re: Movie Board Recommendations: Books (UPDATE: Post Stormlight Book 1)

quote:

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Right up my alley. Best book to start with? Looking at amazon there are a few Vol. 1's...?

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Crap - I forget about all the publishing snafu.

Part I of the Elric Saga (first 3 "novels") is contained here:

The "novels" are "Elric of Melnibone," "The Sailor on the Seas of Fate" and "The Weird of the White Wolf"

LINK

Go ahead and order Part II:

These novels are "The Vanishing Tower" (earlier published as "The Sleeping Sorceress"), "Stealer of Souls" and "Stormbringer" (which could teach some of these guys a lesson or two on how to wrap up a fantasy series.)

LINK

(There are later-written novels/stories that fit in various places in the timeline above, but I still recommend you read those first 6 published in order - it's chaotic enough as it is, and the later stuff has a different vibe.)

Work from there - Elric is the last Emperor of (effectively an Elvish) an old race as "human" beings start to overrun the planet. They're tired, decadent, virtually amoral (or immoral). He is betrothed to one of his cousins and another cousin is trying to replace him.

Elric himself is physically weak, an albino who uses sorcery and drugs to compensate for his fraility - he discovers an artifact that makes him nearly invincible as a warrior - but at a terrible price.

(That's my best attempt at a pitch.)

(ETA: And Moorcock is much more economical with his words than either Tolkien or Martin - most of his early work was published as serials - only the stuff from about 1980 onward was written and published under one cover as a novel - each of the original 6 Elric "books" was ~200 to ~250 pages and could be read over a single long day of reading.)