Review of Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock

Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The final (6th) book of the Elric Saga depicts the final battle between Law and Chaos. Stormbringer is Elric's evil sentient sword forged by Chaos to defeat Chaos and re-establish the Cosmic Balance between the two forces.

You can read this series out-of-order, though there's no point, since no book is much better than any of the others. This book is supposed to be the first full-length novel, but it still reads as a serial of four stories.

The entire series is well-written and enjoyable, but by the sixth novel, it got to be repetitive. I'd say you'd do just fine reading the first four, and then coming back to the final two much later. I read all six in a row (sort of, I'm always reading more than one book at a time), and the same thing did get tiring.

The story of Elric is severely tragic. No one is redeemed in any way, shape, or form. The ending is predictable, but that is by design. You are witnessing a slow motion train wreck where every triumph extracts a price not worth the admission.

All the main characters throughout the series are evil. The love interests are not, but it is also a very sexist story as there are no prominent female characters. If you are repelled by male-centric, then steer clear of these. Having said that, the female love interests are the only characters that are grounded and have any notion of common sense. And so, they have the common sense to stay out of the story. Their only mistake is that they love Elric, and have I said this is a tragedy? Of epic proportions? I sort of did?

Still, it's a good set of swords-and-sorcery yarns. And, in the end, Elric does end up doing the right thing. Or does he?




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