Challenge! Discovery

by Jason M. Waltz (Editor), Frederick Tor, Henry Ram

RBE is about HEROES, and heroes exist in every genre. They dominate our legends from the men and women of history to the denizens of our literary worlds. The stories we tell each other begin and end with HEROES. These pages are beyond genre; they’re simply heroic.

This RBE CHALLENGE! is issued in part to engage respondents in a contest of skill and in another part to ensure the validity of RBE’s byline: Putting the HERO back into HEROICS! To partake in this contest is to dare to accept an invitation not to decide superiority but to define HEROES. Accepting this call to competition requires commitment to write to theme and contribution to support the cause. CHALLENGE! titles are intended to perpetuate tales of heroes and raise financial support. These titles revolve around the cover art and the single-word title inspired by that art. Authors rising to the CHALLENGE! are encouraged to deliver the strongest heroic adventure the combination of art and title rouses within them.

So what’s in this CHALLENGE!? The creations of the writers stimulated by this cover and the idea of DISCOVERY to accept RBE’s call to put the HERO back into HEROICS. How did they choose to deliver? Did they deliver? Go ahead, judge for yourself. I DARE you to read these 11 tales of fantastical adventure and decide if they created HEROES who rose to the CHALLENGE! of DISCOVERY. If you are a reader who loves strong HEROES, this book is for you.

Genres: Anthologies, Fantasy

283 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 21, 2017

About the author

I edited and published numerous heroic titles under Rogue Blades as both RBE, a micro publisher of heroic adventure fiction, and RBF, a nonprofit literary publisher of explorations of the heroic. If you enjoy hard-hitting, fast-paced tales of ringing steel and dark magics found in the battles of lore and myth, updated and written for the modern reader, you should check them out.

Personally, I also write heroic tales. Jason M (with and without that pesky period) are one and the same. Jason M Waltz enjoys sharing tales of heroes who are willing to step into the gap...sometimes to fill it, sometimes to make it wider.

Reviews

[Jim Kuenzli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent concept for this anthology. This is a contest for the authors to write a heroic action story based upon a picture (Cover Art) and the theme of Discovery. There were a variety of stories presented here with most falling under heroic fantasy, or sword and sorcery. There was even a western that was one of the best of the bunch.

My personal favorite was "Witch with Bronze Teeth" by Keith Taylor. Lithuanian Barbarians vs Teutonic Knights! Yes Please! Taylor never disappoints, and his historical knowledge is second to none in this industry.

There were eleven total stories in the book, and all had something to offer. All were enjoyable. We had a story with Amazons and a dragon, a western with Lovcraftian ties, Vikings in the Carribean, an ancient civilization attacked by clones in an airship! Just wait until you read how the clones were made! Fun and highly recommend!

[S.E. Lindberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rogue Blades Entertainment has a great track record for delivering anthologies (Return of the Sword, Writing Fantasy Heroes,Rage of the Behemoth, and more). Challenge! Discovery is the 2017 edition, which posed a challenge: look at the cover, and write a story about it. The illustration features a scantily clad female warrior and a panther emerge from jungle ruins.


The concept is cool, but the entries range in quality, and I disagree with the judges. Apparently the last two won 1st and 2nd place by the judges, but if I were to rate by (a) inspiration from cover and (b) storytelling (good pacing, show not tell, etc.) then I would have chosen 2 of the below:
- "Inner Nature" by JOHN KILIAN
- "Someplace Cool and Dark" by FREDERIC S. DURBIN
- "Witch with Bronze Teeth brushed" by KEITH J. TAYLOR

1) "Witch with Bronze Teeth brushed" by KEITH J. TAYLOR: 5-star blend of military Warhammer-esque battle and zombie horror

2) "Fire Eye Gem" by Richard Berrigan: 3-star; too corny for me; features a do-good Kimmeriorian barbarian named ‘Jack’?. ugh

3) "Inner Nature" by JOHN KILIAN 5-star, started ok and but ramped-up very satisfyingly

4) "The Ash-Wood of Celestial Flame" by GABE DYBING; nice fairy tale elements

5) "Someplace Cool and Dark" by FREDERIC S. DURBIN: 5-star, it is first person, weird funny and dark.... and I heard this exact story before! It took me a while to figure it out, but I heard him read this at the World Fantasy Convention 2016. A bonus essay on the writing of this story is added and is as engaging as the story

6)"World inside the Walls" by Frederick Tor : 3-star. Nice inspiration from the cover, but delivery style was dry narrative

7) "In the Ruins of the Panther People" by DANIEL R. ROBICHAUD: 4-star. Started slow and has cheesy romance lines, but ends with a huge bang, science-sorcery Meat Stamp! Loved the Meat Stamp!

8) "The Serpent’s Root by DAVID J. WEST, young adult pacing, but fun. 3.5; not obviously connected the cover as the other stories.

9) "A Fire in Shandria" by FREDERIC S. DURBIN; 4-star. Decent Amazon warrior story with a dragon (not sure why there was a dragon and not a panther)

10) "Cat’s in the Cradle NICHOLAS OZMENT (awarded 2nd place): 3-star Inspired by the cover for sure, but for a short story most of its pages are dedicated to non pertinent content. Pacing off.

11) "Attaberia" by HENRY RAM - (awarded 1st place): 4-star. Viking story with nice concept; starts as a 5 and ends as 3 (there is a disconnect between the tension & remoteness of a mysterious island and the inhabitants).

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting concept for an anthology. Just as the title suggests, this is contest. A contest to bring the best heroic action packed stories, and all the while displaying the theme of Discovery. Additionally authors must use the cover art as they see fit in their submission.

A few stories stood apart from the rest and I greatly enjoyed them.

Someplace Cool and Dark by Frederic S Durbin was a fun weird west story with treasure hunters, gunslingers, and spider-pigs!

In the Ruins of the Panther People by Daniel R Robichaud really put me in the mind of a Burroughs adventure story. Vasily is a solid swordsman who decides to help the beautiful and alluring Chani fight an army of clones and protect the secrets in the ruins of the panther people.

A Fire in Shandria by Frederic S Durbin was full of Amazons, sisters fighting over a crown and a wingless dragon. As silly as it sounds I kept picturing a very large iguana.

Attabeira by Henry Ram is a tale of Vikings in the New World.

A cool concept, executed well. I'll be on the look out for more in this series! Recommended!

[Dan Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a challenge anthology, meaning all the stories where inspired and tied into the cover. This was very cool as you got an amazing variety of kinds of stories. They were all surprisingly good. I recommend it highly.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's dismissive to call the concept a noble experiment, but that's what I'll go with. The challenge provided is foremost the striking and extremely specific cover art and secondly the general theme of "discovery". With apparently a small group of judges awarding a No Prize to the best.

I'm not convinced the judging buys anything for the reader except disagreement over the selections. Personally I would have leaned into the Weird Western of "Someplace Cool and Dark" and the Barsoomian science-fantasy of "In the Ruins of the Panther People" but those stretched the rules considerably.

Secondly, the artwork forms an elevator pitch in itself that it bends any story taking it literally in certain directions. How many portrayed woman plus panther as allies? How many made the panther a transformed human?

I'm left feeling like the collection didn't speak to me, either because of the constraints or because of the stories.