Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion, Part 1: Enter the Multiverse
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- Michael Moorcock is one of the most influential science fiction and fantasy writers of all time. He's credited with inventing and popularizing grimdark, steampunk and multiverses, and he also promoted the careers of other rising authors who further shaped the genres.
Moorcock's most famous creation is his Eternal Champion saga. This is the first in a series of videos I'll be producing periodically focused on Moorcock's 15-volume Eternal Champion omnibus edition published by White Wolf Publishing in the 1990s. Future videos in this series will dive into the individual volumes in the saga, including those featuring Elric, Corum, Von Bek, Hawkmoon, Oswald Bastable, and Kane of Mars, among others.
0:32 Moorcock intro
1:29 Moorcock's influences
2:49 Boundary pushing
3:47 Helped define modern fantasy genre
6:16 Eternal Champion series overview
7:11 Themes
8:35 Impact
8:45 Settings & multiverse
9:49 Why isn't the Eternal Champion better known today?
11:31 General critique of the series
13:14 Coming attractions
Other videos featuring different parts of my book collection are linked below.
Guy Gavriel Kay:
Tier Ranked: • Tier Ranking Guy Gavri...
GGK Is the Greatest Living Fantasy Author: • [OLD VERSION; Please w...
Review of Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series:
First Chronicles: • Are the Chronicles of ...
Second Chronicles: • Are the Second Chronic...
Last Chronicles: • The Final Chronicles o...
Brandon Sanderson vs. the Evil Librarians: • Brandon Sanderson's Mo...
Channel Overview: • Welcome to the library...
Children’s Books Overview: • 150 Years of Classic C...
Science Fiction Overview: • Rare and Classic Scien...
Fantasy Overview: • Classic Fantasy Fictio...
Mystery Overview: • Classic Whodunits and ...
Adventure Overview: • Classic Thrillers and ...
Horror and Weird Fiction Overview: • Classic Horror and Wei...
Literature Overview: • Classic and Modern Lit...
Antiquarian Nonfiction Overview: • Antiquarian Books Abou...
Illustrated Books Overview: • The Golden Age of Book...
Artwork credits:
adz2pipdog@reddit.com
Amano Yoshitaka
Boris Vallejo
Frank Frazetta
Michael Whelan
Rodney Matthews
scebiqu@deviantart.com
#booktube #booktubesff #sciencefiction #scifi #fantasy #multiverse
"Evil flourishes at the extremes of both law & chaos." Excellent mantra. Thank you, Bridger.
I agree. I can't take credit for it, though. I think I was paraphrasing something Moorcock wrote in the foreword to one of his omnibus volumes published by White Wolf Publishing.
Exactly this! This is what Moorcock's storytelling is all about!
Moorcock co-wrote a song with Blue Oyster Cult, "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" that ties into his Eternal Champion saga. It is my favorite BOC song.
Great song! It brings back memories of high school and the animated film Heavy Metal.
For others who might not be familiar:
ruclips.net/video/uCCdUB7D10U/видео.html
I have been a Yuge Moorcock and BOC fan for many, many years but did not know that. It certainly explains the awesome lyrics!
Do not forget his work on :Warrior On The Edge Of Time" with Hawkwind.
Black blade off Cultosaurus.
@@deborahschell5722 Also the Hawkwind album Chronicle of the Black Sword, which is mostly about Elric, aside from Needle Gun, which is about Jerry Cornelius.
I love the two times in the Elric Saga when other Champion Eternals show up and they create the four/three who are one. The different views of the same event from different series is fantastic.
I agree. It was a very creative way to place the larger story in context.
I really enjoyed The Vanishing Tower.
Michael Moorcock's ideas was a huge inspiration for the Warhammer universe if anyone was wondering. Also ties in with It's charming connection to rock and metal music. Seeing as Moorcock collaborated with Hawkwind and Blue Öyster Cult. Deep Purple lifted the name of the album Stormbringer after the sword that features in Moorcock's novels. And Warhammer had a tie in with the Thrash metal band Sabbat's first released song Blood for the Blood God(featuring metal's best lyricist Martin Walkyier) and is where the early death metal band Bolt Thrower took its name.
Thanks for sharing that information! I didn't realize Warhammer was so closely tied to Moorcock. Also, I was familiar with his prog rock connection, but not the metal linkage.
@@thelibraryladder I used to own the single by his own band Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix. With Lemmy on bass. Found it in a secondhand shop in about 1985. Unfortunately, my life was too chaotic to retain many of my possessions.
When my wife told me Taylor Swift had a new song called "The Bolter" I thought back to this and was very confused/concerned.
Then I looked up the lyrics and saw there is zero connection beyond the name
@@thelibraryladderthe Imperium of man.is absolutely the Dark Empire of Granbretan in spaaaaace
And let’s not forget Cirith Ungol.
Moorcock is my favorite author. Literally a giant in the field of fantasy. It's such a treasure to have him still on this plane, writing thrilling new adventures for us.
His influence on the genre is difficult to overstate. I'm looking forward to reading his latest book. Thanks for watching and commenting!
with his book u can analyze, masters of the universe HeMan
I've only heard about these books without ever reading them but his approach to writing fascinates me. Being able to sit down and create endlessly for few days, without overthinking, loosing the flow, or attempting to craft perfect sentences, is so fascinating.
I agree that Moorcock's writing style is fascinating in its diversity and inventiveness, even if the artistry sometimes is lacking.
O.k thank you.
To be fair, heroic doses of amphetamines probably helped quite a bit (see also: Philip K. Dick). For all the sloppiness of prose in both these authors earlier books they really were learning the HOW of writing as they went, with the pulps providing a sort of apprenticeship. Do an experiment and compare the prose from the first Elric book Stormbringer! to a later book like Mother London, or Dick's earliest short stories to VALIS.
