Unlike the core of books of The Elric Saga (most of which were originally serials), the supplemental books were all originally constructed as novels (with the exception of Elric at the End of Time). They also differ from the core books in other ways: as the newer books progress, they seem increasingly aimed at a different audience than the pulp serials. The newer works change writing styles to be increasingly metaphysics- and philosophy-oriented rather than action-oriented, with wandering plots and large numbers of characters. Further, Elric himself is a vastly different personality by the end of these later works, and Stormbringer becomes little more than an obligatory afterthought. The result is fans of the pulp serials will not necessarily be fans of these later works, and vice versa. Moreover, these works are not suitable as introductions to either Elric or Moorcock’s multiverse theory.

This is an unconventional little book. Like the core books, this is another collection. However despite its title, most of the stories in Elric at the End of Time are not about Elric, but rather Sojan the Swordsman, the hero of Moorcock’s first fantasy stories written during the 1950s when he was a teenager. The work also includes two non-fiction essays regarding the creation of Elric and Jerry Cornelius, two of Moorcock’s most well known characters. I will discuss only the Elric-related material here.

"Elric at the End of Time," is the first of the Elric short stories. Probably most accurately described as a novella, "Elric at the End of Time," does not neatly fit into the timeline established in the core Elric books—other than it takes place sometime after "Sailing to the Present" (the second section of The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Book 2 of The Elric Saga) and before "The Dreaming City" (the first section of The Weird of the White Wolf, Book 3 of The Elric Saga). According to Moorcock’s introduction, this tale was written contemporaneously with the other Elric stories and was created before Stormbringer, although the tale itself bears little resemblance to other Elric stories and Elric himself is quite different.

"Elric at the End of Time" sees Elric sucked into a void following a sorcerous battle. With the aid of his runesword Stormbringer, Elric is able to escape the void into an unknown plane where, he believes, Chaos rules. Elric does not realize that he has entered the End of Time, populated by the League of Temporal Adventurers and their creations. Featured in Moorcock’s End of Time books, the time-travelers include Una Persson, Sergeant Alvarez, Werther de Goethe, Mistress Christina the Everlasting Concubine, and Lord Jagged of Canaria. Mentions are made of both Jerry Cornelius and Jherek Carnelian (who feature in other Moorcock stories). The time-travelers are able to change their bizarre world at will, and do so repeatedly in misguided attempts to entertain Elric. The result, unfortunately, is confusing for both Elric and the reader.

The most interesting concept from "Elric at the End of Time" results from Elric’s belief that he has stumbled into the realm of Chaos and that the time-travelers are gods of Chaos. In contrast, the time-travelers insist that they are simple humans. This conception is complicated further by the suggestion that—just perhaps—Lord Jagged really is Elric’s patron Lord Arioch, Duke of Chaos. The reader is left to ponder what Elric cannot conceive: are his gods really just other mortals? Such a question, of course, is the launching pad for even more pondering…

"The Last Enchantment" is a true short story. Again, it is difficult to place precisely in Elric’s timeline. Clearly, the story takes place after "While the Gods Laugh" (the second section of The Weird of the White Wolf, Book 3 of The Elric Saga) and perhaps even after "Kings in Darkness" (the second section of The Bane of the Black Sword, Book 5 of The Elric Saga).

Here, Elric is cursed by Siletah Slorg, a human servant of Teshwan, one of the Lords of Chaos. As a result, Elric is transported to the Palace of Kaneloon at the Time of Change, where the Lords of Chaos are meeting in conference. Elric enters and learns that he may never leave unless he meets one condition. He is challenged to "create something which it has never occurred to [the Lords of Chaos] to create." If he fails, he is doomed to "eternal consciousness," frozen forever as a living statue.

