Greetings and Salutations...

[Grim Gruesome]

Hello.
I'm very pleased to meet you all.
I'm Grim and I've been a silent observer here for about a year.

My first encounter with Michael Moorcock was in the 80's when a friend and I got into the Elric comicbooks. That character really stuck with me through the years, and I was delighted to discover the actual books were out there years later.

I've read many of Mr. M's novels over the past 7 years, took a break, and am now getting back into it all again.

There's so much there to read, and I've only got about 30 of his books. I think I'm going to have to hit Amazon to fill in the holes. haha

I've collected what I could find over the years at book stores and thrift stores, and am starting over with the "suggested reading order". I have to say, I am really enjoying this order very much.

The only story that seemed a little out of place to me (and I'm only up to the Corum "Swords" Trilogy) was The Blood-Red Game. Don't get me wrong, I love the story and the characters, but it felt weird to jump into space so soon, ya know?

I REALLY enjoyed the Von Bek stuff, especially The Dragon In the Sword, as I've previuosly read a bunch of the Elric story. I disagree with some of those reviews I'd read about The City in the Autumn Stars. I loved it.

Anyhow, I guess I'll jump to my questions and stop rambling.

Is there a detailed plot summary and/or character summary page or thread somewhere? Perhaps even a "this character could also be this character" page? Is the Moorcockapedia not up and running? All signs point to it, but I'm having no luck there.

And lastly, how important to the grand scheme of things is The Pleasure Garden of of Felipe Sagittarius? Can someone give me an overview? The Von Bek stuff I have doesn't include it and my local library's copy is missing. I fear I may be missing out on something. What characters are in it?

Anyhow, great to meet you all again.
Cheers,
-GG

P.S. I can't go without saying how incredibly stoked I am about the Elric movie! Holy shnikies! And yes, I think Depp's the man to do it! No metal though, please...unless it's Hawkwind at the end credits. I say classical all the way!

[David Mosley]

Is there a detailed plot summary and/or character summary page or thread somewhere? Perhaps even a "this character could also be this character" page? Is the Moorcockapedia not up and running? All signs point to it, but I'm having no luck there.

Welcome Grim. If you remember the old MWM site from last year or so, there were a number of detailed summaries that I wrote for the original Elric novellas and a couple of early novels in the Moorcockapedia. Then of course, that site got hacked and we moved to the current site. Because there was a lot of things to be done we concentrated on getting the forums and then the Image Hive up and running rather than trying to do everything all at once.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that the Moorcockapedia will be reborn in due course as the Wikiverse Project. We have a software upgrade to organise first, but once that's done it is intended that the Wikiverse will be the next major site feature to be launched - probably early 2007.

Hope that helps explain things somewhat.

[Grim Gruesome]

Yes! That's great news!
Thank you kind sir.
I thought I'd stumbled on a character summary a year or so ago, but I wasn't sure...and I hadn't heard about the hacking.
Well, it's all looking great so far then. I'm diggin' the image gallery.
I look forward to seeing even more developments here over time. What else is planned?
Peace,

[Morgan Kane]

Welcome aboard !

[Muroc]

welcome GG

[Grim Gruesome]

Thanks guys. It's really great to meet you....and great avatars. :)

[Doc]

Hi Grim. Glad you've gone from lurker to poster.

I smiled when I read that you have "only" about 30 of MM's books. It is hard to explain to someone unfamiliar with Mike's work that you can wind up with over a hundred books and still not be finished collecting it all

[danskmacabre]

Hello grim.

There was another Scifi book by MM that immediately springs to mind.
Can't remember the exact name, but there was a character called the "Fireclown" in it.
Great book actually.

Oh! and another springs to mind, about a planet that had stopped rotating and there was "dark" and "light" cultures on each side of the planet.
Also very good...

I'm sure there was others.

[Morgan Kane]

Fireclown is a character by MM but the no turning planet remùinds me of Zelazny Jack of shadows .....

[David Mosley]

The Fireclown features in the novel The Winds of Limbo (aka The Fireclown).

The second novel is The Shores of Death (aka The Twilight Man).

I've posted a review of TWoL here.

[danskmacabre]

The Fireclown features in the novel The Winds of Limbo (aka The Fireclown).

Yeah that's it, great book, read it many years ago.

The second novel is The Shores of Death (aka The Twilight Man).

Yes, that's the one as well.
good read that.

I've posted a review of TWoL here.

I will check that out in a bit.

[danskmacabre]

Oh and another MM scifi book called " The black corridor".
A very weird book about being alone in space (or maybe it was a short story, I can't remember..)

[David Mosley]

Oh and another MM scifi book called " The black corridor".
A very weird book about being alone in space (or maybe it was a short story, I can't remember..)

TBC was a novel, co-written by Mike and his then-wife Hilary Bailey.

[Kipper]

Hi Grim! Nice moniker! Aren't they a great bunch of people? Kinda gives you a warm feeling all over. I look forward to chatting and comparing notes with you.
The Felippe Sagittarius story is a short story from very early on in MMs writing career. I read it recently. It's set on an alternate earth, so it could fit in to the same category as The Wrecks of Time novel, sort of! Lots of the other novels mentioned above have themes that can fit into the alternate universe category as well. If I'm off beam here, there'll be a number of corrective posts following this!

[Grim Gruesome]

Hello Doc and DM (and DM). Thanks Kipper. Grim's a character in a comic I was writing awhile back.

I had the local library send a copy of the Von Bek collection over from a different branch, since there's is missing...so I can finally read TPGOFS. (Pretty long title for only 10 pages...haha).
I'm almost finished with the Corum Swords Trilogy, and then it's onto The Ice Schooner, which is a new one for me. It's going to take forever to get through them all, but I'm excited to see how everything links up with the Elric stories because he's my favorite character so far. Plus, I finally got a copy of all 4 Making of a Sorcerers, which I've managed to wait to read.

I think I was under the impression that the Elric stories came before all the other Eternal Champions, but I can see why this reading order has been suggested. I can't wait to finally find out what "moonbeam roads" are all about. haha.