Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion, Part 2: Von Bek & John Daker || Spoiler-free review

[@matthewbeaty4344]

If there ever is a spaceship taking the public to Mars this should be the voice over the intercom

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I hope I'm aboard and not just a recording. :)

[@athenassigil5820]

The Von Bek trilogy are very underated and among my favorite of MM's Eternal Champion stories.....they're very unique( the Faustian bargain meets Moorcock's sensibility and settings in interesting historical tropes) and for me, unforgettable. If most of his work is workman like prose....these are lyrical poetry!

[@thelibraryladder]

Well put! I feel much the same way about them.

[@jimgillespie6109]

The Spider-Verse, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Skeletor, etc.... I love how your brain works!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! Part of the fun of making these videos is brainstorming visual puns and pop culture references to illustrate humorously the points I'm trying to make. I'm never quite sure, though, if the jokes land as I intended them.

[@JAK82COC]

This dude‘s voice is really hypnotic. I can’t tell if he’s whispering or intentionally keeping his voice low yet firm yet sympathetic? I’m not a gay man, but….

[@thelibraryladder]

It’s actually my normal speaking voice, but I do limit my volume a little, because of the room’s terrible acoustics (lots of hard, reflective surfaces that create reverb) and the extreme sensitivity of the shotgun mic I use. No ASMR intended. :)

[@robmsmithdumbhandle]

I love that you threw in Monty Python's depiction of God in the Holy Grail while reiterating that Lucifer wanted to offer to God as a peace offering. I laughed quite uproariously!

[@thelibraryladder]

I had a lot of fun making this video, and that Monty Python animation seemed very apt to me. Thanks for watching!

[@dhaucoin]

To say nothing of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Well done!

[@joncarroll2040]

Warhound and the World's Pain is my favorite Moorcock novel but I agree with White Wolf that the first Daker book (The Eternal Champion) makes a better introduction to the series. It introduces the basic concept of the Champion and one of Moorcock's earliest works it gives you a better sense of the progression of both his ideas and his craft as a writer..

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for commenting! I think solid arguments can be made that the Daker and Von Bek stories are the two best starting points. I lean toward Moorcock's preferred order of reading Von Bek first and John Daker second, but reversing the order can work too for the reasons you mention. What I like about reading Von Bek first is that (a) the quality of the writing is better, which might encourage newcomers to Moorcock to continue reading, and (b) the Daker stories are non-linear and span multiple genres, which can be confusing without the additional context the Von Bek stories provide.

[@ishtarian]

I tend to agree that the Daker volume is a better place to start, not only because it introduces the concept of the champion, but also the multiverse (Ghost Worlds) in both "The Eternal Champion" and "The Sundered Worlds", not to mention introducing the Eldren, who play a major part in the cycle as a whole. Also, given that the third Daker story -- from the point of view of Daker himself -- was a graphic novel with a "detailed outline" provided by Moorcock, but written and illustrated by Howard Chaykin ("The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell") is given a nod in the third tale as told by Daker, which is also the third story in the von Bek volume, "The Dragon in the Sword". And, of course, each of these have refinements/alterations added to them throughout the other volumes (not to mention the various graphic novels ("Michael Moorcock's Multiverse"; "Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer"; etc.). That being said, my own first encounter with his work was the publication of "The Jade Man's Eyes", back in 1974.... which means Elric was the first of his characters I was aware of; though in that story there is a brief moment where the albino prince encounters Daker... or at least a reflection of him, and is confronted with the idea of being one of many versions of the Champion. And, as Moorcock himself has noted, there really IS no "proper"place to start, as it isn't intended as a linear narrative. The structure of the narrative (such as it has) fairly well represents the experience of the Multiverse itself, where numerous "adventures" of the various aspects of the Champion are occurring simultaneously as well as in shifting order. One can find oneself anywhere in the saga, and eventually piece together the whole. The main "problem" with this is, of course, that, as Moorcock as grown as a writer over the years, some of his earlier material, which may take place during the earlier portions of this or that facet of the Champion's existence, ISN'T written as well as other pieces; and that can be a bit jarring for those used to a relatively linear growth in the quality of the writing of any long series. It's a bit like (a reference for those who have read "TheSundered Worlds")a walk upon "Ragged Roth", where the surface may or may not be stable from one step to the next, not to mention that the gravity may shift accordingly.....

[@leftwardglobe1643]

For the longest time I didn't enjoy the concept of a multiverse given how bluntly it's used in comic books and the like. But in recent years I've looked into multiverses like Moorcock's Eternal Champion series and Bungie's paraverse in their various game series and fallen in love with the concept. When left to obscure references in the background and allowed to develop slowly, it allows for endless subtext and theory crafting on part of the audience. Connecting the dots over multiple works and seeing what small insights can be gained.

[@thelibraryladder]

That's a great point! Thanks for sharing it. I had a similar reaction watching Marvel's latest Dr. Strange movie recently. In it, the multiverse is used mostly as a clumsy deus ex machina device to avoid the work needed to craft a logically coherent plot. Moorcock's multiverse is far less intrusive and allows for a variety of interpretations.

[@ryanb3665]

This video, and your channel as a whole, as finally made it’s way into my homepage feed, and I couldn’t be more excited! I’ve been slowly making my way through Moorcock’s Eternal Champion cycle for about a year or so now, and I am thrilled that a wonderful booktube channel is discussing it as well! Selfishly, I do hope you continue the coverage on Moorcock slightly past the end of the White Wolf omnibuses, as the stories not included (the Cornelius Quartet, Gloriana, Behold the Man, the War of the Angels trilogy, and the Elric Moonbeam Roads trilogy) might be some of the best work Moorcock’s done. Although having such excellent, relatively in-depth coverage of these ones included makes me so giddy! Best wishes, and I’m glad to subscribe before your channel blows up! :)

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! Given the positive response I’ve received so far to my Eternal Champion videos, I will probably continue it beyond the White Wolf omnibus edition.

[@MadderMel]

I loved the idea of The Warhound and the World's Pain And Von Bek is such a cool character ! I also love the Corum stories !

[@thelibraryladder]

I agree! The Von Bek and Corum stories are some of my favorites by Moorcock.

