The Bane of the Black Sword by Michael MoorcockMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This latest installment (5th) of the Elric Saga has him vanquishing and old foe and fighting for the survival of a city outside the ream of the Lords of Chaos and Law.
This book is good, but it is more of the same (see my earlier Elric reviews). That's not to say it's any worse, it's just that it isn't any better, or different. Hence I still give it 4 out of 5 stars, just don't expect anything different here.
Elric must travel to different reals, an evil forest, an incompetent citadel, and many planes of existence, including the insufferably boring Plane of Law. He is sorcerer, which means the spells he casts are petitions to his patron, the elementals, and other gods to help him out, usually to smite his enemies. He also carries a sword that steals souls and powers him to mow down many opponents at a time, so that also helps. He has a wife and has settled down, but he really can't because he, she, and everyone he loves is always in danger.
I have hopes for the next book, Stormbringer, for while the first five books are serialized short stories, I understand the sixth (and supposedly final, but not) to be a full-length novel (well, a short one, but purported to be a novel nonetheless; we shall see).
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