Questions regarding re-issue

[Anonymous]

Hello all

I am new to this site . . . . indeed, new to the bibliography of Mr. Moorcock.

After belonging to the Science fiction bookclub for several years, I decided to try out the first Elric saga omnibus. I liked it so much that I immediately ordered the following 2 volumes.

Next, I did a handy dandy google search on "Elric" only to find out that Elric's saga is but one in a myriad of characters and novels. Then I find out from Amazon that most books in this saga are out of print.

So here is my question: are there any plans to republish or re-issue the novels of the entire Eternal Champion/Multiverse saga? Don't get me wrong, I like hunting for used books online and in used book stores . . . but it would be so much easier to find them online or in a chain bookstore.

Thanks!

[MissDreamy]

Hello... :)

It depends on what country you happen to be in. This is an issue which has baffled me for awhile. In the UK they seem to be published by two companies - Millennium and the company that publishes the 'Fantasy Materworks' series. The Millennium versions are published in a 14 book sequence - 'The Tale Of The Eternal Champion' which is infinitely easier to collect than the separate editions IMO, and a good way to start the whole epic cycle. The Elric stories are collected in 'Elric Of Melnibone' with the second set of stories in 'Stormbringer' - I think volumes 8 and 12 respectively (I need to get out more!)

For a long time the Millennium editions were bloody difficult to track down, even on amazon.co.uk. It was generally the more popular tomes - i.e. Elric and Corum that one could pop into a Books Etc and buy. But when it came to trying to find 'The Eternal Champion' (the Erekose stories) it was months before I could get a copy. But nowadays I find it's easier to find them - is this because they've been re-printed?? Who knows.

I don't know if that answers your question - I'd check out the Bibliography on this site perhaps.

Check out the other EC books though - you'll be missing out otherwise!


MD

[Elwher]

Millennium renamed themselves Gollancz when they merged with Cassell, owners of Victor Gollancz. As far as I am aware the Masterworks versions are just repackaging of the EC series.

[DyvimTvarsBodyguard]

Below is the place you should check for books first:

MM approved and an official seller:

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For a full, printed for-sale list,
or if you have specific wants, please e-mail:

JaydeDesign @Compuserve.com

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Copied from the multiverse.org navigational column
<<<on the left, scroll to the bottom.

[Michael Moorcock]

Basically Orion, the parent company, use Victor Gollancz for all their fantasy and science fiction now. That's why the imprint changed.
By and large, as far as I can tell, they tend to keep all the books in print, reprinting fairly regularly. Sometimes, of course, there is a delay while a book is reprinting. They are mass market editions, of course, and the New Nature of the Catastrophe lacks the comic strip which is in the trade and hardback editions, but otherwise they're the same. I prefer the Amano and Reeve covers and the Cawthorn interiors to the White Wolf editions, though the WW editions have their own charm...

[Anonymous]

So . . . . what you're saying is that, besides the Science Fiction Book Club three volume Elric saga, there are no plans to re-release Eternal Champions in the US?
:(

[dlackey]

There's another thread where MM mentions that the books are being held back and will probably find a new publisher by the time the Elric movie comes out. Go over to the book thread and look at my newbies guide to the EC and I list a few places you can still get the books. The Advanced Book Exchange and Jayde designs, along with Amazon used books, are all the best sources. Or get the UK editions, but I think some of those are going out of print as well.

[Michael Moorcock]

There's no doubt the books will be reissued eventually in the US, but with the movie being planned, my agent thinks it wise to hold back until we can work out the best way of republishing. Meanwhile, I'm not sure the UK titles are going out of print. As far as I know, they're reprinting.
However, I'll be able to check what the plans are for them when I go to England this April.

[dlackey]

I was wrong on that, I think, sorry. I sent a friend over to Amazon UK to get "Stormbringer" and he said it was out of stock, but now there appear to be a couple for sale.

At any rate, low in stock means they are selling, and that's good for you!!! I don't know how the WW versions did, but sadly, my local comic/hobby shop quit selling them after volume 5 or 6 because I was the only one buying them. I couldn't understand it, but then again, the target market of that shop appeared to be 13 year olds, so maybe that's why.

[Michael Moorcock]

The WW titles actually sold very well and all went out of stock soon after we'd severed relations. To be honest, I didn't particularly want to part company with them, but it began to get silly. I suspect it was because they were having financial troubles in other sectors. We kept renegotiating with them, to accomodate their cash flow problems, but they kept breaking agreements. This wasn't the doing, I suspect, of the editorial department but rather short-sighted planning elsewhere. The English mass market Elrics keep going into new editions, as you say, and it wouldn't be in their interest, either, to let books stay out of print for long. The irony there is that there are sometimes two editions of the same book in print -- Hawkmoon, Dancers at the End of Time, Gloriana and so on -- since they also publish the Fantasy Masterworks editions.
Their Elric FM is the only one not the same.