[@chinocracy]

I mostly have Orion/Millenium paperbacks from the 1990s. I started with Hawkmoon, bought it because I liked the cover. Then Corum, then the Daker stories, then the rest. I'm one of those that will suggest reading the Daker/Erekose stories first because of the simple plot and the explanations about what an Eternal Champion is, but going with the Von Bek ones is good too. My favorite incarnation is Jherek Carnelian because of the comedy. A wild but enjoyable ride, lol.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for sharing! You seem to be an outlier. Most people (including me) tend to start with Elric and then (maybe) move on to other Champions. Moorcock's ability to write in a wide variety of styles and genres adds a lot of interest to each of the Champions, in my opinion. There's a lot more than just dark, brooding Elric, as you clearly know.

[@chinocracy]

I think I did things the old-fashioned way. I didn't know about Moorcock before picking up Hawkmoon from the bookstore shelf, I hadn't been using the Internet then. So after picking it up, I got hooked. I so much agree with people commenting on your voice, I like a soothing approach compared to the radio-style loudmouths on KZbin, lol.

[@Revanchist]

Been waiting for this one for a while, great review as usual! What strikes me as the most interesting thing about Moorcock is how he has different styles depending on the book series. For some we can say that they are very amateurish fun puply stories while others are truly excellent and when you compare the two extremes one would think that they are not written by the same author. He is a creative genius, even if his prose or pacing might not be the best his books never cease to entertain me. I'm really looking forward to reading more of his works, and there's so much.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for watching (and for your patience)! I agree about his incredible range of writing styles. It's why I say most people probably would dislike some of his works if they read them, but they'd also find some of his works they really liked. He has something in his collection for everyone. In the books he wrote early in his career (pre-1980), it's remarkable how imitative his writing style is, adopting the narrative approaches of E.R. Burroughs and the pulp magazine authors he idolized from multiple genres, but adding his own distinctive, twisted sensibility.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

This is more about when and why they were written than any thematic reason: many of Moorcock's shorter more generic fantasies (e.g. Hawkmoon, Corum, the first two Erekose titles) were written to help him finance New Worlds magazine and to help him deal with being broke as a result of New World's problems with shifting from publisher to publisher and the like in the late 60s/early 70s. MM writes about this in the introduction to 'New Worlds: An Anthology' (Fontana). His more 'literary' stuff tends to come later from the very end of the 70s onwards, when his finances were more stable and he could take time to write books instead of the' 15,000 words a day, a bottle of whiskey each day, 45,000 words and your done' Fantasies of his earlier period. The exceptions were the Jerry Cornelius books, which were always more ambitious in a literary sense. There is no 'real' place to start reading Moorcock, but there are two 'endings' to the cycle - the final, 7th Hawkmoon book and 'The Dragon in the Sword'. But as it's a multiverse, there is no real end...

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I suggest that you read "The Dragon in the Sword" again. I didn't get the same impression. You should also read "The Quest for Tanelorn"/"Sailor on the Seas of Fate" again and read what Corum said to Elric and Erekose when he "met" them...

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@DavidTSmith-jn5bs -I've read all of these at least 3 times, David, though it's been a while I admit (apart from 'Sailor') which i reread last year. Been reading MM since the 80s. The 'different impression' thing is part of Moorcock's approach, the swirl of order and chaos...incidentally, the title 'Dragon in the Sword' came out of a conversation M John Harrison told me about when he and MM were discussing the most cliched title for a fantasy novel ever....MJH was then shocked to see M actually used it...!

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal When I suggested that you read "Dragon in the Sword" again, I didn't wish to give the impression that you haven't read it at all. I was trying to suggest that the "ending" wasn't really an "ending" at all, at least as far as one "aspect" of The Eternal Champion was concerned, and I was a little confused when you labelled it as such. Thanks for the M. John Harrison story. I knew that he and Mr. Moorcock were close but not to the point that they pulled playful "pranks" on each other...

[@nathanscarlett4772]

Don't take this the wrong way but your voice is buttery smooth and smokie at the same time. It's amazing 👏

[@thelibraryladder]

How could I possibly take that the wrong way? Thanks! :)

[@andreassundberg9426]

Thank you for these videos! Started reading the Elric series and I really found the lore interesting and want to delve into more of the eternal champion saga. Unfortunately it is not easy to find Moorcocks books here in Sweden(especially in the english language which is the language I prefer to read fantasy in) and couldnt wrap my head around where to start!

[@thelibraryladder]

Hej hej! Thanks for watching and commenting! I'm glad my videos are helpful. Many of Moorcock's books were never published in hardcover format until the Millenium/Orion Books and White Wolf omnibus editions I discuss in the video. Those hardcover copies can be scarce and expensive, so you might look for bulk lots of used mass market paperback editions for sale on eBay. With a little patience, waiting for the right lot of books at the right price, and depending on the shipping cost to Sweden, you might be able to obtain most of his books for an average price of between US$5-10 apiece. Gollancz also issued a new series of trade paperback editions of all of Moorcock's works a few years ago. Amazon UK probably has them, but the shipping cost might be prohibitive. I hope that's helpful information.

[@andreassundberg9426]

@@thelibraryladder thanks for the advice, I will absolutely do that!

[@janach1305]

I read all of Moorcock’s works I could get my mitts on in the Seventies, but I did not continue following his writing after my college days. I therefore did not know about the Von Bek stories until I saw this video. I should track down the original paperbacks. I don’t want the edition you are using, because it won’t fit on the shelf with my other Moorcock books.

[@thelibraryladder]

I hope you enjoy the Von Bek stories as much as I do. Thanks for watching!

[@konst80hum]

Von Bek's story is indeed a more mature ones especially in the range of sentiments and the introduction of the multiverse. Also it started as a 30 years war novel, a big plus for me at the time. Love your look into the sprawling work of Moorcock.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm having fun exploring Moorcock's multiverse here on my channel. I hope to have the next Champion installment up later this summer focused on Oswald Bastable, the Nomad of the Time Streams.

[@michaeljdauben]

I really enjoyed your introduction into Moorcock's Eternal Champion. I'm in the middle of reading the four volume Elric Saga collection published by Saga Press this year, and had planned to tackle the Eternal Champion trilogy published by Titan Books next.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! The John Daker novels add some helpful historical background to Elric's saga, particularly the third book in the Titan edition, The Dragon in the Sword. I'll note, though, that the third Daker story was included in the Von Bek omnibus volume I discussed in this video, rather than in the Eternal Champion volume, because a Von Bek character features prominently in it. I think it's helpful to understand the Von Bek family history before reading The Dragon in the Sword, so you might want to read The Warhound and the World's Pain and The City in the Autumn Stars before the third Daker book. It's not essential to do so, though.

[@j-7379]

I've been eyeballing The Eternal Champion series for a while, but it's honestly your videos on it that have made me go whoa, okay I really need to read that. Best book-focused channel on KZbin by a wide margin. But my reading order is probably going to be 'whatever order I can get those gorgeous millenium editions in my hands', haha. Also, I wonder if that second Von Beck story took any inspiration from The Scarlet Pimpernel.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thank you for your very kind words! I'm so glad you found my videos helpful. That's an interesting thought about The Scarlet Pimpernel. The stories are set during the same time period, but the supernatural elements Moorcock includes make The City in the Autumn Stars more akin to fever dreams by Lord Dunsany and James Branch Cabell.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@thelibraryladder -Agreed. The second time I hosted Mike for a bookshop event, he read from 'C ity', which was a new book then. He also underlined the key influences of Enlightenment writers like Diderot and the Romantic reaction against them.

[@mickdarcy3063]

I love the footage you have chosen for the visual component!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! Part of the fun of making my videos is figuring out what visual elements to add to them.

[@adriantruman8315]

Fabulous! I'm enjoying your series around the Eternal Champion very much. I'm a longtime MM fan and you really do his works justice in these.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm currently working on the fifth installment in this series of videos. It's focused on Elric, and I expect to have it up in the next week or so. (FYI, the fourth video in the series is my steampunk one, which discusses Moorcock's Oswald Bastable novels.)

[@danest.george1776]

Wonderful to finally see Mr. M getting some of the attention he deserves. I would make the argument that a lot of his works which fall outside of the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres, such as the Cornelius Quartet (absurdism), the Pyat series (historical fiction) and Mother London (literary fiction), reach those "literary heights," in terms of quality of prose and complexity of content, that his speculative fiction doesn't necessarily strive for. Would love to hear your thoughts on those at some point in the future.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I hope to get to those other Moorcock works eventually. He was an extremely prolific author, which makes finding the time to cover the full range of his works somewhat daunting.

[@calebcox4963]

Great video! I recently read the John Daker volume, and I also found the first two stories somewhat disjointed but still helpful introductions to some core concepts in the saga. I was more positive on Phoenix in Obsidian, as I think it also helps establish the Eternal Champion’s relationship to the Black Blade and clarifies the connection between the previous stories in the volume. Plus, the chariot drawn by polar bears that inspired Frank Frazetta’s cover art is just cool and fun.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! Good point about Phoenix in Obsidian. Will you be reading the Von Bek volume next? Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo and Michael Whelan did some amazing cover art for various Eternal Champion books. Also, an illustrator who really captured the weirdness in Moorcock's stories is Rodney Matthews. He produced cover art and interior illustrations mainly for UK editions during the 1970s and 80s (his art is featured throughout my previous Moorcock video).

[@calebcox4963]

Yes, Von Bek is next, and I’m looking forward to it even more after watching your review! Love your channel.

[@ChagrinElectric]

My dad introduced me to Moorcock as a teen, and I thank him for helping me develop a foundation to truly enjoy more sophisticated works with clearer understanding as a result. I can't imagine trying to tackle Herbert or Asimov without having journeyed across the Seas of Fate or viewed the Maschenheem.

[@thelibraryladder]

You had a thoughtful dad!

[@dave-cripps]

Just bought a used copy of Von Bek. Thank you 🙂

[@thelibraryladder]

Terrific! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

[@DeathAlchemist]

Interesting video, usually ppl who like Moorcock always recommend Elric, so it was nice to hear someone talk about these lesser known works. I think one could say to start with Ekric, mainly to see Moorcock evolve as a writer, but you make a compelling case. Also, love your books, I want to pause the video and take note of all the books you show. One more thing. Good on you for crediting the artists, I think some specific links to the pieces used could help too

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for the feedback! Like many people, my first introduction to Moorcock was through Elric. In hindsight, though, I wish I had read some of Moorcock's other Champions before encountering Elric, just for the additional context and perspective they would have provided.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Nice editions -mine are all much earlier ones, having been a MM fan since the late 70s. I'd say ultimately there is no reading order as such, though there are two 'endings'. But this is the question I used to get pretty much every day when I was a bookseller in the 80s (before the publishing of MM's work became an unwieldy mess and far less commercially successful once Orion got hold of it) - 'Where do I start reading Moorcock?'. Any attempt to suggest a running order is a welcome one, still!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I wish the White Wolf omnibus edition included the Jerry Cornelius volume found in the Orion edition, but at least it has the Kane of Mars stories (I have a soft spot for ERBurroughs). I agree that there isn't an essential reading order to the Champions. I started with Elric about 40 years ago and bounced around from there. But on re-read, I think Moorcock's own recommended order (which White Wolf loosely followed) has a lot of merit, allowing readers to better grasp the nature of the multiverse, the Champion's role in it, and the stories' diverse literary styles and influences before diving into the best-known Champions such as Elric and Corum. And then, of course, there are the books in the saga that Moorcock has written over the past 20+ years that aren't represented in his earlier suggested reading order. Publication order is how I generally approach those.

[@sciencefictionreads]

Great overview, I've been looking forward to this! I think its fascinating that in a sense you can start anywhere but I'm very much interested in this suggested reading order to better understand this confusing series. Also, bonus points for the inclusion of a skeletor appearance 😝

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I've been trying to work Skeletor into a video for months, but he didn't quite seem to fit in with Guy Gavriel Kay, Perry Mason or the early science fiction of Gnome Press. My next challenge is how to include a ThunderCats reference... :) For the most part, I like the reading order Moorcock (and to a lesser extent White Wolf) recommends. Many readers new to Moorcock jump straight to the Elric stories, because they're the best known. But in doing so, they might find it confusing or miss out on some of the big picture context found in the stories of other Champions. Moorcock doesn't introduce the first Elric volume until the midway point in the Orion Books edition of the EC saga. White Wolf introduced Elric a little earlier (volume five), probably for marketing reasons.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I'd start with 'Elric of Melnibone' or 'The Final Programme', but the Erekose/Daker sequence gives an explanatory inroad in 'The Eternal Champion'. You could then read 'Phoenix in Obsidian' (aka 'The Silver Warriors') but once you have the basic idea of the Champion as an agent dedicated to restoring the cosmic balance between Order & Chaos, you can read the books in any order (aside from sticking to the internal chronology of each character's arc). The whole point is that to 'get' every reference, you need to re-read them once you've read many of them, as events are mirrored across sequences - Elric and Jerry Cornelius, for example, are very closely related in terms of their family structures and upsets- and on reading/re-reading, you get what a critic called 'the frission of recognition', where events echo and mirror each other across different universes. The key thing to remember is that ALL of Moorock's fiction is part of the Multiverse, even when the connections are made subtly -as in most of his more mainstreamy 'literary' novels, which are usually set in London and mention the Cornelius family.

[@dw5523]

Gosh, what a great channel. Thanks for sharing your passion with us.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm so glad you're enjoying it. There's lots more to come.

[@murph_archer1129]

Just bought a bunch of the omnibus paperbacks for the eternal champions series at a great price. Cant wait to get started

[@thelibraryladder]

Great! I hope you enjoy them. I find it helpful to keep in mind that Moorcock's writing style can vary widely from champion to champion, as well as across the decades when he wrote them. It helps me calibrate my expectations. There are some champions I really enjoy reading, and others that don't resonate with me, and still others somewhere in between. I appreciate all of them, though, for their creativity and influence on later fantasy and science fiction writers.

[@brianchidester3334]

Great info and easy to follow. I wonder if the narrator, however, has a background in radio or voiceovers? The whispered albeit dramatic and emphatic delivery, along with the heightened aesthetic of the soundtrack, seemed a bit over-the-top at times. Not to complain though. This is probably the best Moorcock overview on the KZbin at the moment.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Have you checked out my other two Moorcock videos? I have a fourth one coming later this summer on the Oswald Bastable incarnation of the Eternal Champion. Also, I'm not a professional radio or VO artist, and this is actually my normal speaking voice that I've had since I was 15. :) However, I try to elevate the production level of my videos in order to make better use of YT's abilities as a visual storytelling medium and to help them have a longer lifespan on the platform.

[@jonathandavis4819]

Thanks for undertaking this video series. I learned about Moorcock through Appendix N, which was a Gary Gygax's list of books that inspired the creation of D&D. I have a small sampling of Moorcock's Elric, but I lacked some of the context you provided here. The quantity over polish mentality you describe helps me frame the writing when I eventually will revisit it. Just goes to show that most novels should not be read entirely in a vacuum since inevitably there is a human behind the work!

[@thelibraryladder]

What a coincidence! The credits page of the original AD&D Player's Handbook (or it might have been the Dungeon Master's Guide) was where I first learned about Moorcock (as well as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the Dying Earth, etc.). I sought those authors out after that. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@jonathandavis4819]

@@thelibraryladder As far as I know he is the only living author listed on Appendix N.

[@Verlopil]

What a fantastic set of videos! I first read Moorcock when the War Hound and the World's Pain came out (that Rowena Morrill cover is fantastic- I bought the first edition so I could have it), and I just loved that book and later the sequels. But I had no idea where to go next. Heck, I didn't even know all of these books were related, and I still didn't know the extent of the relationships until these videos. So I tackled Jerry Cornelius after that and I remember being very disappointed. Then I tried Elric and loved them but I was thoroughly confused, and we had no Wiki or anyone to ask at that time so I just gave up. I really appreciate finally have a clear and concise explanation regarding this set of books. Thank you!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I felt much the same way (confused) when I first encountered various Eternal Champions many years ago, not realizing they were all connected. I decided to make this series of videos (a) to give Moorcock more of the attention he deserves here on BookTube (he was profoundly influential, yet is unfamiliar to most younger readers and BookTubers), and (b) to provide a spoiler-free roadmap to the interconnected Eternal Champion saga readers. It'll probably be a couple of years before I finish making this series of videos, as I have a lot of other video topics crowding my production queue.

[@DeanNatheos-eq3hl]

It's very interesting that this writer came up with a lot of his stories and put many to paper in his youth when he was very young Ed Greenwood said he also did the same thing. I would say that's very good for such young fellows excellent video and have a good day😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊well done.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I agree with you that Moorcock and Greenwood were prodigies in their youth.

[@nyarparablepsis872]

Wow, I learned a lot. Coming from a German speaking country where it could be difficult to get one's hands on "non-commercial" fantasy I was utterly unaware of the influences on Moorcock that you have talked about. I will definitely have to read some of those! I guess it's that background that plays into how I perceived the von Bek books. To me, they felt very much like German Sturm und Drang literature, with a healthy dose of folklore. Von Bek's deal with the devil recalled the stories I had grown up with, just with allegorical and philosophical depth. Suffice to say that I love the novels. As for easing into the EC books - I started out with the Elric, Corum, and Hawkmoon stories (German translations) before managing to get hold of other Eternal Champion books. Definitely agree that the Bek stories are a better starting point. I would also argue that the use of familiar Judaeo-Christian imagery helps to ease readers into the wider concepts of Chaos, Law, and the Balance. And I just want to mention here that Klosterheim is an amazing antagonist. Poor guy.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for sharing that great comment! I've long wondered how well Moorcock's works translated into other languages and cultures, and you make a good point about Von Bek as an entry point to the Champion saga. [shudders at the thought of Klosterheim]

[@heatrayzvideo3007]

Great video. I didn't find any of the champion cycle confusing. I found the stories build up a world {multivesrse} in my mind. Most of the stories are self contained once you understand the meta story.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! You hit on a key point. It makes a lot more sense if you're already aware of the larger meta story. If one comes into the champion cycle at a random entry point (or even a popular one, such as Elric) without that awareness, it might be a little confusing, particularly in some of the crossover stories.

[@bexencr]

Thank you so much for the video. it was very informative!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you found it helpful.

[@MARSHOMEWORLD]

Outstanding series here mate. Just discovered your channel and I have been enjoying it very very much. These Works were formative in my teen years, along with lovecraft, smith, howard, Tolkien etc.. cheers. M.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm trying to introduce the works of those authors and others like them to a wider audience who might not have grown up reading them like we did.

[@MARSHOMEWORLD]

@@thelibraryladder perhaps you are doing the cosmic good work. Having come up a dedicated RPG guy in the 1980s I was very familiar with the appendix and as Gary guygax called it in the dungeon Masters guide.. the huge reference library of the material that influenced the early D&D rules. Largely pulp and Adventure Tales with a huge dose of fantastic Adventure literature thrown in on top.. it all accounted for so much of what I read in those years. Perhaps you will Enlighten these children and then grossly derivative work like The Witcher will actually be seen in the proper light by the noobs.

