Joseph’s Comments (group member since Oct 24, 2012)

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

Michael wrote: "When Robert E Howard is not the author the Conan stories (pastiches) are pretty lame. ."

Yeah, probably the best of the lot was Karl Edward Wagner's Conan: Road of Kings, and while that was a good sword & sorcery adventure book, it arguably wasn't a great Conan book.

Richard wrote: "There were a few books this year for me that vie for best. Although, The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford would be my pick for best.

As for worst, well, there were a fe..."

Speaking of books I really need to read ... (The Ford, that is, not the Offutt.)

Right now, I'm thinking best was Elizabeth Bear's The Stone in the Skull.

As for worst, I didn't read anything truly terrible, but Sagas of Conan was kind of aggressively meh.

Well, also, I did a full reread of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction and some of his juvenilia was pretty dire.

I reread both Nifft and In Yana a couple of years ago when I heard of his passing. Both are highly recommended; at some point I should revisit the rest of the Nifft series.

Phil wrote: "I’m a die-hard fan of William Hope Hodgson. I think I like The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' and his nautical stories best, but for all it’s clunkiness, The Night Land is an absolute cl..."

I read Collected Fiction v.3 a couple of years ago; it was good, but possibly a bit much to take all on one go.

Don't remember if I posted this elsewhere, but I did finally track down a DVD copy of Viking (the recent Russian movie) and thought it was pretty impressive visually, at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoqiD...

S.E. wrote: "Joseph, you seemed to like HPLs Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, which seems arguably as unfocused os House on the Borderlands. I could never finish Kadath, but am almost done with House.

Any though..."

I did finally read House on the Borderland in The Collected Fiction, Vol. 2: The House on the Borderland and Other Mysterious Places a few years ago and I enjoyed it. It did have a bit of a Lovecraftian feel to it, as I recall, but it was more of the gothic/cosmic horror thing and, TBH, I did kind of prefer Kadath, which is weird and dream-like and a quest through bizarre & sometimes nightmarish realms.

Bruce wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Speaking of sword & planet stuff, this just arrived in a box from an eBay seller today ...

"

It's a fun game. I bought that when it first came out way back when. I was kinda addict..."

Thanks! It's nice to hear from somebody who actually played it ...

It sounds interesting ... If I understand correctly, each player controls a hero who (in typical Barsoomian fashion) is haring all over the planet to rescue his lady-love; each player also controls a villain who's trying to thwart another player's hero.

Speaking of sword & planet stuff, this just arrived in a box from an eBay seller today ...

Mary wrote: "Well, it was, after all, aiming to be a modernization of language and clearing up a few plot problems. One would hope that it wouldn't turn into his own work in the process."

Yeah, I appreciate what he did, and it was certainly a million times more accessible than whatever the heck Hodgson thought he was writing.

Mary wrote: "The Night Land, a Story Retold by James Stoddard might pass muster, since it's only retold."

I read that and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it, although I really liked the first two of Stoddard's The High House trilogy (which were filled with references to Ballantine Adult Fantasy books). Really need to read the third one of these days.

Maybe it's time to finally go back to Gotrek and Felix. Or King's Kormak books.

Or if I'm feeling like a real glutton for punishment, Hodgson's The Night Land is always waiting.

And now the first Kyrik book is free:

https://www.amazon.com/Kyrik-Warrior-...

Kyrik: Warrior Warlock Book #1

Relevant to this group read: Gardner F. Fox's Thief of Llarn (second of the two Llarn books) is currently free on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Thief-Llarn-Ga...

(Also, most or all of his sword & sorcery stuff -- the five Kothar novels and the four Kyrik novels, amongst others -- is available for somewhere around $2.99 each.)

Richard wrote: "I have some Lovecraft on the shelf, just never have gotten around to it. Maybe one day. Happy reading Joseph!!"

He's been one of my favorites (problematic though he may be) ever since The colour out of Space scared the pants off of me back in about 6th grade.

(And just look at that cover!)

It's only kind of S&S-adjacent, but in honor of the season I decided to reread Lovecraft for the first time in several years, beginning with Collected Fiction Volume 1 (1905-1925): A Variorum Edition.

Jack wrote: "He makes an interesting comparison to his Callisto books (at the time of writing, Book 1 of that series was soon to be published). Carter stated that the Callisto books "are written in a close approximation of Burroughs' own prose style." Fortunately, I also own this series, and I will see if Carter's attempt a ERB style worked. "

Someday I need to read Callisto.

That's one thing I've always liked about Carter -- he was never shy about identifying his influences and/or the stylistic effects he was trying to create.

I never really got around to the Andrew J. Offutt Swords Against Darkness books -- for whatever reason, Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! #1 books held more appeal. (I think it might've been because Flashing Swords had longer pieces -- only 4-5 stories per volume, as opposed to Swords Against Darkness' 15-20.) I do have them all on my shelf, so someday I'll have to give them another shot.

Well, I finished The Company, which would probably make a good entry point into K.J. Parker's work, and started Lord Dunsany's The Book of Wonder, which has some proto-foundational S&S stories in it.