Review of Soldier of Arete by Gene Wolfe

Gene Wolfe’s Soldier of the Mist is the intriguing story of a mercenary soldier living in ancient Greece befuddled by anterograde amnesia.  Each night’s sleep wiping his memory of everything but his youth and instinct, each morning brings a new beginning.  And the perpetual fresh start was evident in the relative lightness of the book’s tone.  Meeting gods, being everyday in a new place, and forever meeting fresh faces (even though he may have already met them), Latro remained optimistic throughout that despite his memory problem he would find his way home.  At the conclusion of Mist he experienced a wake up call, of a sort, however.  Segueing into the next novel, Soldier of Arete (1989) digs itself deeper into Latro’s mind as he attempts to come to terms with the realities of length: the road home, and how he will handle his memory issues if there is no cure.

The scene at the end of Soldier of the Mist a major event in Latro’s life, the opening of Soldier of Arete nevertheless finds the slave-soldier in the same company. Watched over by the faithful child Io and befriended by the trustworthy Seven Lions, he and the army he is owned by continue to make their way across the seas of ancient Greece to worthy destinations.  Witness to a brutal execution at the story’s start, a figurative execution closes the novel, leaving Latro to have acquired a great deal in the middle.  Spending time amongst the Amazons, gleaning memory and scroll trying to uncover plots against his life, pawn to others when his memory fails, and always unaware who is and isn’t a god, his adventures are no less intriguing than Mist.

Review of "Stormbringer" by Michael Moorcock

For those who enjoy reading Greek myth for its style, Michael Moorcock’s Elric may be for you.  Event-based rather than dialogue- or emotion-based, these stories of the albino warrior Elric and his soul-stealing sword Stormbringer are written in terse, quickly paced prose that is action packed.  Like Theseus killing the minotaur, escaping the labyrinth, and losing/leaving Ariadne within a few scant sentences, so too does Elric have a host of adventures in each of the interconnected novellas of this collection.  Chaos in an eternal fight against Law, he meets all manner of friends and enemies, magic and the fantastic.  There is no shortage of demons, mages, and monsters to be swallowed by the unquenchable thirst of his Stormbringer—the sword with a mind of its own—accompanying Elric to the end.   

Certainly not classic literature, Moorcock’s Elric stories can nonetheless be credited as an artistic statement that consistently embody the same themes of honor, duty, virtue, heroism, human flaw, etc. which make Greek mythology classic.  The result is one of the most uniquely human characters of epic fantasy: Elric, a man torn by fate.  That it’s written in the same style as Greek myth, however, should come as a warning for those seeking sword and sorcery with a narrative more lush and evocative.  

(See also my review of The Stealer of Souls for more info on Elric.)

Review of "The Stealer of Souls" by Michael Moorcock

The dark, brooding nature of Moorcock’s prose—flying in the face of conventional, happy-ending fairy tales—is perhaps why I rate the rather simplistic novellas of The Stealer of Souls so high.  The fatalistic tone lifts Elric, the flawed hero of the narrative, above the often comedic and wooden comic book heroes Moorcock is riffing on. Perhaps as close to the classic presentation of myth as has been published in recent centuries, Moorcock is undoubtedly aware of the archetypes of sword and sorcery.  But that he employs them in such a cold, distant tone adds an element of drama that the warm and fuzzy happenings of Harry Potter, Eragon, and the like cannot match.   Many writers would try to embellish a soul-stealing sword with melodrama, but not Moorcock.  He delivers indifferent to the hero and his sword’s plight, relating action, events, and outcomes as they occur, nothing more.  The result is that the structure of Elric’s soul is laid bare.  But what can one see?  One sees that the choices he makes, good and bad, make him as human as Achilles. Though written  in a paucity of words, the novellas contained within The Stealer of Souls contain enough tragedy and myth to be more interesting than the run of the mill fantasy.

(See also my review of Stormbringer for additional commentary on Elric. )