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

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

The Sleeping God was quite good -- not quite as much swordplay as I expected in a book about a couple of mercenaries, but very entertaining nonetheless, so I decided to move on to the sequel, The Soldier King which does, at least, start off on a battlefield.

Sean wrote: "Just bought up the whole War of the Wizards (https://www.goodreads.com/series/7383...) series by Andrew J. Offutt and Richard K. Lyon. If they get here before I finish this anthology I may even use the first book for my Heroines group read selection since apparently the lead character is someone named Tiana."

That's assuming that Tiana doesn't turn out to be a huge Yorkshireman with a beard like a rhododendron bush.

Started The Sleeping God by Violette Malan -- it's been on my radar for a while, and this is as good an excuse as any.

Finished Swordsmen and Supermen -- it was only 120 pages. My basic attitude: Meh. Not even much actual sword & sorcery, come to find out -- the Robert E. Howard story was a Breckenridge Elkins; it also included excerpts from a couple of novels from the 1920s (one lost-race and one historical adventure) and two new stories -- one by Darrel Crombie, whom I don't think ever published anything else, but which had its moments, and one Lin Carter in one of his more Dunsanian moods.

S.E. wrote: "I confess to never having read C.J. Cherryh yet. Is the Gate of Ivrel a good one to get introduced to her style?"

I'd say yes. It's slightly atypical in that it leans closer to fantasy than to SF, but it's short & relatively self-contained, and it gives a good sense of her sensibilities and her prose stylings. And it's a damn' fine story ...

Dean wrote: "Thanks for the Bloodsong review, Seth.

By the way, has anyone here mentioned the novels featuring Morgaine by C.J. Cherryh yet? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morg... Or Elizabeth Moon..."

I reread the Morgaine books last year for the first time in probably 15 years. (My review of Gate of Ivrel) So very, very good and I'd say they absolutely would count, although they lean a bit closer to sword & planet. Haven't read the Paks books in a long time but I do remember liking them.

There's also Jennifer Roberson's Del & Tiger books, beginning with Sword-Dancer.

Decided to go with something nice and light -- Swordsmen and Supermen from Centaur Press. No idea who actually edited it -- I'm tempted to say Lin Carter just because it has one of his stories in it, but that's not dispositive.

Sean wrote: "Finally got around to actually reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. I've seen the films (liked the newest one, the Traci Lords one... meh.) and read the D..."

For my money, The Gods of Mars may be the best book in the series. But you can't go wrong with any of them. Well, except for Synthetic Men of Mars and John Carter of Mars, which I'd suggest actively avoiding.

Myself, I'm not currently reading S&S, but I'm reading a book praised by Howard Andrew Jones on his website, so it's ... associational? Against the Fall of Night by Michael Arnold, historical fiction set at the tail end of the Byzantine Empire.

Fultz is definitely worth your attention.

Myself, I decided to finish out the year with some Star Wars books, beginning with Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories. They have (laser) swords and (space) sorcery, right?

Jem -- I haven't read them myself, I admit, but you might want to check out The Steel Remains and The Cold Commands, both by Richard K. Morgan.

To respond to something from the Heroine thread: All three of the Echoes of Valor anthologies are great. (But they were edited by Karl Edward Wagner, so no great surprise there.)

I might go for Fearsome Journeys: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy edited by Jonathan Strahan this time around. Or maybe I should pick up one of my old & unread issues of Black Gate magazine. (Would be so very happy if they were able to reissue the whole run in Kindle format. But I have all the actual magazines, so I'll manage one way or another.)

I've been thinking about picking up Violette Malan's Dhulyn and Parno books (The Sleeping God is the first). This might be a convenient excuse.

I've only seen it (Hearts & Armour) once, many years ago on VHS, but it kind of reminded me of an Italian version of Excalibur. Which, considering the source material, is kind of appropriate.

I finished Lost Covenant by Ari Marmell, which definitely had S&S elements, read Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan, which most definitely did not (although I enjoyed it immensely), and am now reading Seven Kings and then Seven Sorcerers, both by John R. Fultz, and which I think would be of high interest to anyone in this group. They're not S&S per se but they're epic fantasy that has its roots much more in Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith than in Tolkien.

I finished up Enge's initial Morlock trilogy (excellent stuff; highly recommended) and moved on to Lost Covenant by Ari Marmell, which has been entertaining as heck so far (as were the first two installments).

Apparently at some point in the 80s or 90s there was a whole genre of sword & sorcery movies shot for a collective budget of about $50 whose main draw was that most of the women were topless most of the time.

Why was I never informed?

I think you added something called Hearts and Bones instead of Hearts and Armor. But still: Great list! I'll have to start looking for things on Netflix.

Now this is reminding me that I'd love to see a DVD release of Hearts and Armor (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086074/?...), an Italian adaptation of episodes from Orlando Furioso, I believe.

Heck, Robert E. Howard wrote a number of completely straight historical adventures.

And I'd definitely recommend Lamb or Mundy.

Gene wrote: "The second one is the best of the three IMO."

I don't think "best" is an appropriate word to use in relation to any of the D&D movies ...

As far as movies from Hong Kong, I'd also add Storm Riders (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165499/?...), which has both swords and sorcery, and the original Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086308/?...).