I ran a couple sessions of Stormbringer 1st ed back in mid 80's and I still have the book in storage.  I like the setting itself although I have not read much in the way of the stories.  I have read a few and I liked them well enough.

Many might hate me for saying this but I think Michael Moorcock is a terrible author when it comes to prose.  He has some fantastic ideas and great story lines (Elric is probably the best in my opinion), I just never could get in to his way of writing.

In regards to Elric, looking at Amazon.com right now, the place to start would be The Elric Saga, Part 1, which is the first three or four books put together.  If you know of a really good second hand store, Elric of Melnibone is the first book in the series I think.  There was a progression of novels following a set timeline, then Moorcock went back and wrote some other ones along with some anthologies of Elric shortstories, which makes it a little diffficult to figure out what books to start with.

Elric is held up as an iconic (and maybe really the first) example of the classic Anti-hero.  He's a tragic figure but not really one thats tragic because he tries to do good and the universe it out to get him.  Its a really nice spin on the heroic fantasy genre.

Booo @ Kebb! I love Moorcock's books, but I guess it's all person preference. I know people that ador the wheel of time books and I couldn't finish reading the first book. As far as the Elric collection, there have been so many reprints in various formats, but I recommend buying the Eternal Champion line since it is the most current omnibus with Mr. Moorcock's latest forewards and notes.

Just for the record, I really liked The Wheel of Time series... for the first four books.  I'll argue till I'm blue in the face that the first four books are completely awesome, the rest of the series just went down hill incredibly quickly.  I read all the Elric, Hawkmoon and Corum books.  Mainly because I thought the concept was really cool, however, I'll stand by my statement that I think Moorcock may be a wonderful idea man, he just can't string a series of words together in an interesting fashion. 
Who is Harry Harrison?  never heard of him before.

Ok, so here's the new question.  High fantasy setting, which one do you like?  Don't care about the rules system.

Sorry, I meant, which fantasy (high fantasy, sword and sorcery, whatever) do you like to roleplay in.  I don't really care about the rules system, I'm just trying to find something new thats worth my time and money.

If your going to throw down cash either enjoy the reading or figure out who is playing what. If your buying a game to read, and look at the setting as sort of a sociological case-study then recomendations will be all over the map. If however your looking to buy a game to play, I think you need to find a group and work from there. The larger following of the most popular game systems means you will have less trouble pulling a group to play togther. It took me 6 months to assemble the Wyverndale group...and we play 4th ed DnD. Pathfinder is fairly popular (though maybe has the highest entry cost) Basic D&D (Came with B2 "keep on the border lands") is low entry cost (10 bucks on ebay?), a hoot to play and has a decent chance of getting players for an afternoon..no experience required.

beyonder wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2010 at 2:20pm: