The Elric Saga
The story of Elric, the last emperor of Melniboné, ruler of the dreaming city and keeper of the ruby throne, brings together many images of life and death, fate versus free will, generations of tradition and the destruction of that tradition, thought versus action, evil versus good , law versus chaos, and the difficulties faced when trying to reconcile and make meaning out of one's own existence. It is also a vehicle for Michael Moorcock to expound on yet another incarnation of "The Eternal Champion", a theme that runs throughout many of his fantasy novels. On this page I hope to give a brief overview and opinion of this tragic, yet action packed series. It is certainly one of the best offerings from Michael Moorcock, and changed my views on good fantasy forever. He also influenced me to find and enjoy another fantasy author Fritz Leiber, and his not so clean cut heroic pair of fantasy swordsmen "Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser" . Thus begins Michael Moorcock's description of Elric.
Black Gate
Conan the Barbarian
Publication history[edit] Having digested these prior influences after he returned from his trip, Howard rewrote the rejected story "By This Axe I Rule!" (May 1929), replacing his existing character Kull of Atlantis with his new hero, and retitling it "The Phoenix on the Sword". "The Phoenix on the Sword" appeared in Weird Tales cover-dated December 1932. The publication and success of "The Tower of the Elephant" would spur Howard to write many more Conan stories for Weird Tales. Following Howard's death, the copyright of the Conan stories passed through several hands. In 2000, the British publisher Gollancz Science Fiction issued a two-volume, complete edition of Howard's Conan stories as part of its Fantasy Masterworks imprint, which including several stories that had never seen print in their original form. Setting[edit] A map of Robert E. According to "The Phoenix on the Sword", the adventures of Conan take place "... Personality and character[edit] Appearance[edit] Abilities[edit]
Ambrose & Elsewhere
Dorian Hawkmoon
Dorian Hawkmoon, Duke of Köln is one of the fictional characters created by Michael Moorcock in his series of the Eternal Champion books. Overview[edit] Dorian Hawkmoon is one of the less "problematic" characters Moorcock ever created a series around. Unlike the anti-hero Elric of Melniboné, or the alienated and tragic Corum, or the sometimes savage Erekosë, Hawkmoon is described as being very much close to an all-around "good guy", despite lacking some subtlety (or perhaps, for this very reason).[1] Hawkmoon is captured by the evil forces of Granbretan who implant by means of arcane technology (devised by a caste of 'sorcerer-scientists') a sinister black jewel in his skull. The Runestaff is one of the major artifacts in Moorcock's multiverse. Some of the artifacts have servants. Other media[edit] In 1985, Kerie Campbell-Robson created a role-playing game based on the Hawkmoon series, published by Chaosium and using its Basic Role-Playing system. Notes[edit] External links[edit]
Kull of Atlantis
Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a fictional character created by American writer Robert E. Howard, also creator of Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn. The character was more introspective than the subsequent Conan, whose first appearance was in a re-write of a rejected Kull story. His first published appearance was "The Shadow Kingdom" in Weird Tales (August, 1929). Kull was portrayed in the 1997 movie Kull the Conqueror by actor Kevin Sorbo. Fictional character biography[edit] Life in Atlantis[edit] Kull was born into a tribe settled in the Tiger Valley of Atlantis. Slave, pirate, outlaw and gladiator[edit] Kull attempted to reach Thuria but was instead captured by the Lemurian Pirates. Soldier and king[edit] The series continued with Kull finding that gaining the crown was easier than securing it. The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune finds Kull reaching his middle-forties and becoming progressively more introspective. Supporting characters[edit] Stories[edit] Style[edit]
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published literary novels. He is best known for his novels about the anti-hero Elric of Melniboné, a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Moorcock in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[3] Biography[edit] Michael Moorcock was born in London in 1939 and the landscape of London, particularly the area of Notting Hill Gate and Ladbroke Grove, is an important influence in some of his fiction (cf. the Cornelius novels). Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Moorcock is the former husband of Hilary Bailey. Moorcock was the subject of two book-length works, a monograph and an interview, by Colin Greenland. In the 1990s, he moved to Texas in the United States. Views on politics[edit] Writer[edit]
Kull the Conqueror (1997
Conan the Barbarian (1982
Conan the Destroyer (1984
Conan the Barbarian (2011
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Howard was born and raised in the state of Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains with some time spent in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding, eventually taking up amateur boxing. From the age of nine he dreamed of becoming a writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was 23. Howard’s suicide and the circumstances surrounding it have led to varied speculation about his mental health. Biography[edit] Early years[edit] Robert E. Howard was born January 22, 1906 in Peaster, Texas, the only son of a traveling country physician, Dr. During Howard's youth his parents' relationship began to break down.
Sword and Sorcery
This term – describing a subgenre of Fantasy embracing adventures with swordplay and Magic – is usually attributed to Fritz Leiber, who is said to have coined it in 1960 in response to Michael Moorcock's request for such a capsule description; but the kind of story it refers to is much older than that. (Other terms that overlap with "sword-and-sorcery" are Heroic Fantasy and Science Fantasy, the overlap being considerable in the former case, but all three terms have different nuances. See also Science and Sorcery.) Leiber was a member of the Hyborian League, a fan group, founded in 1956 to preserve the memory of the pulp writer Robert E Howard, to which many professional writers belonged; the group's Fanzine was Amra. Weird Tales continued to publish sword-and-sorcery stories up to the 1940s; many did not see book publication until much later. By the mid-1970s sword and sorcery as a marketing term was giving way to Heroic Fantasy or sometimes "high fantasy". See also:
