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from the Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" group.
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An anthology that was in the works for a long time emerged suddenly. Very New Edge.It's from Rogues in the House Podcast...it's called A Book of Blades: Rogues in the House Presents.
Here's a link to a promotional post in another thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
You'll be hearing more about this.... but The Rogues in the House Podcast just released an anthology today.
15 authors, familiar to this group too!
A Book of Blades: Rogues in the House Presents Cover Blurb:
Within this tome are buried the blades of warriors, thieves, and wizards. Tales of their deeds, glories, and triumphs shall ring throughout the ages.
Rogues in the House Podcast has gathered the best tales of Sword & Sorcery from across the community.
Here, brave adventurers will find stories lovingly crafted from Heroic Fantasy greats such as Howard Andrew Jones, John R. Fultz, and John C. Hocking. At their side are up and coming genre authors Chuck Clark, T.A. Markitan, Cora Buhlert, and many more.
Includes artwork from various artists, including Morgan King, director of Spine of the Night, and Sara Frazetta, granddaughter of the Legend himself!
Table of Contents:
“By the Sword” by John C. Hocking
“Ghost Song” by Chuck Clark
“Last of the Swamp Tribe” by L.D. Whitney
“Wanna Bet?” by T.A. Markitan
“The Serpent’s Heart” by Howard Andrew Jones
“How They Fall” by Angeline B. Adams and Remco van Straten
“The Breath of Death” by Jason M. Waltz
“Embracing Ember” by S.E. Lindberg
“The Curse of Wine” by J.M. Clarke
“The Gift of Gallah” by Matthew John
“Crawl” by Scott Oden
“The Spine of Virens Imber” by Nathaniel Webb
“The City of the Screaming Pillars” by Cora Buhlert
“Two Silvers for a Song of Blood” by Jason Ray Carney
“The Blood of Old Shard” by John R. Fultz
Illustrations
Gilead
Ursa Doom
Sara Frazetta (yes, that Frazetta "Girl")
Lorelei Esther
Hardeep Ajula
Morgan Galen King (director of The Spine of NIght)
Jesus Garcia (front cover)
Go Rogue!
Join the critically acclaimed podcast focusing on Sword and Sorcery & Heroic Fantasy.
Podcast portal: Rogues in the House – the Ultimate S&S Podcast
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RoguesintheHouse
Twitter: twitter.com/rogues_podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roguesinthe...
Greg wrote: "It's sad that Saunders died alone and largely unrecognized, and ended up being buried initially in an unmarked grave. Happily, his friends and acquaintances appear to have got a headstone for him, ..."And Greg offers hope!
GR interface does suck, but you can post links (just not as cleanly as before). Just copy/paste the entire URL...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/bo...
Clint wrote: "@Seth, anything you can share?"I shared what little I could gather. I do not know much. Milton Davis, who has published Charles's work and is the closest I know to his work, is fairly in the dark too (from my limited correspondence). I chose not to pry further.
Similar issues have occurred with other authors passing... i.e., often it can be difficult to identify who owns any estate, let alone the status/availability of certain works. I fear Charles Saunder's work is drifting away for a time.
Of course, I'd love to be assured that the Imaro books would become broadly available. Others can keep me in the loop! In fact, I was hoping someone else would clue me/us in.
Skull Minion of the Twelfth Order (recently promoted), Bill Ward, continues to guard the threshold between reality & fantasy (via the Tales From the Magician's Skull Blog, link=https://goodman-games.com/tftms/).
Read on, Mortal Dogs!
JUN 21 Appendix N Archaeology: The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series by Michael Curtis
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
More than a decade before Gary Gygax assembled his list of influential fantasy authors and titles—the famed “Appendix N” which appeared in the Dungeon Masters Guide published in 1979—another author was hard at work compiling a list of fantasy stories to introduce to the reading public. Both catalogs would include some of the same authors on their rolls, and it is safe to say that without the first list, Gary Gygax may never have discovered some of the names that helped influence fantasy role-playing. In the spirit of Goodman Games’ ongoing efforts to return to the roots of the hobby, we now go one step further to explore the fertile landscape from which those roots drew nourishment. This earlier catalog was the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. Edited by Lin Carter, an esteemed author of science fiction and fantasy in his own right, this literary series was comprised of more than sixty titles released between 1969 and 1974 by Ballantine Books.
