Elric_ The Sleeping Sorceress - Michael Moorcock [0]
Title Page
Foreword by Holly Black
Introduction
THE SLEEPING SORCERESS
BOOK ONE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
BOOK TWO
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
BOOK THREE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
AND SO THE GREAT EMPEROR RECEIVED HIS EDUCATION
ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ
Prologue
BOOK ONE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
BOOK TWO
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
BOOK THREE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Epilogue
ASPECTS OF FANTASY (1)
Introduction
ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ: INTRODUCTION TO THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION
Introduction
EL CID AND ELRIC: UNDER THE INFLUENCE!
ORIGINS
About the Author
Also by Michael Moorcock
Copyright
If there’s a Valhalla, where you’ll find old editors who died in harness, I hope Ted Carnell, Larry Shaw, Don Wollheim, Michael Dempsey, and John Blackwell are having a very good time there. They are a few of the great editors who have helped me in my career.
ELRIC
THE SLEEPING SORCERESS
FOREWORD
by Holly Black
A boyfriend in high school recommended the Elric books to me. He was in a private school about an hour away, and we were doing that thing where you judge the entire future of the relationship by one single representative book choice.
I remember opening the books for the first time (they were the fat Science Fiction Book Club editions with the gorgeous Robert Gould covers) and poring over the pages as if hypnotized. Before Elric, my idea of a fantasy-novel hero was a strapping fellow who rose from simple circumstances to lofty heights. Elric was decadent, sickly, and doomed. I loved him instantly. I loved that Elric suffered, loved his milk-white hair and moody crimson eyes, loved that he was probably a bad boyfriend but a good king. He was tragic and I was hungry for tragedy.
The images that affected me the most deeply were Moorcock’s descriptions of the Melnibonéan court in decline. There, in the dreaming city of Imrryr, are singers whose throats have been tortured so that each may produce one perfect haunting note. This told me something about Melniboné, something that I knew in my bones was true of Elfland and all worthy fantasy places, that their beauty entices you into terrible danger. And it told me everything about Melnibonéan culture—that a moment of perfection was worth any amount of cruelty. Just as the black blade Stormbringer told me something true about how the very thing that gives you strength and power may eat you away from the inside.
Those were good things for me to think about as a young writer.
When I met Michael and his charming wife, Linda, at a fantasy convention in Austin, Texas, we sat at a table in the bar, and Michael cheerfully recounted a horrific toe surgery. He is as skilled a raconteur as he is a writer, and soon more and more people crowded around, drawn in by the tale. When Michael and his wife left, we authors clutched each other’s arms. That was Michael Moorcock, we said to one another, grinning like fools.
I envy you who are about to read these books for the first time. Not only did they change the genre, they influenced a generation of dreamers.
As for the high school boyfriend I was judging based on his book recommendation? What else could I do? Reader, I married him.
ELRIC
THE SLEEPING SORCERESS
INTRODUCTION
By 1970 the Elric stories had become so popular that I was under considerable pressure from publishers to produce more. Given that I had killed Elric off in Stormbringer, all I could do was offer the public a prequel or two, drawing on events preceding the first magazine story (“The Dreaming City”) or taking place between events published in The Stealer of Souls.
The first