I've been enjoying Moorcock's writings since the late 70's and love his Elric, Hawkmoon & Corum novels in particular.
I finally got around to reading Moorcock's Von Bek novels last year, and I was surprised that I enjoyed them more than some of his better-known books. Thanks for watching!
@@thelibraryladder I have never read the Von Bek novels but after your recommendation, I'll hunt them down & have a read. Thanks!
@@sirvazo1633 My next Moorcock video (tentatively scheduled for next month) will focus on the Von Bek and Erekose incarnations. It might help you judge whether Von Bek is your kind of Champion before buying the books.
I love The Warhound and the World's Pain !
I love the Corum novels
I prefer Corum to Elric
Michael Moorcock is my absolute favourite author and I have been dedicated to his work for about 7-8 years now.
This video was great. I cant wait to watch more.
Thanks! I'm very glad you enjoyed the video. There's a second one about Von Bek and John Daker that I uploaded three months ago. Hawkmoon will be the next Eternal Champion I cover, hopefully by the end of the year.
I read "In the Name of the Rose" when I was 17. I remember being overwhelmed with the world building, to the point it was almost holotropic; to conceive of the imagery he evokes, you have to cast aside the world you are in and fully immerse yourself. Such a creative and challenging piece, but something that filled me with curiosity and creative energy!
Loved the Corum series battling the gods of law & chaos.
I agree. The Corum stories are definitely highlights of the Champion saga. Thanks for watching!
Corum and Hawkmoon are the best stories that he wrote.
That was incredible. In just 14 minutes you somehow broke my third eye lol!
I'm so glad the Dark Empire of Granbretan no longer has a hold on you, Dorian! :)
I remember a short story hinting that Elric's Chaos patron was a character from Dancers at the End of Time
Absolutely, Jagged of Canaria, Jherek Carnelian, Jerry Cornelius, Erekose, they're all aspects....
I got into The Eternal Champion series in high school and read all omnibuses. Got there via Final Fantasy games and its artwork which led me to Yoshitaka Amano which led me to the covers Amano created for The Eternal Champion. They were so beautiful. For me this is ultimate fantasy. I never bothered with Game of Thrones!
You're right, the Amano artwork is stunning. His depiction of Dorian Hawkmoon is probably my favorite. Thanks for sharing!
I definitely find Moorcock to be super hit & miss...for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
It's nuts that he spewed out the Corum trilogy, which is probably the work of his that I've enjoyed the most, in such a short time. And oh, boy. Jerry Cornelius. Those books are...something.
"Something" is apt descriptor. To use a Latin term, I'd describe them as "sui generis." Thanks for watching and commenting!
Dude you should do more videos. Your voice has magical properties lol.
Thanks! I'm working on my next one. I wish I could get them out faster.
Seconded. Not even light can escape this gravitas.
I NEED to see your take on Gene Wolfe.
These videos are excellent.
Thank you! I have an entire shelf devoted to Wolfe, and he's definitely on my list of future video topics.
Hail The New Sun!!!!
Moorcock= instant subscribe
Thanks! The next installment in my review of the Eternal Champion series is coming soon (featuring Von Bek and Erekose).
It is really nice to find competent and appreciative videos focused on the nowadays lesser known authors who are actual giants of the field. And you also managed to articulate the feelings I've always had about Moorcock's books, many of which I have on my own shelves, as well. I'm looking forward to explorations into your library (which is damn impressive, by the way - I really love the amount of hardcovers you have of classic works) and seeing some attention lavished on the older authors.
Thank you for your very kind comment! My book collection has been a labor of love for more than 40 years, and I'm glad to be able to share it with others now.
I discovered your channel while searching for Moorcock content. I have read the original Elric novels, but recently decided to try to go through and read his entire "multiverse" as a reading project for the next few years. As a book collector myself, I tracked down all the hardcover White Wolf editions and the paperback Orion/Millennium editions and figured I'd start there. I hope you continue to post Moorcock videos along the way.
More Moorcock videos will be forthcoming. I hope to have a Hawkmoon video up by the end of the year. If you haven't already watched it, you might interesting my second Eternal Champion video, which discusses whether to start reading the saga with the John Daker stories (per White Wolf's reading order) or the Von Bek stories (per Moorcock and Orion).
I adored Moorcock's Eternal Champion series as a teenager
That's when I first encountered Moorcock too.
Sir, I can only say that it's pure pleasure to listen to your voice. I just found your channel, you earned yourself a new fan.
When it comes to Mr. Moorcock I started reading his books last year, primarly The Elric Saga - which is his most popular. Since then I've read several other novels and short stories.
I completely agree with everything you said in the video and I also learned a few new things about the multiverse.
His writing can be quite simple and raw at times but in other works it's simply magnificent. Granted many of his early puply stories were written for money but I think later he really comes into his own. His best works are later in the career and they get overshadowed by Elric and The Eternal Champion stories.
I'm looking forward to watching more content from your channel and especially looking forward to The Eternal Champion videos. Cheers!
Thanks! I agree that his writing really matured as he got older. By the 1980s, when he wrote his Von Bek novels, he was capable of some really beautiful prose and imagery, whereas in his early works, he was just churning out pulp (which he admits to in the forewords to the White Wolf omnibus editions). Granted, it was very imaginative and often entertaining pulp, but he wasn't striving to create literature.
