David A. Riley's Blog, page 11

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 9 - due to be published in November

The 9th volume of Parallel Universe Publications' popular Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series is due to be published in November. The submissions period for stories in it will run throughout the month of October. 

Book Review: Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks - In Full

 

My full review of: BOHUN: THE COMPLETE SAVAGE ADVENTURES By Steve Dilks Carnelian Press, 2024. 219 pages Cover artwork Adam Benet Shaw Interior artwork Kurt Brugel With the completion of my reading of this collection here follows my review in full:

Theopening story, The Festival of the Bull, is an action-packed, violentand intricately woven tale of treachery, deceit and peril. It’s also an originstory, though these details are subtly inserted into the narrative withoutholding up the action.

Forthose unfamiliar with Bohun he is a huge black warrior from the ill-fatedkingdom of Damzullah. The last surviving warrior from its betrayed army, hissole mission now is to find and rescue his beloved wife Dana who was sold intoslavery.     

Havingjust escaped from the galley into which he had been imprisoned as an oarsman, wefirst meet Bohun soon after he has swum ashore and scaled the fortified wallsof the coastal city of Tharnya where a squad of the city guard attempt tocapture him. Minutes later, after a desperate fight which introduces us to hisfighting skills, Bohun flees into the city’s labyrinthine streets, where he stumblesacross a woman being attacked by a desperate gang of cutthroats who havealready killed her bodyguards. Thus it is that Bohun finds himself plunged unwittinglyinto an insidiously dark world of deceit, treachery and deadly perils.

Thiswas one of the first stories submitted to me as editor of Swords &Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 1 in 2020, and I would haveaccepted it there and then except, for all its action-packed pages, it didn’tinvolve any sorcery or magic, which was something of an important requirementfor the kind of anthology I was putting together. Fortunately Steve was quicklyable to rectify this when he submitted the next story in this volume, thesuperbly eerie The Horror from the Stars, which became the first Bohunstory ever to be published. (The Festival of the Bull went on to appearin Savage Realms Monthly in January the next year.)

Afterthis thrilling introduction to Bohun, The Horror from the Stars opens ata slower pace but is no less menacing as our hero is warned “…evil is abroad inAl-Siwar” by a strange old man, who inexplicably disappears soon after. ButAl-Siwar is where Bohun is heading and no dire warnings will stop him fromgoing there because its sultan, Akim Harrad, possesses Bohun’s wife, Dana, asone of his harem slaves and Bohun is determined to free her.

Ifthere was no sorcery in the first story, Dilks more than makes up for it here,with a particularly nasty creature which is probably an alien entity of somekind, that feeds off people’s life forces and intends to replicate itself in anespecially nauseating way. Bohun is pushed to the brink in this tale – and insome ways beyond it. His life is not an easy one, nor is it bereft of grief.It’s a tough, heartless world in which he lives and in the end it takes all ofhis resilience and fortitude to survive, both mentally and physically.

Thethird tale, By Darkness Enthroned, was first published in Schlock!Webzine issues 24 and 25 earlier this year.  After already ratcheting up the eeriness inthese Bohun stories Steve Dilks goes for the dark sorceries of two contestingsides in this tale with an absolute vengeance. Still recovering after theevents in The Horror from the Stars, our Damzullahan warrior enlists ina mercenary army, perhaps longing for what he sees as the cleaner, morestraightforward life of soldiering. Little does he realise occult forces have alreadybeen stirred into action by those opposing the army he has joined and that he toowill soon be drawn into the machinations of another insidiously supernaturalforce. This longer tale is viewed from the perspectives of both sides, in whicheven some of those we would instinctively see as the villains have their doubtsand pricks of conscience. In this it reminds me of the kind of tale Karl EdwardWagner was a master at creating in his Kane stories – and By DarknessEnthroned is no less redolent of his colourful and vivid language.

Intriguein Aviene previouslyappeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly no 48 in 2022, and is really just ashort episode in Bohun’s progress through the so-called civilised cities. Stilla hired soldier, he is suffering now from having spent too much time in battle.“His nights were filled only with dreams of death and blood. He knew nothingnow but the madness of battle. The life he once knew, the dreams he once hadwere but ashes in his memory.”

