#Elric of Melniboné series

[swedebeast]

TIL that Michael Moorcock, the author of such greats as the Elric Saga wrote lyrics for a Blue Öyster Cult song - Veteran of the Psychic Wars, supposedly from the point of view of Elric of Melniboné himself.

[joncronshawauthor]

The Anti-Hero's Journey: From Ancient Epics to Modern Fantasy

Fantasy literature has long been known for its iconic heroes and valiant champions, but it is the rise of the anti-hero that has reshaped the genre’s landscape. Anti-heroes, flawed and morally ambiguous protagonists who defy conventional notions of heroism, have emerged as captivating figures who challenge traditional storytelling tropes. Today, we’ll trace the evolution of anti-heroes in…

[angbands-last-hero]

[greencheekconure27]

Michael Moorcock’s The Elric Saga With Glen Mazzara & Vaun Wilmott – Deadline

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: March 2024

……….FILM……….

Dune: Part Two (2024) Every piece of technology felt and looked so tangible. The baby worm too! Love the tactile nature of this whole production and I hope studios take note that CG can't be the only tool in your belt. So much bigger than I imagined and just enjoyed the whole thing.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) Ages surprisingly well and a script that lets the main quartet be both funny and layered.

……….TELEVISION……….

Columbo (1.01 to 1.03) Hey I'm starting Columbo! Love that each episode is feature-length and Columbo appears fully formed right out of the gate. The sets and costumes are all so glamorous and L.A. Very excited to keep going.

Succession (2.05 to 3.04) The Kendall play at the end of season 2 felt very much like the Kendall play at the end of season 1 and while I'm still a huge fan of this series, I just hope it's not the same going into season 3 and 4.

Delicious in Dungeon (Episode 1.09 to 1.13) Great adaptation that isn't just a straight recreation of the artwork in the manga. The more kinetic/frantic moments in the animation are a nice departure and while they don't pop up in each episode, now that I'm 13 eps deep I can appreciate how they're sprinkled throughout.

Love is Blind (Episode 6.02 to 6.13) It still amazes me that anyone goes on reality tv.

……….YOUTUBE……….

Twilight | ContraPoints by ContraPoints Yes I did watch a nearly 3-hour essay on Twilight, sexual expression, and all that comes with that. And you should too. VIDEO

Instagram fatigue and the rise of 'Resentment Reels' by Taylor Lorenz While I haven't noticed this specific phenomenon, I have noticed Instagram declining as an app (both as a user trying to see anything other than ads, and a creator trying to get my work seen in between those ads). It's a bummer. VIDEO

Saltburn: The Tumblr-ification of Cinema by Broey Deschanel Every since I saw Saltburn, I've been thinking about what wasn't quite sitting right with me. This unlocked a lot of what I couldn't describe and most of it stems from the writer/director's upper class upbringing. Saltburn isn't a "take down the rich" movie, it's a horror story from the perspective of a wealthy family. VIDEO

Why Is It So Hard To Cross The Street? (& What You Can Do To Help) by Strong Towns Accidents where drivers hit a pedestrian are going up in my area so this really hit home. And for those feeling like there's nothing you can do at ground level, consider taking their course (not a paid sponsorship I'm just in real support of community-lead initiatives). VIDEO

……….READING……….

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock (Complete) After picking up the last book in this series (which I've yet to read) I figured I'd start at the beginning. Love the fast pace pulpy action and I can see how this influenced the creation of D&D.

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (Complete) This one would lose me for stretches but the final quarter of the book is stronger. A lot less cozy and a lot more action than I was expecting but skimming other reviews it sounds like this was written during her more...adventure-focused era. Three books deep and I have to give Christie credit that each has been a completely different experience.

Adventures of a Japanese Business Man by Jose Domingo (Complete) Always love going back to this nearly wordless epic that follows the titular Japanese business man. I love the complexity of the earliest panels and wish that could carry throughout more of the book, but it's always such a treat to discover just where each new panel will go.

Delicious in Dungeon Volume 5 by Ryoko Kui (Complete) Enjoying rereading this with shorter breaks between volumes as I certainly missed/forgot details on my first read. It's here that the story and tone shifts from light romp to a more dramatic and dangerous affair but it never loses its spot-on humour. Love those dryad pumpkins.

Ultimate Spider-Man HC Volume 11 by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, David Lafuente, and more (Complete) Going from some of my other comics back to this, I'm struck by just how wordy it can get. Now knowing where the story goes, it was a great idea to prime readers to the idea of Peter Parker dying even if it's not from this event.

……….AUDIO……….

