Daughter, Skrayling, Wolf's Son

[Perssonicus]

Greetings everyone:

Was I the only one left flat by the three latest books of the Elric saga?

For me, the tale of the von Beks and their offspring just really never "got" me like the original Elric books, or even "Revenge of the Rose". Even though Elric is involved, it shows so little of his own character (and furthermore relegates to such a minor role the most intriguing element of his tale, Stormbringer) that the three books should have been listed and marketed as furtherances of the von Beks and have left out the bait of Elric.

"Skrayling" was probably the worst Moorcock I ever read, and I actually got through the retarded Jesus/Cross book [Behold the Man?] years and years ago.

This doesn't mean, though, that the next time a Moorcock book hits the shelves that I won't buy it and devour it hoping for another Corum or Hawkmoon or Elric saga true to the original stories or styles.

 

[j d worthington]

I'll admit to not yet having read the last two (though I did read Dream Thief's Daughter shortly after it was released in the UK). However, I did always look at them as Von Bek books ... I think the marketing people, however, looked at Elric as Moorcock's best-known creation -- hence the slant. (Not the first time that's happened; Moorcock was not happy with King of the City being touted as a sequel to Mother London, for instance; rightly so.) As I've not read them, I can't give you my opinion on those particularly ones, only on the one I have read ... and there I disagree ... partially.

For one thing, I think the Elric books and the Von Bek series (which are quite variegated, from the largely straightforward fantasy of The War Hound and the World's Pain to the contemporary non-fantasy of The Brothel in Rosenstrasse to the stories in London Bone) are vastly different in approach and tone, though often concerned with the same issues (or at least some of the same issues; there are differences). So to approach them as Elric books is to have false expectations -- in this case, not the readers' fault, but that of the marketing people. Nonetheless, it most likely generates disappointed expectations.

I personally quite like the Von Bek books (though my first reading of The City in the Autumn Stars left me rather cold, upon a rereading I find I quite like it -- again, I was expecting something different); they often have some of Moorcock's best writing (most polished, lyrical, and precisely honed to what he's aiming at) and have a maturity of technique that the Elric books, as much as I love them, often lack. (Not surprisingly, as the bulk of the material in those were written during Moorcock's earlier career, with the exception of such as The Fortress of the Pearl and The Revenge of the Rose.) But then, for all its flaws, I also quite like Behold the Man -- though I think even there the second Glogauer book, Breakfast in the Ruins, has much better writing and is considerably more complex and challenging; Behold the Man is a bit too much like Glogauer himself: a bit histrionic. Fitting for the subject matter, but -- like the Pyat books -- the style, reflecting the character, can get on the nerves a bit.

In the end, it may simply be a preference for one type of voice that Moorcock uses, as opposed to another. Over the years of reading his work (gulp! I just realized I've been reading this man's stuff for 32 years! ) I've come to relish the differences in his authorial voices/tones, and the differing approaches; I don't know if that's applicable here or not; but judging from what you say above, it may be.

So, while I'd say that as an Elric book, it would be rather flat, as a book in which Elric is a (but not the main) character (or focus), it (Dream Thief's Daughter) succeeds quite well. At the moment, I'm assuming that's the case with the other two, until I have a chance to get to them.

 

[Blue Tyson]

Not bad, that is about what I'd have to say. Read The Skrayling Tree the other day, it was ok.

King of the City I have borrowed too, would put that worst ahead of the above, pretty easily.