Book Review: Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock

I’ve read several stories from Michael Moorcock. In fact, I’ve read several of his Elric stories, but never grabbed a vintage paperback version of any one of them. So, when I saw a copy of Stormbringer, I had to have it and read it.

Not the version I own, but similar to it.

Stormbringer is the last book in terms of the chronology of the Elric series. I knew, going into it, that I was missing some pieces of the story. This book was actually four short stories bonded into a single narrative.

Each of the four arcs felt pretty disconnected, but had several stand out moments. There was the resurrection of a dead god, the cruel death of a character in an inevitable way, and the confrontation between the Lords of Chaos and Lords of Order.

Without spoiling the story, I will say that the book, as a whole, was compelling and well-written. In particular (and I shared this on Instagram) Moorcock’s descriptions are amazing. His writing style is epic, even if the tone is dark and somber. If you like epic fantasy AND dark fantasy, this is right up your alley.

The story also delves into Moorcock’s Multiverse. I didn’t know that the Multiverse was actually a part of the Moorcock mythos, but after reading this book I dug deeper into it to find some fascinating tidbits about it. But I digress.

As far as the ending goes, I felt it was far too abrupt. It wasn’t satisfying for me, and I feel like it was a rare misstep. Ultimately, like the rest of the Elric series, Stormbringer was dark and unhappy.

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You may like some of my other reviews:

Book Review: The High Crusade by Poul Anderson

Book Review: The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt

Book Review: The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance

You may also like some of my other work:

Writing with Inspiration

How to Tell if Your Writing is Improving

Poetry: “Rusted Theme Park from My Childhood”

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