Breakfast in the Ruins

It's Halloween, so Phil and I enjoy some spooky old fashioneds and engage with the horror of James Herbert's 1974 debut novel, The Rats! It's got the lot. A creepy hero... out of order tramps... vicious critters... and an abundance of thigh references!   STAY SAFE!!!

Finally, the Spheres align and Hussein and I manage, after ten months, to get it together and look at Phase Two of The Final Programme.   We talk about Mike's uncanny prescience, wrestling in Featherstone Library, and Hussein rags on sci-fi again. It's a fun time all round.   Also, GAC reaches the village of Treybach. Foxes may be abroad.

We're back, and this time Phil joins me at Derry and Toms to conclude our coverage of The Eternal Champion. Turns out Erekosë is just a horny jock. Who knew? We also find that if you're being peer pressured into genocide you just need a bath, dinner and an intervention... it's just so relatable! 

We're back at Derry and Tom's and unfortunately so are the challenging porters. REJOICE as we finally get around to covering Corum... SIGH as we continue to fail to avoid weird beer... DESPAIR as our energy levels dip in the second half... GASP at chapter two of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly...

Phil, Loz and I celebrate an all too brief interlude in lockdown life to drink weird porters and muse upon Moorcock’s treatment at the hands of tabletop role-playing games. Phil taunts us with her syrupy beer avoidance skills, two-man canoes get far too many mentions and Loz gatekeeps Moorcock RPG play (the rotter). Also, The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly debuts with chapter one.  There are 5...

Tash returns from her exile in Sri Lanka and finally we get together after a four month Covid delay to finish The Jewel in the Skull.  Stand by as we flatten the curve! REEL at the variable sound quality as my Tascam once again has to do some heavy lifting. MARVEL at the disagreements over the last few chapters. HOWL at Tash's toilet allocation of an all new (to me) classification of a certain typ...

We're back. The Eternal Champion continues on his crusade to defeat the enemies of humanity and further proves himself an absolute duffer with the ladies. Phil reveals a penchant for watching extreme violence against Ewan McGregor and Channing Tatum. I wring my hands at the horror of it all. JOIN US!

We're back in Derry & Toms roof gardens to mull over 1970's The Eternal Champion, the novel debut of Erekosë/John Daker. It's got everything. Bad pronunciation, silly names and nudity. Phil returns to the co-host chair, we drink an old old-Fashioned or two and draw comparisons between Noonos and Grimsby, adding that ancient port-town to our list of mildly insulted settlements.

Loz is back as we conclude our coverage of the 1972 Moorcock novel Elric of Melniboné. Join us as we are horrified by a challenging beer and Loz offends Scunthorpe (as well as narrowly avoiding a date with Dannus). As usual we struggle with pronunciation and saying The Ship That Sails Over Land and Water.

Natasha is back with me as we continue our deep dive into the first Hawkmoon novel, The Jewel in the Skull.   MARVEL at Tash's brutal takedown of mothers-in-law...   SIGH at the rambling non-sequiturs...   GASP at Tash's salty sailor talk...   WONDER at the gradual breakdown of recording discipline...   WEEP at the continual intrusion of traffic, crisp packets and leather furniture...

Loz is back with me at Derry and Tom's as we dive into Straasha's ocean depths to prize open the mysteries below and discuss (most of) Book Two of Elric of Melniboné. Excellent beverages are consumed along the way.

After a degree of arm-twisting and one false start, Hussein finally gets his head into a sci-fi/fantasy book and agrees to tell the tale!   We cover the first Phase of The Final Programme, the introduction of Jerry Cornelius into the Multiverse of Michael Moorcock.   Hussein marvels at the wonders of psychedelic 70s scifi covers and I keep mixing up my Perssons and my Brunners.

One of the twitter gang tipped me off a few weeks ago that December 18th is Michael Moorcock's birthday. It took a while for the penny to drop, but when it did and my brain was penetrated by the copper and grub of ten thousand grasping fingers, I was taken aback for a second. December 18th is also my brilliant and long-suffering partner Phil's birthday, so I made her read something because CONTENT...

Loz is back with me at Derry and Tom's as we tackle the 1972 novel Elric of Melniboné. We have a few drinks and muse upon Elric's early pre-wanderer, Stormbringerless years on the Ruby Throne of Imrryr. We also ponder the news of a possible Elric TV show and attempt to get comfortable on Lord Shark's Ostentatious Couch (spoiler, we don't).

Natasha and I discuss Book One of The Jewel in the Skull. It's got it all! Moorcock discussion?   Check! Moorcroft?   Sure, why not! Bagging small English towns?   Check! Dogs wagging tails?   Check and check! NOW IN THC SOUND! Note: The bulk of this was recorded before Episode One, so we're already entering into the true spirit of Moorcock by confusing our own internal chronology.    

Join Loz and I as we discuss the first published Elric story, The Dreaming City. In this, the first full-blooded episode of Breakfast in the Ruins we take a look at the first published story featuring (arguably) Michael Moorcock’s most enduring creation, the moody albino warrior-sorcerer-emperor-wanderer Elric. All music in this episode is courtesy of Giantkind.  

A short, primer podcast episode that will set the scene for the series. Inspired by the books given to me by my grandad in the early 80's, helped out by friends old and new, we'll discuss the books of Michael Moorcock and others and the way they shaped our tastes in fantasy fiction and charged our imaginations then and now. All music is in this episode is courtesy of Giantkind.