Elric of Melniboné: Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf

Michael Moorcock

Feb 2022 · RB Media · Narrated by Samuel Roukin

4.8

12 reviews

Audiobook

24 hr 13 min

Unabridged

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About this audiobook

From World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Moorcock comes the first volume in his Elric of Melniboné series.

It is one of the most well-known and well-loved fantasy epics of the twentieth century: the story of Elric, emperor of the dying kingdom of Melniboné. For a hundred centuries the Melnibonéans have ruled from the Dragon Isle of Imrryr.

Now, after years of corruption and decadence, Elric’s amoral cousin Prince Yyrkoon, the brother of his beloved Cymoril, sets his eyes on the Ruby Throne.

Elric must face his treacherous cousin not as a warrior but as a sorcerer king once again in league with the ancient gods of Melniboné, the Chaos Lords, and thus sealing his inexorable fate.

Elric of Melniboné is the first volume in Michael Moorcock’s incredible chronicle, which created fantasy archetypes that have echoed through the genre for generations.

Volume one of the Elric Saga contains the first novels in the series: Elric of Melniboné, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf.

Ratings and reviews

4.8

12 reviews

Jon Hadley

January 13, 2023

barely competent fantasy. the prose is cumbersome. the main character is wish fulfillment. moves very slowly. it's pretty average, not sure why this is considered important in the d&d world.

Adam A

August 16, 2023

I'm an old fan of Moorcock's Elric stories, though it had been decades since I'd read them. This audiobook is a great way to revisit these already familiar stories without interrupting my current reading diet. Samuel Roukin does a great job narrating and breathing a little bit of extra life into the stories' many characters. Particularly on the Fortress of the Pearl story. Really excellent work there. If you're in the mood to listen to a good sword and sorcery epic in the way of the Odyssey, these stories are a great start. So much work of modern fantasy writers have drunk deeply of Michael Moorcock's Elric saga, you can draw direct parallels from the very first chapter of Elric of Melnibone to their work. Highly recommended.

Michelle H.

February 27, 2022

Excellent narration! Finally, an audiobook recording of Moorcock's best sword and sorcery. I pre-ordered these tales as soon as I saw they were coming into Google play books, an early Christmas present for myself.

About the author

Michael Moorcock, 1939 - Writer Michael Moorcock was born December 18, 1939 in Mitcham, Surrey, England. Moorcock was the editor of the juvenile magazine Tarzan Adventures from 1956-58, an editor and writer for the Sexton Blake Library and for comic strips and children's annuals from 1959-61, an editor and pamphleteer for Liberal Party in 1962, and became editor and publisher for the science fiction magazine New Worlds in 1964. He has worked as a singer-guitarist, has worked with the rock bands Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult and is a member of the rock band Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix. Moorcock's writing covers a wide range of science fiction and fantasy genres. "The Chronicles of Castle Brass" was a sword and sorcery novel, and "Breakfast in the Ruins: A Novel of Inhumanity" uses the character Karl Glogauer as a different person in different times. Karl participates in the political violence of the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, and a Nazi concentration camp. Moorcock also wrote books and stories that featured the character Jerry Cornelius, who had no consistent character or appearance. "The Condition of Muzak" completed the initial Jerry Cornelius tetralogy and won Guardian Literary Prize in 1977. "Byzantium Endures" and "The Laughter of Carthage" are two autobiographical novels of the Russian emigre Colonel Pyat and were the closest Moorcock came to conventional literary fiction. "Byzantium Endures" focuses on the first twenty years of Pyat's life and tells of his role in the Russian revolution. Pyat survives the revolution and the subsequent civil war by working first for one side and then another. "The Laughter of Carthage" covers Pyat's life from 1920-1924 telling of his escape from Communist Russia and his travels in Europe and America. It's a sweeping picture of the world during the 1920's because it takes the character from living in Constantinople to Hollywood. Moorcock returned to the New Wave style in "Blood: A Southern Fantasy" (1994) and combined mainstream fiction with fantasy in "The Brothel of Rosenstrasse," which is set in the imaginary city of Mirenburg. MoorCock won the 1967 Nebula Award for Behold the Man and the 1979 World Fantasy Award for his novel, Gloriana. Neil Gaiman was born in Portchester, England on November 10, 1960. He worked as a journalist and freelance writer for a time, before deciding to try his hand at comic books. Some of his work has appeared in publications such as Time Out, The Sunday Times, Punch, and The Observer. His first comic endeavor was the graphic novel series The Sandman. The series has won every major industry award including nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, three Harvey Awards, and the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short story, making it the first comic ever to win a literary award. He writes both children and adult books. His adult books include The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which won a British National Book Awards, and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel for 2014; Stardust, which won the Mythopoeic Award as best novel for adults in 1999; American Gods, which won the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX, and Locus awards; Anansi Boys; Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances; and The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction, which is a New York Times Bestseller. His children's books include The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish; Coraline, which won the Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla, the BSFA, the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Bram Stoker awards; The Wolves in the Walls; Odd and the Frost Giants; The Graveyard Book, which won the Newbery Award in 2009 and The Sandman: Overture which won the 2016 Hugo Awards Best Graphic Story.

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