JUN 24 Classic Covers: Ballantine Fantasy
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
The decade of fantasy publishing kicked off by the runaway success of the The Lord of the Rings produced not only a flurry of reprints of classic fantasy, but also an entire crop of creative, iconic, and visionary cover designs. Ballantine Books launched its iconic Ballantine Adult Fantasy line on the strength of the fantasy boom, featuring cover art as wonderous as the contents of the books themselves. We’ve gathered together some of our favorite covers below to share with you. Enjoy!
JUN 28 A Hero Emerges: Young Thongor by Fletcher Vredenburgh
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
I have an extreme hate-love-hate relationship with the work of Lin Carter. He was the Chun the Unavoidable of sword-and-sorcery, his efforts still coloring the genre he loved so much, even nearly thirty-five years after his death. His work as an author and probably the greatest promoter of sword-and-sorcery are things most of us can only aspire to, knowing full well we can never achieve his level of fantastic devotion. The Ballantine Adult Fantasy line, the five volumes of Flashing Swords! and many of the assorted anthologies he edited are still books every fantasy fan should own. That said, few will ever aspire to his accomplishments as a writer.
JUL 1 Charles R. Saunders’ Nyumbani Tales by Bill Ward
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
In Nyumbani Tales (MV Media 2017), sword-and-sorcery great Charles Saunders collects 13 short stories spanning his early career, work that had previously appeared in a variety of publications, from small press ‘zines like Weirdbook and Black Lite, to mass market anthologies such as Beyond the Fields We Know and Hecate’s Cauldron. Fans of Saunders’ Imaro series will already be somewhat familiar with his short fiction, since the earliest parts of that epic were built upon the classic early Imaro shorts that first won the character his reputation. And, while many of the stories within Nyumbani Tales aren’t strictly speaking sword-and-sorcery, there are not only familiar faces here for Imaro fans, but a great deal of familiar ground as well. That familiar ground, of course, is Nyumbani itself, Saunders’ fantastic African setting.
JUL 5 Where to Start Your Summer Reading
Whether you’ve got vacation from work or school, prefer to shelter-in-place with some strong air-conditioning, or have just recently defeated an interdimensional incursion of home-besieging swine-things and find yourself with a block of free time—it’s a fine occasion for some summer reading! Tales From the Magician’s Skull’s ongoing Where to Start series of articles are written specifically to introduce readers to new (old!) fiction, with particular care taken to untangle some of the more confusing or overwhelming aspects of convoluted publication histories and multiple editions. They are also written by folks who absolutely love the authors, characters, and series in question, and want to share that love with the world.
JUL 8 Congratulations to the 2022 Robert E. Howard Award Winners
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Last month’s Robert E. Howard Awards, given by the Robert E. Howard Foundation during the annual celebration of REH’s life and work that is Howard Days, in Cross Plains, Texas, is a chance to honor all of those dedicated scholars, publishers, editors, and artists whose scholarship and passion ensure that REH’s work thrives nearly a century on. Dozens of talented and devoted creators were nominated for awards in various categories, but of course, only a few could win! Readers of Tales From the Magician’s Skull, both print and online, will recognize some of those names, such as frequent contributor Brian Murphy winning in the Emerging Scholar Category, and Jason Ray Carney scoring in the Literary Achievement Category for his helming of Whetstone: The Amateur Magazine of Pulp Sword and Sorcery. Outstanding Achievement in Anthology/Collection went to Jason M. Waltz’s Robert E. Howard Changed My Life, with a list of contributors that is a veritable who’s who in the field of Howard Studies but with four very important writers from our own TFTMS: Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones, and bedrock contributors Adrian Cole, John C. Hocking, and C.L. Werner. The full list of winners is below; to them, and to all the nominees for their extraordinary work, Tales From the Magician’s Skull salutes you!
I cornered the esteemed champion of Sword and Soul, Milton J. Davis, and he even had little to reveal about the Imaro availability going forward.
Had an interesting question about Imaro book availability on the Black Gate Tour Guide: https://www.blackgate.com/2020/12/07/...That tour guide was written prior the author's passing. The Lulu.com links to his books appear to find no items now.
Anyone here know how to get electronic (and even print) copies of Imaro 1-4 now?
