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

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

S.E. wrote: "Your efficiency rocks, Joseph. I look forward to your comments on CAS."

He's been one of my favorites ever since I picked up a copy of The City of the Singing Flame from the public library in Austin, MN, back in the day.

Just about to start The Door to Saturn by Clark Ashton Smith, which should count as both Sword & Mythos and and Vintage S&S. Let's hear it for efficiency! :)

Phil wrote: "It's a shame more small press companies don't do e-books. There's tons of recent Robert E. Howars collections that are now basically impossible to find. I'm past my collector phase and I don't have the shelf space, I just want to have the content."

This. A thousand times this. Well, I'm not actually past my collector phase yet, but I still want eBooks of everything.

Rob wrote: "They're titling the Elric series 'the Moonbeam Roads'? That doesn't really evoke the tone of the books."

I think "Moonbeam Roads" is just that most recent trilogy -- The Dreamthief's Daughter: A Tale of the Albino, etc. -- which are kind of strange from the get-go.

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013...

Gollancz is starting to do an epic Michael Moorcock reprint, both physical and eBook editions. Unfortunately, it's UK only at the moment -- need to figure out how to change the country of registration on my Kindle ...

Finished The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh, which had some fine fantasy in it, mostly Celtic-themed but at least one genuine S&S tale ("A Thief in Korianth" -- it's a shame she's never returned to the setting) and started Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross, one of the Pathfinder RPG tie-in novels.

Jason wrote: "That's something I'm guilty of as well. If I'm in a used bookstore, I'll still buy anything within reason if it has work by one of those artists on the cover. I am such a sucker. I'll even pick it up if it's one I already have. It borders on pathological and is just so very, very sad...

I hate to be pedantic, but I think you chose the wrong word there. You said "sad" when clearly you meant "awesome".

S.E. wrote: "Sean, I urge the completist-in-you to read the Zothique tales earlier rather than later. You will love those. They are less science fiction-y...and more dark (if that is possible)."

The first Zothique tale, Empire of the Necromancers, is in the third Night Shade collection, A Vintage From Atlantis. Most of the Zothique stories are in the fourth volume, The Maze of the Enchanter. They're my favorite stories of his, although I also have a soft spot for Hyperborea, Poseidonis and Averoigne.

Carl wrote: "And I oughta read more Solomon Kane, more purposefully. I know I read a few stories quite a while back, but it's something I've been meaning to revisit."



The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane is your friend. Although I keep hoping the Del Rey Howards will drop in price, at least for the eBooks.

Sean wrote: "Well about a third done The End of the Story and already I am kicking myself for never taking the time to read Clark Ashton Smith. It is very good stuff."

He's always been one of my absolute favorite authors, particularly the Zothique stories (which I think don't start popping up until subsequent volumes). But from the very first paragraph of the very first story (Abominations of Yondo) you know you're in for something special.

And I finished the Morgaine books with Exile's Gate and moved on to The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh, which does have at least a bit of a sword-and-sorcery connection -- one of her early stories, "A Thief in Korianth", was originally published in Flashing Swords! #5: Demons and Daggers.

Phil wrote: "On the 'swords not guns' point: traditionally gunpowder technology is the cutoff point for s-&-s, certainly - probably for any number of reasons. For one I think that introducing modernish tech..."

And let's not forget the other Kane, i.e. Solomon, although his stories are probably borderline.

Phil wrote: "Exactly, it ended up a bit like DVD extras rather than a properly constructed book. The Del Rey series provide more context for the essays, I think. I'd still recommend the old Elric Saga 1 and 2 v..."

Right now the White Wolf editions are my preferred version of the Eternal Champion, but my understanding is that a British publisher (Gollancz?) is going to be reissuing a lot of Moorcock's back catalog in uniform editions. Here's hoping that they make it over to this side of the pond, especially as eBooks ...

Phil wrote: "I finished Elric at the End of Time last night. I'd read about half the content before in other collections, and found this particular volume kind of weak and random. Most of the stuff here is coll..."

That's one of those where I think it works better to have the stories interspersed back into the series instead of pulled into a separate collection -- you're right; the Elric stories aren't first-rate, so they're easier to take if they're surrounded by stronger material. The essays &c. were kind of interesting, though.

S.E. wrote: "Joseph wrote: "..."Release the Kraken..."

Joseph, Funny. Are you implying that "Pirates of the Caribbean" is Sword & Mythos?"

They had swords! Although actually I was thinking of Clash of the Titans, which also had swords.

S.E. wrote: "Janet wrote: "S.E, you mean like Perseus and Medusa?"

LOL. I think Janet caught me. Medusa is pretty Cthulhu-like (or should I say Cthulhu is rather Medusa-like)."

"Release the Kraken!"

Sean wrote: "I'll be reading/starting Far Awar & Never tonight. I still unfortunately haven't decided on a book for the Sword & Mythos part. Still leaning toward Clark Ashton Smith. Perhaps The Collected Fan..."

Of the two Smith books, Return of the Sorcerer definitely has the stronger contents -- it's (as per the title) a Best Of, while End of the Story contains his earliest work. Don't get me wrong -- there's some great stuff in End of the Story (including at least a story or two that made it into Return of the Sorcerer), but if you're just going to read one Smith book, I think Sorcerer would be a better choice.

And continuing with Morgaine's saga (or, more properly, Nhi Vanye's saga) -- I finished Well of Shiuan and have Fires of Azeroth poised to go. I'd forgotten just how really, really good these books are.

Jason wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Am about to start Gate of Ivrel, the first book in C.J. Cherryh's Morgaine series. Which certainly feels like S&S even though it's technically SF if you scratch beneath the surface...."

It's SF in a way almost similar to Thundarr the Barbarian -- most people are living with vaguely medieval technology, but the occasional character (Morgaine in particular) will sometimes use what, from context, we can recognize as a firearm or a high-tech medical scanner, but the locals (from whose POV the story is told) perceive it as witchcraft.

Most of the actual SF comes in the introduction when there's a Union-produced government document discussing the need to send the team through the Gates to shut & disable them.

Am about to start Gate of Ivrel, the first book in C.J. Cherryh's Morgaine series. Which certainly feels like S&S even though it's technically SF if you scratch beneath the surface.