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Michael Moorcock’s Elric Appreciation


Targknight

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59 minutes ago, hauberk said:

I'd also note that his SF work is pretty solid.  Dragon Never Sleeps is quite good.  I've only read the first volume of Starfishers, but quite liked it.  I got to meet him back in 2001 at ArchCon when GRRM was in attendance.  He was working the exhibit floor selling used books - got my Black Company books autographed and picked up some Dread Empire.  I've not done the Garrett PI books - urban fantasy has never really appealed.  

Envy.

I've never had the opportunity, even if Cook is pretty low key. What was he like?

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Just now, hauberk said:

Dragon Never Sleeps is quite good. 

Agreed! Really enjoyed that one. Surprised he never made follow ups to it, it's such a cool setting.

Just now, hauberk said:

He was working the exhibit floor selling used books - got my Black Company books autographed and picked up some Dread Empire.

Have never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I know he was a fixture at cons selling books as well. The story of his writing on the auto factory line, snatching a minute here and there, was always amazing to me.

Also, re: Gencon, I always liked the BRP system from Chaosium. The Elric game was pretty cool! 

Just now, hauberk said:

  I've not done the Garrett PI books - urban fantasy has never really appealed.  

I don't know if urban fantasy is right because it conjures in my mind certain tropes that I don't think these really have. These are explicitly throwbacks to the hard-boiled detective novels, just in a comparable fantasy setting. I guess it's fairly "modern", though.

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He initially came off as a little curmudgeonly, but when I pulled out a number of his books and asked he'd be willing to autograph them (and my well read Black Company books), he seemed pleased.  I recall a pleasant, but brief conversation - clearly he was there to sell as well and as much as I could have talked with him all day, I wasn't about to keep him from commerce.  He did indicated more Black Company to come after Instrumentalities (not named at that point).  Hoping that's more than just Port of Shadows.  

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2 minutes ago, Ran said:

Agreed! Really enjoyed that one. Surprised he never made follow ups to it, it's such a cool setting.

Have never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I know he was a fixture at cons selling books as well. The story of his writing on the auto factory line, snatching a minute here and there, was always amazing to me.

Also, re: Gencon, I always liked the BRP system from Chaosium. The Elric game was pretty cool! 

I don't know if urban fantasy is right because it conjures in my mind certain tropes that I don't think these really have. These are explicitly throwbacks to the hard-boiled detective novels, just in a comparable fantasy setting. I guess it's fairly "modern", though.

BRPS - note sure if you were aware at the time or not, but the last game we were running at Songs, lo those many years ago, used a kitbash BRPS/Chivalry&Sorcery system.  In the past year, I've actually started running a Westeros set BRPS game with my wife, son and three of his friends. We're set about 2 years before the Blackfyre rebellion.  Using a character tree model like Dark Suns because it is an utterly brutal system and setting.  We've had one fatality and no less than 2 maimings between last November and March.  

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I know we're kind of way of topic, but this got me thinking about the Dushku/Goyer development of The Black Company and I haven't really heard much in the last couple years, so did a bit of googling. Not much noise, beyond a couple articles, but IMDB shows it as in development [I don't have a IMDB Pro account] and I read elsewhere that it's in pre-production.

From my limited experience in the industry pre-production isn't too crazy, although that depends how far into they are. Visual design, concepts could be done, maybe even some scripts and story boards. Or could also just be some brainstormed story beats going back and forth. Could also just be in limbo like a lot of other things in the industry right now. 

Wonder how it's really going. Also what Cook thinks about it. It could be really awesome.    

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3 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Oh holy hell, you weren't kidding - that's massive!

Not just Elric either. He's actually done a long-running series of Moorcock reviews:

https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/category/books-and-periodicals/authors-editors-and-wordsmiths/michael-moorcock/

(I disagree with him a fair bit, but he gets credit for the sheer thoroughness).

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have you all read Moorcock's "Starship Stormtroopers"?  Of course you have.  But if like moi, refreshing the memory feels like something to do on this -- let us admit it -- fairly dull August Saturday early afternoon -- it can be found here:

https://libcom.org/library/starship-stormtroopers-michael-moorcock

 

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12 hours ago, Zorral said:

Have you all read Moorcock's "Starship Stormtroopers"?  Of course you have.  But if like moi, refreshing the memory feels like something to do on this -- let us admit it -- fairly dull August Saturday early afternoon -- it can be found here:

https://libcom.org/library/starship-stormtroopers-michael-moorcock

 

Another case of "I don't agree with the politics of [Insert Author], therefore they're bad."

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On 8/24/2020 at 1:29 AM, Zorral said:

Damn, that Scalzi piece is insufferable and the comment section is cancer, too.

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10 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Seemed fine to me. What's the issue?

To be fair I didn't dive into the comments to much.

The tone. Stuff like "Dimwitted bigots gonna dimwit bigot." on a blog just makes the writer sound like a child. It's like someone's Tumblr about how everyone who doesn't agree with them is an idiot and how no one understands them. :spank:

Obviously, YMMV since it seems like other people are fine with that but I am not going to read any more Scalzi blog posts now if that's the sort of thing he writes.

BTW, isn't this a Moorcock thread?

Back on topic: One of my favorite Moorcock works is The Dancers at the End of Time though I have only read the original trilogy. Though this might seem off-topic ... I do have a question relevant to the Elric books:

Spoiler

Do you think Lord Jagged could possibly be Arioch? The possibility was hinted at but it seems rather far-fetched.

 

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2 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

Are you...upset on behalf of the bigots he's openly mocking?

I'm not upset. I just think the tone is juvenile and crass. As for whatever or whoever he is openly mocking: Never feed the trolls.

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1 hour ago, Gigei said:

I'm not upset. I just think the tone is juvenile and crass. As for whatever or whoever he is openly mocking: Never feed the trolls.

A problem doesn't get fixed by being ignored. Ignoring a problem for the sake of trolls, is to, well, not fix the problem. 

There will be teething pains, sorry.

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