"The Secret Life of Elric of Melniboné" is a non-fiction essay on the creation of Elric written in the 1960s. In this fascinating essay, Moorcock discusses how he came to create Elric, how Elric’s personality and challenges were allegories of Moorcock’s own, and how Moorcock feels about the critics’ and public’s reception of Elric. It’s a great opportunity to see what Moorcock was trying to achieve.

The Fortress of the Pearl takes place during the previously undescribed gap between Elric of Melniboné and The Sailor on the Seas of Fate. Exercising questionable judgment, Elric has left his betrothed, Cymoril, and left the Ruby Throne of Melniboné in the ambitious hands of his cousin Yyrkoon while Elric himself explores the human lands of the Young Kingdoms and beyond.

In Part I, Elric has wandered into the depths of the Sighing Desert searching for the fabled city Tanelorn. His directions and preparations are poor, however, and he finds himself on the brink of death. He is rescued by a boy, Anigh, of the desert city Quarzhasaat—renown for its riches, self-absorption, haughtiness, and self-imposed ignorance of the outside world. In short, Quarzhasaat is much like Melniboné. As a captive of Lord Gho Fhaazi, Elric becomes embroiled in the convoluted politics of Quarthassat and is sent on a quest to obtain the legendary Pearl at the Heart of the World.

To obtain pearl, Elric befriends the nomads of the Sighing Desert, the Bauradim, and their leader, Raik Na Seem. He also allies with the dreamthieves Alnac Kreb and Oone. Elric learns that the Quarzhassati Sorcerer Adventurers have laid a spell upon the Bauradim’s Holy Girl, Varandia. To obtain the pearl, Elric must first save Varandia. And so Elric combines his efforts with the Bauradim and the dreamthieves.

In Part II, Elric and Oone enter the dreamworld in search of Varadia. There, they must travel through seven lands with such names as Land of Dreams-of-Common, the Land of Old Desires, and the Land of Lost Beliefs. Within these lands, they meet an array of startling characters, including Jaspar Colinadous (an incarnation of the Companion to Champions a multiverse standard) and his magical cat, Whiskers.

In Part III, Elric completes his quest. Then, he returns to Quarzhassat and, with his black runesword Stormbringer, expresses his distaste at having been involved in the quest for the pearl.

As a longer work, The Fortress of the Pearl gives Moorcock plenty of space for discussion on such topics as dreamthieving and the nature of reality. For my taste, this discussion was both excessive because it did not add much to the reader’s understanding or enjoyment of the work. Too often, even the characters engaged in such discussion confessed to less than full understanding of it. However, much of this is limited to Part II, which was particularly "atypical Elric." In contrast, Parts I and III are far more similar to the old serials that form the core of The Elric Saga in tone, excitement, writing, and structure.

Although The Fortress of the Pearl is chronologically "Book 1 and ½" of The Elric Saga, it contains numerous references and foreshadowings that are likely be more appreciated by a reader who has completed the core series than one who has simply read Elric of Melniboné. Further, The Fortress of the Pearl does not contain the intense character and plot development that the core books do, nor does it much explore many of the issues that come to obsess Elric, such as his place in the world or his relationship with Stormbringer and Chaos.

This volume is also difficult to place within the series. Taking a break from the peace of Tanelorn, Elric encounters the dragon Scarsnout, who returns him to Melniboné. As he expects, he finds the capital city in ruins. It is, however, not Imrryr but rather its predecessor, H’hui’shan, which stood upon the same site before the Melnibonéans made their pact with Chaos, destroyed H’hui’shan in civil war, and began the Bright Empire’s 10,000-year rule.

In the smoky ruins of H’hui’shan, Elric meets his father’s ghost. Sadric has used the dragon to summon Elric to aid him. Sadric made too many bargains during his life and, in his death, his soul is claimed by both Arioch and Mashabak of Chaos. While the gods bicker between themselves, Sadric has hidden his soul within a black rosewood box. Yet the box has been lost. Without it, Sadric cannot release his soul into the Forest of Souls where it would be safe from the gods and where Sadric already sent the soul of Elric’s mother.

