The Stealer of Souls

The Elric Saga #3-5

by Michael Moorcock, Bob Haberfield (Illustrator)

Mighty Elric... Mightier Sword!

Elric-
the most unusual hero in the great tradition of heroic fantasy.
Elric-
the albino sorcerer and battle-thirsty prince.
Elric-
doomed beyond hope to wander a world of barbarism and treachery.
Elric-
seeker of impossible goals, fighter of remorseless battles, embittered poet.
Elric-
held in th egrip of his own sword, the enchanted Stormbringer.
Elric-
Moorcock's mightiest creation!


The stories which appear in The Stealer of Souls and those which appear in The Singing Citadel were combined and re-ordered by the author to form the two new collections: The Weird of the White Wolf (Book 3 of the Elric Saga) and The Bane of the Black Sword (Book 5 of the Elric Saga).

Contents
•9 • The Dreaming City • [The Elric Saga] • (1961) • novelette by Michael Moorcock
•40 • While the Gods Laugh • [The Elric Saga] • (1961) • novelette by Michael Moorcock
•73 • The Stealer of Souls • [The Elric Saga] • (1962) • novelette by Michael Moorcock
•114 • Kings in Darkness • [The Elric Saga] • (1962) • novelette by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn [as by Michael Moorcock ]
•144 • The Flame Bringers • [The Elric Saga] • (1962) • shortstory by Michael Moorcock

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Sword and Sorcery, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels

173 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.

Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.

During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not so much finished it, but more, finished with it. The character Elric carries a lot of gravitas in the grognard community, I can see why, but really, like many things grognard, it's overrated for nostalgia purposes.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects the first five short stories which Moorcock wrote about Elric. The Elric series is a bit of a sprawling confusing mass, with stories being slotted in here and there and being rewritten. I have read several Elric novels, though not in the correct order, and really I don’t find it matters much.

These are similar to those but a lot more simplistic, short and punchy with some fantastic settings and action. Very cartoonish in a sense, not that that is a bad thing. They maintain a fast and relentless pace and it’s interesting to see how Elric first emerged.

Probably wouldn’t recommend reading unless you particularly like Moorcock and the Elric series. If so, add this to your collection!

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Moorcock may be one of the biggest names in British fantasy, but his early work in the Elric saga is appealingly rough. "The Stealer of Souls," the first collection of Elric stories, reads like exactly what it is: half Lovecraft, half Conan. It's clear when reading how much the Elric mythos influenced the early days of Dungeons and Dragons. As someone who's played casually for years, I kept finding myself saying "hey, I recognize that idea" when familiar campaign settings or enemies showed up.

[Bob Frantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. not as much as conan but it was a good read

[Arn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite enjoyable, well written, even if stories a little formulaic

[Roddy Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this Fantasy? Is it Science Fantasy? Is it SF? Is it any good?
Well, it isn’t SF, but it is good. There was a time (on another Earth maybe) when the shelves of the SF section of WH Smith were full of brightly coloured Mayflower paperbacks with MOORCOCK emblazoned in large (mostly yellow) letters near the top of the cover under the reasonably subtle legend ‘Mayflower Science Fantasy’. I can’t recall another genre author, apart from Asimov, who could be trusted to sell books on the strength of his surname alone.
Moorcock created the Multiverse, an infinity of worlds and ages between which there was occasional traffic. In each world was born again and again the same soul, the Champion Eternal (and his occasional companion) who could just as easily exist in a SF setting, or a surreal experimental work, or one of pure fantasy. One could argue that the Multiverse was a metaphor for the genre itself, where the same stereotype of a hero is often rewritten in different ages and settings.
Elric is an incarnation of the Champion Eternal, and was arguably one of the first real genre antiheroes.
A weak albino Prince and sorcerer, he is reliant on the powers of a semi-sentient black sword with whom he exists in an uneasy symbiotic relationship. In return for endowing Elric with strength and vigour, the ‘hell-forged sword’, Stormbringer: The Stealer of Souls, feeds on the souls of his victims, sometimes without even consulting Elric as to whether he wants these people killed.
Elric, of course, is hooked, and so begins a series of quite extraordinary books.
Being a creation of the Nineteen Sixties, Elric could quite easily be seen as a tragic addict with Stormbringer as a metaphor for either drugs, alcohol or numerous other dependencies.
This book consists of five stories from 1961-2.
‘The Dreaming City’,
‘While the Gods Laugh’,
‘The Stealer of Souls’,
‘Kings in Darkness’,
‘The Flame Bringers.’
These early Elric stories seem in parts to be over-influenced by Robert E Howard and the portraits of dead and decaying civilisations as painted by the likes of Clark Ashton Smith. There is a depth to these stories however, and an attempt at characterisation which raises them above the level of most fantasy of the time.
The tone is unremittingly tragic, from the first story where Elric, attempting to rescue his lover, the Princess Cymoril from her brother Yyrkoon, succeeds not only in killing her, but in bringing about the fall of his empire, which had stood for ten thousand years.
And so, Elric sets off on various adventures (some better than others) with his eternal sidekick, Moonglum (who also is reincarnated in various guises throughout Time and Space) such as a doomed search for the Dead God’s Book, guarded by an immortal watchman so that mortals may not know its secrets, only to discover that the book has long since crumbled to dust.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Moorcock's debut Elric collection consists of five linked short stories originally published in magazines in the 1960s. They serve as an introduction to his popular, iconic and long-running albino hero Elric, alongside his world, his companions, and some of the popular themes present in Moorcock's work (magic, order versus chaos, soul-drinking swords). THE DREAMING CITY is as good an introduction as any, throwing the reader into the heart of battle action and involving duelling and climactic betrayal. There's darkness everywhere which works well in setting up future stories. WHILE THE GODS LAUGH adopts a quest narrative as our heroes hunt for a magical tome, and there's action to spare, while THE STEALER OF SOULS is pure siege chaos with some well-described magical battles and the like to make it zing along.

