Clint’s Comments (group member since Jul 26, 2017)

Clint’s comments from the Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" group.

Currently: Conan Omnibus 2 from Dark Horse Comics. I’m also still picking at E.R. Edison’s The Worm Ouroboros. W/ Halloween looming, I’m thinking some horror is in order

I’m back at The Worm Ouroboros. It’s a dense read. I find it best taken in short spurts; however, I took a longer break than intended

Reading, for the first time since the early 90’s, the Elric saga by Michael Moorcock. Earlier this year, I read Elric of Melinbone; currently, 2/3 of the way through The Sailor on the Seas of Fate. So far, it holds up to memory. I’m launching into Weird of the White Wolf soon, which I’ve read before, again early 90’s. I’ve not read past that aside from the odd short story in this collection or that.

I’m brand new to Black Company. This group forced my hand to pick it up. A free copy of book 1 helped as well (although, if I go digital it’s actually cheaper to pick up the first Omnibus versus buying books 2 and 3 individually, so I shall have two copies of book 1).

Book 1 was pretty okay. It took some time for me to get into it, but when I did, it cracked. I would give it four stars, but it dragged its feet too long and had a bad habit of telling instead of showing; buuuuuttttt, I can see the growth potential with the book and I have a feeling it is a series that will get better, and I predict hitting a Plateau near the middle books where it struggles to keep pace with previous books.

Such is the way of these things. I will give The Black Company a few more books and get some (prediction here) good mileage out of the series.

Nice!

Aaron’s run on Thor was high and low for me. I will check it out for sure. I can’t remember the last time I have not at least tested the waters on a new Conan comic

The Gotrek and Felix books are entertaining, but repetitive. I read the first Omnibus a few years back. Reading them back to back was a mistake. I recommend portioning them out. I need to look into Kings self-published S&S.

Oops. Joseph beat me to it

By pure chance:

https://www.tor.com/2018/08/27/downlo...

I agree with Joseph on MWW. His John the Balladeer stories are where he excels. His Hok stories are pretty good too.

That does help. Thank you

I enjoyed Sword of Rhiannon. Good action tale. Heresy, perhaps, but I prefer Leigh Brackett over ERB.

Also, could anyone point me in the direction of a good example of the 40K fiction that may have helped form Grimdark? Thank you in advance

I have read in a couple different places now that Grimdark partially grew out of Warhammer 40K fic, could the same be said of the Old World Warhammer Fiction (Example: Gotrek and Felix)? I occasionally read the OW WH fiction, as some of it is almost Sword & Sorcery. I would say it does as it is Grim, but like the RPGS built off the war game, it also has a dark sense of humor.

Spoiler alert: I enjoyed this, so much more than I thought I would.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I have a tendency to interchangeably say “Heroic Fiction” for “Heroic Fantasy”. I think I prefer Heroic Fiction as an umbrella term. It can encompass a wider range of sub genres.

I do like the term Swashbuckling Adventure, but think Heroic Adventure of Historical Adventure could work. I recently read King Solomon’s Mines a few weeks ago. It’s adventure, but I’m not sure I’d call it swashbuckling.

I did not know that Grimdark was derived from 40K Lit. That’s amusing

I love this thread. One problem is you have bozos like me that use the terms “Heroic Fiction” as an umbrella to include S&S, S&P and Heroic Adventure. I do so for no other reason than there are similarities, as pointed out above, and I enjoy all three.

I may just well say “Good Heroic Stuff I Like”.

I really like the earlier comment of “Heroic Fiction is a term to make Sword & Sorcery sound upscale”. Spot on and I apologize for not naming who wrote it. I am guilty of making S&S sound upscale myself.

Appendix N purist might disagree, but I am counting ERB’s Lunar trilogy as tethered to Appendix N as it is technically in the John Carter universe. Consequently, I could make the same argument for Tarzan and Pellucidar with “Tarzan at the Earth’s Core”

Read my 3-star review of The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I picked Kings of the Wyld as it came recommended to me from a trusted source. I just started last night. I’m also offering my apologies for not chiming in on this group sooner. I have been a member for some time.

Clint here. I am a long time reader of Sword & Sorcery. A childhood fascination with anything Conan eventually brought me around to a deep appreciation of Bob Howard. I have since branched down various S&S paths.