read, one worth owning. Followed by The Weird of the White Wolf.

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock

(hb; 1972: first book in the Elric series)

From the back cover:

"It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair that flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From the tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody....He is Elric, Emperor of Melniboné, cursed with a keen and cynical intelligence, schooled in the art of sorcery -- the hero of Michael Moorcock's remarkable epic of conflict and adventure at the dawn of human history."

Review:

Elric is a relatively (for the genre) short, word-lean and straightforward fantasy tale with an interesting and complex main protagonist (Elric, emperor of "Imrryr the Beautiful, the Dreaming City, capital of the Dragon Isle of Melniboné"). He is kind, philosophical and merciful, yet aloof, physically fragile and moody at other times -- he is, in a word, royalty, the 428th ruler of his land.

When Elric's cousin, the jealous and power-hungry Prince Yyrkoon, tries to usurp Elric's Ruby Throne and kidnap Elric's intended bride (and Yyrkoon's sister), Cymoril, the albino ruler pursues the incestuous- and war-minded villain across alternate worlds, catching  up with Yyrkoon in the seedy city Dhoz-Kam, where their conflict -- heavily driven and complicated by magick, as well as a demon named Arioch -- reaches a dangerous apex for not only them, but for all worlds.

This is a great set-up novel, with surrealistic and distinctive supernatural elements and beings, sequel-friendly situations and high, epic drama (without the word fat). All fantastic thriller, no filler, this -- a book worth owning.

Followed by The Sailor on the Seas of Fate.