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Dreams of Fire and Steel: A Sword and Sorcery Anthology
A wealth of spell-binding tales, poems, sagas of might and magic, crafted by some of the finest practitioners of the New Weird, Fantasy and horror.
- GenresSword and Sorcery
238 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 16, 2018
2 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Alex S. Johnson
147 books175 followersAlex S. Johnson is the author of two novels, Bad Sunset and Jason X IV: Death Moon, the collections Wicked Candy and Doctor Flesh: Director's Cut,the co-author of Fucked Up Shit! with Berti Walker, as well as numerous Bizarro, horror, science fiction and experimental literary stories, including works published in Full-Metal Orgasm, Bizarro Central, Gone Lawn, Ugly Babies Volume 2, Master/slave, Noirotica III, Cthulhu Sex, The Surreal Grotesque, Cease, Cows, and many other venues. He is the creator/editor of the Axes of Evil heavy metal horror anthology series He has also been a music journalist for such magazines as Metal Hammer, Metal Maniacs and Zero Tolerance and a college and university English professor. Johnson currently lives in Sacramento, California.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 27, 2018
One cannot help but compare such a tome of dread takes to Moorcock and Howard. And not because it is in part a tribute to those treasures masters. A true tribute must understand the sorcery and alchemy of the original to attempt to faithfully conjure an homage.
I found several of the stories instantly transported me back to an earlier time when I sought out and devoured sword and sorcery stories, be they novels of Elric of Melnibone or the black and white pages of the Savage Sword of Conan comicbooks (the best ones also had a short of Solomon Kane in the back). Stories of grim purpose and fell odds, black deeds and implacable evil, and flawed heroes who through their own resilience found the hard way to emerge victorious.
The poetry, artwork, and prose in this piece evoke all of that, lovingly rendered and well executed.
I found several of the stories instantly transported me back to an earlier time when I sought out and devoured sword and sorcery stories, be they novels of Elric of Melnibone or the black and white pages of the Savage Sword of Conan comicbooks (the best ones also had a short of Solomon Kane in the back). Stories of grim purpose and fell odds, black deeds and implacable evil, and flawed heroes who through their own resilience found the hard way to emerge victorious.
The poetry, artwork, and prose in this piece evoke all of that, lovingly rendered and well executed.
March 17, 2024
Pretty disappointed in this book. There were a few good things in here. The first part of a Caylen Tor story by Byron Roberts and a story called Bones by Frank Searight. There was a nice nordic saga style poem as well. Most of the stories and poems seemed more like fanzine material. Very choppy, and incredibly weak for this genre. There were several I wouldn’t consider S&S.
March 8, 2025
“Dreams of Fire and Steel” is a Sword & Sorcery anthology.
“In Oblivion, Met” starts with the premise of the story in the first two sentences- straight, to the point, and most importantly, engagingly enough. And ironically enough - or not - considering the possible different interpretations of this story. Overall, I really enjoyed all the twists of this tale - one worthy story, to be sure.
“Storm of Blood” was the next tale. Viking fiction, bloody and frothy, and a worthy read.
“Bane of the Blackwizard” was the next tale. Bit unexpected, yet thoroughly enjoyable, I wasn’t sure where the story would go. A bit short, by the by, but then most of these stories are.
“At the Heart of the Gilded Lamb” was the next story. It reminded me just a little of Howard’s Solomon Kane than a S&S story. A descent yarn and welll told with good back ground imagery and characters, I was entertained.
“The Witch Tree of Harper’s Hollow” was the next story. This is another Minister tale, though it is wrapped in a dark fairy tale story. Once more, the language and writing is superb - good words choices, good pacing, fascinating characters. Bit sad and creepy, but that’s half the fun of it.
“Servants of Destiny” is the next story, apparently a Moorcock - Knight hybrid story written by Knight, though for me, as I’ve yet to read Moorcock, that didn’t really mean to much except to probably expect a disembodied head somewhere. The authors style, while not bad, is a bit long and dithering, but then, to be fair, that’s kind of my own writing style too - sometimes having sentences that are a bit to long and a bit less concise…not necessarily bad per say, but trust me when I state that it doesn’t appeal to everyone. Though there is still some strong uses of imagery and points of good pace flow and control too, so what can you do? In any event, it’s a descent S&S story with the problem for myself that it feels an excerpt from not 1 but 2 fantasy universes that I am not familiar with - the setting and tone seem very D&D like, which is both a plus and a minus, as it brings familiarity and has a lot of content, but has been a bit over used and caricaturised over many decades.
