I ended at least one universe in a very Moorcockian style. Many, many elements in his books wound up in roleplaying sessions. The gradual realization that all of Moorcock’s S&S stories were linked in some crazy pattern made our reading even more compulsive. As soon as one of us finished one series we plunged right into the next. When I was in my mid-teens, all my friends and I devoured these books relentlessly. Its appeal is purely and mind-blowingly visceral. That depiction of Elric, runeblade held high, Horn of Fate trailing behind him, under the storm-wracked heavens, says more about what brings me back to the genre than any book-long disquisition ever could. civilization and whatnot until the end of the day but, ultimately, this is what I dig. You can talk about heroism, barbarism vs. Michael Whelan’s painting for the 1977 DAW edition of Michael Moorcock’s Stormbringer (1965) is the first time in over two hundred essays I haven’t put the first edition cover first. ⇐ That cover, more than any other, depicts the absolute coolness of swords & sorcery and what I like about it. Greatest of these heroes was a doom-driven adventurer who bore a crooning runeblade that he loathed. And there rose up in this time, which was called the Age of the Young Kingdoms, heroes. There came a time when the destiny of Men and Gods was hammered out upon the forge of Fate, when monstrous wars were brewed and mighty deeds were designed.
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