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

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

I did read the full trilogy, but it was years and years ago. All I can say right now is that the later books have different narrators.

S.E. wrote: "Got past the impressive chariot race in Birthgrave. Good dark stuff so far."

Yeah, that was one of the highlights of the book. I look forward to hearing what you think after you finish it.

An:d now some swords: I'm just starting Riders of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume Three by Harold Lamb.

(And earlier today I revisited my childhood with Alan E. Nourse's Scavengers in Space. (Which, to clarify, was already quite an old book when I chanced upon a copy in my childhood.))

S.E. wrote: "@Joe, I've never read Ellen Kushner, but I've had her on my radar (partly because she has Ohio connections, and I have a strange state-patriotism when it comes to fiction. Her magic based ones appeal to me, and your good-ratings helps too."

If you're going to read the Riverside books (Swordspoint, Privilege, Fall), I'd definitely recommend reading them in order. They have a pretty wide separation (Privilege takes place, I think, 15 years after Swordspoint, and Fall is another 40+ years after that) but there are a few overlapping characters, and events in the earlier books definitely inform events in the later books.

But they're all very, very good.

I finished Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword (lots of swords; no magic) and The Fall of the Kings, and started Thomas the Rhymer (both of which have relatively few swords but plenty of magic); I'm on a bit of an Ellen Kushner kick ...

Greg wrote: "I've only read Hand's story, 'Cleopatra Brimstone' (collected in Best New Horror 13), which was 12 years ago now. Although I wasn't convinced by the fantasy element of the story, I liked her style of writing. I'd like to read more of her work.

Wylding Hall was one of the best books I've read in a long time; but it was also one of those books that felt like the author had sat down, checked my interests, and aimed the story squarely at me. It's a short novel about a British folk rock group (think Fairport Convention or Pentangle) who, in 1972, went to Wylding Hall, an isolated manor house in the British countryside, to record their second album; then weird things may or may not have started happening.

Finished Wylding Hall, which had plenty of sorcery (albeit of a dark and subtle kind) but no swords, and am starting Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint, which has lots of swords but no actual sorcery. Except maybe in the actual writing, which is plenty magical.

Thought this might be of interest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8kyX...

I remember seeing ads for this in the Museum Replicas catalog back in the 1990s, but never quite got around to ordering it.

And I'm currently on another end of the gender spectrum with The Space Opera Renaissance; but after that I might try to add another Tanith Lee to the mix. I just picked up her newest collection on Kindle, Legenda Maris. (Which doesn't seem to have a GR entry yet, so http://www.amazon.com/Legenda-Maris-T... will give the details.)

Derek wrote: "Has anyone read far into the Tales from the Flat Earth series? I just finished Night's Master and thought it was excellent..."

I've read all five of them. I'm hoping that there might be one or two more on the way -- I know she was working on another novel, and there have also been new Flat Earth stories that haven't been collected yet.

Flat Earth is my favorite series of hers, and somewhere in my top five all-time favorite series by anyone.

I was really happy to learn that was his real name.

Someday I should write an S&S story starring an unlikely pair of rogues named Nictzin Dyalhis and Vlaada Chvatl (Polish board game designer; if anyone does any tabletop gaming, I definitely recommend looking at Mage Knight).

After The Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK TM, Vol. 4: Nictzin Dyalhis (which I highly recommend to anyone who's interested in fiction from that era), I moved into American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett, which is not even remotely sword & sorcery, but which is very, very, very good.

S.E. wrote: "Joseph, thanks to you for identifying and sharing the megapak availability. I'm about 70# done... I'm counting this as my "obscure group read"."

You're welcome! I just finished it this morning; will try to write a review when I'm home and not typing on a laptop.

And I also started The Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK TM, Vol. 4: Nictzin Dyalhis. Great stuff! (And nice and short.)

I love Campbell but I've never seen him play anything totally straight, and I don't know if I could divorce him from Ash/Sam Axe/et al.

The biggest problem with the movie (in my opinion) is that it was written as a totally-unneeded non-Howardian origin story.

OK, I lied. That was the second-biggest problem. The biggest problem is that it wasn't filmed circa 1970 and didn't star Christopher Lee.

Adding a big thumbs-up to the Howard Andrew Jones recommendation.

I just reread (and reviewed) The Birthgrave: Birthgrave Trilogy: Book One. I might try to get something else of hers into the mix during the more appropriate timeframe ...

I wasn't super impressed with the film, but I think that was primarily because I couldn't divorce it from the Howard stories. If it would've been called Mathias Thullman or something, it would've been fine.

I do need to check out the soundtrack again, now that it's been mentioned.

The stories are great. I'm still sad that I didn't know about Wandering Star in time to get the hardcover they put out, but the Del Rey edition is probably even more authoritative, so there's that.

I never really played all that much, but I had (have) a pretty extensive collection of primarily 1st & 2nd edition AD&D stuff that I still enjoy thumbing through -- primarily adventure modules and supplements moreso than rulebooks. I miss the Golden Age of the Boxed Set (late 1980s - mid-1990s) -- nothing better than a nice box with two or three booklets and a couple of poster-sized maps.

(I did just crate up & ship a box to Noble Knight, but used it for store credit; maybe it's time to try to recreate my Traveller little black book collection. Stupid flood.)