David C Smiths obscure Engors Sword Arm selling again via DMR bookshttps://dmrbooks.com/print-books/engo...
Another box must have been discovered
Michael Fierce (aka Darth Fierce) wrote: "I am very much looking forward to this "2 month spotlight/groupread", Seth. A fantastic subject and discussion. However, I must apologize ahead of time and say what I want to say here. I don't want..."A confession: Via the Whetstone discord, I just learned that Howard Andrew Jones coined the term ~2008 in his blogs (I incorrectly stated that Scott came up with the term...but it is true that Scott Oden and Oliver Brackenbury did reignite the term recently).
Anyway, if folks want to think of newer names that's cool (I agree other genres have some sweet names...ie Cyberpunk as you mention has a lovely ring to it...and Splatterpunk even more so)....
... but, for the scope of the group read, I am happy simply acknowledging that the S&S genre has evolved.... and that it has a ripe future... and it may be going places that some of us don't know. In short, I hope we can focus on examples of new works more than the name.
I'm one of the coordinators for the GenCon Writer's Symposium (Aug 4-7) so this will be a tough reading period for me.... but I have my eye on two The Night Eternal and Skallagrim – In The Vales Of Pagarna.
The July August "2-month spotlight/groupread" will be New Edge (i.e. contemporary) S&S. Your mission for the next two months:
(1) Explore a new S&S author (and/or magazine).
(2) and, chime in/share
(3) then go further and add reviews to help new readers find it!
Let us not get mired in "what is" or "what is not S&S."
Instead Share where you think the genre is going, or can go!
Feel Welcome to keep adding-to or browse the poll/survey used to spur this discussion:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
Banner Credits
Magazine on Left / Cover artist
Savage Realms Monthly: May 2022: cover artist unattributed
Tales from the Magician's Skull #7: Sanjulian
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 4: Jim Pitts
WHETSTONE Amateur Magazine of Sword and Sorcery, Issue Five:Carlos Castilho
Books on right
-The Night Eternal: Bruce Pennington
-Mathias Thulmann: Witch Hunter: Marta Dettlaff 2018
-Twilight of the Gods:James Iacobelli -2018
-Worlds Beyond Worlds: The Short Fiction of John R. Fultz: Brian LeBlanc
-
-
New Edge S&S has been a hot topic lately... coined by Howard Andrew Jones and spurred on by Scott Oden and others like Oliver:
Putting a NEW EDGE on an Old Blade (this is the coining of the term, I think)
https://scottoden.wordpress.com/2022/...
New Edge S&S Guest Post: Oliver Brackenbury
https://scottoden.wordpress.com/2022/...
Oooh...from the Whetstone discord, the original posts to Howard Andrew Jones'
"New Edge" Manifesto were provided by "Riobard#6007" :
https://bg-editor.livejournal.com/210...
And another by HAJ ~2008/2010
http://www.howardandrewjones.com/swor...
and https://www.blackgate.com/2008/06/04/...
Skull Minion of the Eleventh Order, Bill Ward, continues to guard the threshold between reality & fantasy (via the Tales From the Magician's Skull Blog). With Robert E. Howard Days occurring (a tribute to REH who died June 11th), and with the passing of master painter Ken Kelly, the focus turned to the masters who have traversed realms. Read on, in honor of heroes!
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/
MAY 31 - Classic Covers: More Roger Zelazny
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Multiple-award-winning and best-selling author Roger Zelazny’s popularity wasn’t just confined to his native United States. Winner of France’s Prix Apollo, translated into dozens of languages, Zelazny’s reach was international and his appeal universal. While many of us will only ever appreciate him in one language, the multitude of artistic interpretations of his highly imaginative stories is something we can all enjoy with yet more Classic Covers.
JUN 3 - A Look at Caveman Stories by Fletcher Vredenburgh
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
That Robert E. Howard’s first professionally published story, “Spear and Fang,” was a caveman story should mean something to the history of heroic fiction and sword & sorcery itself. Perhaps, because it’s not a very good story, it never had the effect a better one might have. But I’m not totally sure; teenage Robert E. Howard already had a sure grasp of the elements that hook a reader craving action and adventure in their stories.
