I've been hunting the first Elric of Melniboné novella for a couple of years now. Used book stores, library fire sales, regular chain stores, you name it. The dang thing is only available in a large omnibus edition.

Come to find out that the book has recently made an unabridged trip to audioland. I used a freebie subscription to Audible.com to get the thing for free (normally it's like $30). Burned it to disc, bunged it in the car cd player, and now on the way to work and back, I get to enjoy really hackneyed prose accompanyed by a clumsy arrangement of background music and sound effects.

Now, Michael Moorcock himself actually reads the introduction, and he does a great job of it. He is succeeded, however, by Jeffrey West, who neither enunciates clearly nor quite grasps the distinction between drama and drammer. You can almost hear Snidely Whiplash snickering in the background.

That said, I'm still loving it. For those of you unfamiliar with Moorcock's Elric saga (or the larger Eternal Champion collection, Elric is in many ways the complete inverse of the archetypal adventure hero. Instead of a plucky young nobody who fights his way to glory aided only by a strong moral conscience, a bit of cleverness, and a slice of mickle might, we have a guy who

• Isn't human. Melnibonéans are related to dragons, or something. Kind of elvish, too -- best not to inquire too closely of Moorcock here.
• Doesn't really have qualms about committing what we'd consider atrocities.
• Starts off as the emperor of the greatest realm on earth, and its greatest living sorcerer. Not much room to go up, eh?
• Is physically weak, and an albino with some kind of deficiency in his blood. He's dependent on heavy doses of drugs to have the strength to even move.
• Swings an evil sword. That sounds pretty good, right? Except that when I say "an evil sword," I mean the sword itself (dubbed "Stormbringer") is sentient, and actually a demon from another dimension. That feeds off the souls of those it slays. And forces Elric to kill more people periodically, when it gets the munchies. And Gentle Reader, that doesn't bode well for friends and family.

So our non-man Elric is a problematic, if eventually sympathetic character. It's great fun!