Blank Check with Griffin & David (Podcast) Late to the game on this but really enjoying burning through their back catalog. Obviously started with their episode on Speed Racer as it's a near perfect film that you should watch right now.

……….GAMING……….

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Tuesday group just killed a mayor! So the aftermath of that is going to play out over the next couple of sessions. And the Mof1 crew is investigating the aftermath of their own district-wide catastrophe and it's all looking rather suspicious!

Spot It (Blue Orange Games) I can't recommend this game enough. It's so easy to learn, rounds last maybe 5 minutes, it plays well with small or large groups of any age, and all it requires is pattern recognition and quick reflexes. Every time I've played this someone says they're going to buy a copy for themselves.

And that's it. See you in April!

[racefortheironthrone]

Hi! I was looking some of your old stuff and, in some, you mentioned writers and series that influenced Martin in creating some places in the World of Ice and Fire. I remember you mentioning some specific Conan stories to understand Yeen; Edgar Rice Burroughs for Bayasabhar, Samyriana and Kayakayanaya; Elric of Melniboné for Valyria; and Lovecraft, Lost World, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Heart of Darkness for Sothoryos.

I was wandering if there is any other influence that you caught and if you could tell us which one they are.

In addition to those, as @goodqueenaly has pointed out there's a ton of Maurice Druon and some Thomas Costaine and some Robert Graves.

[gonegrove]

The majority of people who like Eddie are the same people who make alignment chart meme jokes having never even read 1 page of a dnd corebook and have no idea that the idea of order vs chaos/that whole chart is literally ripped straight from the pages of the Elric saga.

They’re the people who, when they hear “the white wolf”, they think of Geralt (Netflix edition) with no idea that the first truly famous usage of that was elric of melniboné in the 60s-70s to the point where the company white wolf publishing (makers of the trpg series world of darkness which they also don’t know about) got their fucking name from Elric. There’s even talk of Geralt being Kinda Plagiarizismy in regards to Elric. Literally all of Valyria in asoiaf/got/hotd? Elric of Melniboné.

These are the people who’ve likely never heard of Elvira or Vampira or Vampirella. They’ve never heard of Swamp Thing, if we’re lucky they know about Constantine/Hellblazer from the shitty DC shows. They’ll never read the original comics of Watchmen or The Sandman. They have no idea who Alan Moore is or that he literally does ritual magick. They don’t even know what that is. They have no idea what was in issues of Heavy Metal or how impactful it was. They’ve got no idea who Conan the Barbarian is outside of a vague pop cultural figure and a saying. They’ve never read the Silmarillion, they’ve only seen the movies and probably only the theatrical releases and only a handful of times or their entire lives at best. They’ve never even heard of The Young Ones. They’re people who gush about the MCU and how he’d love it “because he’s a nerd” as if he wouldn’t have been the biggest hater from day one because he read the comics. They’ve never seen a Hammer or Universal horror movie and if they did they’d think they were dumb. They’ve never seen The Munsters or the OG 60s Addams Family.

And they will not fucking shut up about an Eddie who doesn’t exist. An Eddie who would like and respect them. Who is kind and funny and quirky always. Who they can treat like their little blorbo meow meow darling and will only be as nerdy as is interesting and acceptable to them. Who bats his pretty cow eyes at them and calls them cute names. Who gives up dealing or only deals weed. Who’ll listen to their music and like their things while putting away the majority of his own. Who’ll never mock them or look down on them or their interests no matter how much he should given his past behavior— which also doesn’t exist in this fake Eddie. There is no interest in learning about the things that act as his building blocks, no interest in anything but his looks and the idea of a metalhead/nerd boyfriend.

Except I can guarantee if they actually met him they wouldn’t like him, wouldn’t respect his interests and would talk down to him. And Eddie would not be as nice as they think he is, nor would he want to know them or respect their interests since they’re generally “mainstream”. If you like Taylor Swift— he WILL not respect you AT ALL. Like I get it— y’all want a manic pixie dream boy and you chose him. But don’t think I will not be throwing rocks at you the entire time you shit down the neck of things I care about to do it.

[monarchetype]

Why did no one tell me this mfer did literally every iconic fantasy and scifi cover ever?!?!

I was talking to a friend about fantasy book covers and discovered that this guy, Michael Whelan, did All Of Them. Okay, okay, not literally all of them, but about half of the iconic covers in fantasy/sci-fi? You can thank this guy for them. Here's just a few:

^The cover for A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time #14) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

(Note that the original covers for the other books in the Wheel of Time series were done by Darrell K. Sweet, who passed away before he finished his illustration for A Memory of Light.)

