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A review by seanwpace
Elric: The Stealer of Souls by Michael Moorcock
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to give Moorcock a chance and my library had this so it seemed like as good a place to start as any.
To echo what other people have said, these are among Moorcock's earliest stories, so they can be a little rough, but you can tell even from here that there is a strong foundation. The first half, in particular, isn't very strong, but there is noticeable improvement in the Stormbringer half. There are some unfortunate instances of Men Writing Women as Moorcock was in his early 20s and writing in the landscape of '60s short fiction. But I hear his women characters and treatment of them gets better as time goes on.
I find the character of Elric and the setting to be very intriguing, and if it can only get better from here, I will be reading more. I will say, though, that reading this particular collection has complicated my plan for reading the rest of the series since it jumps around the chronology and collects stories that are grouped very differently in other publications. But it hasn't deterred me.
To echo what other people have said, these are among Moorcock's earliest stories, so they can be a little rough, but you can tell even from here that there is a strong foundation. The first half, in particular, isn't very strong, but there is noticeable improvement in the Stormbringer half. There are some unfortunate instances of Men Writing Women as Moorcock was in his early 20s and writing in the landscape of '60s short fiction. But I hear his women characters and treatment of them gets better as time goes on.
I find the character of Elric and the setting to be very intriguing, and if it can only get better from here, I will be reading more. I will say, though, that reading this particular collection has complicated my plan for reading the rest of the series since it jumps around the chronology and collects stories that are grouped very differently in other publications. But it hasn't deterred me.