The penultimate story, KINGS IN DARKNESS, sees Elric finding love in a haunted forest of all places, and despite strong world-building, it's a little more formulaic in terms of plotting. However, the final story, THE FLAME BRINGERS, ends things on a high with a Mongolian-style army bent on destruction and lots of suspense as our heroes infiltrate the enemy camp. The inclusion of the cat god is unexpectedly humorous and adds to the fun nicely.

[Yve · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did much enjoy Michael Moorcock's Gloriana and I've (along with the entire rest of the world) heard a lot about the "Elric" stories so kind of expected to enjoy them. Alas! There are only 5 stories in this collection but it took me a while to read. It just felt like an even slower moving and more roughly written "Conan" (which I don't even like that much anyway). Perhaps going the chronological order was a mistake? Maybe it's a case of something being influential at the time but ultimately inspiring works that are greater than itself? Maybe I'm just sick of stories of wannabe-macho guys running around with swords and don't think being sad sometimes is a sufficiently interesting character facet to invigorate the old formula? Anyway I probably won't be reading any more of these unless I'm stranded somewhere with one of the books.

[Artaxerxes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can tell this is one of Moorcocks early works, the short stories at the start are very much Sword and Sorcery in the style of Conan and a little bit poorly written (the word 'howling' appears about 5 times in the first story within something like 4 paragraphs)

When Moorcock starts on expanding though the book picks up a lot, the cataclysmic end of the world and passing of an age is told well and you can see where and how the struggle between Chaos and Law managed to inspire writers to run with it and adopt it into their own stories.

Lastly the ending is... well, not what you'd expect from a sword and sorcery book, everyone dies, and I do mean everyone. The sword turning on its owner was logical but I really did not see that coming

[Jed Mayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes you can't go back: having loved the Elric saga as a teenager, I'd hoped to find something of the same magic I found in these tales then, but sadly, they no longer charm. Though I can see why these caused such a stir when the tales were first serialized in the early sixties, the sword and sorcery cliches, the appalling sexism, and the cheap philosophizing made it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief in these once wondrous works. The three stars is more for old time's sake: thanks for the memories!

[Arthur B · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only Elric stories which achieve true excellence are the original run of novellas (up to and including the material comprising Stormbringer); every time Moorcock has gone back and added more to the saga after this, it has usually been misguided. The Stealer of Souls is therefore quite worthwhile as a collection of all the novellas written before Stormbringer - get this and that novel and you have all the Elric you need. Full review of the Elric saga: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Stealer of Souls, first published in 1963, deals with the adventures of Elric, the albino warrior, and possessor of the legendary sword Stormbringer. This collection of five stories takes our hero through many triumphs and tragedies. The sword is the life force that gives Elric his strength. It is also the bringer of constant pain and suffering as it often has a mind of its own. There are more Elric adventures to read, but I don't think I'll continue.

[Dreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of 5 stories. Listed this in my 5 year diary from 1976-1980, just said it was ok so I guess that relates to 3 stars..

[Miriam · Rating 2 out of 5]

To summarise: read "Elric of Melniboné", not this. 200-odd pages of never-ending meh. Another book so dull I forgot to update Goodreads until nearly a week later. Do not recommend.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I left this classic with my brother and nephews for them all to enjoy.

[Kyle Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elric of Melnibone is incredibly prolific and seems to permeate through all great fantasy that comes after his creation, but reading these stories I couldn't help but feel like the actual writing and plot came in a far distant second to the relatively well done world building. It's tough coming back to fantasy classics after reading all that they have inspired, I find often times they dont seem to live up to the work that they inspire. What really disappoints me with this work is not the world building, but the quality of the writing across plot and character dialogue. The characters are incredibly wooden when they talk to each other and state all of their feelings bluntly, It feels like it really lacks any nuance that could elevate the interesting worldbuilding.

I usually give two stars to books that I enjoy parts of but feel that they still need a good amount of work to be shaped into something special. The dialogue and plotting feel hollow and poorly thought out, some existing purely for a block of worldbuilding that could have been expressed in better ways. I like the concept of Elric and Stormbringer and the stories improve with Moonglum work with. But its hard to really give this a better review than "it was okay". I dont feel like I leave the stories with much that was truly thought provoking or moving, that being said I do think the ending of "While the Gods Laugh" was excellent and liked most of "Kings in Darkness".