Thusit is that he sets out to an inn to meet a young revolutionary who wishes tobribe him to assassinate Acilius, a local magistrate. “‘In the name of thepeople and in the cause of revolution – he must die!’” the young maninsists.  But before they part they areinterrupted by three ruffians who deliberately pick a fight with Bohun, which resultsin him being arrested and taken to be sold as a slave. Despite the direcircumstances into which he has sunk Bohun is not so easily subdued – nor forlong.

Thoughshort, this story has some neat twists, helped along by Bohun’s innate abilityto see past any lies he is told.

BlackSunset in the Valley of Death is the second story in this book firstpublished in Savage Realms Monthly (Issue 10, 2022), a digest-sizedmagazine that has again and again proven itself to be one of the best sourcesfor fresh, new and original sword and sorcery in recent years. Black Sunsetin the Valley of Death is no exception. Opening with Bohun in the mostperilous position we have seen him in so far (tied to a sacrificial altar withthe officiating priest about to deliver the coup de grâce with a copperdagger) this story rapidly moves on to Bohun’s desperate escape across thewastes of a searingly hot desert, before reaching the welcoming shade of ajungle where he stumbles across a delicate pre-human race in a secluded valley whoseancestors once created the most advanced civilisation the world had seen, onlyfor it to be corrupted from within and destroyed. The aftermaths of thiscorruption, though, have not died but linger on. And despite enjoying the timehe spends with these strange people, and the peace and quietude of where theylive, Bohun finally realises for the sake of them all he must go on and facethis festering horror and destroy it. In doing so he comes up against the mostformidable supernatural menace he has yet had to fight in a grotesque, dark andbloody climax.

Red Trailof Vengeance is the final story in this collection taken fromthe pages of Savage Realms Monthly (Issue 28, May 2024). And true toform this additional segment of Bohun’s saga is filled with all the action andcolour you would expect.

Nevergifted with having much luck, when our intrepid hero arrives at the ruins of anabandoned castle expecting to find shelter for the night, he finds instead a well-armedband of ruthless bandits waiting for him, who demand his horse and what gold hecarries. Unwilling to hand over either, and knowing they will kill him regardless,a fight ensues. Outnumbered, though, Bohun is quickly overwhelmed. Badlywounded, he is stripped of his armour and left to die. But death doesn’t come soeasily to men such as Bohun, whose Damzullahanancestors were endowed with an almost preternatural endurance. Which for thebandits means one day he will recover from his wounds and seek them out toexact his revenge… Another colourful tale with plenty of twists and turns andvividly described action, which culminates in an ancient city ruled by bandits.

Thefinal story is Harvest of the Blood-King, first published in NeitherBeg Nor Yield – Stories with Sword & Sorcery Attitude (Rogue BladesEntertainment). It’s certainly the longest and perhaps best story here,beginning with Bohun again in chains, sent to a far-flung fortress of the ValentianEmpire where he is reunited with his old commander, Tibeirus Varro, from By Darkness Enthroned, who frees him immediately they meet, openlyacknowledging the crucial role the Damzullahan played in their past victory.Now, though, out of favour in the capital, Tibeirus has been placed in chargeof a small group of specially selected men, including Bohun, who set out torescue the young son of a senator kidnapped by a hostile tribe beyond the empire’sfrontier. Of course not everything is by any means as it seems and there isdark treachery and even darker sorcery afoot, culminating in Bohun having tofight what is undoubtedly the most ferocious creature he has met so far amidsta bloody bedlam that slakes even this warrior’s appetite for combat. A grim,action-packed tale, ideal for ending this epic collection of Bohun’s savage adventures.

 

This review can also be read now on amazon

 

Book Review: Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks - PART SIX

 

Part Six of my review of: BOHUN: THE COMPLETE SAVAGE ADVENTURES By Steve Dilks Carnelian Press, 2024. 219 pages Cover artwork Adam Benet Shaw Interior artwork Kurt Brugel Red Trailof Vengeance is the final story in this collection taken fromthe pages of Savage Realms Monthly (Issue 28, May 2024). And true to formthis additional segment of Bohun’s saga is filled with all the action andcolour you would expect.