Sadric and Elric bear no love for each other and, thus, to ensure Elric complies with his wish, Sadric binds the two together—if Elric doesn’t complete the quest (or dies trying) then his soul will forever be entwined with his father’s. Such would be punishment enough for anyone, but given Sadric and Elric’s strong feelings about each other, the punishment is all the crueler.

The dragon takes Elric to another world, where Sadric believes the soulbox can be found. Thus begins an adventure through time and space in which Elric gains the aid of an odd assortment of companions including: Ernest Wheldrake (Moonglum’s incarnation and a fictional poet borrowed from real-life Victorian poet and critic Algernon Charles Swinburne, known for flowery and erotic works), a small, red-headed, time-traveling poet whose half-remembered rhymes are often prophetic; the Rose, a superior fighter and sorceress whose quest dovetails with Elric’s own; and the Phatts, a clairvoyant family of gypsies. Together, they learn that the soulbox, along with other artifacts of power, is being held by three sisters. They also learn that they have competition in their quest to find the sisters and the artifacts: Prince Gaynor the Damned, who is doomed never to die although desperately wishing death, races for the artifacts, the sisters, and to bring whole worlds under the rule of Chaos.

The Revenge of the Rose is full of all the action of the original Elric series without yet the full-blown philosophy of the Tales of the Ablino, which follow it. Like The Fortress of the Pearl, it both benefits and suffers from the longer form offered by novels rather than serials. Moorcock has more room to explore the fantastic landscapes and cultures for which he is acclaimed and those readers who felt such elements got short shrift in the serials may be gratified for a chance to linger. References to history, philosophy, and metaphysics are more prominent; rather than left to simple allegory, they are reflected upon by the characters. This reflection, however, significantly slows down the movement of the work. Other distractions include the author shifting between present and past tense and between normal print and italics, without clear reason. Lastly, the plot twists can seem like convolutions for convolutions’ sake; rather than increase tension, they result in plot and behavioral inconsistencies. This reader concluded that, while a satisfying read, The Revenge of the Rose would have benefited from another round of editing.

In The Dreamthief’s Daughter, we find Count Ulric von Bek of World War II Germany. Von Bek is one of Elric’s avatars—a version of the Eternal Champion. Like Elric, he is an albino aristocrat, the last of his line, misunderstood by those around him. Also like Elric, von Bek is a philosopher whose betrayal by his nemesis-cousin (Prince Gaynor von Minct, an avatar of the immortal Prince Gaynor the Damned) turns him from reclusive and independent thinker into a sword-swinging savage. In this volume, von Bek never descends as far into self-pitying barbarism as Elric does.

Book I opens with von Bek’s personal history, a modern parallel to Elric’s, and his musings upon the politics that have left Germany to fall into Nazi hands. He is visited by members of the White Rose Society, which he believes are underground resistance fighters. After expressing his sympathies with their position, he hopes to join them.

However, von Bek is visited by his cousin Gaynor and his secretary, Johannes Klosterheim. After much dissimilation, von Bek learns that Gaynor and the Nazis have delcared von Bek’s family sword, Ravenbrand, which they believe has a long and mythological history that will help the Nazis gain mystical credibility. Though he is unaware of it, just as von Bek is an avatar of Elric, Ravenbrand is an avatar of Stormbringer (although it has yet to exhibit any of Stormbringer’s sorcerous properties).

Von Bek quickly becomes embroiled in the struggle between Gaynor and the Nazis to obtain Ravenbrand (or Raven Blade) and "Gertie" and "Herr El" of the White Rose Society to keep the sword hidden. And he’s been having these strange dreams of a doppelganger who rides upon the backs of dragons...

Book II finds von Bek (in the company of "Gertie") fleeing from the Nazis into another world, the bizarre underground world of the cerebral and alien Off-Moo. There, he learns more of his guide—Oona, the daughter born of Oone and Elric’s relationship in The Fortress of the Pearl—and is overwhelmed by the reality of the multiverse (which seems increasingly possible in this post-quantum physics world of ours); the magnitude of the conflict between Law and Chaos and how Christianity, Christian myth, good and evil fit into that conflict; and the variety of residents in Mu Ooria. He is forced to realize his own place in the multiverse and his relationship with Elric, with whom he combines so that Gaynor’s forces can be battled not only on von Bek’s plane, but in Elric’s as well.

In Book III, Elric, von Bek, and Oona must chase Gaynor through the multiverse, using their combined skills to thwart him when they can. An epilogue wraps the story up.

Like some of the other Elric stories, The Dreamthief’s Daughter does not fit well into the chronology set out in the core books and the reader can feel that these secondary books outline a separate, parallel chronology from the first. It also differs radically from the core books in that, as a full length novel, The Dreamthief’s Daughter explores in repetitive detail concepts that were left out of or reduced in the earlier works.

Fans of the earlier stories (and other tales of the Eternal Champion) will be gratified to by the appearances of Oswald Bastable, Moonglum, Arioch, King Straasha, and the Runestaff, among others. Elric’s arrogant wit and runesword are as vicious as ever, and his sorcery ever more complex, creative, and potent. A wonderful and fascinating change from the earlier Elric books is that, rather than Chaos, von Bek and Elric must fight the evil forces of Law gone amuck.

Unlike the earlier Elric stories, The Dreamthief’s Daughter is written in the first-person but the primary narrator is not Elric: it’s von Bek. However, the first-person narration offers a fresh perspective. Elric’s strangeness, temperament, and sorcery are judged from twentieth-century human sensibilities. Moorcock provides a realistic portrayal of the reaction of a relatively ordinary person suddenly confronted by a larger-than-life sword-and-sorcery hero. Elric, who has grown so familiar over the decades, is suddenly seen to be more alien, powerful, and haunting than ever. Also fascinating is the short section of the volume narrated by Elric as well as by the hybrid of Elric and von Bek.

The writing style, however, is not crisp or accessible; Moorcock has changed in the decades since Elric first appeared and it shows. References to history, opera, politics (which Moorcock makes relevant to today), quantum physics, folklore, and literature abound in The Dreamthief’s Daughter. While such references are in keeping with von Bek’s character and upbringing as a cultured romantic, they have the effect of making the book read like an alternative history. Also, they may come across as a distraction for those looking for the something more of the sword-and-sorcery tone of the original books (which is present only in the sections narrated by Elric). Moreover, Moorcock’s explanations of concepts and justifications for events sometimes seem weak; these weaknesses become increasingly obvious as Moorcock repeats and layers them. This reader was left with the impression that Moorcock was embarking on a tale that would act as The Unified Theory of Everything. Lastly, as explained above, this is more Ulric’s tale than Elric’s. Overall, this volume seems aimed at a different audience than the original Elric stories.

The Skrayling Tree takes place some years after The Dreamthief’s Daughter. Once again, the novel is narrated in the first person.

The short Prologue is a philosophic note from Elric on the nature of reality, thought, and dreams. In this note, Elric explains why it is that these later stories do not fit cleanly into the timeline of the core Elric Saga: it is because they involve dreams and Elric has poor memory of his dreams. Thus, this is an explicit reference to one of the criticisms of the Elric stories: amnesia as an explanation for questionable timelines and inconsistencies.

"The First Branch: Oona’s Story" begins with Oona and Ulric married and living lives of comfort and leisure after years of championing human rights following World War II. They have moved to the North American countryside where Oona and Ulric have tried to blend in, but are still considered eccentric. Ulric continues to having difficulty accepting the supernatural, although he is still haunted by Elric’s dreams.

