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A review by tobin_elliott
The White Wolf by Michael Moorcock
Did not finish book. Stopped at 104%.
I don't rate DNFs, and typically, I don't say a lot about them, but...this is freakin' ELRIC!
I loved the first two books in this saga, but this third one? It's just...awful.
There's three complete novels here, each with only glancing nods to Elric himself. There's basically a bunch of Elric avatars, and Moorcock gleefully dives into this dreamworld (major strike one for me), and then mixes up, over the three stories, a gumbo of Nazis, Indigenous people, Melniboneans, and god knows what else. He appeared to be riffing on Alice in Wonderland a bit in the third novel before I abandoned the entire enterprise.
Look, I get that Elric pops up all over the place, and he has avatars up the yinyang, but this stuff? It seems to be more of a platform for Moorcock to pontificate on various things, or tie himself in knots trying to create some logic out of this bent up multiverse he keeps growing.
I love Elric, he's likely my favourite fantasy character ever. But dammit, it feels sometimes like Moorcock's just intent on hammering him into the ground.
My advice? Pick up the first two in this Elric Saga, then somehow convince yourself this third one doesn't exist.
Trust me, you'll die happier.
I loved the first two books in this saga, but this third one? It's just...awful.
There's three complete novels here, each with only glancing nods to Elric himself. There's basically a bunch of Elric avatars, and Moorcock gleefully dives into this dreamworld (major strike one for me), and then mixes up, over the three stories, a gumbo of Nazis, Indigenous people, Melniboneans, and god knows what else. He appeared to be riffing on Alice in Wonderland a bit in the third novel before I abandoned the entire enterprise.
Look, I get that Elric pops up all over the place, and he has avatars up the yinyang, but this stuff? It seems to be more of a platform for Moorcock to pontificate on various things, or tie himself in knots trying to create some logic out of this bent up multiverse he keeps growing.
I love Elric, he's likely my favourite fantasy character ever. But dammit, it feels sometimes like Moorcock's just intent on hammering him into the ground.
My advice? Pick up the first two in this Elric Saga, then somehow convince yourself this third one doesn't exist.
Trust me, you'll die happier.