To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Saga Press will publish a three-book omnibus of the complete novels within the legendary Elric of Melniboné epic fantasy saga by World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Moorcock. All eleven novels will be published in chronological order, in Moorcock’s preferred editions, for the very first time in the U.S.
Saga will publish one book per month, beginning September 28 with the first volume, Elric of Melniboné, followed by Stormbringer on October 26, and The White Wolf on November 30.
Each volume will feature vivid illustrations from award-winning artists over the decades including Michael Whelan, Brom, Robert Gould, John Picacio, and others.
Check out the covers for all three omnibus editions below!
Volume 1: Elric of Melniboné
- Elric of Melniboné
- The Fortress of the Pearl
- The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
- The Weird of the White Wolf
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Elric of Melnibone: The Elric Saga Part 1
Volume 2: Stormbringer
- The Sleeping Sorceress
- The Revenge of the Rose
- The Bane of the Black Sword
- Stormbringer
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Stormbringer: The Elric Saga Part 2
Volume 3: The White Wolf
- The Dreamthief’s Daughter
- The Skrayling Tree
- The White Wolf’s Son
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The White Wolf: The Elric Saga Part 3
Michael Moorcock is one of the most important and influential figures in fantasy literature. He has published nearly one hundred novels and over 150 short stories, and won lifetime achievement awards from SFWA, World Fantasy Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, and the Prix Utopiales. He is also featured in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Famously called the “Anti-Tolkien” by The New Yorker, acclaimed writers like J.G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Michael Chabon, William Gibson, and Tad Williams all credit him as a “giant” and major influence on their work.
I was just recently thinking it was oddly difficult to find copies of these novels. Do we know if there will be ebook editions, or is this print-only? (Edit: Never mind; the links above answer that question.)
It’s been ages, but I do love Elric. But then seeing the SS bolts turns my stomach. I honestly don’t remember them in the tales…and I question the wisdom of putting them on the cover.
Nazi’s feature in The Dreamthief’s Daughter… and Elric kills a whole bunch of them.
Yep, I think I need these. I have the Del Rey editions from a few years back when they put everything into order of publication, and it was interesting to see the evolution of the character and of Moorcock’s writing style, but this is one case when I think I really do prefer to read everything in internal chronological order. (Although I notice they’re still putting that final trilogy into its own volume.)
Also, I’d be happy if this meant getting more of the Eternal Champion back into print and eBook — the Castle Brass series in particular.
Was the White Wolf series incomplete, in the wrong order, or not the preferred editions? Or some combination?
Having the Gollancz Elric set from a few years ago I don’t need these but I note that Moorcock has said on Facebook that he is working on a new Elric novel, provisionally titled The City of Lost Dragons, which I think is also due from Saga.
I always found Elric incredibly depressing. Now the complete Hawkmoon. I’d buy that.
Wonderful, that will be a much more affordable option than the old Doubleday / SFBC editions. I was hoping these would get reprinted in some fashion.
Where are “And So the Great Emperor Received His Education …”, “A Portrait in Ivory”, “Black Petals”, “Red Pearls”, “The Roaming Forest”? (Maybe some of those are planned for City? But I suspect not all.)
(For that matter, the scripts for “Duke Elric” and “Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer”?
@5 — The White Wolf editions predated the Dreamthief trilogy, so basically just comprised the contents of the first two volumes. I’m not sure if there were other textual concerns.
@9 — Hopefully, those stories will be slotted in at the appropriate places.
Awesome! I have them in my list (since they come out in September).
I really need to stop thinking of Elric at the End of Time as new.
@7RDBetz, same here. I liked Elric when I read the series years ago but have come to enjoy Erekose, Hawkmoon, & Corum far more as Eternal Champions. Add in the Von Bek stories as ones I will reread before going back to Elric, as I find Moorcock’s ideas on Heaven/Hell/Free Will quite intriguing.
Still, I will probably pick this up for my son for his birthday as he doesn’t have the books, reading my copies instead.