After a day of strange events, Ulric is kidnapped from their home by Kakatanawa Indians. Oona immediately sets off after him, but is diverted from her quest by a summoning by Ayanawatta (literature’s "Hiawatha.") She is pulled into his dreamworld, where she is named White Buffalo Woman. They encounter White Crow, an albino youth with whom Oona feels a strange, unidentifiable kinship and who carries a sorcerous black lance, and rides a wooly mammoth mount, Bes.

Oona is assured by Ayanawatta and White Crow that her goal of finding Ulric is inexorably tied to their journeys and that the three must help each other if any is to succeed. Klosterheim also returns, his path criss-crossing Oona’s as he follows a quest of his own, to find Ulric’s cousin, Gaynor.

A fan of the original Elric books may well find that the first portion of The Skrayling Tree suffers from the same weaknesses as The Dreamthief’s Daughter. Oona’s narrative meanders so that sentences, paragraphs, and ideas do not always flow one to the next. Space and time are also twisted, as Oona’s narrative weaves commentary about politics, literature, popular culture, and miscellaneous historical events into her own alternative history story. Thus, the narrative can be jarring. Oona seems to several times address this, claiming that the disjointed feel is a result of (1) wandering through dreams and (2) the characters’ inability to fully explain themselves to each other for fear of conveying knowledge that will somehow alter the future. White Crow assures her (and, vicariously, the reader) that, "Everything becomes clear at the right time." (p. 70) Yet, the section contains some of the same quick wit and amazing imagery for which Moorcock well-known.

"The Second Branch: Elric’s Story" is, according to Elric, a Dream of a Thousand Years that takes place during the time when Elric hangs upon the mast of Jagreen Lern’s ship in "Black Sword’s Brothers" of Stormbringer, Book 6 of the core Elric Saga. In the original serial, Elric places himself in a trance in order to contact and regain his runesword, Stormbringer, which has returned to the plane of Chaos.

Here, Elric’s trance takes him on a search for the Nihranian smith who forged Stormbringer in the hoe that the smith could help him locate the blade. Entering a gateway into the dream-worlds, Elric is transported (with corporeal form) into our world around 900 AD, where he stays until 2001. Carrying Ulric’s sword, Ravenbrand, and bereft of his sorcerous powers, he travels around Europe and the Middle East as a mercenary, searching for clues that will lead him to Stormbringer’s maker and becoming part of many countries’ lore.

One of these clues leads him to Gunnar the Norseman, a pirate of hideous reputation. Together, they meet up with the ever-reborn Klosterheim, still in search of the Holy Grail. Elric does not remember Klosterheim from The Dreamthief’s Daughter and, thus, Gunnar and Elric ally themselves with him. Together with Klosterheim’s Pukawatchi Indian band, they travel toward intersection with Oona’s timeline and story.

Elric’s narrative again adds to the reader’s understanding of him and his culture. He talks of Melnibonéan philosophy and values, sorcerous training, and upbringing—much of which ties into the tale’s ultimate twists and turns. Elric is also a more clear narrator than Oona and so this section provides a far smoother read.

"The Third Branch: Ulric’s Story" picks up with the moment of Ulric’s kidnapping from Canada by the Kakatanawa Indians. They take him to Sepiriz of the Nihrain, a servant of Fate who also appeared in "Black Sword’s Brothers." Sepiriz informs Ulric that the Nihrain have recruited him to help them preserve the multiverse from those that would destroy it. To do this, Ulric must carry the Black Sword to a secret destination in pre-Columbian America. He is given the aid of his distant cousin, Prince Lobkowitz, a time traveler of some experience who also appeared in Oona’s narrative and The Dreamthief’s Daughter.

