Von Bek and The Blood Red Game

[Draco Caeruleus]

I was recently browsing the Moorcockopedia, and under "Von Bek" it says that The Blood Red Game has been retroactively written as a Von Bek story. The copy of this book that I have must have been before this rewrite, so I was not aware of this when I read it.

Can anyone tell me how it was rewritten? Which character became Von Bek?

Thanks,

Draco Caeruleus

See also: http://www.multiverse.org/fora/showthread.php?t=1313 in Q&A forum

[M-A_19]

i think you should as Mr moorcock this one personally in Q&A, I'm sure he'll be able to tell you of any re-write.

I suspect that prince Asquil has become von bek in the re-write, he is the character with the old blood anyway.

[David Mosley]

Seems odd to resurrect a thread this old, but in answer to Draco Caeruleus' question in the Roads Between the Worlds omnibus, Renark (the Wanderer) is re-named 'Renark von Bek' for new framing sections that Mike wrote. (In the same omnibus, Clovis Marca in The Shores of Death is renamed Clovis Becker for similar reasons.)

[Doc]

It may be useful to add that The Blood Red Game appears as The Sundered Worlds (with Renark von Bek) in the White Wolf Omnibus series. It is in the first volume, The Eternal Champion.

[David Mosley]

Finally got around to reading The BRG!!

Well, it's only taken me 20-something years and a couple of abortive attempts to read it but I've finally - finally - finished reading The Blood Red Game (aka The Sundered Worlds) last night!

I've been carrying a copy around in my backpack for over a year, thinking when I get a moment I'll read a bit, but those moments never seem to come - until last week when I went on a training course and discovered I had a hour to kill at lunch-time all of a sudden. A couple of days later when the course ended I was about half way through, so just need to put some time aside in the evenings to read a bit each night.

*** SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW ***

Reaction? I enjoyed it, which is always a bonus when you read a book. I see what Mike means when he says there's too many protagonists in the story - Renark, Asquiol and Roffrey - but I didn't find that off-putting, although I was aware of Renark's fate before I started reading. I wonder how readers who aren't forewarned react? About two-thirds of the way through I was aware that there weren't really any significant female parts in the story, but then Mary the Maze began to take center stage. I kind of guessed that she was the more significant member of the rocket crew during the 'wild round' even if the characters in the story are slower on the uptake.

The concept of the Multiverse was explained in a decent fashion and I think establishes TBRG/TSW as a keystone text in Mike's novels, even if it's not one of the more representative ones. As such I think it deserves to come near the start of any Reading List of Mike's books. I did wonder as I was reading how easy the book would be to adapt into a film, qnd certainly before the advent of CG it would probably have been unfilmable. It probably still is unfilmable, come to think of it. Roffrey's journey across the surface of Roth and the Blood Red Game itself would be particularly difficult to pull off without resorting to Ken Russell-style hallucinatory effects.

Asquiol's character once he's become 'one' with the multiverse reminded me very much of Dr Manhatten from Alan Moore's Watchmen graphic novel - even though Asquoil pre-dates Manhatten by decades. It was the detachment that he feels from the human race even as he's trying to save it. That also reminded me of Clovis Marca's fate in The Shores of Death as well.

The Mayflower edition that I read turned out to have numerous typos and mistakes in it - even to the extent of repeating one line in place of the correct one. Luckily I have about 5 copies of the book (three of them Mayflowers/Granadas however) so was able to establish the correct text.

Overall I would rate the book 7 out of 10, and would definitely recommend it to others.

Next on my reading schedule is the Michael Kane trilogy - another series that I've had for a number of years but never gotten around to reading. Wish me luck.

[Doc]

Hopefully you won't have to carry around your Kane books for as long as you carried The Blood Red Game

I do think that (mixed metaphor alert!) too many protagonists spoiled the soup a bit.

However, there was something about keeping track of so many vantage points, especially one that would end pretty abruptly, that make the ideas about the multiverse a little more pointed.

I read it after I had already read The Second Ether series, which examines similar themes in a more sophisticated manner. I'm not sure how my reading order influenced how I made sense of the explantions of the multiverse in Blood Red Game, but I'm certain it did...

[johneffay]

Next on my reading schedule is the Michael Kane trilogy - another series that I've had for a number of years but never gotten around to reading. Wish me luck.

You'll need it! Apart from Sojan, the Kane trilogy is the only MM stuff that I've read and had to force myself to finish. It's basically a not very good rip off of ERB.

[David Mosley]

I'm not actually familiar with ERB's Martian novels at all - I wonder if that will be a help or a hindrence? I once read an adaption of 'Lieut. Gulliver Jones' (?) in Star Wars Weekly comic though. I enjoyed that as a kid.

[Morgan Kane]

In my memory, the martian trilogy is a youth work, an hommage to ERB .

I read the two of them ....... but even if i think ERB is better, i took pleasure to the Kane trilogy .....

[Doc]

Sorry to take the thread astray, but...

I find it odd, given that the Kane stories are a bit less original and a bit less well executed than most of the other EC work (as they are homage), that Kane of Old Mars is one of the most desired White Wolf ominus editions. As best I can tell, it is no more rare.

[Morgan Kane]

May be because it is one of the easiest to read ?

[johneffay]

I'm not actually familiar with ERB's Martian novels at all

I'd recommend you have a go at them or the Venus novels (which aren't quite as good) just because they're so berserk. Possibly the most implausible SF I've ever come across, but strangely compelling.

[Jeremiah]

In my memory, the martian trilogy is a youth work, an hommage to ERB .

It is, but I do think it an important part of the development of the multiverse. At it's heart, it uses ERB's trope of "man transported to other world where he becomes a hero", and recasts it in a Moorcockian fashion. It is a small step from this to Erekose's "man transported to other world where he discoveres he has always been a hero, and always will", which is the heart of the Eternal Champion.

Hmmm...that post didn't quite come out as elegantly as I would have liked. Hopefully you can see what I am getting at.

Jeremiah

The Peace of Tanelorn be on you.

[Governor of Rowe Island]

Missed this thread first time round! I have to say I rather enjoyed the Kane books, in an escapist sort of way. Perhaps I should look out for the ERB's. I'm going to have to get 'TRBTW' as well, I can't have it missing from my bookshelves now I know there are additions as well as revisions!

I read it [TBRG] after I had already read The Second Ether series, which examines similar themes in a more sophisticated manner. I'm not sure how my reading order influenced how I made sense of the explantions of the multiverse in Blood Red Game, but I'm certain it did...

I can imagine this would put an unusual slant on it. No matter how many times I see the plot of this book explained in any sort of detail, very little of it seems familiar. I've read it at least three times, but I've obviously not been paying enough attention. I can see I'll have to start through with Mike's work again.

[Doc]

As it turns out Guv, I'm finally getting around to reading the Multiverse graphic novel. Yet another take on these themes. Many of the ideas I could imagine but not quite visualize while reading TBG and the second ether books are a little more concrete to me now.

I find it pretty apt (as well as familiar to my own experience) that reading and re-reading the books that flesh out the ideas of the multiverse most specifically always seem fresh and very open to reinterpretation, even to the point of seeming almost unfamiliar. I suspect that is good writing?