Miles is back in Derry & Toms as we tackle another 60s Moorcock classic… The Ice Schooner. Lots to talk about here, and some pearls to clutch too, as we visit one of Mike’s sweatiest rime-encrusted tales that, one way or another, remind us of our hometowns.
And we talk about Doctor Who and Star Trek a bit too.
Author and game designer Tone Milazzo joins me in Derry & Toms as we look at another work by the late, great Robert Sheckley, his first novel Immortality Inc.
Last time we talked about Sheckley with Derek, I had the distinct sense that we would be going back for more… and this turned out to be an apt choice, with this podcast being released during October, because it’s a Halloween episode by stealth!
Tone’s website is tonemilazzo.com and you can find out more there about his novels, Picking Up the Ghost and The Faith Machine, and his RPG The King in Giallo.
Simon is back to finish our look at the final instalment in the first Corum trilogy… The King of the Swords… and, as it runs ramraid style into the conclusion of The Vanishing Tower, we roped in Miles too, because he’d only recently read it!
This is another pivotal book in Moorcock’s oeuvre, and for this podcast, because it means that the second sequence of eternal champeen books we’ve managed to complete in the last six years. Yes… This pod has been going for six years.
Simon, as well as being behind lots of the visual stylings of Breakfast in the Ruins, is also the co-host of Can I Pod With Madness… and they have a Patreon Page!
We’re finally back to finish our reportage on Phoenix in Obsidian (AKA The Silver Warriors).
It’s an epic tale of anguish and self-pity on an earth where the sun has dimmed, the moon has crashed down to simply be called Moon and the menace known as the Silver Warriors have extreme problems figuring out the point of polearms. How will Count Ulrik Skarsol endure…?
Howard Chaykin’s Urlik Skarsol
Loz is back alongside Phil for this one and we have a D8 Wandering Beer Table to boot.
Dave returns to Derry & Toms to combat creeping fascism and technical issues, all whilst concluding our epic reportage on the final volume in The History of the Runestaff – THE RUNESTAFF (AKA The Secret of the Runestaff).
Miles is back to discuss another of Moorcock’s 1960s SF titles, arguably the most influential of the lot when considering the origins of the Multiverse. This may require some thoughtful, in-depth analysis.
Instead, we talk about caffeine, giro spending habits of the 1990s and racist space dogs for close to two hours.
Joe Banks, author of Hawkwind: Days of the Undergound, is back in Derry and Toms to enthuse about a film that was, for me, a shock revelation about one of Britain’s most misunderstood bands.
Not only were Slade a hard rocking act whose reputation as a live act belies their popular image as a slightly goofy glam rock fixture from early 70s Top of the Pops that invade our ears every bloody Xmas… But in 1975 they took a big swing (and commercially a miss), resulting in an incredible film about the seedy underbelly of the music business that turned 50 this year.
It spawned a fantastic novelisation too, courtesy of the late John Pidgeon and published by Panther, that ranks up there with the sweatiest, grittiest NEL pulps of the mid-70s. So we talk about that too.
New guest co-host, author, gamer and podcaster Adrian Tchaikovsky joins me in Derry and Toms to look at Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth and discuss Vance’s particular approach, his influence on Moorcock, and that mordant lyricism that defined numerous elements of the fantasy genre.
Check out Adrian’s podcast with Emma Newman, Starship Alexandria – latest episode is on KJ Bishop’s The Etched City.
For more Lionel Fanthorpe, see here (and thanks to Ben Haggar for the link).
Andy Darby is back to look at another of Mike’s 60s SF takes… THE SHORES OF DEATH. Replete with sexual deviancy, epic parties and a massive tool of a protagonist… it’s classic 60s Moorcock!