Time flies, doesn’t it? It’s
already the fourth and final (for now at least) Sword & Sorcery Audiobook
Showcase Monday. Week 1 was Conan: Blood of the Serpent, Week 2 was Savage Realms Monthly, Week 3 was Weird
Tales #366 – Sword & Sorcery Issue, and for this last installment, I’ve
chosen Michael Moorcock’s latest Elric book, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths. It was published December 6th,
2022 in print, eBook, and audiobook on Audible. It is narrated by Samuel Roukin.
Here is the book’s official
synopsis: “Elric along with his companion
Moonglum return, in this prequel set within the early days of Elric’s
wanderings, in order to investigate the history of Melniboné and its dragons,
known as the Phroon, in this exciting new addition to the Elric Saga from World
Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Moorcock.
Elric
is the estranged emperor of the Melnibonéan empire, struggling with his nature
while desperately striving to move forward with his dying empire alongside the
constant thirst of his soul-sucking sword, Stormbringer. Elric is on the hunt
for the great Citadel of Forgotten Myths while traveling through the remnants
of his empire with his tragic best friend Moonglum, as Elric seeks the answers
to the nature of the phroon of The Young Kingdoms. Taking place between the
first and second book in the Elric Saga, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths is
perfect for longtime fans and those new to this epic fantasy series.”
This was my first foray into Elric’s
world and my first Michael Moorcock book. I debated whether to start with the
first volume in the Elric series on audiobook which collects a bunch of short
stories and novellas from the ‘60s and ‘70s, but opted for this freshly-minted
tome instead. From what I’d gleaned on the internet, it was a prequel of sorts
and did not require having read the previous books or being familiar with the
character to enjoy Citadel. The
audiobook is 12 hours and 35 minutes in length, and the print version is 336
pages. The book is divided in three parts—Book One: How Elric Pursued His Weird into the Far World, Book Two: How Elric Discovered an Unpleasant Kinship,
and Book Three: In Which Our Heroes
Discover a Lost Past.
From the get-go, I really enjoyed
Elric as a character; he’s flawed, weird, addicted like a junkie to his
soul-taking sword (Stormbringer) and is kind of an anti-hero. The first two
stories are reprints from a few years ago. They run about 90 minutes each
(roughly 55 pages each for the print version) and are fast-paced Sword &
Sorcery tales. They were easy to follow and it gave me a good sense of what Elric
and his world were about. The third story, which to my knowledge is a new
entry, is in fact a short novel running at about 9 hours in length (roughly 225
pages in print from what I gather). And this is where it goes downhill. I found
it bloated, way too long for its own good. It dragged in more than a few
places, so much so that I lost track of what was going on a couple of times. A
tighter edit—cutting a good two hours worth (about 100 pages)—would’ve helped the
pacing and made a better novel. As it stands, in my humble opinion, it feels
self-indulgent and overly complex when it doesn’t need to be. It does end in a
good way though, but by that point, I was just looking forward to it being
over. And since we’re focusing on the audiobook here, the narrator, Samuel
Roukin, must be commended for his fantastic reading of the entire book. The
different accents for various characters and the tone he used really brought
the words to life and made it less of a chore to get through the third story.
All in all, I’m still glad I
picked up The Citadel of Forgotten Myths
because I got to discover how cool of a character Elric of Melniboné is. In shorter
form, this is engaging Sword & Sorcery and I wish I would’ve started with
the lengthier (20 plus hours in length) first volume as those tales were
written during Moorcock’s prime and I believe that might also have something to
do with it. I can already hear the hardcore Elric/Moorcock fans calling me a
blasphemer for saying this, but experiencing an author in the final stretch of
his/her career isn’t the same as when they’re starting out, young, wild and
full of fantastic ideas. Will I be going along for another adventure with
Elric? Probably not even though I think I’d enjoy the other books a lot more. I’ve
gotten a sample, and while it wasn’t great, that’s good enough for me. I have
too many books I’d rather read/listen to and not enough time for it all. I’ll allocate
that precious time to other characters and authors instead. As far as
recommendation goes; if you’re a long-time fan of Elric and/or Michael
Moorcock, by all means, do grab this book/audiobook as I’m sure you’ll enjoy it
probably more than I did. If you haven’t tasted Elric yet, then I think
starting from the beginning would be a wiser decision. I do believe I might
enjoy it more in the future whenever I’ll get around to listening to it for a
second time.
Rating: Three
stars out of five
Get your copy on Audible
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