He tells an amusing anecdote in one of the forewords about how he was approached by two of his SF idols, husband and wife team Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett, at an SF convention in the 1960s. They sought him out to meet him and to congratulate him on being such a groundbreaking new voice in SF. He thought it was ironic, because he wasn't trying to be groundbreaking. Instead he was just trying to write stories like "Queen of the Martian Catacombs" (a very pulpy story written by Brackett and featured on the cover of one the issues of Planet Stories magazine I included in my video).
@@thelibraryladder Thanks for sharing, gave me a good chuckle! That's even funnier when you consider his words about being a bad writer with good ideas.
Moorcock truly feels like a contradictory person in many regards.
I agree with you on his prose. I will say however, he does occasionally have a great sentence. And there is a beauty to how efficiently plotted the stories tend to be.
My biggest source of frustration with Moorcock's writing is how uneven it is. Some of it can be pretty sloppy, while at other times it's positively gorgeous. I agree that his plotting is very efficient, but sometimes it might be a little too efficient when the plot moves so fast that the character development and worldbuilding are left incomplete (this is a point I make in my latest Eternal Champion video about Hawkmoon and the Runestaff that I just uploaded). Thanks for watching and commenting!
I started reading Moorcock as a child in the 60's. I can't say I understood what was happening because it was all so diverse and, quite frankly, confusing. Still loved them for what they were though. Grand adventures.
Thank you very much from France.
You are welcome! I hope to have my next Eternal Champion video ready later this month.
When are you returning to this subject. I’m overjoyed when any of your output appears, but I am especially anxious to continue hearing about Moorcock and the Eternal Champion!
The Elric installment is up next in my queue. I hope to have it up in the next couple of weeks.
I first read the Elric saga back in the 1980's. I have always thought that it would be the most awesome of movies but until recently, impossible to make. Considering what they can do with CGI today, it is time for this series to made into a movie (series).
I'd be very intrigued by an Elric series. Alas, many viewers would probably consider it a _pale_ imitation of The Witcher (pun intended), despite Moorcock's apparent influence on Sapkowski's work.
@@thelibraryladder Funny that you mention the Witcher as I thought of that actor as someone who might play Elric.
I only heard of him through a D&D RUclipsr/game designer named Matt Colville, who talked a bit about how his works inspired D&D and how he used a few elements of Moorcock’s works to flavor the Eye and Hand of Vecna in his homebrew game
I devoured the Elric books when DAW published them with the fantastic Michael Whelan covers!! The Dorian Hawkmoon? Not so much, I found them uninteresting...
13:45... Jerry Cornelius also figured in Jean Giraud's (Moebius) series The Airtight Garage...
My enjoyment of some of the Champions is hit-or-miss as well. I've never read Moebius' The Airtight Garage, but I'd like to give it a try. Thanks for sharing!
One of the most important influencers for my own worldbuilding. And the idea of the Eternal Champion is just mindblasting!
At the end of the day , they are quite simply wonderful stories !
I couldnt agree more. My favorites were the Elric and Corum saga's, both of which would make sprawling and incredible epics on the big screen if done right and kept as close to the source material as possible. They would be every bit as good, if not better, than dynamic and fantastic epics like Game of Thrones. I really hope that I see this come to be someday.
I think there's great potential for an Eternal Champion screen adaptation. The problem seems to be that Moorcock licensed the film and TV rights to a variety of companies in a piecemeal manner over the years, which now makes it very difficult to really tackle the books in a comprehensive manner the way Marvel did with its cinematic universe. That fragmentation of film rights reduces the profit potential for any single rights holder's adaptation, which makes it more difficult to get funding to make a film adaptation. What seems to be needed is an agreement among the rights holders to consolidate the rights to a single company or to collaborate on a shared project.
Chronicles of Corum was a seminal series when I was growing up. Absolutely fantastic, and it has forever shaped my view of dark fantasy.
Here too. Corum and the first Shannara series were the first fantasy books released in Germany as Collected paperbacks. I am glad I choose Moorcock :D
@@ascriptedreality Interesting. The Sword of Shannara was the very first genre fantasy book I ever got in a bookstore, without knowing anything about it except for the cover art and interior illustrations. Absolutely loved the series.
Loving all your vids on MM. highly underrated author I really hope he gets another big boom in pop culture soon.
Edit: him and Lovecraft are the definition of “first draft” author. Straight from the heart to the page and out to print. I do wish he would have taken a bit more time to flesh out and refine things but, I still love his work.
Thanks! I feel much the same way about Moorcock. It's my understanding that there are a couple of TV series adaptations in the works about some of the Eternal Champions, but I don't know how far along in development they are.
Agree! I don't know how the series hasn't been picked up for an epic series of role playing games, TV series, or movies yet. It's baffling!
While being very heavily into both writers, I have to disagree about either being "first draft" writers. Moorcock did such work at times, certainly; but he often went back and revised these later in his career. Later on, his work shows considerably more care and attention to the finer points of detail. Even in his early work, though, he carefully drew up plans of what he wished to do with each work -- something which has been confirmed by numerous sources.
As for HPL... That man almost never went with "first draft" writing. If anyone has ever seen any of his actual manuscripts, this would be immediately evident. It is difficult to think of a writer whose autograph manuscripts are even close for interlineations, scratch-outs, rephrasings, riders, transpositions, etc., etc., etc. Most of the best writers in ANY field tend to have somedegree of this, but Lovecraft, by modern professionalo standards, took it to almost insane levels. (This is by no means a negative criticism. Having seen several manuscripts reproduced, not to mention ealier and later publications from his own lifetime,, I think he seldom made a questionable, let alone bad, choice in the alterations he made. He may have "made it look easy", but, as with the dancing of Fred Astaire, what lies behind that impression is a perfectionist's hours and even weeks of hard work.
Moorcock may not have taken it to that extent (though the Pyat sequence, the later Corneliusnovels, and the Second Ether books would all argue that he at least approached such), but he became one of the most imporatnt andinfluential writers of the latter 20th and early 21st century by dint of just such care and craftsmanship... and the end result is all the better for it.
Books like GLORIANA, WARHOUND AND WORLDS PAIN, BYZANTIUM ENDURES, DANCERS AT THE END F TIME, CORNELIUS SERIES etc are ALL wonderfully well-written and only the earliest fantasies show haste.
In my teenage years in the mid-1970's I discovered Michael Moorcock, I think it was via his Elric stories, and began reading what I could get my hands on. From the mid-70's to the early-80's it was remarkably hit-and-miss tracking down books from genre authors who were not in the mainstream. Every time I encountered a new Moorcock tale I grabbed it regardless of how it looked. The main Eternal Champions that I liked were Elric, Cornelius & Carnelian (it was quickly apparent that any of these characters with initials JC - Jerry Cornelius, Jherek Carnelian, Jhary-a-Conel, Jaspar Colinadous, et al. - were all specific aspects of Jerry Cornelius in their respective reality, Hawkmoon, Corum and others. My all-time favorites were any of his stories where he had multiple of his Eternal Champions encounter each other, and the fact that for some characters their previous meeting was in the others futures. It is a shame that collections of Moorcock lock out Jerry Cornelius due, somewhat to the sex, but mostly to his single (but prominent) appearance in the Whoniverse via a Doctor Who-licensed novel.
I too wish the hardcover White Wolf and Orion omnibus collections included a Jerry Cornelius volume. There's another reason as well for the many characters with the initials J.C. -- and it's a sly reference to a key figure in a major religion. :)
as a wannabe writer i got discouraged a long time ago, not having a great writing style but i always thought i was an "ideas guy" type of guy and your explanation of Moorcock's work sort of inspired me to finish not one but a few things and then see what happens... thanks for the video.
You're welcome! I'm so glad it helped! The first 15+ years of Moorcock's writing career is an example of hard work and perseverance paying off. He was incredibly prolific during that period, giving him more of opportunity to find an audience. It helped, of course, that he was editing a small but respected pulp magazine (New Worlds) during some of that time, and it would publish many of his stories. The comparison today might be to authors' ability to self-publish online to reach an audience.
If you ever get to the - showing your work to a publisher - phase a couple of things could happen if your story has an interesting premise but your writing is not awesome.
They could assign you an editor, often they give excellent advice on improving your writing style. Expect a couple or few extensive rewrite sessions but the end results can be amazing.
You may be partnered with a co-writer or ghost writer to take your original content and fill out the parts of the story you are not best at.
Both of these approaches can be awesome for the original author, though likely a lot more work than anyone imagines.
Of course it all depends if your premise sparks the publishers interest enough to invest this much in you.
If you do not catch the eye of a publisher then just hang around with local writers and see if you can find someone to partner with.
I spent the best part of 2 years collecting all the Eternal Champion stories i could find and then binge read them all. And he remains one of my favourite authors of all time
AWWWW man, Thank you so much for doing this video as Ive been dying for someone to cover Michael Moorcock and I ve learnt a lot more from you in this video :)
thank you again and hope we'll see more :)
I posted this to a Moorcock fan page: expect a subscription bump.
Thanks! I know Moorcock fans can be passionate about his books. I hope they recognize my intent is to build awareness and promote interest in reading his books, particularly among younger readers who might not be familiar with them or with his important legacy in the development of speculative fiction. I'm very much a fan of Moorcock, but I can't say that I'm a fan of everything he's written (which isn't surprising to me when I consider the enormous volume and variety of his output).
I started reading Moorcock in the 1970s. I absolutely loved all of them available at the time. The last book I read was probably The Fortress of The Pearl. It was a real joy to find The Jade Man’s Eyes though, which later got included in The Sailor on The Seas of Fate.
The way your voice resonates is pretty cool...but it's your content that I really enjoy. I've read most of Moorcock's books and absolutely love his Eternal Champion series and one shot stories and novels. Keep up the great work!
Thanks! I'm trying to shine a spotlight on books and authors that don't get as much attention today as I think they ought to. It's easy to love or hate Moorcock's works (I fall into both camps, depending on the book), but there's no denying the incredible influence he had on later science fiction and fantasy. Almost no one was writing stories the way he was in the 1960s and 70s.
It seems to me there's a direct lineage from Moorcock (and Fritz Leiber!) who influenced Glen Cook, who influenced George R.R. Martin, who then influenced Steven Erikson and Joe Abercrombie.
@@thelibraryladder If you get a chance, review one of Moorcock's favorite authors...Mervyn Peake of Gormenghast fame. I'd say I'd agree with all your points on MM, too. I still remember reading a plethora of his works( Leiber, too) in the early 80s and my mind reeled at his inventiveness and the bizarre, yet sympathetic antiheroes he led you with into his stories. I really remember being struck at how psychedelic (the novels and their settings) they seemed.
I've been a fan since I was thirteen and have read just about everything he has written, now on the cusp of my 50s he is still my favourite author. I think discovering him lead me down many literary avenues I wouldn't have otherwise, from Edgar Rice Burroughs and William Burroughs, to Angela Carter and JG Ballard. It pulled my out of the fantasy niche into exploring lots of other genres and styles. He has definitely become more accomplished as he has gone on. The big missing element from the White Wolf/Orion collections is the Second Ether trilogy which came just after. Wonderful, mind bending stuff, especially the first volume, parts of which appeared in a Victor Gollancz New Worlds reboot series of anthologies.
If anyone is approaching his work I'd avoid trying to binge read the various series, don't be afraid to leave some space between them. I could imagine it being a bit much to try and take in all at once.
I often despair he isn't mentioned more but it also makes sense, he doesn't fit neatly within any particular genre so he's not always what you might expect.
Well put! I agree that putting some breathing space between reading the various incarnations of the Champion is a good idea. Binge-reading them back-to-back might cause the stark stylistic and genre differences between them to overshadow their shared themes and throughlines.
I've only read 2 Moorcock but I love both (behold the man and dancers at the end of time), it's amazing how prolific and influential he is and yet is not spoken of in the same breath as Clarke or Asimov.
That lack of wider recognition is what prompted me to make this video and others focused on Moorcock's Eternal Champion. Thanks for watching!
Love Michael Moorcock. Wish there were or would be some animated series or TV series I think elric and the eternal champion saga would be amazing as an animated anthology series
I agree. I think the biggest stumbling blocks are legal rights and money. Over the years, Moorcock sold the film rights for different Eternal Champions to various companies in a piecemeal manner. Given the scope of the saga, my guess is that no one will take the financial risk of producing any kind of film or TV adaptation until the rights are consolidated, which likely will require a lot of negotiating (and money).
Thank you for another great video. I follow ca. 20 booktube channels sine 2,5 years and yours - although new - is
the best. Your plan to take a path "outside the echo chamber" - as you wrote in one comment - is what we need. Please continue your amazing work.
Thank you for your very kind words! I am indeed trying to broaden the conversation beyond simply the most recent and popular books, and not just in the fantasy genre.
A highly professional video. Very well done sir.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
@@thelibraryladder Thanks.
I have never clicked on a video title this fast. Wonderful feeling to see those books that adorn my "most beloved SFF" shelf 😊
Edit: So amazing to see someone talk about Moorcock'd work like that. His stories deserve a widef audience. Plus, the man is amazing. About 20 years ago I wrote on the multiverse forums how much I loved his stuff and that I lacked only a few of his books in English. He sent me signed copies of those few! Just like that.
Anyways, ramble off. And subscribed!
Thanks! That's a great story about Moorcock. I agree that he deserves to be more widely read and recognized. It's why I decided to make this series of videos about the Eternal Champion. I'm very glad you enjoyed the video.
I have that entire set you present here. Good to see someone else have it as well.
It's a well constructed set of books - they're built to last - and the sequencing of them and their contents is quite good I've found. I also enjoy the forewords Moorcock wrote for them. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the video! I was looking forward to your thoughts on Moorcock. For me, fantasy started with Robert E. Howard, developed into obsession with Moorcock, and then blew up into Donaldson. Prior to Covenant, I was all over the Eternal Champion material (alongside D&D). I'll look forward to your thoughts on Elric, Hawkmoon, Corum, and pals. Strong work!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I encountered those three authors in the opposite order. It's really striking to me just how much Moorcock channels Howard's narrative style in some of the Eternal Champion stories (Hawkmoon!). It's like reading a Conan/Solomon Kane/Bran Mak Morn story, but with a somewhat surreal Moorcock twist.
Don't forget my personal favorite Jherek Carnelian from the dancers at the end of time series.
You have a great voice for narration
Thanks!
started reading the Eternal Champion series back in 1976 read and reread them all many times love the whole ideals!
Thanks to library ladder for showcasing Moorcocks books. Maybe you've already done it but how about doing one on Jack Vance's works.Have to add that the exquisite pictures depicting surreal scenes are almost as good as the author's stories.
A Vance retrospective is coming this fall!
One note I would like to add to my earlier comments: I'd say that the reasons given for Moorcock not being on the same level of popularity as, for instance, Tolkien, Jordan, Martin, etc., are fairly accurate... and, in fact, Moorcock has remarked on this himself, as in his introduction to the revised novel "The Eternal Champion" (1978, if memory serves),: that some readers find the broad spectrum of his works rather confusing and even bewildering. I would argue that this is also one of the reasons why the massive structure known as "The Biography of the Life of Manuel", by James Branch Cabell, is not as widely read as it perhaps should be. It, too, spreads across many genres and many types of prose, from "realistic" fiction such as "The Eagle's Shadow" or "The Cords of Vanity" to the fantastic (often using an internal structure quite similar to that found in traditional fairy tales) such as "Jurgen", "The Silver Stallion", "Figures of Earth", and varying in tone from thebawdy picaresque to the poignantly tragic (as in moments in ""Figures of Earth", "The Cords of Vanity", "Something About Eve", "The Cream of the Jest"); not to mention that quite different types of writing are involved as well, including a book of verse, a play, and at least two volumes which can be seen either as literary criticism or the "argument" of the set as a whole ("Beyoind Life" -- again, a personal favorite -- and "Straws and Prayer-Books"). The tales can be highly romantic, ("Domnei") to thefrequently farcical ("The Silver Stallion"); the tone can vary (sometimes on the proverbial turn on a dime) from "knockabout farce" (to use his phrase) to starkly horrific and terrifying (moments in "Something About Eve", "Figures of Earth", "Chivalry", even "Beyond Life").
And, as with Moorcock's work, the connections range from the tenuous to the tightly-knit... and some of the latter rely largely on subtle touches in the phrasing, which run like leitmotifs through the work of each... yet there IS an underlying thread of continuity in each of these (to me, at least) astoundingly complex and richly rewarding literary structures, which makes them into a coherent -- if at times seemingl chaotic and certainly NOT traditionally linear -- whole.In each case, they seem to be harking back to the earlier use of the term "novel" for such writing; the earliest example I am aware of being Petronius' "Satyricon", which itself varies from a burlesque, often quite vulgar and satirical, with broadly phrased prose and a parodic use of verse (in various translations, for example, using the "high" form of blank verse generally reserved for weighty, prophetic statements, used here to contrast the form and sense, which is often explicitly erotic or expressing low or vulgar or simply pedestrian concepts)... yet which also contains such things as whatis perhaps the earliest formal literary handling of the werewolf theme... a quite horrific example it is, too.
Of course, the criticism of Moorcock's prose is quite just. Most of the pieces which came from earlier part of his career were (as with the work of Harlan Ellison) at times crude or at least pedestrian, very much basic storytelling prose without much regard for literary polish; yet even some of these have their brilliant moments (as in his early novel, "The Golden Barge"); and his later work, from around the mid-1960s or early 1970s to the present, have grown increasingly more polished, complex, nuanced, and often quite full of a poetic sensibility to the use of language to convey, in small compass, a multitude of concepts or shades of meaning. (I would say this began to be most evident at around the time of "Breakfast in the Ruins", "The English Assassin", "The Condition of Muzak", and the emergence of the Pyat sequence and such things as "The Brothel in Rosenstrasse" -- the latter of which quite brilliantly parallels the implications of the events within the brothel itself and those in the larger world of Mirenburg, without ever quite bluntly stating the connection). Cabell, on the other hand, was always meticulous in his prose, which makes the subtler interconnections of his "Biography" even more multilayered and full of shades of meaning and implication.
In all three (Moorcock, Cabell, Ellison), however, the growth of both the ideas and the ability to address them grew with time, until I would argue that each of them will remain among the most challenging and rewarding writers of the past century (or, in Moorcock's case, extending into the 21st century as well). For all its faults (and I am by no means without my likes and dislikes when it comes to Moorcock's work, being less than fond of "The Chinese Agent" and "TheRussian Intelligence", for example), I do think his multiverse has provided an enormous amount of incredibly rich literary entertainment as well as work which will challenge the reader's conceptions and prejudices; something worth exploring as much and as widely as one can.
Thanks for the wonderfully thoughtful comment! I'm sorry for not responding sooner. RUclips blocked your comment and held it for review because a punctuation error in it (a missing space after the end of a sentence) made it look a spam message from India.
I agree with everything you wrote. I have tremendous respect for the three authors you mentioned, and yet, my thoughts about their individual works vary widely. Moorcock's early works are very hit-or-miss for me, but his writing and craftsmanship improved over time, and even the ones I dislike are still fascinating in their connection to his larger narrative. Much of Ellison's early work frustrates me as well, because it seems clearly performative, intended to shock readers and cultivate his 'bad boy' reputation (much like many wannabe celebrities, RUclips influencers and cable news hosts today who try to stand out from the crowd by provoking outrage). However, Ellison, also had some remarkably interesting ideas and wonderful prose in many of his works.
I've read only six volumes in Cabell's Life of Manuel, and I agree with your assessment. I'll be featuring him in an upcoming video about the early roots of the fantasy genre.
Moorcock says he gave himself until he was 30 before be began to concentrate on style as well as substance, with Breakfast in the Ruins and its significant opening note. From then on his prose improved and depth grew.
@@jerrycornelius2261 Indeed it did, until he has become one of the great prose stylists -- in English -- of the last few decades. I would argue, however, that, even in some of his earlier work, even as far back as the later Sojan stories, there are glimmerings of that; just as one finds odd bits here and there in the early Ellison which indicate just how good he really might (and did) become as well. The two are very different, of course, but both are very powerful writers, who learned to combine the energy of their storytelling and passion with stellar prose of a varied cast. Each chose the manner of prose for their later work carefully (even if it may have been on an unconscious level at times) to fit the material. The end result is a marvelous, if often disturbing, experience.
Corum of Silver Hand is still his masterpiece.
Brilliant video dude! Been really enjoying binging your content
Outstanding review. The Elric series was one of my favorites as a teenager.
Thanks! Elric is one of my favorites as well.
Good synopsis, good music. A very good intro to these impressive stories.
Thanks! I had a lot of fun trying to capture the essence of Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle in this video.
My favorite fantasy author. Thanks for making a video about him.
Thanks for watching! This is the first in a series of videos I'm making about Moorcock's Eternal Champion saga. I uploaded a second video on it about a month ago, and I have several more planned.
God damn the production in this video is so good
Thanks! They take longer than I'd like to produce (I'm slow), but I have a lot of fun making them.
Glad i found this channel!
Welcome aboard!
Just love his books...
Great review and video
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
So I assume this is a topic you'll get into in a coming video but I've always been interested in Moorcock's work, and would love to dive in - I've read a couple Elric stories, but that's it. Some sort of general guide of where to start and where to go next would be fantastic. I know there's new editions of Elric being published this year, but then... what? I'm sure that's coming but... consider me very excited!
Absolutely! My upcoming Moorcock videos will closely follow the author's own recommended reading order, and I'll offer my thoughts on each Eternal Champion entry.
@@thelibraryladder very much looking forward to it!
My recommendation is to read all the Elric stories, then go to either Corum, Hawkmoon, or Daker/Erekose series. Those are more or less in the same genre. After those expand to his other works, which are in very different genres/styles.
Corum is my favorite series from Moorecock to think he wrote it "as little as a week" is incredibly mindboogling.
I have almost all of Moorcocks books. I havent got these omnibus edition. He keeps relasing the same stories in different packages. I give up trying to complete my collecton. This guy has my dream sci fi collection. He must be a fast reader. And rich. Behold the Man is one of Moorcocks moost important works. I think he got awards for it. It may or may not be part of the Eternal Champion. I think he was also infulenced by Joseph Campbell as so many fantasy and sci fi authors were.
It's confusing keeping track of the various Eternal Champion editions, particularly when they get reissued periodically with new stories added or with different sequencing of the stories. You almost have to commit to a particular edition series. Otherwise you might end up with quite a few duplicate stories across multiple volumes. Thanks for watching and commenting!
MM says he's never read Campbell, but read the earlier The White Goddess and The Golden Bough
Thank you so much , 43 years ago at the age of 17 I was in a second hand book shop I picked up An Alien Heat the first part of The Dancers at the End of Time and I was hooked and the search book shops for more Moorcock , I love the way all the books where interconnected . i need to go dig out those books from the dusty box they are in , in the garage .
Thanks for sharing! I hope you're able to find those old books.
Awesome. Just found you. I’m excited to watch your other videos. Have never read Moorcock. Will do so now. Subscribed!
Thanks and welcome aboard! My second Moorcock video provides suggestions for where to start with his works.
I’ve never heard of Moorcock before now. I hadn’t heard of Kay before either. So, I appreciate you introducing me to them.
You're very welcome. I hope you enjoy both of them.
It's difficult to know where to start reading the Eternal Champion saga, because the books are so diverse and only loosely connected. In future videos, I'll be tackling them for the most part in the order presented by White Wolf Publishing in its 15-volume omnibus edition (which also largely tracks Moorcock's suggested reading order).
@@thelibraryladder I just did a quick search online. It seems that finding the Wolf Publishing editions may be a little difficult.
The White Wolf edition was published in the US. Around the same time (1990s), Millenium/Orion published a very similar omnibus edition in the UK containing an extra volume for the Jerry Cornelius stories while dropping one of the Elric volumes and the Kane of Mars volume.
In recent years, Gollancz (UK) has published an even more comprehensive edition of Moorcock's works, but I think it might only be in softcover. Del Rey in the US also has softcover editions of many of them.
My suggestion would be to look for older paperback copies from the 60s/70s/80s on eBay. Occasionally, people will sell bulk lots of such books (cleaning out their closets) and you can get several books at one time for $2-3 per book. Buying them individually can get rather expensive if you're in a hurry, and if you don't like them, you can always resell them.
Another lower risk approach might be to sample a couple of different Eternal Champions (perhaps Erekose, Hawkmoon or Corum) to see if you like any of them. Elric is his most popular Champion, but I wouldn't suggest starting with him. I think it helps to have context from other Champion stories before embarking on Elric's saga.
@@thelibraryladder thank you so much.
@@thomassears1432 You're welcome.
Still reading the Elric stories but the concepts are awesome. Really love the music Elric and his saga inspired.
Those concepts scattered throughout his Eternal Champion books, and the influence they had on readers and other authors, are what make Moorcock really stand out in the history of speculative fiction, in my opinion. Thanks for watching!
@@thelibraryladder Pardon if you've covered elsewhere, but what music are you using for this video and the one introducing Guy Gavriel Kay? Love them both and love the videos as well as the recommendations. Keep up the good work!
I’ve been reading his stuff since 1989.
I started reading his books in the late 60’s. I loved them for the way the protagonist changed the way we see good and evil and the role of the hero. I always thought he was underrated I have built a collection that is 80% compete of the eternal champion.
My first book was night of the swords
One of my favourite authors, you have my attention!
Thanks! I hope to have the third installment in my Eternal Champion video series up in the next couple of months. Moorcock's an author I think deserves to be more widely known and read these days.
I had the ballantine issued Tolkien paperbacks ... in fact, I still have one of them ... and Elric was an impulse purchase that was phenomenal.
The first 'mature' fantasy book I ever picked up was a three-in-one omnibus of the Corum saga called 'The Swords Trilogy' when I was eleven years old.
I'm so glad I found this Gem 💎 of a channel! Love your voice.
Thank you so much!!
Love the reverb on your narrator's voice!
The room where I film creates a lot of it because of all the hard, flat, reflective surfaces; and the louder I speak, the more pronounced the reverb gets. :)
Your library collection is so damn impressive. Thank you for sharing! Still working through your backcatalog of content.
Piecing the collection together has been a labor of love for me for more than 40 years. I'm glad to have the opportunity to share it. Thanks!
What a great video - all the graphics of old books, the music, and the breakdown of Moorcock and the Eternal Champion is fantastic! My very first book I ever chose for myself at B. Dalton when I was a little kid was The Swords trilogy all in one paperback. I haven't read Moorcock since, but now I look forward to reading the Corum Chronicles again.
I always enjoy your content - cheers!
Thanks! This is the first of three videos I've made (so far) about the Eternal Champion, as I progress through the various champions. The Corum stories are definitely highlights of the series. Enjoy your re-read!
Nice to see the Hawkwind covers! 🦅
What a great video and summary of Moorcock. Thank you very much
Love the Rodney Matthews art!
I agree! It's very distinctive. Prints of many of the pieces are available from Matthews' website.
By all reports, It was Tolkien's choice not to publish LOTR in paperback.
Like many academics of his generation Tolkien was a snob about 1) Paperbacks and 2) America. Both were considered vulgar and unworthy!
Auxilary Statements youtube/podcast episode on Moorcock piqued my interest. Also I have recently been exposed to the ideas of David Deutsch who expounds on the multiverse. Looking forward to your next video!
Thanks! If you're interested in Deutsch's quantum theory of the multiverse, you might find my upcoming video on Neal Stephenson of interest. His incredible novel Anathem revolves around a quantum consciousness theory of polycosmic realities. (That was a mouthful!)
Guy Lawley's article on the Multiverse mentions how Deutsch and Moorcock ran in parallel in the early 1960s.
