Introduction to Elric of Melniboné

Here's a Michael Whelan book cover from 1976, which I prefer to the Gollancz collection. Elric of Melniboné! Before Anomander Rake and Dragnipur, before the Dragonlords of Valyria fell, before Geralt the White Wolf hunted monsters, there was Elric. Like Clark Ashton Smith's work, you may not have read Elric directly, but his DNA is all over the fantasy scene. In fact, creator Michael Moorcock had trouble getting an Elric television series made, because all the things that make Elric uniquely Elric are everywhere else. Written as a character for magazine stories in the 1960s, Moorcock made Elric deliberately distinct from Conan, to distance himself from the writings of Robert E. Howard. Elric is an albino, physically weak without his soul-devouring sword, and is often described as brooding and melancholy. Elric was the last Emperor of Imrryr, the dreaming city. The Melnibonéans are an ancient race who live longer than humans. Perhaps you could describe them as a flavour of elves,…