“Kalyx and the Spirit Blades” was all in all pretty wonderful, with a strong female lead, a rolling, captivating plot and lots of fun whimsy. While I might think it had more than enough twists, it kept me entertained and I’d love to read more of Kalyx’s adventures…though I do feel kind of bad for the sword.
“Bringing it back” … was not really a sword & sorcery story. It was a fablio, a sort of coarse medieval story with rough and humorous and oftentimes crude elements. Also for me it was a struggle to get through…it seemed to go on forever and ever. With all due respect to the author, I sort of wish it hadn’t been in this collection, but what can you do?
“The New King” was a far better S&S story, in my opinion, though it did have its strangeness too. Still, overall I liked this one, and can appreciate the dramatic ending.
Frank Searight’s story “Bones” was tones of Stone & Sorcery done right. At once simple and affective, the narritive and characters were the very picture of what one wants in an S&S story. Well chosen words and phrases, sympathetic characters that are irreverent and amusing, danger and magic - perfect! I left the story wondering if this was part of a larger work, as the characters almost begged for more.
Overall, while worth reading, I’d say some of the stories were a lot better than others, as often happens with anthologies. So it is that I’ll give the collection as a whole three out of five swords.
“In Oblivion, Met” starts with the premise of the story in the first two sentences- straight, to the point, and most importantly, engagingly enough. And ironically enough - or not - considering the possible different interpretations of this story. Overall, I really enjoyed all the twists of this tale - one worthy story, to be sure.
“Storm of Blood” was the next tale. Viking fiction, bloody and frothy, and a worthy read.
“Bane of the Blackwizard” was the next tale. Bit unexpected, yet thoroughly enjoyable, I wasn’t sure where the story would go. A bit short, by the by, but then most of these stories are.
“At the Heart of the Gilded Lamb” was the next story. It reminded me just a little of Howard’s Solomon Kane than a S&S story. A descent yarn and welll told with good back ground imagery and characters, I was entertained.
“The Witch Tree of Harper’s Hollow” was the next story. This is another Minister tale, though it is wrapped in a dark fairy tale story. Once more, the language and writing is superb - good words choices, good pacing, fascinating characters. Bit sad and creepy, but that’s half the fun of it.
“Servants of Destiny” is the next story, apparently a Moorcock - Knight hybrid story written by Knight, though for me, as I’ve yet to read Moorcock, that didn’t really mean to much except to probably expect a disembodied head somewhere. The authors style, while not bad, is a bit long and dithering, but then, to be fair, that’s kind of my own writing style too - sometimes having sentences that are a bit to long and a bit less concise…not necessarily bad per say, but trust me when I state that it doesn’t appeal to everyone. Though there is still some strong uses of imagery and points of good pace flow and control too, so what can you do? In any event, it’s a descent S&S story with the problem for myself that it feels an excerpt from not 1 but 2 fantasy universes that I am not familiar with - the setting and tone seem very D&D like, which is both a plus and a minus, as it brings familiarity and has a lot of content, but has been a bit over used and caricaturised over many decades.
“Kalyx and the Spirit Blades” was all in all pretty wonderful, with a strong female lead, a rolling, captivating plot and lots of fun whimsy. While I might think it had more than enough twists, it kept me entertained and I’d love to read more of Kalyx’s adventures…though I do feel kind of bad for the sword.
“Bringing it back” … was not really a sword & sorcery story. It was a fablio, a sort of coarse medieval story with rough and humorous and oftentimes crude elements. Also for me it was a struggle to get through…it seemed to go on forever and ever. With all due respect to the author, I sort of wish it hadn’t been in this collection, but what can you do?
“The New King” was a far better S&S story, in my opinion, though it did have its strangeness too. Still, overall I liked this one, and can appreciate the dramatic ending.
Frank Searight’s story “Bones” was tones of Stone & Sorcery done right. At once simple and affective, the narritive and characters were the very picture of what one wants in an S&S story. Well chosen words and phrases, sympathetic characters that are irreverent and amusing, danger and magic - perfect! I left the story wondering if this was part of a larger work, as the characters almost begged for more.
Overall, while worth reading, I’d say some of the stories were a lot better than others, as often happens with anthologies. So it is that I’ll give the collection as a whole three out of five swords.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews