The Citadel of Forgotten Myths by Michael MoorcockMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This installment of Elric the Eternal Champion is divided into three (3) parts, beginning with two previously published short novellas and a fairly short novel for the second half of the book for a total of just over 300 pages. I must admit the author does much better in short form that when he has the space to draw out the story … so the beginning was a lot more fun than the last part, which was much slower, but still much better than what I encountered in the White Wolf Saga).
As stated in the blurb, these stories are set during Elric’s “early wandering” years, so the style is very much as familiar as I remembered when I started this series several decades past (points for nostalgia). The best part here is, by far, the continued world building as Elric seeks clues from the past in the “World Below” that would help him (and the reader) better understand the rise of the Melniboné Empire and the dragons that made her great. The main story sets up an interesting dichotomy between the Servants of Chaos (Elric and his kin) and the related Servants of Law (distant “ amazonian” — aka all women — cousins in the World Below). There are a few obvious masculine fantasy tropes here that may not play well to all audiences, but I found it amusing enough to roll with it.
The main story was on track for a solid 4; but it falls back at the end into a rather confused morass of over the top pretty prose (taking pages to describe what should have been a paragraph). This might be because the story was actually written earlier in pieces and stitched together in a novel later (and it does show) or it might be the tendency of an author late in his career who becomes enamored with his own voice and tends to repeat himself ... a lot. Regardless, I just can’t quite leave this one at a 4.
Book 1: How Elric Pursued His Weird into the Far World
Book 2: How Elric Discovered an Unpleasant Kinship
Book 3: In Which Our Heroes Discover a Lost Past
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Book 1: How Elric Pursued His Weird into the Far World
Book 2: How Elric Discovered an Unpleasant Kinship
Book 3: In Which Our Heroes Discover a Lost Past
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
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