Reading Moorcock - where to start?

lenihan

Moderator
So I don't usually read fantasy or sci fi novels because I'm a snob/intellectual/pretentious twat, but hanging around with oldhammer people for a year has put Michael Moorcock on my to read list, and my question now is where should I start? Any big Moorcock fans who can advise me?
 
I quite like his 'Tales from the End of Time'. It's sci-fi fantasy, and unlike a lot of his fiction, it's fairly self-contained, so there is no required knowledge of his endless Eternal Champion biz to confuse and alienate you. The book is a series of short stories documenting the comings and goings of human beings who have, via technology, gained godlike powers and live in a dead world of hedonistic immortality. So, you know, fairly pedestrian stuff, but a good jump-off point :)
 

Zhu Bajie

Member
I'd start with his non-fiction attack on conservative fantasy - Epic Pooh. Although if you don't read much SF/F then the specific critisims won't make a lot of sense. However it does tell you where Moorcock is coming from in his writing.

Then, and in this order:

*Elric of Melinbone
*Corum
*Hawkmoon

There are lots of other editions of the stories, but these omnibus editions can be had quite cheaply. But Elric / Corum / Hawkmoon tends to be what people are talking about when they say "Moorcock", they each stand alone, and whilst have connections to the wider Multiverse they don't really require other reading. They're pretty 'standard' swords and sorcery affairs, doom-laden albino sorcerers, science-fantasy reworking of celtic mythology and an alternate future Britain ruled by sorcerer-scientists with deities named after the Beatles.
 
I've only read 'The History Of The Runestaff' which I bought back in the 1980's and enjoyed very much.

Strangely I sought it out of storage a couple of weeks back to read as I'd noticed that compediums of his work have been recently released again.
 
I would disagree very strongly with Zhu on this point. Moorcock is a hugely influential practitioner of fantastic literature and I think the best way to experience his work is to read it, rather than reading about it. Read "Epic Pooh" by all means, but read his fiction first. There's a reason he is thought of as a fiction writer and not a critic.

Bear in mind Moorcocks work is quite brief by contemporary standards in fantasy, so you can cover quite a lot of ground fast.

Elric is probably his best known work, though for my money Hawkmoon is just as good if not better. You can read both of these series in their entirety and still have killed fewer trees than two George R Martin novels.

Best of all is "The Warhound and Worlds Pain." All the Von Bek stories are worth reading.

The Oswald Bastable stories are steampunk before it was cool. Which I suppose makes them hipster steampunk - steamster? Hip-punk?

You mentioned you like literary fiction - the Jerry Cornelius stories are well worth looking at in a Burroughs cut ups sort of way. Byzantium Endures and it's sequels are more traditional in terms of narrative, but show some really classy writing.

You have an embarrassment of riches ahead of you - enjoy them.
 

Zhu Bajie

Member
thequestingvole":3kcr3gyb said:
I would disagree very strongly with Zhu on this point. Moorcock is a hugely influential practitioner of fantastic literature and I think the best way to experience his work is to read it, rather than reading about it. Read "Epic Pooh" by all means, but read his fiction first. There's a reason he is thought of as a fiction writer and not a critic.

Of course you're free to disagree, but a couple of points. Epic Pooh isn't about Moorcocks work, it's about the state of fantasy fiction in the 1970s as Moorcock saw it (although it's been slightly revised a few times since, to include JK Rowling and Philip Pullman in a perfunctory way). Secondly whilst Epic Pooh doesn't mention this - Elric was developed, purposefully, as an anti-Conan, and much of Moorcock can be read as criticisms of the genre - art and criticism totally aren't alien to each other, and Moorcock is known as much, if nor moreso for his playing with conventions of genre through his fiction than anything else. Thirdly, the OP stateth: "I don't usually read fantasy or sci fi novels because I'm a snob/intellectual/pretentious twat" (who nonetheless plays with toy soldiers), so starting with something that some people regard as twattish (anti-Tolkien), slightly intellectual (discerning political biases) somewhat pretentious (author critiquing other authors), and erm, snobbish, by equating conservatism with childishness, might help approach the genre in a more snobbish/intellectual/pretentious manner, as befits the OPs stated preferences. Finally, it's a good primer and mentions a lot of "other good stuff" Ursula Le Guin, Alan Garner, Lieber, but no it's not brilliantly written or argued.
 
Of course you're free to disagree,

And I shall :)

but a couple of points. Epic Pooh isn't about Moorcocks work, it's about the state of fantasy fiction in the 1970s as Moorcock saw it (although it's been slightly revised a few times since, to include JK Rowling and Philip Pullman in a perfunctory way).

I see your point. I just think that there is something to be gained from reading at least some of the Moorcock canon with fresh eyes, appreciating it on that level and *then* going to read Epic Pooh if you wish. You can always re-read the text with a critics hat on later, but you will never have another opportunity to read Moorcock for the first time. Certainly his canon is a critique of the fantasy work that has come before, but that doesn't mean it can't be appreciated as a good yarn and I think you are risking that uncomplicated enjoyment by trying to compare it to the rest of the fantasy canon before you've experienced it.

Moorcock regardless of politics, criticism or other flapdoodle is first and foremost a storyteller and I think that the OP would be doing himself a disservice if he did not first give Young Master Michael the opportunity to entertain him before picking the genre apart.

The OP is of course free to go hang in his own way and who am I to gainsay him. But the case for reading the stories as stories, at least at first, is worth making.

Should OP wish to slake his thirst for more fantasy criticism - the late (and much missed) The Cimmerian Blog (http://leogrin.com/CimmerianBlog/) is always worth looking at.
 

