The first thing you need to do when writing a Michael Moorcock sword and sorcery novella is divide your 60,000 words into four sections, 15,000 words apiece. Then divide each section into six chapters. Allow a major event to happen, something astonishing, every four pages. How about a plot? How about we have only six days to save the Multiverse? Now draw a map of your world so you know where you are at any given time. Now begin...

Sounds easy, right? Well, maybe for Moorcock. Seriously the major weakness with some of Moorcock is seeing through the planogram writing style. It still doesn't mean it isn't fun but Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, Von Bek taken in too large doses will kill the intended effect. This is the good and the bad about these White Wolf/Borealis collections of Moorcock's Eternal Champion works: too much of a good thing makes one's stomach ache but we all want the whole story.

The best bit in here is The Revenge of the Rose. The other two long pieces, The Sleeping Sorceress and Stormbringer, are not nearly as good or memorable. The former is too much of the "make it up as you go" style and the latter, while nicely tying up the entire Elric saga, drags on a little too long (but has a nice denouement). The short pieces in the middle gain from the tighter plotting inherent in a short story versus a novella.

This is volume 11 in the US Eternal Champion series. I think [b:Elric: Song of the Black Sword|60145|Elric Song of the Black Sword (Eternal Champion, #5)|Michael Moorcock|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386923659s/60145.jpg|58518] (volume 5) was a little stronger than this one but between the two you pretty much get all of Moorcock's Elric, at least as it stood at the end of the century.

Bizarre creepy cover and interior art that seems to have little to do with Elric but looks cool nonetheless. ( )

The first of four volumes republishing the stories of Elric in the order of their publication rather than a chronilogical order - which I think is what was attempted in the novelizations from the '70s that I read the first time (starting with Elric of Melnibone and ending with Stormbringer).
Most interesting, I thought, about this edition is the additional materials that were included. Two of them are explanitory letters written at the same time as the stories, roughly. Seeing them in the published context chronilogically is also very interesting as this shows how Moorcock's ideas evolved over time and as he fleshed out the material.
Recommended if you like classic Sword and Sorcery novels in the vein of Fritz Leiber. ( )

As I expected, as this is a collection of five different books/novellas, it is uneven in quality. By far, the most enjoyable story was "The Stealer of Souls", which is the simplest as well as the earliest one. There are also a few truly memorable moments from the rest of the stories -personally, I think the Gypsy Road from "The Revenge of the Rose" was brilliant. As for the rest, Moorcock crams too much stuff everywhere, which makes the stories lose momentum and interest. This being my first Michael Moorcock book, I'm sad to say that, overall, I was disappointed. ( )

This, combined with Elric: The Song of the Black Sword, is just one of many ways to read the core books of the Elric saga. These two omnibuses were published by White Wolf, Inc. in the 1990's. "White Wolf" is actually named after Elric himself, as it turns out, that being one of his many nicknames.

This particular volume includes these Elric books:

#4, The Sleeping Sorceress, aka The Vanishing Tower
#9, The Revenge of the Rose
#5, The Bane of the Black Sword
#6, Stormbringer.

Books #1-3 and #8 are found in the first omnibus.

Honestly, the core books to me are the first six in the regular paperback series. The seventh was a collection of odds and ends, while the 8th and 9th were strange returns to Melniboné that Moorcock wrote years later. The Revenge of the Rose is included here, and is worth reading. Unfortunately, due to being written some 30ish years later, the flow is thrown off when one wedges that between books 4 and 5. It seems to be reset then when one gets back into 5. Ideally, the best way to read the series might be by going the SFBC way of the four volume The Elric Saga which puts them out in a more linear order. The first two volumes of that would then be the core series.

That said, this was a very enjoyable read. Elric isn't pretty, and he isn't always nice. He's something of a bastard at times, mostly by necessity. And his sword, Stormbringer, is as wicked evil as a weapon gets. It's one feisty bitch and even when Elric tries to do the right thing, sometimes this sword has a way of changing the game.

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The Vanishing Tower: http://www.librarything.com/review/25465912
The Bane of the Black Sword: http://www.librarything.com/review/25447673
Stormbringer: http://www.librarything.com/review/25447639
Revenge of the Rose: ( )