Though the trio of albinos acknowledge that they are each in desperate straits (Oona to find Ulric, Elric to find Stormbringer, and Ulric to find Oona), all exhibit nearly inexplicable patience with the looping plots and philosophical characters they encounter. Moreover, the mixing of space and time leads to a feeling of temporal madness in which Vikings and other raiders, pre-Columbian Indians, twentieth-century Germans, Melnibonéans, dreamthieves, immortals, dragons, wooly mammoths, and various mythological, religious, and historical beings mix freely. The characters have no clear goals or paths and, therefore, the work has less tension than it might. The explanation they offer is, in essence, that the best path toward one’s goal is rarely the straightest. Moreover, as mentioned above, the albinos—and, by extension, the reader—are left in the dark as to the explanation of events, motivations, world view, and other important information under the rationale that all will be revealed in time.

The drawback of such an approach is that the albinos’ rationalizations for their patience can seem like a device that traps them in an overlong tales in order to permit the author’s indulgences on tangential subjects—slowing the momentum and the pulp fun that fans of the earlier Elric books love and have come to expect. Moreover, it seems that the more the multiverse theory and its mythology are examined (and combined with time- and inter-dimensional travel), the weaker they become. Thus, the compelling power of a major theme of the core Elric books (and other Eternal Champion stories) is reduced. Lastly, all three narrators repeatedly state that they don’t understand (and don’t care to understand) explanations for what is happening to them. For example, Ulric says, "I had to admit that I was baffled. Such philosophies were beyond my simple soul to fathom." (p. 385) and "I must admit I had begun to close my ears to Lobkowitz’s existential litany." (p. 388) These repeated statements by the narrators beg the question: if the characters don’t care about these issues, why should the reader?

Still, where fans of the original Elric saga might find disappointment, Moorcock’s other fans may be greatly pleased by the author’s deeper philosophical investigation of the Balance between Law and Chaos, the constant battle between good and evil and humanity place within it, as well as religion, politics, and the nature of reality. Moorcock continues his exploration of post-quantum physics sword and sorcery in one of the central themes of this trilogy: how the observer (or the dreamer) can affect reality. Can our desires alter existence? Is existence defined by thought, as seventeenth-century French philosopher and mathematician René Descrates suggested in his famous quote, "I think, therefore I am"? Is existence defined by observation, as in twentieth-century German physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s landmark quantum physics thought experiment known as "Schrödinger’s cat"? Certainly, these are ambitious themes to work into any fiction, and Moorcock takes them to a new level here.

The last of these novels begins shortly after the end of The Skrayling Tree. As the Prologue tell us, Elric yet hangs on the mast of Jagreen Lern’s ship during the tale "Black Sword’s Brothers" of Stormbringer, Book 6 of the core Elric Saga. He continues his Dream of a Thousand Years, during which he searches for his lost runeblade, Stormbringer, in other dimensions in order that it might find him aboard Jagreen Lern’s ship and release him from his bonds.

"Part One: A Much Sought-After Young Lady" is narrated by Oonagh von Bek, the twelve-year-old granddaughter of Count Ulric von Bek (an incarnation of the Eternal Champion) and Oona (the daughter of Elric and Oone, the dreamthief from The Fortress of the Pearl). Ulric and Oona, along with their children and grandchildren, have returned to our modern English countryside.

Oonagh is a clever and brave kid who quickly encounters an odd assortment of characters. First, she comes upon a pair of sinister men haunting her family’s property. Then, a strange band claiming to be friends of her grandparents suddenly appear. She quickly realizes that they (multiverse regulars Prince Lobkowitz, Chevalier St. Odhran, and Constable Oswald Bastable along with the mysterious albino Monsieur Zodiac) have come to protect her from the sinister pair (multiverse regulars Gaynor von Minct and Klosterheim, who continue their quest to find the Holy Grail and become gods themselves).

Why Gaynor and Klosterheim should be a threat to Oonagh, she has no idea. Before she can find out, she is sucked into the underground world of the Off-Moo by a series of earthquakes. There, she meets Lord Reynard, the erudite man-sized fox, who, as a family friend, takes her under his protection in his home in Mirenburg, where he is the prince of thieves. Reynard’s Mirenburg is, of course, one version of the same city that exists in our (and Oonagh’s) world. Thus begins a complicated game surrounding Oonagh—pursued by would-be rescuers and would-be kidnappers and, like Alice or Dorothy, trying to find her way home.

