Elric travels to the other side of the world and I mean literally the back side of what they call the World Egg, the “World Below”, chasing rumours that there are ancient Melniboneans living there. So, the three stories see Elric again united with his favourite sidekick Moonglum, always a fun time. It is the third part of this book that is the odd one out, in the sense that it is much longer and written in a different style. Moreover, the two novellas are set somewhere around the time of the fifth book, The Bane of the Black Sword (1977), so that all fits together very neatly in style and chronology. And, while those two earlier novellas were first published in 20 in anthologies, they are written in a style that hews close to Moorcock’s style from the 1970s. The three novellas that make up the three parts of this book are still separate adventures, and an Elric novel consisting of three parts is very much in style with the old Elric books from the 1970s. Let me just rework them a bit and then add a third novella to round it off and then we fix it all up into a new novel.”
Moorcock probably answered something to the effect of: “Sure, I have these two old novellas lying around of Elrics earlier adventures. Saga Press had just released three fat Elric omnibus editions (reviews here and here), and my guess is that the publishers asked Moorcock to give them some new material to publish in the wake of these rereleases. The timing and release of this publication is very calculated. It is 2022 and Michael Moorcock returns to his most popular creation, Elric, to give us a new and probably last ever novel of the sword and sorcery hero. I hope Moorcock isn’t don’t with these character, would love to come back to more if ever given a chance.7/10 for the first two parts, 4/10 of the third part. Despite what the book details state, this actually takes place after Elric is betrothed to Zarozinia, so not between books 1 and 2. and only allude to it in the epilogue? Certainly takes the “weird” of the white wolf to a totally new level. For example, where did this “despair” come from that one character in part 1 that is only alluded to in the interlude between parts 1 and 2? And does Elric…really do *that* with E.M.
While I did enjoy this book overall and am grateful Elric is still getting new content after over 50 years, there are a few issues I have with the writing. The performance of Samuel Roukin has been fantastic throughout this series. (The review title makes much more sense in context after listening to this.) Mind you I’m coming off a binge listening to the entire series as opposed to someone who read Elric over the years and decades.
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