^The cover for The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson

^The cover for Foundation (Foundation #1) by Isaac Asimov

^The cover for The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower #7) by Stephen King

^The cover for The Weird of the White Wolf (Elric of Melniboné #3) by Michael Moorcock

^The cover for The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

^The cover for The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #1) by Tad Williams. This was the cover that got the conversation started.

I'm flabbergasted to learn that so many covers that I knew and love were done by the same guy!

[barkingbonzo]

Michael Whelan Cover Art, The Cosmic Computer

Michael Whelan (born June 29, 1950) is an American artist of imaginative realism. For more than 30 years, he worked as an illustrator, specializing in science fiction and fantasy cover art. Since the mid-1990s, he has pursued a fine art career, selling non-commissioned paintings through galleries in the United States and through his website.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Whelan in June 2009, the first living artist so honored. According to his Hall of Fame citation.

Michael Whelan is one of the most important contemporary science fiction and fantasy artists, and certainly the most popular. His work was a dominant force in the transition of genre book covers away from the surrealism introduced in the 1950s and 1960s back to realism.

His paintings have appeared on the covers of more than 350 books and magazines, including many Stephen King novels, most of the Del Rey editions of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, the Del Rey edition of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars series, Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince and Dragon Star series, the Del Rey editions of H. P. Lovecraft's short story collections, the Grand Master edition of Ray Bradbury's fix-up novel The Martian Chronicles, DAW editions of Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné books, numerous DAW editions of C. J. Cherryh's work, many of Robert A. Heinlein's novels including Friday and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, the Ace editions of H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy novels, and Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Otherland, and Shadowmarch series and Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive. Whelan provided covers and interior illustrations for Stephen King's The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower, the first and last of his Dark Tower books.

Cover art by Michael Whelan has graced many music record albums including Demolition Hammer's Epidemic of Violence, The Jacksons' Victory; Sepultura's Beneath the Remains, Arise, Chaos A.D. and Roots; Soulfly's Dark Ages; Obituary's Cause of Death; and every album by the Elric-influenced metal band Cirith Ungol. He painted original works for the covers of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and The Very Best of Meat Loaf albums and several of his older paintings illustrate the liner notes of the former. In 2009, he painted the cover art for thrash metal band Evile's album Infected Nations.

[book--brackets]

I have some books/series recommendations for the fantasy poll - I’ll send more when I get home and actually get to look at my shelves

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock (series)

The Black Company by Glenn Cook (series)

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (series)

The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe (series)

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

The Cemeteries of Amalo by Katherin Addison (series)

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir (series)

Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones (series, sequel is Year of the Griffin)

I’ll think of more when I see my shelves. I’d recommend the Earthsea series 100 times, but I figure it’s already been submitted. Cheers - and thanks for doing these. They’re a lot of fun.

You are correct, Earthsea has already been submitted lol

I added all of these, and god, I love The Locked Tomb!

[book0ftheday]

The Dreaming City by Michael Moorcock, book one in the 2nd Elric of Melniboné series, cover art by Charles Moll, first printed 1972.

[craigfernandez]

Wait. There's a new Elric book? Yes, there is. It dropped four days ago. Yoink! "Elric along with his companion Moonglum return, in this prequel set within the early days of Elric’s wanderings, in order to investigate the history of Melniboné and its dragons, known as the Phroon, in this exciting new addition to the Elric Saga from World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Moorcock. Elric is the estranged emperor of the Melnibonéan empire, struggling with his nature while desperately striving to move forward with his dying empire alongside the constant thirst of his soul-sucking sword, Stormbringer. Elric is on the hunt for the great Citadel of Forgotten Myths while traveling through the remnants of his empire with his tragic best friend Moonglum, as Elric seeks the answers to the nature of the phroon of The Young Kingdoms. Taking place between the first and second book in the Elric Saga, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths is perfect for longtime fans and those new to this epic fantasy series."

[angbands-last-hero]

[greencheekconure27]

Just a thought:

Reading the Elric saga and I think a good way to adapt this for screen might be with Dark Chrystal-style puppetry?

[palatial-monstrosity]

i know my dashboard is busy talking about poetry but now I will talk about my personal beef with GRRM and how he made the house T*rgaryen a bland ripoff of the Melnibonéans and now it would be impossible to have a series about Elric of Melniboné even if he was the original albino dragon rider from a weird tragic and incestuous family of power hungry rulers.

[ravenkings]

honestly kind of shocked that with all the fantasy IP that’s been snatched up over the last few years that we haven’t gotten an elric of melniboné tv series yet...