There’s not very much to “Spear and Fang” (1925). Pretty Cro-Magnon girl A-aea is forcefully accompanied into the woods by the haughty and threatening warrior Ka-nanu. Very quickly, they’re set upon by a ferocious, animalistic Neandertal who proceeds to dismantle Ka-nanu. Later, A-aea is saved by the object of her affections, the brave (and artistically inclined) Ga-nor. All ends well and love will bloom in the savage dawn of mankind.
JUN 7 - Dehumanizing Violence and Compassion in Robert E. Howard’s “Red Nails” by Jason Ray Carney
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Robert E. Howard’s sword and sorcery tale “Red Nails,” published as a three-part serial in Weird Tales in 1936, tells the story of the city of Xuchotl, the enduring, blood-soaked war between the Tecuhltli and the Xotalanc, and the dehumanizing effect of sustained hatred and violence. “Red Nails” engages with several ancient literary tropes, but the one that centers “Red Nails” is what I term “the stalemate war.” By focusing on the stalemate war between the murderous Tecuhltli and insane Xotalanc, I hope to bring into focus a surprising facet of Robert E. Howard’s most famous sword and sorcery character, Conan of Cimmeria: the way the barbarian maintains his humanity through compassion.
First, let me briefly clarify what I mean by the literary trope of “the stalemate war.” Identifying tropes and patterns in literature and popular culture is more an art than a science, but it’s fun and often reveals surprising dimensions to works. Why storytellers hew to these enduring patterns, who knows? Some speculate that these mythic patterns are evolutionary residues, instinctual psychological narratives that unconsciously narrate the crucible of our evolution. Their origins notwithstanding, there are undeniable recurring structures of story that resonate with us, and so storytellers return to them over and over, hone them, and reinvent for their own purposes. Robert E. Howard did this with “Red Nails,” and he did this masterfully.
JUN 10 - Classic Covers: Frank Frazetta’s Lancer/Ace Conans
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Second only to Robert E. Howard in importance in the development of the perception of Conan, Frank Frazetta’s explosively elemental take on the Cimmerian achieved instant cultural cache and has become the defining image not only of Howard’s most famous creation, but of the barbaric hinterlands of fantasy fiction itself. Frazetta’s frenzied depictions of havoc and battle, his iron-muscled killers taut with violent fury, his churning vistas of bodies in conflict beneath rust-red skies, presented a gritty, dynamic vision of the bloody world of sword-and-sorcery fiction — a graphical apotheosis for a sub-genre that was no longer tucked away in moldering pulps, but instead enthusiastically smashing through the doors of mass culture.
The long-running Conan series helmed by de Camp and Carter was the entry point for a generation of readers newly discovering the original tales of Robert E. Howard’s barbarian adventurer—along with a mixed bag of pastiche and repurposed stories from other Howard heroes.
JUN 14 - Classic Covers: Ken Kelly
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
The world of fantasy illustrators has lost one of its most prolific and long-running practitioners, Ken Kelly (May 19, 1946 – June 3, 2022). From the classic Berkley Medallion line of collected Robert E. Howard to the modern Baen reissues, Tor Conan pastiches, and Wildside/Dorchester Weird Works of REH — and the thousands of fantasy and science fiction books from every major publisher in between — Kelly’s art was a ubiquitous presence on the paperback rack for half a century. Tutored by “Uncle Frank” Frazetta, the undisputed master of brooding sword-and-sorcery illustration, Kelly incorporated Frazetta’s high-contrast interplay of light and dark and sinuous, dynamic character modeling into his own brand of frenetic, physical, and fantastically explosive art.
While many remember Kelly for his work on album covers for bands like Kiss and Manowar, or his equally dynamic covers for horror and film magazines, comics, and even toy advertisements, for those of us at Tales From the Magician’s Skull he will forever be honored as one of the major voices in sword-and-sorcery illustration, a direct connection between our contemporary age and the era in which rediscovered pulps boomed across the collective consciousness and sparked a revolution in fantasy story-telling — both in print and in art.
JUN 17 - Lin Carter: Enthusiast of the Fantastic by Brian Murphy
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Born this month 92 years ago, the late Lin Carter (1930-1988) was, perhaps more than anything else, an enthusiast. He heard the Horns of Elfland, and they called to him like few fans of the sacred genre before or since.