Also, Moorcock is not ‘The Anti-Tolkien,’ he is simply anti-Tolkien – as seen is numerous articles he has published on the subject. As a life long fan of Tolkien, I can’t say I find that a drawing point to Moorcock for me. ;-)
Kato
Sounds a lot like the Del Rey editions with even some of the same interior artists. But without all the extras. Del Rey had Kaluta, so that beats all the artists Saga mentioned. Since I’m reading the Del Rey’s now, I’ll pass on these. But it will be good to get them back in print, especially if you have never read Elric.
Maybe we’ll finally get some audiobook versions too!
“All eleven novels will be published in chronological order, in Moorcock’s preferred editions, for the very first time in the U.S.”
It’d be more accurate to say “for the first time by a mass-market publisher” as Centipede Press is in the middle of a nearly identical set (published in nine volumes rather than three).
I have all of these, some more than once, but I have every intention of buying these at the earliest opportunity!
#12: Yeah, me too.
Along those lines: if anyone has one, I would really like a pointer to a page where someone explains which book is which— which ones are novels, which ones are story collections, how they relate to each other, etc. I read the books when I was a kid, an back then there were six, ending with Stormbringer. I knew vaguely that more had come out later, but I could use a road map.
@18 — Maybe this? From looking at it, it appears that the only ones actually written as novels were Elric of Melnibone (book 1 in the series), Fortress of the Pearl, Revenge of the Rose, and the much more recent Skrayling trilogy. Everything else is short stories or fix-ups of short stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9
Hi all! I’m a bit confused. Can anyone clear this up for me, please: Will this new three-volume set have everything that the Gollancz seven-volume series has?
Thanks a lot,
Rob Vega
@18 Having recently read through the Gollancz edition I’ll break down the series structure for you. First of all, Moorcock worked on Elric in four different stages (early Sixties, early Seventies, early Nineties, early Oughties), and eventually arranged everything in the following chronological order. The main series is a straightforward biography of Elric’s adventures from his youth to his maturity.
0. “Master of Chaos” (1964): prequel short story taking place before Elric’s birth, older editions put it into The Weird of the White Wolf as a semi-flashback sequence; the Gollancz edition makes it into a preface to Elric of Melniboné.
1. Elric of Melniboné (1972): novel. The beginning.
2. The Fortress of the Pearl (1989): novel. Serves as a set-up for the Moonbeam Roads subseries.
3. The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976): fix-up of a specially made short story and two pre-existing ones whose stand-alone versions are non-canon. It crosses-over with Moorcock’s other novel The Quest for Tanelorn (1975).
4. The Weird of the White Wolf: originally a fix-up of “Master of Chaos”, “The Dreaming City” (1961), “While the Gods Laugh” (1961), and “The Singing Citadel” (1967). Starting from the Gollancz edition it consists of “The Dreaming City”, “A Portrait in Ivory” (2008), “While the Gods Laugh”, and “The Singing Citadel”.
5. The Sleeping Sorceress (1971): novel. It crosses-over with Moorcock’s other novel The King of the Swords (1971).
6. The Revenge of the Rose (1991): novel. Provides a set-up for Moorcock’s Second Ether trilogy, whose leading character debuts here.
7. The Bane of the Black Sword: originally a fix-up of “The Stealer of Souls” (1962), “Kings in Darkness” (1962), “The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams” (1962), and “To Rescue Tanelorn…” (1962). Starting from the Gollancz edition it consists of “The Stealer of Souls”, “Kings in Darkness”, “The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams”, “The Last Enchantment” (1962), and “To Rescue Tanelorn…”.
8. Stormbringer (1963-’64): novel. The ending.
As I mentioned, the finale of The Revenge of the Rose serves as a setup for a subseries called either Moonbeam Roads trilogy (officially) or Dreamquest trilogy (informally), whose events take place concurrently with Stormbringer. The whole trilogy serves as a cross-over between Elric’s main series and the Von Bek bilogy of historical fantasy.
1. Daugther of Dreams (2001)
2. Destiny’s Brother (2003)
3. Son of the Wolf (2005)
In addition, Elric features as a main character in the three graphic novels Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse (1997), Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer (2005-’06), and Elric: The Balance Lost (2012), and in the three short stories “Elric: Return of Melniboné” (1973), “Black Petals” (2008), and “Red Pearls” (2011); until now none of these works has ever been properly collected within the main series, so do not stress out about fitting them in yourself.