For most of the 20th century, Conan the Barbarian was the most famous specimen of Sword and Sorcery. Everyone was making heroes based on him, which created a very stale subgenre. If you ever read any Conan books, you know he’s a very dry hero. There is nothing special about him as a personality and the world around him doesn’t affect him in some way. The same was happening with every other hero of that time, including Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, who had invented the term of Sword and Sorcery.
So this guy named Moorcock appears in the 70s and says “My hero is going to be different. He will have internal conflicts, his past will be constantly haunting him, and the world around him will be an extension of his issues.” And this is how Erlic came to be, one of the most famous Byronic heroes in fantasy, who revitalized the subgenre and became the new archetype everybody was copying, until it also became a stereotype that kept everything stale. Guess on whom Drizzt the Dark Elf was based on. Still, it was much better than Conan the Barbarian.
As far as writing goes, it is great in atmosphere. The magical lands in it are very spooky and have a very alien flare to them, like it blends in ideas from science fiction. It will immerse you with its descriptions. And if you were reading the books when they were still new, you would love the innovation of having gods of law versus gods of chaos, instead of a typical good versus evil. And yes, the protagonist is in the service of the gods of chaos, who are all about death and destruction. It’s nothing special today (nothing is anymore) but just imagine how unconventional it played out in the 70s and in comparison to every other boring black and white type of conflict.
The big issue is, as usual, the story, which is plot convenience 101 to the point it becomes terrible. Character motivations make no sense and pretty much every resolution to every conflict is a literal deus ex machina. No matter what happens, Elric will summon a god to fix the problem for him. And even when he’s not summoning gods, he’s using a magic sword that makes him close to undefeatable in battle.
So now you will be wondering where the internal conflict fits in all this when he’s so overpowered. You see, he’s being constantly used by the very powers he possesses. The gods of chaos help him out only because he spreads chaos, thus furthering their agenda. And his sword helps him out only because it steals the souls of those he kills, which is part of a masterplan to bring the apocalypse. So he’s basically a peon going around, doing stuff against his will, and constantly has his friends and family dying by his freaking sword, which has the bad habit of stabbing to death everyone he cares for. And no, Elric cannot simply throw away the sword because he stays alive by feeding on the life energy of those he kills. He cannot even refuse to go on missions because he has a destiny to fulfil.
And this is why there is a lot of edge in here. He is a tragic hero who basically devours the souls of his friends and there is nothing he can do about it. He’s fatalistic because he keeps doing things beyond his control, but also insurable since there are many cases where he’s doing the exact opposite of what he planned.
Let’s be more specific by going over the plot of the first book.
SPOILERS HEREON!
Elric is the emperor of a decadent civilization and is married to his own cousin.
EDGE!
He’s double crossed by his other male evil cousin who wants to steal the throne and have sex with his own sister.
EDGE!
Because he has a destiny to fulfil, he is saved by a god and sent back to reclaim the throne.
DEUS EX MACHINA!
He gets there out of screen and without anyone noticing him.
BAD WRITING!
There is a celebration for their new emperor, meaning thousands of women are being raped and thousands of slaves are being sacrificed to the gods.
EDGE!
Elric reveals himself to be alive and has his evil cousin imprisoned, but a god frees the cousin.
DEUS EX MACHINA!
He also kidnaps the incestuous wife in the process, which makes no sense since if he hadn’t taken the woman, Elric wouldn’t be going after him.
PLOT CONVENIENCE!
All the above happen out of screen, thus we are never shown how he summoned a god, how he grabbed the incestuous wife, and how he escaped.
BAD WRITING!
Elric’s entire army looks around for them and can’t find them, so another god tells Elric where they are.
DEUS EX MACHINA!
Since Elric doesn’t want to go there by using a normal ship, he summons yet another god to give him a flying ship.
DEUS EX MACHINA!
They reach the base of the evil cousin, who without showing us how, now has his own kingdom, and a magic mirror he found without telling us how.
BAD WRITING!
A battle follows where the evil cousin uses the mirror to make both armies gorge their own eyes out, as they are driven mad.
EDGE!
The evil cousin escapes again by going to a different dimension, where he plans to find two swords, with which he can take over the world. Why didn’t he mention the swords all this time? What was he waiting for before going to get them? How did he open a portal to a different dimension? Because plot.
BAD WRITING!
Before he opens the portal, the evil cousin casts a sleep spell on the incestuous sister, which was stupid because Elric wouldn’t be going after him again if he had saved his own cousin, just so he can have sex with her.
PLOT CONVENIENCE!
Elric cannot open the portal and thus, guess what, he again summons a god to do it.
DEUS EX MACHINA!
Once in the other dimension, Elric spends dozens on pages in fighting monsters and escaping death traps, and then reaches the swords at the exact same time his evil cousin did. How did the cousin pass through all the same monsters and traps although he’s a subpar warrior? With plot.
BAD WRITING!
Predictably, each of them grabs a sword and they have a duel. Elric wins and summons a god AGAIN to take them back home.
DEUS EX MACHINA!
Why didn’t Elric simply order the god to teleport the swords and his cousins right before him, without having to fly all the way there, lose his entire army, and almost die a dozen times by fighting in a different dimension? Because plot.
BAD WRITING!
After all this mess, Elric does not kill his evil cousin because he undoes the sleep spell on his incestuous wife. Something none of the thousands of gods he can summon could do for some reason. Teleporting you across dimensions is easy, waking you up is impossible.
BAD WRITING!
And thus the book ends happily with Elric making his evil cousin the new emperor and dumping his incestuous wife. I am not joking, that’s what he actually did. After all the shit he’s been through, he lets his archenemy to be the emperor and fuck his wife whom he loved more than anything in the world. The exact opposite of what he was striving for, since the day he came back to reclaim the throne.
BAD WRITING!
That’s what happens when you abuse divine intervention to the point the characters cease having free will. The protagonist needs to continue being a tragic figure in the following books, even if that requires from his actions making no sense. That’s what happens when you maintain the status quo by eradicating common sense. And that is Elric in a nutshell. Wonderful atmosphere, complete shit storytelling.
1 upvote for a lazy greek geek who doesn't want to pay taxes from one lazy Brit NEET who doesn't want to do boring work.