This post is going to be about a collection milestone – kind of a vanity post for which I apologize in advance – but I just can’t resist – given how long it’s taken me to get to this point.
I began reading Moorcock at a pretty early age – late Middle School / early High School. I found him through my best friend at the time – Mark Jones – also a science fiction fan – who told me all about Corum and Elric and Hawkmoon. I think I started by picking up the paperback editions of the Corum stories. When I first read them, I didn’t realize that they were a very small part of a very big concept and body of work. Didn’t matter – I enjoyed them all the same and I moved from Corum to Elric – after which the concept behind “The Eternal Champion” and the multiverse within which he exists started to come into focus. I’ve probably read about 50% of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion work and have always been meaning to find the opportunity to get ’round to the rest.
At some point during the last 30 years, I stumbled onto one of the volumes pictured above and realized that all of Moorcock’s Eternal Champion work had been republished in hardcover as a Compendium Edition. I’ve been picking up these books as I’ve stumbled across them – until about a week ago – at which point I’d found and purchased 10 of the 15 volumes. I finally got tired of piece-mealing the acquisition process, found the remaining 5 volumes on Amazon and ordered them all. The final volume – #8 – “Sailing To Utopia” arrived today and another small part of my library is finally complete.
Here are the volumes in order of publication:
- #1 The Eternal Champion
- #2 Von Bek
- #3 Hawkmoon
- #4 A Nomad Of The Time Streams
- #5 Elric: Song Of The Black Sword
- #6 The Road Between The Worlds
- #7 Corum: The Coming Of Chaos
- #8 Sailing To Utopia
- #9 Kane Of Old Mars
- #10 The Dancers At The End Of Time
- #11 Elric: The Stealer Of Souls
- #12 Corum: The Prince With The Silver Hand
- #13 Legends From The End Of Time
- #14 Earl Aubec And Other Stories
- #15 Count Brass
I know it’s silly but I get a huge sense of satisfaction from completing a collection. I’ve been waiting on this one for awhile and it feels like I’ve patched a huge hole in the wall.
Looks like it’s time for me to finally go back and finish this all up – right after I finish Ann Leckie’s Ancillary books.