Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
A couple of older fantasy books which I am a bit surprised haven't been mentioned is Moorcock's Elrik series (available as ebooks) and Karl Edward Wagner's Kane series, which as far as I know isn' available as ebooks. Both were from the anti-hero school of fantasy and were originally written in the 60's and 70's.
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Elric is an old mate of mine, Moorcock's books being among the first fantasy literature I read after Lord of the Rings. I've got all the Elric books and ebooks, as well as the graphic novels (the original ones, published by First Comics in the mid-eighties, which are easily better than anything published since) and the same goes for Corum and Hawkmoon. While he certainly is an anti-hero, Elric isn't evil, or even bad, just a tragic, tortured soul who often ends up doing harm when he intends to do good.
What he indisputably is though, is one of the all-time classic fantasy characters, whom everyone with an interest in fantasy ought to check out. His other aspects (the main ones, that is), Corum Jhaelen Irsei, Erekosė, Dorian Hawkmoon, Jerry Cornelius and Graf Ulrich von Bek, are equally well worth checking out. They're not just cracking stories, but among the most imaginative and unique creations the genre contains.
End of proselytisation (sorry, I'm something of a Moorcock fan).
On a different note I wondered, when reading the Malazan series, if Anomander rake wasn't a souped-up version of Elric and Icarium a direct descendant of Corum....