‘Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn’ – Michael Moorcock (Del Rey Books)

I don’t know an awful lot about art but I know what I like and the cover art for this latest Elric collection is gorgeous as far as I’m concerned! Detailed and intricate, this is Elric at his brooding and melancholy best with a definite ‘don’t mess me or my rune sword will eat your soul’ thing going on... There’s more of the same going on inside as well and it’s all good...

Michael Moorcock has been a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy since the nineteen sixties and this output includes tales of Elric, last Sorcerer King of Ancient Melnibone who labours under (and often rails against) his dependence on his rune sword, ‘Stormbringer’, and an unwanted destiny... Elric is by no means the original anti-hero but he’s not far off and his doom-laden quest, for meaning to his very existence, constantly forces him to battle evil wizards, dark monsters and the very Lords of Chaos themselves.

Elric’s quest as been well documented by Moorcock and therein lays the essential problem with this collection. If you’re a fan of Moorcock then it’s very likely that you will already have most (if not all) of these stories in other collections. ‘To Rescue Tanelorn’ is being marketed as one of a ‘definitive series’ of Elric collections and while it may indeed be ‘definitive’ that’s not really a lot of good if you already own a large portion of the content! I’m no great collector of Moorcock’s books (although that is starting to change) but even I had already previously read most of the stories in other editions of his work...
I guess the message here is to have a quick look over the contents page before deciding whether or not to buy... ‘To Rescue Tanelorn’ is worth a look though, for the casual reader, but more on that later on.

The mythos of the ‘Multiverse’, and the ‘Eternal Champion’ who fights to preserve balance between Law and Chaos, underpins most (if not all) of Moorcock’s sci-fi and fantasy work. Elric is the most well known incarnation of the ‘Eternal Champion’, hence the collection of his tales, but he’s not the only one and Moorcock gives the reader a taste of other incarnations including Rackhir, Erekose, Jerry Cornelius and Earl Aubec. While this makes the book appear to be slightly misleading in its aim as an Elric collection, it does give the reader a more rounded perspective of the Eternal Champion as an entity in it’s own right. There’s certainly an interesting contrast between Erekose, who is fully aware of his situation, and Elric who is the unwitting catalyst for events beyond his imagination and control.
The stories themselves are a mixed bag, both in content and how I felt about them after I’d finished reading. The straight ‘Sword and Sorcery’ tales of Elric (and the ‘Eternal Champion’ novella featuring Erekose) are glorious pulp affairs full of flashing blades, beautiful women and dark villains. The ‘pulp approach’ can be deceptive though as Moorcock displays a tendency towards thoughtfulness about the nature of true evil and constantly seeks to link each story with his wider mythology. ‘The Eternal Champion’ places Erekose in a world where humanity, as a whole, is a force for evil and Elric’s adventures constantly take him outside the world that he knows onto the ‘Moonbeam Path’ between dimensions.

The character of Jerry Cornelius is one that I’ve heard much of but never actually read anything with him in it.This changed with my reading ‘Phase 1’, a tale of Cornelius’ return to the family mansion and a feud with his brother. There’s much to like here, especially the cool ‘late sixties/early seventies alternative vibe’, but ‘Phase 1’ ultimately reads like a present day re-telling of Elric’s sacking of the ‘Dreaming City’ of Imyrr. I think this was probably the intention, as it indicates parallels between aspects of the Eternal Champion, but the parallels ran a little too close for me and I think I would have preferred to see another Jerry Cornelius story in the place of ‘Phase 1’.

The tales of ‘Rackhir the Red’ are fun but don’t seem to do an awful lot more than that. It’s the Elric stories that the reader has come for and this is where the excitement is to be had...

The selection in ‘To Rescue Tanelorn’ shows how Elric has developed from the nineteen sixties up to the present day and also how Moorcock has developed in the themes he is tackling as a writer.
‘The Last Enchantment’ is a dark and sinister pulp tale from 1962 where, even then, Moorcock was introducing elements of philosophy that added a greater depth. It’s taken me a long while to get my head around this story and I suspect that I’m due at least a couple more re-reads before I’m completely satisfied. I still wouldn’t want to meet the ‘Hungry Whisperers’ though!
Moorcock is not above a little self parody and Carthaz’ condition in ‘The Stone Thing’ is a timely reminder that the Fantasy Genre is (or maybe ‘was’ at the time) in danger of devouring itself in cliché if it’s not careful. My favourite story, in the collection, is ‘Elric at the End of Time’. The title pretty much tells the tale but it’s great to meet the denizens of the ‘End of Time’ and their ‘comedy of errors’ style quest for the alleviation of boredom and the entertaining of unexpected guests. The hint of a twist in the tale, right at the very end, is definite food for thought for any Moorcock fan...

‘Crimson Eyes’ and ‘Sir Milk and Blood’ can be found in the ‘Metatemporal Detective’ collection but serve a purpose here by showing another side to Elric (as Count Zenith) and also Moorcock’s return to his ‘noir roots’. You should get hold of ‘The Metatemporal Detective’ if you want more of the same...

‘To Rescue Tanelorn’ offers nothing new at all to Moorcock fans, in terms of the stories within, but does paint an interesting picture of Elric as a part of the Eternal Champion as a whole. I’d say the collection is of more use to the casual reader or someone looking to read about Elric for the first time. There’s plenty to get stuck into and, for the most part, it’s all good...

Nine out of Ten