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Michael Moorcock Library, The - Elric Volume 2: The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate

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    Ian Jane
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  • Michael Moorcock Library, The - Elric Volume 2: The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate



    Michael Moorcock Library, The - Elric Volume 2: The Sailor On The Seas Of Fate
    Released by: Titan
    Released on: September 30th, 2015.
    Written by: Roy Thomas
    Illustrated by: Michael T. Gilbert, George Freeman
    Purchase From Amazon

    If you were reading comics in the eighties, particularly if you were reading fantasy or sword and sorcery titles in the eighties (and in the decade when Conan was king, a lot of people were doing just that) then the odds are pretty good that you're at least reasonably familiar with the Elric comics that came out from Star Reach, Eclipse and First Comics (it was First who originally published the material collected here as Pacific had gone bankrupt by this point, sadly). Well, everything old is new again because Titan have seen fit (and rightly so) to bring the Sailor On The Seas Of Fate storyline back into print in one beautifully rendered collected volume.

    Written by Roy Thomas (no stranger to Conan fans) and based on the stories by Michael Moorcock and featuring fantastic artwork from Michael T. Gilbert and George Freeman, a prologue explains how Elric wound up at sea while Prince Yyrkoon wound up sitting on the throne. When we catch up with him, Elric has no food and none of the drugs he's come to depend on. He knows he is being chased but his thoughts turn to Cymoril and contemplates suicide but doesn't follow through with it. Soon enough, he winds up on a ship, they offer him passage in exchange for his services as a swordsman but also note that they've been waiting for him. It seems that all the men aboard the ship know him and that the vessel can sail even when the wind is weak. The men on the ship report to by Erekose and as they sail we learn the different backstories of the different men brought aboard by he in charge. It seems the sail on a 'supernatural sea.' The ship's nameless blind captain takes Elric aside and explains to him they are bound for an island inhabited by enemies he refuses to name.

    It's all very mysterious… and Elric is understandably confused by all of these men he's never seen before who seem to know all about him. Yet they don't know the enemy that the captain sails them to - it would appear then that these 'four who are one' - Prince Corum, Erekose, Hawkmoon and Elric himself - are all sailors… on the seas of fate!

    They come to learn that the captain intends to wage war against a brother and sister sorcerer duo from an alternate universe. - Agak and Gagak. Each of the four will command four others who they will pick to serve under them. They must find a building amongst the ruins, kill all who inhabit it and burn the structure to the ground. However, no one knows what Agak and Gagak look like. The twenty men approach the shore, each with sword in hand, Elric brandishing Stormbringer (the sword that talks to him!). As they make their way inland, they notice that there are many shadows but nothing to cast them - something strange is noticeable from the stat. They first come to a graveyard, then a city containing not one but two buildings. They investigate and are attacked but make their way onward through the building, taking on various challenges such as poisonous blob beasts, killer baboons, strange snakes and more increasingly bizarre situations until the four really do become one.

    They soon realize that Agak and Gagak are the structures themselves, and when they strike their sword into the pool that exists in the middle of the building, they see how the two sorcerers from another dimension communicate from there they manage to defeat Gagak, leaving Agak only to aware of their subterfuge. Agak goes on the offensive, sucking entire worlds into his being, but the four warriors will not back down. A battle of cosmic proportions ensues. Many die, many more lose their sanity, but the four survive. Corum and Elric return to the ship with warriors Brut and Otto Blendeker, the others stay or head for different destinations.

    On the ship Elric sleeps and dreams but there's no time for rest when the ship heads towards the source of a horrible howling sound. It's then that Elric confronts the captain and then that he learns the captain has no intention of returning the albino to his own plane. He does, however, tell him of a gateway he can get to off the coast of a nearby island. Elric is left there, on his own, and after a quick rest unsheathes his rune sword to do away with a tribe of bandits. Though he makes an ally here in the form of Count Smiorgan Baldpate, he is also overtaken with the bloodlust that occasionally afflicts him. After the battle Baldpate tells Elric of the time he gave passage on his ship to a Melnibonean woman. She vanished when pirates attacked but if he didn't get her name he did at least learn she was looking for the Crimson Gate. Soon enough, they find the ship and the beautiful passenger still aboard and when Elric learns her story, that she has fled one of his ancestors dead for two centuries, he learns that this ancestor, Saxif Da'an, still lives on this plane and how a broken heart led him to become an evil sorcerer who has perused this woman, Vassliss, across worlds. When they later come face to face with his ship and all aboard, things do indeed get complicated, particularly when it comes to the appearance of an invisible horseman named Carolak.

    After all of that, Elric is given a ruby that should lead him to the Crimson Gate and in turn back to his own plane and with Saxif dead and his ship's crew at his command, he sets sail, but it won't be easy. Soon enough Elric has encountered Duke Avan Astran, a man who knows more about Elric's homeland than he has any right to. He's sought Elric's assistance in trying to prove once and for all the truth about the legends surrounding a land called R'Lin K'Ren A'a. A treacherous voyage ensues but with a Melnibonean map in hand they head closer, until they're attacked by a reptilian race. With no other choice, Elric uses his powers as a sorcerer and it gets the past this obstacle. There are, however, many more on the way to R'Lin K'Ren A'a and before it's all over and done with, it will circle back to Elric's adventures with Erekose.

    This is high concept stuff and not necessarily light reading as Thomas' adaptation of Moorcock's original writing is remarkably literal. As such, it never feels dumbed down for a more mainstream audience but is instead a trippy, heady and wonderfully bizarre selection of stories that blend fantasy, sci-fi and horror in interesting ways. Elric's not the brute that someone like Conan is - rather, the albino swordsman is frail, he has a dependency on things that the more brutish barbarian does not and for these reasons he approaches situations differently. His love/hate relationship with his sword adds further depth here - there are times when the sword reacts and Elric does not, and this can and does cause problems throughout the run. He's a fairly tormented character, one whose past haunts him constantly and who seems to be searching endlessly for a redemption he may never find. Thomas brings this to the four color page perfectly and it's hard to imagine anyone familiar with Moorcock's writing taking issue with the way that his material has been adapted her.

    The artwork is also impressive. P. Craig Russell is the one name most often associated with the character, in terms of illustration, and that's for good reason - his run on the Elric comics was and still is a highpoint in fantasy comic book storytelling. Gilbert and Freeman, however, hold their own. Yes, they draw inspiration from the way that Russell laid things down and his influence is impossible to deny when you go through this pages but you won't confuse his artwork for theirs. The coloring here is very close to what we saw in the original First Comics issues, there hasn't been any over the top remastering in that regard, so we get a very eighties look to the collection in that regard, but that's not a bad thing. It simply means that this is a product of its time and if more modern coloring might make it a bit more interesting, you can't fault Titan for taking the purist route here - it's important to preserve things as they were and those familiar with this material from its original mid-eighties run should be quite happy with how it has all been treated.

    Go into this one prepared - it's not light reading, it demands that you pay attention and it asks you to think about what's happening as it happens rather than spoon-feeding you every little last detail. There's no fun in that. This keeps you guessing as to where it's all going and how it's all going to connect and once we get to that point, it remains a very rewarding experience.

    In addition to the comics themselves, we get a nice introduction to the collection from writer Guy Lawley, that offers up some thoughts on the importance of this adaptation and which also details the history of the original Moorcock stories that inspired it. The collection also includes a cover gallery reprinting the cover art for each of the original First Comics publications collected in this volume along with quick brief biographies for the three members of the creative team responsible for all of this.






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