Krishna
This is the start of a sword and sorcery series. And it is a reasonably enjoyable book.
Elric is expected to be the King of Melnibone and sit on the Ruby Throne after his father, Sadric the Eighty Sixth. Being sickly he does not want to but he is the only child and Sadric died last year. He sees no way out of the kingship. He is well read, though, and had read through the entire library of Sadric. Like all of his royal ancestors, he is also a great sorcerer. He is in love with Cymoril, a close friend, whose brother Yyrkoon dislikes the meekness of the emperor and is openly insulting when the emperor’s back is turned.
Yyrkoon seems to openly defy the emperor during a dance and is fairly easily bested by Eric in argument, much to his anger and humiliation.
When Elric learns of spies who have found a way through the maze, they decide to trap them and kill them. Victorious, but drained of his strength, Elric finds himself pushed into the sea by Yyrkoon, but magical sea creatures seem to come and restore him to land saying ‘it is not his time to die’.
Unaware of this, Yyrkoon declares that he is now the emperor and commands loyalty from the kingdom. He largely gets it and decides to imprison his sister Cymoril. He is shocked, when he returns, to find that Elric is sitting on the throne!
The captain of the Yyrkoon’s command had killed a soldier who valiantly tried to protect Cymoril earlier and Elric orders him fed to Yyrkoon with a slow death. But before anyone could do this, Yyrkoon summons a mist and escapes with the captain whose name is Valharik. He has also taken Cymoril with him!
Elric does his magic and summons King Straasha of the Water Kingdom. He offers the Ship That Goes On Land and Sea, a magical if small ship. Elric also learns that YYrkoon has a magic mirror in front of his city, which, if looked into, will rob anyone of their memories.
Yyrkoon is safe in the assumption that he is invulnerable and is astounded when his city is attacked. He realizes the Elric has tricked him by leading a group of blind warriors who can fight by sound alone! Elric himself is visored. Frustrated, he sends his commander Varhalk to break the mirror! The memories released send men to their deaths, and Elric barely survives. Meanwhile Cymoril is exultant that Elric really came for her!
Meanwhile Yyrkoon has gone into Shade gate to get two black swords of magic that will make him invulnerable. Elric prays to Arioch, who advises him to go through the Shade gate and get the swords first. While there, he makes a friend of another doomed man who is good with arrows called Rakhir. They both go in search of the sword.
The find both the swords and also Yyrkon with the swords. What follows is a fight of the swords and then Elric returns victorious. Along the way, he twists the expected destiny and wins on his own terms.
The ending is a little bit strange but the book ends in an interesting way.
6/10
— Krishna