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

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

Yep! I also have the Centipede editions of Kane and of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, and I'll probably be picking up their edition of the Elric series when the time comes.

I have to admit I do still love the Mike Mignola illustrations from the White Wolf editions.

I just got my Centipede Press edition of Swords and Deviltry. It is a beautiful thing:



Intro by Michael Moorcock, and a bunch of other bonus material at the end of the book.

OK, just got the disc and watched it tonight and I actually liked it a lot more than I was expecting to (or than I probably should have). Now we know what Thousand Eyes was up to after the end of Marco Polo.

(Although I have to admit that while I liked Charlie Hunnam's performance, I kept seeing the part played by Snatch-era Jason Statham.)

I read DVD years ago -- before I was really aware of any of the current controversy. I found it interesting enough at the time, but don't see a need to revisit it. I do have the Finn book on my shelf, and plan to get to it ... um, someday.

(As far as de Camp biographical works go, I always preferred Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, mostly for giving me high-level background on and/or introducing me to a bunch of fairly major authors.)

S.E. wrote: "Joseph, can you elaborate on "novelizations"?
Examples?

Thanks!"

Novelizations of movies (of a sword & sorcery bent, ideally) -- for example, Krull or Clash of the Titans, to name a couple that I picked up in last year or two.

My vote was also for off-planet, but they're all great options.

For a future poll, might I suggest novelizations?

Nice! I liked The Blade of Conan -- I don't remember if it had any fiction, but it had lots of interesting essays & articles.

I love Zelazny and just wish more of his stuff was available in eBook (even though I have pretty much everything in paperback). I reread Jack of Shadows a couple of years ago and it remains a favorite.

As far as dimension-hopping adventurers, there's also always Robert A. Heinlein's Glory Road ...

Jason M wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Having finished Swords Against Darkness, I recommend it unreservedly to anyone who's looking for a first-rate anthology..."

Thanks for the review, Joseph! Having gla..."

You're welcome! I have to admit that the one thing that bugged me a bit about the anthology was the title -- why reuse one from an existing series? Although she did name-drop the Offutt series in the introduction, so there was at least some acknowledgement there.

(And speaking of previous anthologies -- at least two or three of the stories were from one or another of Lin Carter's Flashing Swords series. Now there's a set of books I should pick up again one of these days.)

S.E. wrote: "I've read theThe Dragonbone Chair a long time ago; I recall it going slow but I was engaged anyway....until the second book. Then it was too easy to drift away."

I first (and last) read the Tad Williams books back in 1994 or so; his new book in the setting (The Witchwood Crown) seemed like a good reason to go back and revisit it. I expect it'll be keeping me occupied for the rest of the summer, at least -- they're long books.

Having finished Swords Against Darkness, I recommend it unreservedly to anyone who's looking for a first-rate anthology.

I finished D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths and started The Dragonbone Chair, neither of which are particularly sword & sorcery; but I also picked up copies of Black Road, Volume 1: The Holy North and Northlanders Book 1: The Anglo-Saxon Saga, which, well, I don't think they have any sorcery, but there are swords (and axes and hammers and crossbows and ...) aplenty.

I read Indigo, Time Master and the Time Master prequel & sequel trilogies. I'd say the prequel & sequel stuff can be skipped, but would definitely recommend the Time Master trilogy and the Indigo books. She also had a standalone, Mirage, that's worth checking out.

Shame that she died relatively young, and is mostly out of print these days.

Jon wrote: "I love Anthologies, as it gives me a taste of many authors within one book, those I find appealing, I seek out more of their work. With that in mind, today I picked this one up [book:The Sword & So..."

Yeah, I thought that was another really solid collection.

I don't think I ever read Shadow of his Wings, but I'm pretty sure I read Mace of Souls; at least, I owned it.

Never read Tara of the Twilight -- that was Carter's (shudder) erotica, wasn't it? (n.b. I have no particular problems with either Lin Carter or erotica, but I think they're two great tastes that should probably be kept far, far apart from each other.)

It's finally out, so I'm just beginning Swords Against Darkness, edited by Paula Guran, which has a really stellar table of contents.

And I finished Elric: Swords and Roses, which actually had one major story that I hadn't read previously -- Black Petals, an Elric & Moonglum story that first appeared in a 2008 issue of Weird Tales.

Richard wrote: "These say complete and unabridged. *shrugs*
I didn't take that into account, Joseph. I've only over read Infernal Sorceress, and it was okay."

I'll definitely be interested to hear what you think -- I've enjoyed the Witcher books I read, and the Tarzan is a classic of the first water.

Kline is one of those guys who's been on my TBR pile for approximately ever; the problem is figuring out which editions are actually the best/most complete.

Richard wrote: "Went on a mini road trip with the family and found this nice haul:



[bookcover:A Dream ..."

Nice!

Yeah, at this point, the only things not in the Del Rey series are the Dreamquest trilogy novels (beginning with The Dreamthief's Daughter), which started coming out in 2002 (and of which I confess I've only read the first two) and, I guess, any stories he's written since then.