Nevergifted with having much luck, when our intrepid hero arrives at the ruins of anabandoned castle expecting to find shelter for the night, he finds instead a well-armedband of ruthless bandits waiting for him, who demand his horse and what gold hecarries. Unwilling to hand over either, and knowing they will kill him regardless,a fight ensues. Outnumbered, though, Bohun is quickly overwhelmed. Badlywounded, he is stripped of his armour and left to die. But death doesn’t come soeasily to men such as Bohun, whose Damzullahanancestors were endowed with an almost preternatural endurance. Which for thebandits means one day he will recover from his wounds and seek them out toexact his revenge… Another colourful tale with plenty of twists and turns andvividly described action, which culminates in an ancient city ruled by bandits.

 

Book Review: Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks - PART FIVE

 

Part Five of my review of: BOHUN: THE COMPLETE SAVAGE ADVENTURES By Steve Dilks Carnelian Press, 2024. 219 pages Cover artwork Adam Benet Shaw Interior artwork Kurt Brugel BlackSunset in the Valley of Death is the second story in this book firstpublished in Savage Realms Monthly (Issue 10, 2022), a digest-sizedmagazine that has again and again proven itself to be one of the best sourcesfor fresh, new and original sword and sorcery in recent years. Black Sunsetin the Valley of Death is no exception. Opening with Bohun in the mostperilous position we have seen him in so far (tied to a sacrificial altar withthe officiating priest about to deliver the coup de grâce with a copperdagger) this story rapidly moves on to Bohun’s desperate escape across thewastes of a searingly hot desert, before reaching the welcoming shade of a junglewhere he stumbles across a delicate pre-human race in a secluded valley whoseancestors once created the most advanced civilisation the world had seen, onlyfor it to be corrupted from within and destroyed. The aftermaths of this corruption,though, have not died but linger on. And despite enjoying the time he spends withthese strange people, and the peace and quietude of where they live, Bohun finallyrealises for the sake of them all he must go on and face this festering horror anddestroy it. In doing so he comes up against the most formidable supernaturalmenace he has yet had to fight in a grotesque, dark and bloody climax. 
 
 

Book Review: Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks - PART FOUR

 

I was going to leave the next story till tomorrow, but it is so short I decided to go ahead and add it to today's reviews of Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks:

Part Four of my review of BOHUN: THE COMPLETE SAVAGE ADVENTURES By Steve Dilks Carnelian Press, 2024. 219 pages Cover artwork Adam Benet Shaw Interior artwork Kurt Brugel

Intriguein Aviene previouslyappeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly no 48 in 2022, and is really just ashort episode in Bohun’s progress through the so-called civilised cities. Stilla hired soldier, he is suffering now from having spent too much time in battle.“His nights were filled only with dreams of death and blood. He knew nothingnow but the madness of battle. The life he once knew, the dreams he once hadwere but ashes in his memory.”

Thusit is that he sets out to an inn to meet a young revolutionary who wishes tobribe him to assassinate Acilius, a local magistrate. “‘In the name of thepeople and in the cause of revolution – he must die!’” the young maninsists.  But before they part they areinterrupted by three ruffians who deliberately pick a fight with Bohun, which resultsin him being arrested and taken to be sold as a slave. Despite the direcircumstances into which he has sunk Bohun is not so easily subdued – nor forlong.

Thoughshort, this story has some neat twists, helped along by Bohun’s innate abilityto see past any lies he is told.

Book Review: Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks - PART THREE

I continue my detailed review of Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks:

Thethird tale, By Darkness Enthroned, was first published in Schlock!Webzine issues 24 and 25 earlier this year.  

 After already ratcheting up the eeriness in theseBohun stories Steve Dilks goes for the dark sorceries of two contesting sides inthis tale with an absolute vengeance. 

Still recovering after the events in TheHorror from the Stars, our Damzullahan warrior enlists in a mercenary army,perhaps longing for what he sees as the cleaner, more straightforward life of soldiering.Little does he realise occult forces have already been stirred into action bythose opposing the army he has joined and that he too will soon be drawn into themachinations of another insidiously supernatural force. This longer tale isviewed from the perspectives of both sides, in which even some of those wewould instinctively see as the villains have their doubts and pricks ofconscience. In this it reminds me of the kind of tale Karl Edward Wagner was a master atcreating in his Kane stories – and By Darkness Enthroned is no lessredolent of his colourful and vivid language.

