Breakfast in the Ruins

We are firmly in our Halloween groove. The eco-horror of Pisces Rising may have given us a light step into the season, but now we're up to our necks in it and our choices for this year not only include the winner and one of the runners-up from this year's patron poll, but we're also taking a look at one that has featured on past polls but never reached the top...

William Hope Hodgson's classic of weird fiction and cosmic dread... The House on the Borderland.

Author, editor and musician Allister Thompson is back for this one - check out his musical retrospective and his debut novel The Music of the Spheres. We also touch on Lovecraft and some musical interpretations, including one by Nostalgia and Borderlands by Tactile, an extract of which can be heard at the end of the show.

JOIN US!

In this bonus fix-up episode, I meet up with our pen-pal Robert MacMillan in a coffee shop in Bradford to set the scene for our journey into the worlds of Bastable… this wasn't our initial plan. Still, life intervenes in strange ways sometimes and we follow the moonbeam roads as we must.

As well as Moorcock, we talk about 1980s coach holidays to Palamos, VHS tracking, Bond, Who conventions, Pontins Prestatyn, the literary merits of Lawrence Durrell and all sorts of other things.

It's October already so it's time for Graham to return for our traditional Halloween period of exploring killer critter features and, from time to time, discovering new author rabbit holes to tumble down. This time, it's PISCES RISING by NEL stalwart Peter Cave and his one-time collaborator Margaret Wredden.

Fantastic creation myths combine with brutal deaths, drinking bitter in a pub in Lowestoft, and a sadly underfeatured octopus called Bluey.

JOIN US!!!

From the North he came, to seek knowledge and fortune. Cast out by his tribe for offending Ulfr, God of the Wastes, he is driven by mirth, restrained by melancholy.  One day he will return to make offerings to the Bear Druids, particularly Mewler the Claw. She thinks he’s an idiot but owes him a debt.

Memories of Krangg, The Iron Bear

Clarky is back in Derry and Toms to talk Conan knock-offs, and pool our thoughts on an all-Barbarian game and how to resolve the inevitable "Pah! My hand-tailored sandals are more northern than you, you weakling southlander habadasher!" type conflicts.

We get into Thongor and Brak mainly, but also a touch of Kothar and a mild dusting of some other characters whose names I've forgotten.

One of them had a halberd though.

JOIN US

"Dishonesty hollows a man, like the bog bug hollows out a tree. Don’t be that tree. It’s dry, useless and dusty, although it does burn ok."

Krangg, 134th of Ogbok's Moon, 13423

New traveller Liam Jones drops by Derry & Toms to discuss one of his favourite things... Victorian Invasion literature... as we tackle the Moorcock-edited anthology Before Armageddon, a collection of Victorian and Edwardian imaginative fiction.

Liam also teaches me about the Parisian dandy criminals, the Apaches! (Who I must now write into my next game...)

Very cool!

At some point we'll take a look at volume II - England Invaded

Dave is back in Derry & Toms to talk about some stories that were as formative for him as they were for me back in our teens... The Robert E Howard Conan stories, The Phoenix on the Sword and The Scarlet Citadel.

Dave also gives us an update on the latest SÖNUS news and we delve into some of the murkier aspects of the pulp of the time. But mostly we enjoy the head smashing and the surprisingly textured and erudite version of the Cimmerian in those first two stories.

Although this is our first Conan focused episode, Phil and I did look at The Tower of the Elephant way back in the early days in our first Happy Birthday Michael Moorcock episode back in December 2019.

How time flies...

Pig-bombs, priests in daisy dukes, dressing down the Theocrat of Pan Tang and getting torn apart by dogs are just some of the highlights as I’m joined in D&Ts once again by Steve Round to talk Stormbringer gaming and this time he’s brought the whole damn party.

The wandering beer table returns and, as a reward to the gang, we debut an all-new lazily assembled table of rubbish demon-bound quest goodies.

So join Steve, Chloe, Sara, Roddy, Jay, Richie and Ceirun as we board the Merciful Servant and reflect on what it takes to save the Young Kingdoms from the overbearing and stagnant forces of Law!

Content warning: The Void campaign is Moorcockian and therefore spicy. And Steve tries a smoked beer. Horrific!

You can find the full write-ups of The Void campaign and more on Steve’s blog – Cruising For a Musin

Miles is back to carry on our deep dive into Mike's Who/Multiverse mash-up and also talk about Ncuti's first run, the Timeless Child arc, writing Who fiction, engaged Tom vs couldn't give a hoot Tom and loads of other stuff no doubt.

Join us!

And be sure to check out the Casual Trek Podcast too.

Allister Thompson returns to Derry and Toms as we hurtle back to 1918 and brave the cold waters of the Atlantic to take a look at The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs, subject of Michael Moorcock's sole filmed movie script (along with James Cawthron of course).

Expect discussions about mysterious island tropes, personal propensities to cannibalism, dodgy theories of race and C Thomas Howell!

Allister's latest release (at time of posting this at least) is Apocalypse Man by Khan Tengri and it includes a nice Moorcockian track too.

FINALLY!

After all this dancing around the subject of Michael Moorcock writing for the iconic Doctor Who IP and talking Alien and Quatermass and Blake's 7, Miles joins me in the Cloister Room as we just about get to The Coming of the Terraphiles...

Just about...

But with our tendency to go off on tangents AND 61 years of Doctor Who to consider perhaps it was inevitable that this would be a multi-part deal. Anyway, join us as we talk about Timelords, edgy 90s Who novels, 12p swiss rolls and much more besides... even a bit of Moorcock here and there.

LISTEN TO THE CASUAL TREK PODCAST