'The Vanishing Tower' – Michael Moorcock (Grafton)

Or as I've come to think of this book over the last few days that it's been my book, 'Elric vs the Giant Green Flea that likes to sit down a lot'... Covers like these are the main reason why I absolutely love the old Grafton covers for the 'Eternal Champion' series and I'll snap these up whenever I see them, even if I already have them in a different edition.

I first encountered Michael Moorcock's books during 'library lessons' in my first year of high school. That was well over thirty years ago now (today's reminder of just how old I am now...) and I can't quite remember whether it was 'Elric at the End of Time' or 'The Prince with the Silver Hand' that I picked up first. Either way, I've been reading (and re-reading) these books ever since so whichever book was the first read, it was a good one.

'The Vanishing Tower' is a re-read but it's been such a long time since I picked it up that it almost doesn't count as one. Weighing in at a very slender 190 pages, it was a read that took me to work and back again. If you absolutely have to be awake, and on a bus at six in the morning, 'The Vanishing Tower' isn't a bad way to spend that time...

Elric of Melniboné, proud prince of ruins, last lord of a dying race, wanders the lands of the Young Kingdoms in search of the evil sorcerer Theleb K'aarna. His object is revenge. But to achieve this, he must first brave such horrors as the Creatures of Chaos, the freezing wilderness of World's Edge, the golden-skinned Kelmain hordes, King Urish the Seven-fingered with his great cleaver Hackmeat, the Burning God, the Sighing Desert, and the terrible stone-age men of Pio. Although Elric holds within him a destiny greater than he could ever know, and controls the hellsword Stormbringer, stealer of souls, his task looks hopeless - until he encounters Myshella, Empress of the Dawn, the sleeping sorceress...

Reading that blurb puts me in mind of a video game where you have to battle through all the levels until you meet the final boss. As luck would have it, that is pretty much exactly how the three books that make up this volume are structured. Elric goes somewhere, battles a monster, battles the monster's boss and levels up in time for the next book.

Now, this approach really falls down for me in some of the longer collections (you know I'm looking at you 'Corum' books...) but for a book this length it actually worked very well for me. There's no time for faffing about; just go in, get the job done and move on, all against some deliciously foreboding hints of the final battle that is to take place between Law and Chaos. It's an approach that keeps the book moving at the speed it needs to, it's a useful technique employed here to great affect.

There's a lot of other stuff happening in the background as well which is worth a mention as it all helps to make the story one that's fleshed out in detail and doing the job that it needs to. Moorcock's approach to worldbuilding, in this set of tales anyway, is to 'go sparse' and this not only helps the plot to keep moving along at speed but adds a layer of exoticism to his world, making it something that I wanted to keep learning about.

Most important of all is the character of Elric himself and again, Moorcock 'goes sparse' again to make Elric's revelations all the more powerful. Elric doesn't give much of himself away but when he does, you know that it's time to listen.

A short review then for a short book. 'The Vanishing Tower' may not be the book for a long afternoon's read but it does have an awful lot going for it; I'm very glad that I picked it up again and if you haven't already then I'd recommend it.