You're right. Moorcock was not the best writer. I picked up an early printing in a used bookstore and it had misspellings in it! While he's a sincere feminist the women in his books are empty shells that serve only to advance the story of the male protagonists . . .
But, for all of his failings as an author, he excelled at philosophical fantasy. He had an amazing imagination and he communicated more ideas in a paragraph that most authors presented inside of a trilogy. So much of DnD's cosmology is derived from his books - why, when you kill a devil does it not actually die but reform on it's own plane? Because Gygax stole that idea from Moorcock:
Further and further into the ranks he sliced his way, until
he saw Lord Xiombarg in his earthly guise of a slender,
dark-haired woman. Eiric knew that the woman's shape was
no indication of Xiombarg's mighty strength but, without
fear, he leapt forwards the Duke of Hell and stood before
him, looking up at where he sat on his lion-headed, bullbodied
mount.
Xiombarg's girl's voice came sweetly to Eiric's ears. "Mortal,
you have defied many Dukes of Hell and banished others
back to the Higher Worlds. They call you god-slayer now, so
I've heard. Can you slay me?"
"You know that no mortal can slay one of the Lords of
the Higher Worlds whether they be of Law or Chaos, Xiombarg-
but he can, if equipped with sufficient power, destroy
their earthly semblance and send them back to their own
plane, never to return?"
"Can you do this to me?"
"Let us see!" Eiric flung himself towards the Dark Lord.
My second DnD character was largely a rip off of Elric - elven wizard / fighter wielding blackrazor and riding a griffon. I think I was 12 at the time.
Agreed 💯I would like to see a sword that was was truly manipulative and vindictive; one not made for comic relief.