[@uncledubpowermetal]

I think Asimov had a similar problem or feature, depending on how you look at it; Foundation is a wonderful book but terribly dense and Asimov's narrative voice wasn't the most natural back then. Well I started reading Prelude to Foundation, written in the 80s two years before he died. While it's definitely a retcon style book, his narrative prose had advanced so much by that point, it's a breeze and a joy to read!

[@uncledubpowermetal]

Foundation was a joy to read as well but it definitely wasn't a breeze 🤣

[@thelibraryladder]

I agree. Like Moorcock, once Asimov stopped writing for the pulps at breakneck speed and started taking more time with his stories, his writing improved noticeably. It's worth noting also that both writers are best known for the creative ideas they build their stories around. Their prose styles took more time to develop.

[@truermu]

Nice overview! I spent many years collecting and reading most of the Moorcock books. I'm not sure what to keep or re-read, and your series will give me some food for thought!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm glad you find my videos helpful.

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

Great introduction to the Moorcock books! I've recently started reading "City in the Autumn Stars" and read "The Dragon in the Sword" after "The Eternal Champion" and "Phoenix in Obsidian" due to the order of events that happened to Erekose in those books. At a later time, I purchased an illustrated novella called "The Swords of Heaven, The Flowers of Hell" which could be viewed as the third Erekose story if you haven't read "The Dragon in the Sword" and it could lead directly to the last Count Brass story since it connects to Hawkmoon's saga. If that sounds confusing, it's only due to Moorcock's intricate style of storytelling that occasionally ties-in several aspects of the Eternal Champion in several books that occasionally tells one tale from two different perspectives...

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I haven't read that graphic novel in the Erekose story arc. I should check it out. Part of the fun/challenge of reading Moorcock for me is dissecting his stories to find the direct and indirect links, references and foreshadowings of different Champions. Navigating his interconnected stories is sometimes a little like guiding a marble through one of those 3-D puzzle ball maze toys (and I wish I'd thought of that visual metaphor while I was making this video; ah, well, I can always save it for a future one).

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

@@thelibraryladder Great metaphor and very accurate. After reading "Sailors on the Sea of Fate," I was confused as to why Moorcock would introduce 3 other aspects of The Eternal Champion so early in Elric's storyline. I discovered later that Moorcock didn't write ALL of his stories sequentially, especially the Elric saga! His first Elric story, "The Dreaming City," first appeared in "The Stealer of Souls" collection and later in Volume 3 of The Original Elric Saga, "Weird of the White Wolf." Of course he wrote a number of Elric stories after his first full-length Elric novel "Stormbringer" which presents a challenge for anyone who would want to read the Elric saga in its chronological sequence...

[@thelibraryladder]

Yeah, Moorcock's decision to start the Elric saga around the halfway point can be frustrating to readers. I like how White Wolf and Orion have largely placed the Elric stories in chronological order.

[@DavidTSmith-jn5bs]

@@thelibraryladder So do I, although I first read the Elric stories when the original 6 volumes were published. Have you read "Michael Moorcock's Multiverse" yet? The structure behind the collected series with it's introductions and its "ending" only left the door open for *more* stories featuring The Eternal Champion and his/her/their legacy...

[@thelibraryladder]

@@DavidTSmith-jn5bs I'm aware of the comic series/graphic novel, but I haven't read it. It sounds intriguing with the three converging storylines. Thanks.

[@Nmag27]

Oh John Daker, he makes some interesting choices lol💗

[@thelibraryladder]

He does indeed! :)

[@Dude_on_a_Map]

I can’t believe I just found out about this…. Need to start Von Bek stat. 😮

[@brownjason3068]

This is a great channel but I suggest it is better to start with the early writing in the magazines, then later the early Elric, you then discover the multiverse as an emerging concept, not delivered on a plate. Also try the totally different "Mother London" and "Byzantium Endures". For audiophiles try Hawkwind - Warrior on the edge of time.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I agree with you that there are a variety of potential entry points to the Eternal Champion saga, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. I've chosen to highlight the reading order that Moorcock himself suggested.

[@brownjason3068]

Thanks for your reply. I have just finished watching your excellent piece on Lord Dunsany and added a response there. I hope you can do a piece on ERR Eddison - The Worm Ouroboros, Mezentian Gate, etc. @@thelibraryladder

[@thelibraryladder]

It's been my plan for more than a year to make a video about early fantasy authors Eddison, Cabell and Morris, among others. My production process is slow, though, and I have several other videos ahead of it in the queue.

[@jakecarlstad6192]

I really appreciate these videos! I'm loving the Elric books that are being rereleased right now and now I'm on the hunt for used eternal champion books. Surprisingly they're not as easy to come by as you'd think.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! Moorcock fans often are passionate and loyal in their love of his books, which might lead them to hold onto them. Another reason the used book market is thin (in the US) is that Moorcock's popularity has tended to be highest in the UK and Europe, particularly during his first couple of decades as an author. Thus, there aren't as many older US editions floating around. I have a Hawkmoon video planned next in this series, and I hope to get to it by the end of the year.

[@InfiniteQuest86]

Dang this sounds awesome. I'm buying it.

[@portaldimensionsrpg2073]

I never knew how expansive the eternal champions was. Ive heard about corum and hawkmoon but ive only read the elric saga (which i absolutely adore) now i wanna read these other ones

[@thelibraryladder]

To borrow a line from Forrest Gump, reading Moorcock's Eternal Champion saga is little like eating a variety box of chocolates. Each Champion's story is told in a different style, reflecting earlier authors that inspired Moorcock, as well as his own evolving skill as a writer over several decades. They're fun to sample, even if they might not all be to your taste. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@JT_O4]

I read The War hound and World’s Pain back in the 1980s. I am now ready to continue the journey.

[@wileyschmitt]

Thanx for the recommendation, just read the first book in the Elric series and enjoyed it very much. Glad that I just happened to have it on hand, but now have to hunt for the 2nd book, though I do have #3 and #6 already, so I'm covered for those. I also have 'The Swords Trilogy' in a one volume paperback (any opinion on that one?).

