Anyone here a Michael Moorcock fan?

[Mouse]

It's just that the "Elric" books seemed to me to be Conan the Barbarian on acid and I quickly tired of the cod-metaphysical aspects of the "tortured hero". I much prefer the other incarnations of the Eternal Champion, but as I always say, the world would be a boring place if everyone had the same taste

BTW, has anyone else read "The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century". That is one wierd book [img]graemlins/crazyeyes.gif[/img]

[imperial dwarf]

Originally posted by Mouse: It's just that the "Elric" books seemed to me to be Conan the Barbarian on acid and I quickly tired of the cod-metaphysical aspects of the "tortured hero". I much prefer the other incarnations of the Eternal Champion, but as I always say, the world would be a boring place if everyone had the same taste BTW, has anyone else read "The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century". That is one wierd book [img]graemlins/crazyeyes.gif[/img]

Well, in fact Elric IS Conan on acid. Originaly Moorcock was to write a Conan story, that got dumped, and he decided to have a negative Conan (in the mathematical sense [img]smile.gif[/img] ).

Da tovarish, o vkusach ne sporjat. However, that shouldn't prevent us from talking as I even share some of your feelings. The whole Elric is a bit much, but if you spread it over two or three months... [img]graemlins/bonghit.gif[/img]

btw, as English's still a foreign language to me, could you please explain what cod-metaphysical means. Dictionary's not really helpful as it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

[Mouse]

Originally posted by imperial dwarf: btw, as English's still a foreign language to me, could you please explain what cod-metaphysical means. Dictionary's not really helpful as it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

It's slightly dismissive prefix that can be attached to another word. In meaning it has much the same effect as if I had used the phrase pseudo-metaphysical. What I was trying to convey was that though some of the musings and statements from the "Elric" books seem at first readings to be profound, a lot of them are, on closer inspection, shallow aphorisms. For really bad cod-metaphysics, see R.A. Salvatore's pearls of wisdom at the end of chapters in the Drizzt books.

Btw, Your English is a lot better than my German, and I can understand how you might have become confused by that phrase. As you now know, it has nothing to do with fish [img]graemlins/troutslap.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Memnoch]

Just reviving this thread again to report that I've finally bought a couple of Elric omnibuses: Elric, Song of the Black Sword and Elric. This is what they contain:

Elric, Song of the Black Sword
Elric of Melnibone
The Fortress of the Pearl
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Dreaming City
While the Gods Laugh
The Singing Citadel

Elric
The Dreaming City
While The Gods Laugh
The Stealer of Souls
Kings In Darkness
The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams
Stormbringer

As you can see a couple of the books overlap (Dreaming City, While the Gods Laugh).

Is the above sequence the right order to read the books? And where does the Singing Citadel fit in...before The Stealer of Souls?