The Essential Moorecock

[Darth Shoju]

So, the thread of Tolkien v.s. Moorecock got closed before anyone could recommend a "Moorecock Primer" for me. I'm looking for a sampling of his works (a few books) to read and see if I'd be interested in consuming more. I'd definately like to cover some Elric books, but what else is good?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Storm Raven]

So, the thread of Tolkien v.s. Moorecock got closed before anyone could recommend a "Moorecock Primer" for me. I'm looking for a sampling of his works (a few books) to read and see if I'd be interested in consuming more. I'd definately like to cover some Elric books, but what else is good?

Thanks in advance for the help!

The Elric books are his most famous (The Stealer of Souls, Stormbringer, Elric of Melniboné, The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate, and The Vanishing Tower).

His other Eternal Champion books are pretty good: I think the Corum Series (The Knight of the Swords, The Queen of the Swords, The King of the Swords, The Bull and the Spear, The Oak and the Ram, and The Sword and the Stallion) is better than the Elric series, but that is just a personal preference, others disagree. The Hawkmoon series (The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God's Amulet, The Sword of the Dawn, The Runestaff, Count Brass, The Champion of Garathorm, and The Quest for Tanelorn) is also good, notable for taking place on a postapocalyptic fantasy Earth. The John Daker series ties the whole Eternal Champion sequence together (The Eternal Champion, Phoenix in Obsidian, and The Dragon in the Sword).

His best standalone books are probably Behold the Man, and Gloriana.

He has written dozens of other books, including books about other Eternal Champions (von Bek, Jerry Cornelius, and so on), and a number of standalone works.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Beware that many of Moorcock's later works are incoherent. I mean that literally.

I do, however, like the book Fortress of the Pearl (a late Elric add-on) far more than I probably should.

 

[Rackhir]

Avoid the Cornelius Chronicles like the plague. It starts out as a retread of the Elric Books and degenerates in to simple and utter incoherency.

The War Hound and the World's Pain is very good.

Personally, I would skip "The Quest for Tanelorn" (the last of the Hawkmoon Books) as it kind of trashes the endings of a bunch of the other books.

 

[buzzard]

I second the reccomendation of the Corum series. I found that to be the best of his works. I also strongly second avoiding the Cornerlius Chronicles like the plague. I want the braincells back that comitted suicide after I tried to read that dreck.

buzzard

 

[Wombat]

I would love to take the first (in order he wrote them) six Elric books, edit them, cut them down to about 300 pages, and publish it.

There is so much that is repetitive and doesn't contribue to his overall vision that it drive me crazy.

I would ignore most of the non-Elric books, as they feel merely like Elric-done-again-often-with-precisely-the-same-plot.

 

[Mallus]

Am I the only person around here that kinda liked the Jerry Cornelius books? They're... ambitious, if nothing else.

Of his pure fantasy output, I actually like the first three Corum novels slightly better that the Elric books, but I prefer fantasy novels over short stories (only Stormbringer is a proper novel. The rest are short story/novella compilations). So I'd start there.

 

[Mark Hope]

So, the thread of Tolkien v.s. Moorecock got closed before anyone could recommend a "Moorecock Primer" for me. I'm looking for a sampling of his works (a few books) to read and see if I'd be interested in consuming more. I'd definately like to cover some Elric books, but what else is good?

Thanks in advance for the help!

I had written a long, comprehensive post answering your questions (complete with links and everything!), but the thread had already been closed when I hit submit .

I was able to copy/paste the post and sent you an email through your Enworld profile, but I'm guessing that you never got it. Ho hum. Have a look and see if you can find it - otherwise I'll see if I can motivate myself to write it all again, lol...

In short, I agree with some of what is above (Warhound and the World's Pain is excellent, the Elric books are wonderful, as are the Corum; also check out Gloriana and Behold the Man) and disagree with some other stuff (his more recent books are more experimental and quite unlike many other authors, but I still really like them). It's all pretty subjective at the end of the day, though, so there's no hard and fast answer. Dive in with Elric of Melnibone or Warhound... and see what you think, or check something more literary like Gloriana or London Bone.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I liked War Hound etc, and Elric was okay when I read it.

A recent one, The Dreamthief's Daughter, was okay until the end, when the author took all of my goodwill, jumped up and down on it, used it to clean up a mess, and tossed it out the window. I'm not about to pick up another of his books ever again.

Brad

 

[trancejeremy]

Most of the Elric stuff is pretty good. The first set of Corum is pretty good. Hawkmoon is decent.

I liked the Jerry Cornelius stuff, but it's kinda weird. And much like the Illuminatus stuff by Wilson, not nearly as funny as the author thought it was. But okay.