AG Monday!

Ancient Geeks episode 32: Elric of Melniboné.

“Stormbringer, come to me!” Michael Moorock’s Elric of Melniboné is the classic sword and sorcery…Protagonist? Anti-hero? Definitely his own person. The albino ex-emperor of a decadent empire, wielding a soul-stealing sword, destined to play a pivotal role in the climactic clash between Law and Chaos, an incarnation of the Enternal Champion, traveler in the multiverse…He’s definitely all that. In this episode, Tom discusses why he has been an Elric fan since his teens, and Steven talks about what it’s like to read this series for the first time. We also discuss the impact of Moorcock’s work on the geekiverse.

Chaos demons! Elementals! Psychedelic settings! Crazed, dimension-hopping adversaries! Dragons! Deliberately un-Tolkienish fantasy! It’s all here.

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!

For feedback, contact so**************@***il.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out our new Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice.

FILED UNDER: Nerd Corner, Popular Culture, Self-Promotion, , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter and/or BlueSky.

Comments

  1. Kathy says:

    The thing about thematic podcasts, is that one can skip those one finds to be outside one’s area of interest (I skip some of Sebastian Major’s Our Fake History eps, too).

    So, instead, here’s a link to an Ancient Geeks substack post

    I’ve run out of my own Sci-Fi jokes, so here’s someone else’s:

    Future manners: it’s rude to wake someone up by abruptly turning the gravity back on.

  2. @Kathy: Unfortunately, we know that skips are inevitable!

    Thanks for the link to the post!

    And be wary of the gravity of the situation.

    2
  3. James Joyner says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: Or mavity, as the case may be.

    1
  4. @James Joyner: Indeed!

    1
  5. Matt Bernius says:

    I am looking forward to listening to this episode.

    I haven’t had a chance to read Elric, though I feel like I’ve read a lot of other people’s takes on the character (just with the barcode filed off). From what I have heard I feel like he was 4-chan before 4-chan.