The Sailor on the Seas of Fate

There are three parts to this book. Sailing to the Future includes the crossover where Elric meets, Erekose, Hawkmoon and Corum aboard the Dark Ship of the Captain. Then there is Sailing to the Present, and Sailing to the Past. The latter is a reworked version of the Jade God's Eyes. Sailor On the Seas Of Fate : 1 Sailing to the Future [Voyage On A Dark Ship] - Michael Moorcock Sailor On the Seas Of Fate : 1 Sailing to the Past [The Jade Man's Eyes] - Michael Moorcock Sailor On the Seas Of Fate : 1 Sailing to the Present [The Lands Beyond the World - Michael Moorcock Eternal Champion crossover team-up! 4.5 out of 5 Elric and Moonglum travel to a different city in the Young Kingdoms, and with Duke Avan discover that the Jade Man is a being with whom Elric is all too familiar. 3.5 out of 5 Elric has some misadventures on a rather unusual ship. 4 out of 5

Moorcock wrote in one of his books about how his fantasy novels were intended to confront various personal and human problems, not escape from them. So many of the recent reviews of Elric stories are from people who seem to think they 'fail' by not having the same intentions as fat fantasy escapes. Like Peake and to some extent T.H.White, they are the very opposite of that kind of fiction. They deal with real life, real tragedy, real human concerns. There is almost a division between fantasy readers who use Tolkien as their bench-mark and those who prefer a more literary, symbolic fantasy which concerns itself with the stuff of mythology -- monumental events stemming from the weaknesses of human passion. That's what Moorcock gives you every time. But it's closer, in some ways, to what the mainstream literary novel offers and that is why Moorcock only offers comfort when he's confronted the harsh realities of our lives. Perhaps this is why there is such an aggressive response to his material ?

If you read the rest of the reviews on this page, you may come away with the impression that this book is not very good. This could hardly be further from the truth. The Elric series is not your standard "Here's the plot, here's the hero, here's the bad guy, now lets get busy" story. Elric is a swords and sorcery saga based on earlier pulp novels. These stories are more concerned with action, characterization, and wonder than they are about plodding through miles of dialogue and slowly creeping through many wonderous lands (lands which veteran fantasy readers have all seen many times before). Elric is concise, the stories are almost poetically direct, and the world in which this character lives is more imaginative and suprising than any ten "McFantasy" novels. It's weakness (if it is a weakness) is that the stories are all far too short, leaving you wanting more.Sailor on the Seas of Fate expands on the poetry of the Elric story with its dreamlike quest to save an ephemeral Tanelorn threatened by two strange beings. The story evokes a dramatic and ghostlike feel, and segues into the next story with a dramatic voyage over a ghastly sea foreshadowing the events in the later Elric books. Each of the subsequent stories only adds to the spectral nature of the world in which Elric exists.This particular book is my favorite of the Elric Saga, and I heartily recommend it to any true fan of fantasy.

If you have never read any of Michael Moorcock's books, this is the one to start with. The Elric series is exceptional and a must read for any serious sci-fi/fantasy reader. The Sailor on the Seas of Fate will leave you wanting to read more about Elric and his many guises as the Eternal Champion.

This is the best Elric book of the series. It incorporates the other heros from Moorcock library, and puts them is a memorable adventure. A must read!!!