DrM

Member
That would entirely depend on where you want to start really... you say you're too 'pretentious' (your word!) to read fantasy/sci-fi, what honestly? I mean I'd understand if you were talking about the likes of Robin Hobb, Terry Goodkind, or George RR Martin (apologies to any fans... we can take it outside if you like? ;)), but Moorcock is such a wide ranging talent, writing over such a long time, I think he's probably written something for just about everyone in his lifetime, whatever your tastes.

Some of his work is definitely immature, but, he started writing very young, some of it is definitely repetitive andcould be considered 'weak', but, he was making a living as a pulp author churning out 'fashionable' material for a long time, and has admitted himself it wasn't always 'great fiction'. Some of his works have been republished several times under slightly different names, some identical sections appear in different works, he describes his writing as 'chaotic' and some if it certainly is - infuriatingly so, but he pretty much invented the Warhammer definition of 'Chaos' (at least as adopted by Bryan Ansell). However, depending on your tastes, you may find some of his work very good indeed - I do, and I can be pretentious too (according to the wife anyway). All I can say is, if you try something he's written and don't like it, try something else, and you might just really enjoy it.

Personal Favourites:

The Warlord of the Air Trilogy AKA The Oswald Bastable Trilogy AKA The Nomad of Time Trilogy (very Steampunk alternate realities, with more than a hats off to HG Wells)

Hawkmoon AKA the Kamarg Tetralogy - The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God's Amulet, The Sword of the Dawn, The Runestaff (a very fantasy take on a 'Dark Future' with a LOT of Moorcock's famous dark humour, there is a second Hawkmoon series as well, not so good IMO. I think there was a 70's band called 'Hawkmoon' as well, in which Moorcock played? I may be confused, that was before my time...)

Corum AKA the Corum Trilogy - The Knight of Swords, Queen of Swords, King of Swords (actually two separate trilogies about the central character Corum, both good, but the first is the best IMO, this is where we first see a lot of the elements of classic Warhammer - Elves, Chaos, Chaos Attributes etc...)

Michael Kane AKA Martian Triology - City of the Beast, Lord of the Spiders, Masters of the Pit (a Martian series very much after the style of ER Burroughs and 'John Carter: Warlord of Mars', classic SciFi/Fanasy)

Sojan the Swoirdsman (Moorcock's 'tribute' to RE Howard's Conan)

The War Hound and the World's Pain (as someone mentioned above, quite possibly Moorcock's most literary work, and a real stand alone gem, set in the 30 Years War Rhineland, but with strong fantasy elements, an absolute classic)

So, a real mix of stuff, a lot of it totally original and a lot of it based on the work of other authors, take your pick!
 

DrM

Member
Although Elric is Moorcock's most famous creation, personally I find the Elric novels rather dull, and pretentious (that's bad pretentious, not good pretentious like us pseudo-intellectuals of course!).

Who wants to waste good reading time reading essays about fiction, when you could be reading fiction itself?! I have read a number of essays and articles by Moorcock about Science Fiction and Fantasy, but that's not the point... I wish I hadn't really as I don't think I gained anything out of it. IMO the OP really ought to just pick up a handful of Moorcock books and try 'em for size.

As an aside, I don't really see ANY connection between Elric and Conan, and I don't see how anyone familiar with both characters could consider one the antithesis of the other? I always thought that was Moorcock attempting to 'cash in' on Conan's enduring popularity in the US, the man certainly hasn't missed many chances to sell himself over the years. If Elric is the antithesis of anyone it's the likes of Frodo of the Shire, and that I can see.

Another classic I was forgetting: the Erekose novels... not really a trilogy like some of the others, but all good fantasy reads, and perhaps some of Moorcock's more original work?

Personally I find some of the Jerry Cornelius stuff, 'Behold the Man' etc... to be very dated and rather naive, the kind of 'shock fiction' you'd expect from a teenager, whereas his more fantastic fiction seems to have stood the test of time better and still seem very fresh, but maybe that's just me?

As I was trying to say above, Moorcock has written a lot of material and in many different genres and styles, so I don't think you can easily pigeonhole the man as a writer.
 
The band 'Hawkwind' wrote a whole concept album based on the Elric saga - they famously had Ian 'Lemmy' Kilmister as a bassist, until the fateful tour in the States where he got busted for amphetamine possession crossing over into Canada and the band ditched him right then and there...

I'm pretty sure Moorcock assisted in the making of that album significantly.
 

grim1

Member
Corum and von Bek were my favourite Moorcock books even though I only really started reading them because of the RPGs Stormbringers & Hawkmoon.
the gods of chaos and law were very "chaotic" and the books didn't really connect together in the "Eternal Champion" kind of way for me.
 

Asslessman

Member
Corum is a good way to start, far less books that Elric and the (anti)hero is just too good :

- His father sends him on a vital mission for his kind => he prefers to finish writing his concerto before going
- He loses an eye and a hand => just a fleshwound to him
- he rubs his head between his GF's breasts
- when offered a divine set (full of magical powers) of eye and hand to replace those he lost, he throws them away at first
- he gives a finger to every god he encounters
- he makes himself thefirst bionic hand
- he is not funny and sometimes when Jharry tries to cheer him up, he just sends him to piss off
- ...

I could go on forever but yes Corum is clearly the best.
 

Erny

Member
Corum is actually my favorite. I love the concept of the eye and the hand and would love to work that into a game. I'll say no more cause I'm not sure how to do spoilers.
 

Erny

Member
OK now I've been taught how to do spoilers on to the eye and the hand:

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a charecter that could summon the last unit he killed (or that those he last summoned killed), even in a different game to aid him for one battle.
 
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