[@thelibraryladder]

Great! Being in the used book business has its perks, right? It gives you the opportunity to read the merchandise before selling it. :D The Swords Trilogy features Corum, who is probably the second favorite incarnation of the Eternal Champion for most readers (after Elric). He's also one of the most consequential of the champions in the multiverse and well worth reading. (I'm going to save my detailed thoughts on the Corum stories for an upcoming video. Sorry! I don't want to spoil the punchline of that video.) Also, thanks for the recent shoutout to your subscribers! I truly appreciate it.

[@wileyschmitt]

The few Moorcock books I had found I set aside to 'eventually' read because I had heard someone say he was a good fantasy author, but after your videos on him I had to bring them out and get him started in my reading rotation. 'Almost' all the books I get I make sure that I'd be willing to read in case I don't end up selling them, so I'm a collector first and foremost, and often have tough decisions putting particular books up for sale. Lot of fun, but it's sure turned into a lot of work, which is great though as I'd hate to work a real job ever again (even at the bookstore where I've been offered one before). I'll probably start the Swords Trilogy since I don't have the next Elric book yet. I usually have about 5 books going at a time for variety, but only read about 30 to 40 pages per day with good consistency. Sorry that most of my subscribers aren't much of readers at all, but I'm going to keep trying to encourage them to start.

[@whom382]

@@wileyschmitt I started with the Swords trilogy and became a fan.

[@wileyschmitt]

@@whom382 Cool, I look forward reading those. I finally found a cheaper copy of 'Sailor on the Seas of Fate', but I did get to read an Elric novel called 'The Fortress of the Pearl' that apparently takes place between the first two books, though it was the 8th one published. It's good, but not nearly as good as the 1st novel, but I'm guessing book 2 is more comparable to the first.

[@whom382]

@@wileyschmitt I read the earlier 6 book Elric series before Fortress was a thing. I think those 6 books were all good and the writing more consistent. Fortress was okay but not as good.

[@anthonywritesfantasy]

I love reading summaries of Moorcock novels, but his prose is a little difficult for me to get through. But man... some of his images...

[@thelibraryladder]

Some of his books are easier going than others, and the variability of his writing is both a source of admiration and frustration for me. But the ideas and images are remarkable. Thanks for sharing!

[@KelsaRavenlock]

I really enjoyed "The War Hound and the Worlds Pain" as not only does it provide an excellent blueprint for the Eternal Champions journey but it is told in a way appropriate for a story of the time and region it is set in.

[@thelibraryladder]

It's one of my favorite books in the entire Eternal Champion saga. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@pcuimac]

In a Multiverse there is no starting point. Everything exists simultaniously, but seperate. Written history can be rewritten. Both histories would exist in parallel.

[@thelibraryladder]

True, but as readers our human ability to experience the multiverse is limited to four dimensions, which requires a sequential receipt and processing of information about it. Moorcock's narratives provide that information, and even he acknowledges that our comprehension of the multiverse can benefit from the sequence in which we read them. :)

[@deannatheos4471]

Excellent thank you.

[@the_twowheel_turtle934]

Great vid. So, The Sundered Worlds is a von Bek tory but on the eternal.champion volume?

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! Yes. When Moorcock first wrote The Sundered World in the early 1960s, the character of Renark wasn't a Von Bek. However, when he later revised and expanded it and combined it with the story The Blood Red Game, he made the character a distant-future Von Bek descendant in order to fit it more squarely into the Eternal Champion saga. It was the story in which Moorcock introduced the multiverse, which is probably why it's in the first omnibus volume rather than in the Von Bek volume.

[@the_twowheel_turtle934]

@@thelibraryladder thank you for the thorough explanation!

[@reedl2353]

And on to part 2. For reasons that aren't worth discussing, I avoid stories featuring any kind of pseudo-biblical Satan. Also, I have a friend whose tastes have always been polar opposites of mine and he LOVES "The Warhound and the World's Pain". Therefore, as a contrarian youth, I never read the story. I think that you have convinced me to set aside those old prejudices and give the stories a shot. On the other hand, I have read all of the stories in The Eternal Champion. I find Moorcock's conception of John Daker to be maudlin and depressing. I would much rather read heroic fiction than tragedy. The Dragon In The Sword (which I read when it was released) was for many years one of my favorite Moorcock stories. I found it endlessly creative and, for once, he added to his own mythos in a way that didn't actively destroy my enjoyment of the story. I wish that some of his explanations of things were a little more concrete and less, shall we say, open to interpretation, but 1980's Moorcock wasn't that kind of writer. However, when I re-read the story a few years ago I found it tedious and, once again, maudlin. Of course, our feelings about books change with time as we, the readers, change. So, if I read the rest of the Von Bek stories, I'll re-read The Dragon In The Sword again as well and see how it (and I) have aged. However, I will say that my (over 40 year old) memories of Phoenix In Obsidian was that it was a much better, more fully realized story than The Eternal Champion. Yes, it's very nearly the same plot, but I enjoyed it more. I remember the characters feeling more motivated, and less like they were just stumbling in a daze from point to point constantly taking the wrong action because someone told them what to do. Young author Moorcock clearly had issues with authority. You might also get this impression from... everything else he ever wrote. One thing about Moorcock, I can't read too much of him at a time. So, if I'm going to re-read these stories, it will be a project lasting years. I'm OK with that. As you said, Moorcock is an uneven author. The real trick is to not just roll your eyes and stop reading when you hit a rough patch, because rough patches will be hit.

[@thelibraryladder]

I hope you enjoy The Warhound and the World's Pain as much as I do. The writing is very stylized, which might not agree with you, but the emotional and moral complexity of the story surpasses much of Moorcock's earlier work, which us why I quite like it as an introduction to the Eternal Champion saga and the quest to find and maintain balance between good/evil/order/chaos.

[@MemphiStig]

When I last read The Eternal Champion (novel), I was struck by how incredibly non-action-oriented it was, yet still such a compelling read. But I disagree with you in that I love Phoenix In Obsidian (or The Silver Warrior, as I first read it) and think it's a worthy successor and much different tale from the first. I'm currently working my way thru the omnibus for the second time. I'm on book 10, Dancers at the End of Time, and I've read many of his books outside of this collection before. I can honestly say, it really doesn't matter which order you read them in. Keep to a single series, but other than that, little matters. I do think what the publishers did makes some sense tho. Eternal Champion (vol 1) is the "beginning," and Count Brass (vol 15) is the "end," so keeping them roughly in those positions makes a lot of sense, but the rest of it is really an intentionally murky and non-sequential middle/muddle. Fantastic stories, every last one. Every time I think I have a favorite, I read another and change my mind. Plus there are so many other works not found herein that are worth checking out too, such as the Cornelius Chronicles (whose absence I don't understand), and books written after this collection was published. Also, thanks for this series. I've been reading him since my teens, and I feel like I'll be reading him for the rest of my life and never fully grasp everything. He's my Proust, as it were. I just don't have his scope. Btw, given that this is your part 2, and part 5 just came out, where is part 4? Or are you being Moorcockian and holding out on releasing it until you feel like it?