Book Review: Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks - PART TWO

        Afterthis thrilling introduction to Bohun, The Horror from the Stars opens ata slower pace but is no less menacing as our hero is warned “…evil is abroad inAl-Siwar” by a strange old man, who inexplicably disappears soon after. But Al-Siwaris where Bohun is heading and no dire warnings will stop him from going therebecause its sultan, Akim Harrad, possesses Bohun’s wife, Dana, as one of hisharem slaves and Bohun is determined to free her.

Ifthere was no sorcery in the first story, Dilks more than makes up for it here, with aparticularly nasty creature which is probably an alien entity of some kind,that feeds off people’s life forces and intends to replicate itself in anespecially nauseating way. Bohun is pushed to the brink in this tale – and insome ways beyond it. His life is not an easy one, nor is it bereft of grief. It’sa tough, heartless world in which he lives and in the end it takes all of hisresilience and fortitude to survive, both mentally and physically.

Book Review: Bohun - The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks

This is the first part of my ongoing, story by story review of Bohun: The Complete Savage Adventures by Steve Dilks.

BOHUN:THE COMPLETE SAVAGE ADVENTURES

By SteveDilks

CarnelianPress, 2024. 219 pages

Coverartwork Adam Benet Shaw

Interiorartwork Kurt Brugel

Available as a paperback or kindle eBook

amazon.co.uk

The openingstory, The Festival of the Bull, is an action-packed, violent and intricatelywoven tale of treachery, deceit and peril. It’s also an origin story, thoughthese details are subtly inserted into the narrative without holding up the action.

Forthose unfamiliar with Bohun he is a huge black warrior from the ill-fated kingdomof Damzullah. The last surviving warrior from its betrayed army, his solemission now is to find and rescue his beloved wife Dana who was sold intoslavery.     

Havingjust escaped from the galley into which he had been imprisoned as an oarsman, wefirst meet Bohun soon after he has swum ashore and scaled the fortified wallsof the coastal city of Tharnya where a squad of the city guard attempt tocapture him. Minutes later, after a desperate fight which introduces us to hisfighting skills, Bohun flees into the city’s labyrinthine streets, where he stumblesacross a woman being attacked by a desperate gang of cutthroats who havealready killed her bodyguards. Thus it is that Bohun finds himself plunged unwittinglyinto an insidiously dark world of deceit, treachery and deadly perils.

Thiswas one of the first stories submitted to me as editor of Swords &Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 1 in 2020, and I would have acceptedit there and then except, for all its action-packed pages, it didn’t involveany sorcery or magic, which was something of an important requirement for thekind of anthology I was putting together. Fortunately Steve was quickly able torectify this when he submitted the next story in this volume, the superblyeerie The Horror from the Stars, which became the first Bohun story everto be published. (The Festival of the Bull went on to appear in SavageRealms Monthly in January the next year.)

The Forbidden City of Cyramon

The complete story can be read online for free courtesy of Tule Fog Press: The Forbidden City of Cyramon

Later this year Tule Fog Press will be laujnching a kickstarter to publish all of my Welgar tales, which will include Sorceries in Assabarr, The Dark Priestdom (Savage Realms Monthly), and Welgar the Cursed (Swords & Heroes), plus others.  

Childe Rolande and Elak, King of Atlantis

Published by Futura 1989

It's curious how Fate sometimes works in small ways. There are two books I reviewed some years ago which had been published by other imprints than my own - Futura Books and Pulp Hero Press respectively - which I never thought at the time I would eventually reprint as Parallel Universe Publications books.

The first was Samantha Lee's Childe Rolande, which Futura published in 1989 and which I reviewed on amazon in March 2022, not realising I would be reprinting this later that year. This is a link to my original review on https://www.amazon.com/Childe.../dp/1739832655/ref=sr_1_1....The other, of course, is Adrian Cole's Elak, King of Atlantis, which I reviewed for Phantasmagoria magazine not long after the book was first brought out by Pulp Hero Press. https://davidandrewriley.blogspot.com/.../my-review-of...I don't know whether this will ever happen again, but twice, I'm sure, is strange enough.  Published by Pulp Hero Press 2020

  Published by Parallel Universe Publications 2022
Published by Parallel Universe Publications 2024