"Part Two: Diverging Histories" offers a selection of points of view. The first is, surprisingly, Moorcock’s own narration: it is a fictional account of time-traveler Una Persson’s visit to his Texas home. We learn that she is the source of his multiverse stories. It is she who updates Moorcock on Elric’s Dream of a Thousand Years and his family history, reminding us that Elric and Oone had twins but, while Oona had gone on to marry Ulric, the male twin, Onric, had been kidnapped.

Elric, alternatively living as, among other things, stage-magician Monsieur Zodiac, play-boy Count Zcabernac, and inspiration to our world’s vampire legends, sets off in search of Oonagh throughout the multiverse. Focusing primarily on versions of England and Germany, Elric traces Oonagh to the Mirenburg of Dorian Hawkmoon and Count Brass’s (other major Moorcock multiverse characters) multiverse. That Mirenburg is an important city of the Dark Empire of Granbretan, under the reign of King Huon the Immortal and his cronies, Baron Melidaus, Taragorm, and Baron Bous-Junge—familiar from the Dorian Hawkmoon/Count Brass stories.

Meanwhile, as Oonagh dodges enemies (not only Gaynor and Klosterheim, but the rulers of Granbretan as well) and searches for her allies, she learns more of her part in this plot and is charged by an oracle to find a blind albino boy. Part Two contains sections from Elric’s, Hawkmoon’s, and Oonagh’s points of view.

"Part Three: The White Wolf’s Son" is again narrated by Oonagh. She finally understands that her enemies believe her to be critical in their goal of destroying the Balance of the multiverse and taking all power for themselves. To this end, they struggle to gather the needed five mytho-Christian components (the Staff, the Sword, the Cup, the Stone, and the Blood). Oonagh, along with her friends, family, and allies, fight to protect the Balance from these destructive zealots.

Like The Strayling Tree, The White Wolf’s Son acts as a Unified Theory of Everything—fitting, given Moorcock’s stated intention to stop writing heroic fiction. It is, however, a bit less philosophical than the previous work, while maintaining the commentary on modern and historical politics. More characters from the multiverse are referenced or revisited. For example, in addition to those already mentioned, Scholar Ree, the Warrior in Jet and Gold, the Kakatanawa, John Daker, Erekosë, and various Lords of the Higher Worlds all make appearances in these pages. In fact, much of this volume takes place in Hawkmoon’s world or other versions of Mirenburg, while Elric’s own world and Mu-Ooria are scarcely seen.

Also like The Strayling Tree, this novel suffers from an over-abundance of crimson-eyed albinos (making the reader wonder which albino the subtitles of these works refer to) and characters (particularly with names beginning with the "Oo" or "U" sound), shifting points of view (none of these recent works are truly or even predominately Elric stories), unnecessary and confusing "plots and counterplots" (p. 267), a misleading title (given the title, Onric is given surprisingly little air-time, with Oonagh arguably the main character), and underlying metaphysics that seem to weaken the more they are examined.

However, The White Wolf’s Son also contains some of the best aspects of these latest novels: strong imagery and clearer narration. Oonagh’s narration, in particular, is change of pace and Moorcock handles it convincingly. Moreover, Moorcock’s ability to weave forty-years worth of multiverse characters into a single novel is astonishing—although this same feat makes this work most accessible to readers with strong familiarity with Moorcock’s huge body of works.

Moorcock’s supplemental Elric works are more explorations of multiverse theory than focused on Elric himself, with a writing style to match. Thus, fans of the sword-slinging action of the original Elric Saga will not necessarily find satisfaction here, but those curious about the greater theology and mechanics behind it will.