Return of the Eternal Champions

[Anonymous]

I believe somewhere on this site, I have asked already about a new E.C, but this is a slightly different question. As you Mike, already ahve a large 'stock,' of charcaters at your disposal, apart from Elric, will you be returining to any other Champions? I think that it would be great to see Bastable or others given an entire story rather than passing mentions. I rember you saying that you were leaning ever more toward realism, does that eman that one day, there will be no multiverse books? Or does it just indicate that the E.C's adventures will take part in more average settings?

[Michael Moorcock]

I'll be 65 this coming December and have decided to 'retire' from writing generic fantasy. This means that the rest of the stories I've had in mind will remain unwritten or, possibly, I'll choose a successor to carry them on, if that's what the public want. I've always been against 'farming out' my characters and would not do that, as such. But I have to say that after this last Elric/von Bek book and the graphic novel, the chances of my writing any more EC books are very slim. I have so much I want to do and so many other books I've put off in order to write an EC book over the years, that I feel obliged to devote myself to them, certainly now that the last Pyat book is in its penultimate state. If I knew I was going to live another fifty years, I might not be so certain, but there are things I really want to do before I stop being able to do anything except play a harp (or stoke a furnace). :)

[Tales from Tanelorn]

Mike, Which books do you consider are not connected to the Eternal champion series?

Will you not have to write the Elric (and hopefully Corum) movie adaptations?

[Michael Moorcock]

I'm not writing any movie material, but I am contributing ideas and thoughts and so far it's working very well with the Weitz brothers. We
are all on the same wavelength.
In a sense pretty much all the books have some connection, but those
not directly connected to the EC series include the Pyat sequence, Mother London, King of the City, Gloriana, the Jerry Cornell books (The Chinese Agent, The Russian Intelligence), London Bone, non-fiction, of course, like Letters from Hollywood, The Retreat from Liberty, Wizardry and Wild Romance, the 'Third World War' stories reprinted in Casablanca and
My Experiences in the Third World War, The Brothel in Rosenstrasse.
Many of these books are connected thematically to books in the EC series, of course, and some share characters, but they were not conceived as EC books, as such.

[Anonymous]

Mike, having just finished a state of hysterics, my hands still shaking and my keyboard soaked in my tears, I must say, it is an immense shame that you will not be writing anymore fantasy. I think everybody will agree. In the whole world. Ever. If you are going to pick somebody to carry on your fantasy stories, pick someone good. (i.e: me) Thanks for the entertainment.

[Michael Moorcock]

There are already people out there who think I've written about half the existing output of fantasy, as it is! Anyone read M.John Harrison ? Steve Erikson ? K.J.Bishop ? There's plenty of good writers out there doing their own thing nowadays. I said when I got my 'Lifetime Achievement' Howie, it was the equivalent of getting a gold watch and a scroll -- i.e. a retirement present. What they are saying when they give you one of those is, okay, old man, it's time to move over and give some of the others a chance. Rather than turning out more and more Elric stories, isn't it better if I move over to let someone else create their own characters, who are just as interesting ? Nobody should be trying to struggle into my old battledress. They should be making their own suit...
As I say, if the public wants more, I might just think about a successor, but what I'd rather see are some Young Turks who want to do something different and better than I've done. There are already a few, as mentioned.

[PsychicWarVeteran]

Rather than turning out more and more Elric stories, isn't it better if I move over to let someone else create their own characters, who are just as interesting ?

Well, I suppose, but it's just that we love Elric (and the other ECs) so much, it's hard to see them go...

By the way, in another thread I asked you about Tales of the White Wolf and you mentioned Tad Williams' story was one of the ones you liked best. So, I read it first (after your story, of course). Just wanted to say I AGREE TOTALLY. Fantastic Elric story! Thanks for the recommendation, Mike!

Of course, the others then have a lot to live up to...

[dlackey]

I'm sad to see the end of an era as well, but then again, there are now thousands and thousands of pages of EC material for us to read, so why be greedy? We could read and re-read this stuff the rest of our lives.

[DeeCrowSeer]

I have to agree with dlackey. Perhaps it's because I'm a relatively new reader, and there are still mountains and mountains of books still calling to be read before I get around to facing the "end" of the Eternal Champion.

I also feel that if Mr M felt compelled to churn out books he didn't want to write just to satisfy the fans (or if he were replaced by an evil twin who was simply in it for the money) then the work would suffer and there would be a lot of disappointment (or resentment) on both sides.

If there's only one thing we can learn from the multiverse, it is that change is inevitable, but that a person's essential "essence" generally trundles on unscathed. Whilst the form in which the stories come to us will be new and (perhaps) unfamiliar, the spirit and intelligence and wit should remain.

Not that I'm suggesting it would happen, but I generally prefer it when a charcter is "retired" before they become diluted or... like Bela Lugosi forever hauling himself out of a fake coffin trying to frighten increasingly blase and desensitized audiences on a tour of every flea-pit theatre in the country.

In my humble opinion.

D...

[Wormwalk]

It's interesting because there have been many authors that never finished what others later called master pieces. Kafka wanted all his writings to be burned when he died; Dostoevsky was begining to write the sequel to The Brothers K; Spencer only finished half of the Faerie Queen (which was already 1,000 pages!); Chaucer only finished 1/4 (!) of all the C. Tales; and, ofcourse, Frank Herbert was also begining to write the last book in the Dune series, as well as several prequels (which are now being writen by his son). Point: when one is creative and an artist, as well as just being human, there is never enough time to complete everything we wanted to accomplish in life.

[manmiles]

I personally think that many of the Incarnations of the Eternal Champion are as fine as they are. For many of them, their stories are told and they don't really need to be added to. Sure, there is part of me who longs for another Michael Kane book or to see more of Erekose, but it is not something that destroys me inside.

[Michael Moorcock]

I must say the examples of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who sank into self-parody with his later books about Tarzan or John Carter, or Robert E. Howard, who produced a host of bad sequels by other hands, make me not want either to churn out sequels simply for the money, or because of reader demand (which probably amounts to the same thing) or indeed have Elric and Co. written by others. I won't have any control over this when I die, but it seems right just to draw a line under it all, having wrapped up the themes and extended them in books like The War Amongst the Angels. Of course, I won't have any control over anything when I'm dead, but at least I won't have taken part in any degeneration process! Apart from the physical one that is. :)

[dlackey]

I definitely don't want to see your characters farmed out. They have lived their lives and told their tales and nothing more really needs to be said.

[Bill]

For what it is worth, I have never enjoyed "farmed out" stories, or stories "created by" a favorite author but written by others. I think it misses the point, but then again, I can appreciate why someone would want to see their favorite characters in new adventures.

[Michael Moorcock]

Me neither. I'm even leery of movie remakes, though sometimes they can work.
I have always refused to write sequels of series which seem to me to be finished -- Bastable, Dancers, Corum, Hawkmoon. The only reason for writing new books is if you have new ideas which can't be bandled any other way. With Elric I still had ideas I wanted to address. But once these are over, I can't see that this will happen, especially since I might have the chance to revise the Elric stories as movies. It's a mistake ever to say never again, of course, but I really do think that I only have a certain amount of working life left and I have certain stories I want to tell which, as things stand, aren't EC stories. Should my vitality continue longer than I estimate, of course, things might change. Or I could go through a second adolescence and start planning the EC series all over again!