Subbed. Love being exposed to new authors and ideas as well as your soothing voice and tonal pacing. Easily worth a sub. Keep it up.
Thank you, and welcome aboard!
@@thelibraryladderwill you comtinue videos on this series
fascinating fellow.
Law vs Chaos and it's eternal balancing act certainly bring up Aristotle on virtue being found at the balance of extremes.
Sir,it is pleasant to just listen to you talking. Not to mention the theme behind this particular talk is epic. Thank you.
That's very nice of you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I have two other videos about Moorcock's eternal champion and several more planned in the future. Thanks for watching!
@@thelibraryladder Thank you from the bottom of my heart for covering the work of my favourite writer.
Thank you for this. I'm excited about reading again.
*Very well explained.* I've been a fan since the 70's.
I never liked how GW borrowed so many concepts from M. M. Eternal Champion works without giving credit.
Thanks for the real world lore about this fun genre.
Thank you!
First of all: thank you for your inspirational videos. I learn much about writers I did not know or only a litle!
The most interesting aspect for me (I did not read Moorcock until now!) is the law & order vs chaos [anarchy?] concept. You can see it as thought experiment and use it on our reality. Unfortunately we do not have an "eternal champion" but are only able to correct unbalances with the instrument of the crowd
Thanks for your thoughtful comment! Moorcock didn't originate the law vs. chaos concept, but it does seem that it features prominently in far more works of speculative fiction than it did before he created the Eternal Champion. Perhaps its relevance to the modern world is gaining recognition. I even encountered it in a historical fiction retelling of the King Arthur saga by Bernard Cornwell, with Arthur championing law and Merlin championing chaos to bring about the unification of Britain.
You sir, are great!
Thanks! I have fun making these videos.
I started reading Moorcok with the Hawkwind series and then the Elric series and onward into the Multiverse. And I always suspected that much like Doctor Who's adventures are more about the companion than the Doctor. Or how in Tolkiens Lord of the Rings the stories are less about the tall regal heroes and more about the Hobbits , that Moorcocks stories were less about the hero and more about his companions like Jherek Carnelian or Jerry Cornellius. And that in fact the Eternal Champion was this companion. Anyway great to see a series produced on this IMHO epic writer of superb fiction.
Great comment! Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the Champion and the companion in Moorcock's multiverse, because they can switch roles in different incarnations (the Von Beks are particularly adept at that).
I remember watching this about a year ago and somehow I now stumble upon this channel again. I really appreciate these videos and I made sure to subscribe this time. I'd love to see you cover other writers like Gene Wolfe, Erikson, and R. Scott Bakker.
Thanks! I'm a little slow at producing videos, so it's going to take me a while to get to every author I want to talk about. You're in luck, though. I'm planning a Wolfe retrospective next year.
This man could/should/is a voice actor. 😳 I’m trying to focus on the words but my brain can only register the tone. 😅 I’ve recently received a recommendation to read this authors works. This video is either a coincidence or a sign. 🤩 Thank you.
Thanks! The solution to your lack of focus might be to watch the video multiple times. :D
Also, I'm not a professional voice actor. This is just how I've talked since I was about 15 years old. At the request of some viewers, I recorded a couple of classic short stories for fun last year and uploaded them here on my channel. I hope to record some more in the future.
@@thelibraryladder - Repetition is the mother of learning. 😃 I shall peruse your videos with pleasure. ☺️
very interesting
Thanks! I’m very glad you enjoyed it. (And thanks for being my 10,000th subscriber, if that was you who just pushed me across that threshold. Alas, there’s no special prize.) :)
This was awesome. I knew about Elric, and have just picked up the second book, because GeorgeRR mentioned him, but you opened my eyes even further, thank you brother - Solo - Sweden
Just a little note. Moorcock's Chaos Star symbol is wildly know in punk rock culture. Alot of punks have the symbol tattooed but dont know the origins come from the author.
Thanks for sharing that tidbit!
Your videos are so educational! Thank you!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy them.
Thank you for doing this! AMAZING!
Interesting that this showed up on my feed at this time. Having fallen more than a bit behind with Moorcock's work (about 12 or so books, if memory serves), just ths last month I made it a point to go through the bulk of his work, using the set you show in the video as the "spine" of the reading program. As I have a lot of other reading demanding my time for various research purposes, it goes a bit more slowly than usual with me, but I'm currently 2/3 or so into "The War Hound and the World's Pain" (in the Von Bek volume), and enjoying the entire experience immensely.
However, I myself don't see much of a distinction between the "official" Eternal Champion cycle and the rest of his work, as it all revolves around many of the same ideas and concerns, whether fantasy or science fiction or "naturalistic" fiction. Hence, I blend in other items which, in my view, are connected with each volume: e.g., "The Brothel in Rosenstrasse" and "Lunching with the Antichrist" (two personal favorites) with the Von Bek volume, or the Cornelius books and Pyat sequence alongside the Elric and "Sailing to Utopia" volumes. In my view, they are all facets of the enormous, sprawling tapwestry which is Moorcock's multiversal epic, and as nearly the whole of his work is interconnected (including much of his nonfiction writing, such as ""The Retreat from Liberty" or the massive collection "Into the Media Web") and the comics either written by him or with his approval (such as the Howard Chaykin written "The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell" -- plotted by Moorcock)... it's quite an extensive, and fascinating ride.....
Thanks for your comment! I agree with you that nearly all of his works share similar themes. I focused on the Eternal Champion because it's the most recognizable entry point to Moorcock, and my goal is to help more (likely younger) people discover him and read his works.
Beautifully presented and narrated
Thank you kindly!
Wow. He's even more influential than I thought