In this Elric story, our hero becomes more familiar and entwined in the multiverse. From this point on it seems that Moorcock really starts to develop Elric into a very complex character. ( )

El odio y el enfrentamiento entre el príncipe albino y el nigromante Theleb K'aarna es el eje sobre el que pivotan las tres tramas que confluyen en "La torre evanescente". El periplo de Elric le conduce en esta ocasión a una inesperada alianza con Myshella, la misteriosa dama de Kaneloon, a la Ciudad de los Mendigos y a los páramos del Confín del Mundo, así como a una desesperada lucha en defensa de Taneron, la Ciudad Eterna. Elric adquiere trascendentales conocimientos sobre el multiverso y sobre su condición de Campeón Eterno.

You always get the feeling that most of the shorter Eternal Champion novels were written on the run, kind of like Anthony Trollope sitting down for so many hours to write so many pages per day. The Deus ex machina is always too much a part of this sort of Moorcock's sloppier slap-dash fantasy writing.

A pretty good start rambles about in typical Moorcock fashion into various travels, adventures, and perils involving a powerful sorcerer with much fantastical mayhem and swashbuckling. The best thing about this is the conjunction of three incarnations of the Eternal Champion, the fabled city of Tanelorn, and a shout-out for Dorian Hawkmoon.

These Eternal Champion novellas are mostly reminiscent of sword and sorcery pulp writing with a little more edge to it. They are fun reads with favorite characters (Elric and Von Bek being my personal favs) but lack the depth and the atmosphere of the longer EC novels. ( )

Books 1-3 all involve Theleb K'aarna the sorcerer from Pan Tang and Books 1 and three feature Myshella the Empress of the Dawn or the Dark Lady of Kaneloon. Book 3 is another tale of the Eternal Champion. The Elric Saga gets deeper and some story-lines are tied together. ( )

I don't know what it is about Elric, but damn, I just love this character, and this world. I wouldn't call Moorcock the best writer on the planet, not by a long shot, and there's honestly times when this series feels like he's making it up as he goes along, but overall, it's just an honestly enjoyable reading experience, and this one, with Elric chasing Theleb K'aarna hither and yon, is no exception. ( )