The last bit of criticism I have really just comes down to how sexist and racist parts of these stories come across, the way women are treated not just by characters in the story but how the story seems to condone those attitudes as a whole was off putting. Characters disregarding women just because they're women with the book as a whole giving off the feeling of "Man, WOMEN, am I right?" made the book feel harder to get through. I also really didnt like the racial connotations with the Barbarian horde in The Flame Bringers constantly using "Slant Eyed" as a way of describing the evil, violent and merciless barbarians. I understand these stories were written in a different time, but I want to be honest in my criticism.

Overall I dont regret reading the collection and I think I may enjoy a full novel written about Elric, but I am in no rush to return. I'm not impressed with Moorcock's writing style and based on these stories have no interest in reading more of his dialogue.

[Kyle Pinion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I have this insanely huge Moorcock collection in my library, encompassing about 90% of what he’s written, I figured I’d read it all chronologically as time and interest allows. This is the first collection of Elric tales he penned back in the early 60’s. I’d read these before when COVID first hit, but forgot a lot of it outside of the introductory tale The Dreaming City. In reading these again, there was a reason for that, as it’s the best of these 5 stories. It’s the most vividly written and the one that does a wonderful job outlining Elric, his world and the ongoing tragedy of his life.

The rest aren’t bad, even a few are pretty fun, but they’re more slapdash. He and his buddy fight a barbarian horde here or an evil sorcerer there, etc…this early stuff is basically Conan but with a touch of psychedelia and more fantastical/eldritch happenings. It’s good solid sword and sorcery of the heavy metal variety, but I’m excited for things to radically hit an upswing.

(In between these stories, I also read the novella version of The Eternal Champion, which introduced Erekose, Moorcock’s second big creation. I liked it quite a bit despite some of the same plotting shortcuts. It was a bit more cerebral in its general pessimism towards humanity, and had a more formidable pov. I’m looking forward to reading the full novel at some point on this journey.)

[Steventhesteve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another outing of Elric in short story collection form. Whilst there's some backstory development here, Moorcock's most famous character doesn't shine. He's supposed to be the much doomed, albino prince of a dying race, seeking vengeance or a purpose in a cruel world, yearning for what he's lost and thinking big thoughts about eternal struggles, being an incarnation of the eternal champion and all...

But here he's basically a wandering sword with a Deus Ex Machina scorcery ability to get him out of scrapes. I get that in short form you need to have a punchy story, so you're always going to get premise, struggle, victory. Unfortunately for me, this made a lot of these stories read very similarly, and the whole "weakened and forgotten magics of the elder world" thing kind of stops being special if you whip it out every 25 pages and use it to solve all your problems.

[Conal Frost · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulpy and violent sword and sorcery with Elric of Melniboné, one of fantasy’s first real antiheroes.

Slightly frustrating as there’s some really cool stuff in here that is completely downplayed and rushed. I understand that these stories were originally published in magazines, but nothing is really given room to read.

Not sure if I would recommend this to a non-fantasy fan. This is the sort of fantasy written for nerdy, angry young men.

[Joseph Hare · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's just so beautifully written. This particular entry was a little vague for my tastes. It doesn't really do anything to further Elric's character, and the events of the story are overall pretty weightless and leave no lasting consequence.

[Rob M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely wild, reads like a Dungeons & Dragons game being played by drunk teenagers.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading the Elric series in published order rather than according to internal chronology is an interesting exercise in literary archaeology. This book collects the earliest, original short stories as published, and I found the experience enlightening on multiple levels. (I admit: I read Grognardia, and that blog inspired the idea.)

One first notices that the conflict between Law and Chaos is mentioned very little in the five stories. Second, that the words "Eternal Champion" and "Multiverse" never appear. So these stories either predate those concepts metastasizing throughout Moorcock's works, or are from a time when the ideas were in their infancy. Either way, I honestly did not feel their absence.

These are cleanly written sword-and-sorcery, with the original twist taken of inverting the Conanesque hero into an enfeebled sorcerer dependent upon his vampiric, ill-omened runesword. This slim collection marks a story arc for the character as he finds piece with his love Zarozinia and a limited freedom from the magical strength lent by Stormbringer, and in some way a blunting of the callousness and decadence of his heritage.

It's certainly a terse rendering of Elric's saga, one trimmed of the padding found in my original reading.

The transformation in character brought by Zarozinia (especially in "The Flame Bringers") felt abrupt and took the character in a direction I didn't particularly like. While the morose and emo Elric is grating and un-fun to read, somehow the noble, upstanding citizen version is worse.

[Joe Stamber · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Elric books are fantasy stories with a difference. Elric isn't your usual hero and as with most MM books, anything can happen. I think this is the one that started it off.

[AndrewP · Rating 5 out of 5]

The classic

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1230921...