Michael Moorcock

MICHAEL MOORCOCK

Michael Moorcock began writing professionally at age 15, and went on to edit the seminal SF magazine, New Worlds. He also is regarded as one of the foremost authors of the SF New Wave movement. But perhaps his biggest literary contribution is to the world of fantasy. Moorcock (b. 1939) literally changed the face of fantasy when he introduced the brooding albino Elric of Melniboné) and his soul-devouring sword, Stormbringer. Written in reaction to stereotypical, muscle-bound warriors like Conan, Moorcock's Elric was a sickly emperor more concerned with philosophy than warcraft.

Paired with Stormbringer, the enigmatic sword that sustains him with energies gleaned from killing others, Elric finds himself an unwilling pawn in a cosmic battle between the forces of Law and Chaos. Moorcock does not choose one side over the other; he instead points out that either, taken to the extreme, is inimical to human progress.

Elric learns that even his best intentioned actions can sometimes lead to tragic endings; through several classic stories and novels, it is a lesson the albino emperor learns all too well.

Elric is one of the many incarnations of Moorcock's Eternal Champion, a character that appears in many forms throughout Moorcock's work. Aspects of the Eternal Champion range from the morose Elric to the vengeful Corum to the freewheeling proto-cyberpunk Jerry Cornelius. Many of Moorcock's novels relate to, and often illuminate, earlier efforts, with reappearing characters, locales, and themes; these interrelated realities form Moorcock's multiverse.

Elric is often cited as the most popular and enduring of the Champion's aspects, appearing in several stories and novels, including the latest novel, The Dreamthief's Daughter (2001). Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné) has influenced a generation of fantasy writers and molded fantastic literature in a bold, new fashion.