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for sharing your reading experiences. I agree that many parts of the EC saga (particularly the middle/muddle as you put it) can be read in different order. In this series of videos, I'm trying to present the saga in Moorcock's recommended sequence. I, too, wish White Wolf had included the Jerry Cornelius and Colonel Pyat books among its 1990s publications. As to my fourth video, it's my Roots of Steampunk video, which contains a discussion of the Oswald Bastable trilogy.

[@MemphiStig]

@@thelibraryladder Oh yes, I see. I should have looked at the thumbnail and not just read the title. Thanks!

[@douglascampos869]

collecting all of this - hard to find this stuff here in the 3rd world

[@therealgreyman]

man. i would love to tackle these books but somehow they are very hard to find even audiobooks.

[@thelibraryladder]

You’re right. I don’t understand why Moorcock hasn’t authorized audio versions of many of the Champion stories. Elric, Hawkmoon, Corum and Oswald Bastable are available in audio formats, but few of the rest are, to my knowledge.

[@wileyschmitt]

eBay 'Michael Moorcock' books, I have found some listings that often have around 10 books (often good vintage editions) for reasonable prices (sometimes around $20-$30), and usually because the seller doesn't know that they're worth more than that. If you do a check regularly once a day you'll eventually find a bargain.

[@Pebble3007]

One of the reasons he was turning out books at high rate was the need to keep the magazine, New Worlds afloat.

[@thelibraryladder]

It amazes me how good his writing was despite being produced at breakneck speed with little or no editing or revisions. Those works aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they're probably a lot better than most authors could produce under similar time constraints.

[@Pebble3007]

@@thelibraryladder I suspect both talent and an experience with a dash of desperation. You might not know that the area in south london where he lived, did have a lot of writers and reporters, who had to hit deadlines for the presses. His more literary works, Mother London, King of the City and the Pyat Tetralogy did take a lot more time. Although, he has been working on the new Elric novel, as well as the Fantasy biography books two and three.

[@thelibraryladder]

@@Pebble3007 That makes sense. Thanks!

[@jerrycornelius2261]

@@thelibraryladder MM says himself that he began as a journalist often having to work to daily deadlines! He also says somewhere that his journalism paid so much better than fiction that he only HAD 3 days to make the same from a fiction advance!

[@RamBam3000]

I have the Michael Moorcock Collecton edition of "The Eternal Champion" from Orion, and I enjoyed "The Dragon in the Sword" the most, since I finally met John Dakar himself, and the Eternal Champion saves himself by insisting on that identity.... and as a reward, John Dakar gets to go home, to London, to live as a mortal man, in peace, with his wife.

[@danielschneider9312]

My intro to the eternal champion was An Alien Heat (as an aside, imagine being a 12-year-old Lutheran school student in 1977, reading that while lying in a hospital recovering from meningitis. It was...eye opening ) followed quiclkly by the Elric and Hawkmoon books, and then everything else he wrote that I could find.

[@thelibraryladder]

Jherek Carnelian is an unusual entry point to Moorcock and the Eternal Champion. You must have suffered a kind of whiplash when you moved on to Elric. :)

[@danielschneider9312]

Yes, it was a bit of a shock. Fortunately, I was a big fan of Conan and the Lankhmar stories at that time, so after the initial WTH is this? Wore off, I just devoured them. To be honest, I didn't actually connect Jherek to the eternal champion right away- I didn't read The Hollow Lands and The End of All Songs till after I'd read quite a few of the others, and had picked up on the similarity of his name with others in the cycle. On a seperate note, have you ever considered doing a video on the connections between Moorcock's multiverse and Amber?

[@thelibraryladder]

That's a great suggestion about discussing the similarities between Moorcock's and Zelazny's versions of the multiverse. I'm not aware of Zelazny ever crediting Moorcock for the inspiration, but I have to believe Moorcock's influence is present in Amber. Zelazny's an author I plan to do a retrospective about, although likely not in the next year (too many other videos in the queue).

[@uncledubpowermetal]

Also it feels like Moorcock wanted it all lol he wanted to write fantasy, sci fi, alt history, horror, suspense, etc. He said "mmm nah, I'll use ALL of them" 😅

[@Mirekluk]

"i need to multiverse it" - Moorcock ig

[@SolraneN7]

Sadly these omnibus editions are expensive and hard to find now.

[@thelibraryladder]

It's unfortunate, but true. In recent years, Gollancz has published new omnibus editions for many of the Champions, but only in trade paperback format, to my knowledge. Thus, options are very limited for hardcover copies.

[@SolraneN7]

@@thelibraryladder I'll look into those, thank you. Hope Saga Press might do them someday, as I have the new Elric Omnibuses from them. Have a lovely weekend.

[@MadderMel]

Erekose is a cool character !

[@whom382]

I started with the Corum novels myself. I consider "The Eternal Champion" the definitive (not best) book in the whole saga. The concept at its simplest and cleanest. I also consider "The Dragon in the Sword" the last great book Moorcock wrote. His writing after that point became increasingly tedious. The Von Bek novels were okay to me but nothing special.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for sharing your perspective. Given how eclectic Moorcock's writing and the Eternal Champion saga are, it's not surprising that many readers respond differently to his works. I find most of his books very readable but also rather uneven. I tend to appreciate them more for the impact they had on his contemporaries and later writers.

[@adurpandya2742]

Elder Scrolls, JRPGs, Isekai. What else did he influence?

[@alexanderchism6403]

Where does the Gollancz publishing order fit into all this? Maybe it's beyond the scope of what you're trying to cover, but as someone who hasn't read any Moorcock, I felt confident in looking for von Bek first after watching your video, only to find that Moorcock worked with Gollancz over a decade later than the White Wolf editions to once again seemingly change the order of the whole "series." The Gollancz ones start with Elric, then Corum, then Hawkmoon... vob Bek and John Daker look to be in the middle, which is completely different than what you're covering. I'll probably just read in order of the Gollancz editions, but all these different orders of publication are a bit dizzying. Do you think von Bek is the best starting point, or is that simply how you presented it because you are following the White Wolf volumes?