Author of Thongor. Creator of worlds. Self-mythologizer. Awards organizer of the Gandalf, for whose statuettes he paid out of his own modest pocket. Founder of the (mostly fictitious) Swordsmen and Sorcerer’s Guild of America, or S.A.G.A. Generous with his praise, both for the fantasy GOATS, and his peers and contemporaries. Editor of the esteemed Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series (BAFS), which breathed new life into old classics and helped codify the fantasy genre. Frequent contributor to Amra. Capable steward of multiple anthologies including Year’s Best Fantasy, Flashing Swords, Kingdoms of Wizardry, Realms of Wizardry, the Zebra Weird Tales paperback revival, and many others.
Carter wrote lots of fiction. Most of it was of mediocre pastiche quality, with a few sparkles amidst the detritus. But what he never lacked was a boundless enthusiasm for it all.
MAY 31 - Classic Covers: More Roger Zelazny
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Multiple-award-winning and best-selling author Roger Zelazny’s popularity wasn’t just confined to his native United States. Winner of France’s Prix Apollo, translated into dozens of languages, Zelazny’s reach was international and his appeal universal. While many of us will only ever appreciate him in one language, the multitude of artistic interpretations of his highly imaginative stories is something we can all enjoy with yet more Classic Covers.
JUN 3 - A Look at Caveman Stories by Fletcher Vredenburgh
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
That Robert E. Howard’s first professionally published story, “Spear and Fang,” was a caveman story should mean something to the history of heroic fiction and sword & sorcery itself. Perhaps, because it’s not a very good story, it never had the effect a better one might have. But I’m not totally sure; teenage Robert E. Howard already had a sure grasp of the elements that hook a reader craving action and adventure in their stories.
There’s not very much to “Spear and Fang” (1925). Pretty Cro-Magnon girl A-aea is forcefully accompanied into the woods by the haughty and threatening warrior Ka-nanu. Very quickly, they’re set upon by a ferocious, animalistic Neandertal who proceeds to dismantle Ka-nanu. Later, A-aea is saved by the object of her affections, the brave (and artistically inclined) Ga-nor. All ends well and love will bloom in the savage dawn of mankind.
JUN 7 - Dehumanizing Violence and Compassion in Robert E. Howard’s “Red Nails” by Jason Ray Carney
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Robert E. Howard’s sword and sorcery tale “Red Nails,” published as a three-part serial in Weird Tales in 1936, tells the story of the city of Xuchotl, the enduring, blood-soaked war between the Tecuhltli and the Xotalanc, and the dehumanizing effect of sustained hatred and violence. “Red Nails” engages with several ancient literary tropes, but the one that centers “Red Nails” is what I term “the stalemate war.” By focusing on the stalemate war between the murderous Tecuhltli and insane Xotalanc, I hope to bring into focus a surprising facet of Robert E. Howard’s most famous sword and sorcery character, Conan of Cimmeria: the way the barbarian maintains his humanity through compassion.
First, let me briefly clarify what I mean by the literary trope of “the stalemate war.” Identifying tropes and patterns in literature and popular culture is more an art than a science, but it’s fun and often reveals surprising dimensions to works. Why storytellers hew to these enduring patterns, who knows? Some speculate that these mythic patterns are evolutionary residues, instinctual psychological narratives that unconsciously narrate the crucible of our evolution. Their origins notwithstanding, there are undeniable recurring structures of story that resonate with us, and so storytellers return to them over and over, hone them, and reinvent for their own purposes. Robert E. Howard did this with “Red Nails,” and he did this masterfully.
JUN 10 - Classic Covers: Frank Frazetta’s Lancer/Ace Conans
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Second only to Robert E. Howard in importance in the development of the perception of Conan, Frank Frazetta’s explosively elemental take on the Cimmerian achieved instant cultural cache and has become the defining image not only of Howard’s most famous creation, but of the barbaric hinterlands of fantasy fiction itself. Frazetta’s frenzied depictions of havoc and battle, his iron-muscled killers taut with violent fury, his churning vistas of bodies in conflict beneath rust-red skies, presented a gritty, dynamic vision of the bloody world of sword-and-sorcery fiction — a graphical apotheosis for a sub-genre that was no longer tucked away in moldering pulps, but instead enthusiastically smashing through the doors of mass culture.
The long-running Conan series helmed by de Camp and Carter was the entry point for a generation of readers newly discovering the original tales of Robert E. Howard’s barbarian adventurer—along with a mixed bag of pastiche and repurposed stories from other Howard heroes.
