skippy the dead wrote:Tell me about this Elric series.
Oh boy, are you in for a treat!
Elric is an anti-hero in every sense of the word. The author, Michael Moorcock, turns the fantasy genre completely on its head with this series.
Instead of a brawny swordsman, Elric is a physically weak albino who must use drugs and/or sorcery just to stay alive. Instead of winning the girl, Elric accidentally kills his true love. Instead of fighting his way to a throne and a crown, Elric starts the series as an emperor and ends up tossing it all away. Instead of leading the forces of freedom against the oppressors, Elric turns traitor and leads a band of pirates against his own city. Instead of being a devotee of law and righteousness, Elric is a servant of chaos and evil.
Anyhow, the overarching theme is that of destiny vs. free will. The backdrop of the series--and, indeed, of every Moorcock book--is that the universe is locked in a never-ending struggle of law vs. chaos, each side with its representative Gods (the "Arioch" and "Donblas" mentioned by bcspace above being but two examples). Either side gaining the upper-hand is catastrophic to the multiverse, so there's one figure--called "The Champion Eternal"--who reincarnates on various planes whenever the balance is growing out of whack in order to set it straight again. That's the entire purpose and destiny of the Champion Eternal.
Every main character of every Moorcock book is a reincarnation of this same person. (Sometimes major characters in his other series-es will appear in the Elric series and vice-versa.) Elric eventually finds out that he is another incarnation of The Champion Eternal, and his only destiny is to restore the balance. He fights against it constantly, insisting on forging his own way in the multiverse, but in the end. . . well, you'll just have to read the series.
I highly recommend it.
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"
--Louis Midgley