[@thelibraryladder]

Great question! To an extent, the reading order is a bit of a moving target, because Moorcock has continued to revise and insert new stories into the Champion timelines. However, the White Wolf (and UK Millennium/Orion) editions from the 1990s are the only editions I'm aware of that were sequenced specifically to present the Champions and their overlapping multiverse stories in a way that ties them together logically and holistically. Moorcock has said the Millennium edition sequence is his preferred one, although he has endorsed the White Wolf order too, which is similar. (The Millennium edition starts with Von Bek, while White Wolf puts Von Bek second after John Daker.) The downside to the approach those two publishers took is that the best-known and most beloved Champions (Elric and Corum) don't appear in the early volumes. Their first volumes are #'s 5 & 7 in White Wolf, and 4 & 8 in Millennium/Orion, which made it difficult to market the series to readers who might have heard of Elric, but were unfamiliar with the larger Eternal Champion saga. This depressed sales of both editions, which didn't stay in print for long. The more recent Gollancz editions worked with Moorcock to update the internal sequencing within each Champion's story to incorporate works published in the past 25 years, but the overall order of the volumes largely reflects the marketability of the Champions. Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon are central to the saga and their stories are also among the most enjoyable for most readers, so Gollancz's frontloading of the series with some of Moorcock's greatest hits appears to have been an effort to play to its strengths in a way that would generate reader interest in the lesser-known Champions in later volumes, thereby maximizing sales at the expense of a more coherent overarching narrative for the saga.

[@alexanderchism6403]

@@thelibraryladder Awesome, thanks for the clarification! I ordered Elric of Melniboné and Other Stories, but also was tempted to grab Von Bek and Eternal Champion based on your video. Now I will!

[@angry_wizard]

I have that paperback first edition of The Sundered Worlds, such a goofy cover illustration. A lot of the early paperbacks are just goofy, like the Mayflower first edition of The Black Corridor which is an out of focus photograph of a plastic spaceship, and is just so much worse than the UK Ace first edition which has this incredibly evocative fractured illustration of a screaming man (P.S. Definitely look for that Avon paperback if you can find it if you want to read The Black Corridor, all the subsequent editions majorly screwed up the typographic illustrations and I don't think it's ever been remedied.)

[@thelibraryladder]

You're right, that Mayflower edition of The Black Corridor looks like something from the 1960s puppet SF show Thunderbirds. :D I have it in the omnibus edition Sailing to Utopia published by White Wolf and Millennium/Orion in the 1990s. I believe it's a corrected edition.

[@mickdarcy3063]

The Science Fiction Alliance brought me here!

[@thelibraryladder]

Welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy my videos (which cover science fiction and other genres).

[@ainzeh9855]

Whens part 3 out

[@thelibraryladder]

I hope to have it ready later this month. Thanks for checking!

[@ainzeh9855]

@the library ladder thank you I'm currently making my way through the books and really enjoying them

[@derrickmarais]

I'm just sorry more of his books aren't available in audiobook form.

[@thelibraryladder]

I completely agree. Many of the Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon and Oswald Bastable books are available, but I'm not aware of any others. (And the Corum ones are produced by Graphic Audio, which is not my preferred format -- i.e., full cast, with distracting music and sound effects.)

[@grahamturner1290]

Lemmy said that he admired MM's single mindedness when writing. 😊

[@BMikeGalloway]

All hail the Emperor of Mankind! 👑

[@jerrycornelius2261]

MM says that he deliberately changed the order of the two sets.

[@benquirobiequiratman4646]

I enjoyed Elric & Hawkmoon characters like Dave Adverc

[@wudly9195]

Its really interesting, but why make book series if the character, setting and world completely change in each book, with almost no connection to each other?? It seems like he just wanted to write a bunch of different stories

[@thelibraryladder]

I think he was more focused on the thematic connections between the Eternal Champion stories than on consistent or coherent plot or character connections. Thanks for watching!

[@wudly9195]

@@thelibraryladder Yeah that makes sense. I just discovered your channel recently and its one of my favorite channels right now. Love your videos!

[@christopherkraken7625]

Long collection is loooooooooooooong.

[@johnsilverman656]

Unfortunately the von bek omnibus and separate printings all seem out of print, and kindle doesn’t have them :-/ They sound really cool

[@thelibraryladder]

The Gollancz trade paperback edition from 2013 appears to be available on Amazon for around $22 in very good used condition. It contains the two Von Bek novels, but not the minor short story 'The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius.' The older White Wolf edition that I have is harder to find at a reasonable price these days.

[@jerrycornelius2261]

@@thelibraryladder SAGA are following up their ELRIC set with a VON BEK set which I think is due out this year. They also have MOTHER LONDON and a new book in tthe works!

[@blakechildress944]

This man should do ASMR or narrate for audible audio books.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I don't know anything about ASMR, but I've dabbled in audiobooks for fun. I've recorded a few classic short stories here on my channel (in the Audiobooks playlist) and I might do more in the future.

[@shiranuihd3182]

And here I came expecting to see Slash and Larcen 🙄😂

[@jmparker78]

You're like ASMR: The Person.

[@demilembias2527]

oh. ok. that makes sense. okay. um, I get it now. the entirety of Shin Megami Tensei (a series of Japanese RPGs usually centering around philosophical conflicts between law and chaos, usually represented by the Abrahamic God and Lucifer respectively) is essentially a usually narratively unambitious and often politically conservative ripoff of eternal champion. Eternal Champion might just be Shin Megami Tensei but good.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for sharing that example from Japanese popular culture. Moorcock's influence is very widespread and often unrecognized.

[@demilembias2527]

​@thelibraryladder honestly i think the primary reason that japanese popular visual media like manga, anime, and games tend to play with crazier tropes and more conceptually ambitious ideas than their safer Euroamerican counterparts is just because during the formative years of those media, especially anime in the 70s and 80s and games in the 80s and 90s, everyone was reading high concept scifi, often by english writers, that never got similar adaptations in their home countries.

[@jerrycornelius2261]

@@thelibraryladder MM's books were translated into Japanese from the 1960s and have influenced much Japanese pop culture.