This book is split into three separate stories masquerading as one, all of whom were varying in quality. The only common theme is that Elric is on a ship, and he is sailing without knowing what awaits him.

The shortness of all three parts of the story seem to work in its favour most of the time, since as soon as one part seemed to run out of its steam, we could almost reset to the next part. The pacing is slim, which is much appreciated.

Part 1 was the weakest link for me. Its has the weird in the multiverse, and some intriguing bits apart from that, but it seemed the least motivated. Like the epitome of Elric going "What the hell, sure." 

There seemed to be a lack of stakes, despite quite a few deaths, but it served its purpose in further dooming our hero to his fate and confirming his inability to escape it.

The second part was much more interesting, and I found the lore to be gripping in the way it was woven into the story. 

And the villain had the most substance out of all the three, because he was actually given speaking parts here and wasn't just some eldritch threat on the horizon with no specifications. His character stood out more than any other Elric encountered in the entire book for sure. 

This part was a fairytale retelling in the fashion of The Brothers Grimm, and it really seemed to benefit from that.

Sailing to the past, the third part, was the most insight we get into Elric's own state of mind at last, and the glimpses we got were great! Elric is a tragic figure, but here most of his decisions are very proactive, and he makes some bad ones! Hooray for that! We love gradual corruption!

I wish they were delved into further, but I'm satisfied with where it ended up, and once again intrigued enough to continue on this weird, weird little journey.