JUN 14 - Classic Covers: Ken Kelly
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
The world of fantasy illustrators has lost one of its most prolific and long-running practitioners, Ken Kelly (May 19, 1946 – June 3, 2022). From the classic Berkley Medallion line of collected Robert E. Howard to the modern Baen reissues, Tor Conan pastiches, and Wildside/Dorchester Weird Works of REH — and the thousands of fantasy and science fiction books from every major publisher in between — Kelly’s art was a ubiquitous presence on the paperback rack for half a century. Tutored by “Uncle Frank” Frazetta, the undisputed master of brooding sword-and-sorcery illustration, Kelly incorporated Frazetta’s high-contrast interplay of light and dark and sinuous, dynamic character modeling into his own brand of frenetic, physical, and fantastically explosive art.
While many remember Kelly for his work on album covers for bands like Kiss and Manowar, or his equally dynamic covers for horror and film magazines, comics, and even toy advertisements, for those of us at Tales From the Magician’s Skull he will forever be honored as one of the major voices in sword-and-sorcery illustration, a direct connection between our contemporary age and the era in which rediscovered pulps boomed across the collective consciousness and sparked a revolution in fantasy story-telling — both in print and in art.
JUN 17 - Lin Carter: Enthusiast of the Fantastic by Brian Murphy
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Born this month 92 years ago, the late Lin Carter (1930-1988) was, perhaps more than anything else, an enthusiast. He heard the Horns of Elfland, and they called to him like few fans of the sacred genre before or since.
Author of Thongor. Creator of worlds. Self-mythologizer. Awards organizer of the Gandalf, for whose statuettes he paid out of his own modest pocket. Founder of the (mostly fictitious) Swordsmen and Sorcerer’s Guild of America, or S.A.G.A. Generous with his praise, both for the fantasy GOATS, and his peers and contemporaries. Editor of the esteemed Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series (BAFS), which breathed new life into old classics and helped codify the fantasy genre. Frequent contributor to Amra. Capable steward of multiple anthologies including Year’s Best Fantasy, Flashing Swords, Kingdoms of Wizardry, Realms of Wizardry, the Zebra Weird Tales paperback revival, and many others.
Carter wrote lots of fiction. Most of it was of mediocre pastiche quality, with a few sparkles amidst the detritus. But what he never lacked was a boundless enthusiasm for it all.
It's a high time for crime around here.Brother Cadfael's murder mysteries, MI6 spies, and organized crime are infecting us!
I wonder if these other genres are represented in the New Edge S&S topics/books at all.
Just finished this non S&S book. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
During a Writing Class last year, author Howard Andrew Jones suggested I read Donald E. Westlake (aka Richard Stark)'s Parker series to (1) to add variety to my steady dose of Sword & Sorcery [this is a dark, noir crime thriller .... not fantasy adventure] and (2) experience reading economical writing and optimal information flow (i.e., "reveals").
As HAJ indicated, this was not only fun to read, but it is a fine example of an entertaining book that also demonstrates highly-efficient prose; each sentence delivers only what it has to, and Stark/Westlake perfected when to add detail (i.e. Brand names or key adjectives). Also perfected, chapter-to-chapter information reveals; the reader only receives what they need, but five chapters in you'll realize that each section unravels key context from all the prior ones.
Finished Vol 1 of The Blood of Roses. Beautiful and cryptic. Slower paced with select doses of brilliant action. I just ordered Vol 2 ( originally this was all a singlw UK specific novel). Has me thinking of her style and how she intentionally keeps the reader confused thru multiple methods.Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Richard wrote: "Do you have a story that you would like to see in print? Does that story fit within the sub-genre of Sword and Sorcery? Does it feature the excitement and adventure found in a Burroughs or Brackett..."I may have something in a few months. Thx for the call out.
I started reading Night's Master in electronic form but switched to a paperback of The Blood of Roses.
Michael Fierce (aka Darth Fierce) wrote: "Cool. And btw, every story I've read by Bill Ward has been excellent."Bill Ward does write some nice yarns. Here's my review of "the Last of his Kind" S&S collection. Maybe someone will try him out in our next group read.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Tales From the Magician's Skull Blog May 27th 2022 Round-Up
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/
Blogger Master and Skull Minion of the Fifth Order, Bill Ward, continues to collect and share splendid incantations. Here are the latest six:
May 6: Classic Covers: Fred Saberhagen
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy series, Fred Saberhagen is best known for his Berserker series of far-future space operas in which a beleaguered mankind squares off against a malign machine intelligence, and the Swords series, detailing a massive conflict involving numerous key players and their unique swords of power. Often combining magic, post-apocalyptic, and military themes in his fiction, Saberhagen’s steady output through the second half of the twentieth century ensured that not only did his larger-than-life narratives entertain a worldwide audience, but his work inspired dozens of first-rate cover illustrations during the boom years of commercial fantasy paperback publishing.
May 12: Adventures in Fiction: Roger Zelazny and the Chronicles of Amber by Steve Bean
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
The idea of space gods seems somewhat commonplace today, but Roger Zelazny is the reason that most of us are familiar with them. Today, Steve Bean explores Zelazny’s work and the impact it had on both fiction and gaming. By virtue of his unusual last name, Roger Zelazny is last in Appendix N. This author wonders: “How many readers have never gotten all the way down the list, leaving Zelazny a mystery?” And so, around the anniversary of his birth, let’s take a look at this three-time Nebula Award winner (nominated 14 times), six-time Hugo Award winner (coincidentally, also 14 nominations) and “last-but-by-no–means-least” author, focusing on his best-known work: The Chronicles of Amber.
May 17: Classic Covers: Roger Zelazny
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Roger Zelazny’s explosion onto the speculative fiction scene was practically the horn blast announcing the coming of science fiction’s New Wave, at least in the United States. This fresh injection of modern literary techniques and counter-culture sensibilities into the genre of robots and rocket ships sparked a fertile period of experimentation that saw the genre develop a keen interest in the interior world of the human mind, inverting the frontiers of exploration from the distant and impersonal far corners of space, to the inner life of the individual.
Zelazny combined headlong pulp pacing with literary experimentation and a fine ear for language — as well as an almost mischievous love for the juxtapositions of myth and modernity. While he played with structure and technique in his stories, and freely combined tropes from multiple genres (as in many of his greatest works, such as the Amber Series, Lord of Light, and Jack of Shadows), Zelanzy’s racetrack mind was one of wildly creative invention, nothing like the de(con)structionist mindset of many of those embracing the New Wave as an opportunity to undermine what had come before. Zelazny, a natural storyteller of tremendous imagination, strengthened the foundations of fantasy and science fiction even while exuberantly constructing his own inimitable edifice upon its stones
May 20: No Darkness Without Light: Roger Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Godlike beings in competition, the bending of natural laws, a multiplicity of strange environments, the collision of magic and science, characterization rooted in myth and metaphor, and stakes of cosmological or world-shattering import – Roger Zelazny’s most popular fiction, be it his Amber Series, his brilliant Lord of Light, or the subject of this essay, Jack of Shadows, showcase the inherent fascinations that inform much of his work. Not that a grab-bag of story elements alone could possibly define an author – particularly one as creatively unrestrained as Zelazny – but if you should see such a grab-bag flung over the back of a man in a hurry, shades black, cigarette canted, perhaps as he races with seemingly suicidal speed atop a growling chrome hog though the log-jammed streets of conventional narrative, then you’ve just spotted one of the wildest storytellers of the twentieth century. Run after him!
May 24: The Far-Flung Literary Webs of Manly Wade Wellman by Brian Murphy
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
I’ve always been interested in the great chain of influence, the through-lines from one writer to the next. And I still get a thrill when I discover them, or better yet, experience them in the texts themselves. One of these great through-lines is Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986). While he does not seem widely read today, the threads of Manly’s life and work are inextricably woven through horror and sword-and-sorcery, from the pulps all the way up to the present day. Even if you haven’t read him, odds are you’ve experienced Wellman in one way or another.
There is a clear literary chain from H.P. Lovecraft to Wellman, on to Karl Edward Wagner and Stephen King. I think it continues in Joe Lansdale, whom Wellman must have influenced, though my somewhat cursory internet research has not turned up anything definitive (Wellman did influence King, who influenced Lansdale). You can see the similarities in the authentic regional voice both use in their stories.
May 27: The Adventures of Elfboot and Hellstallion: Roger Zelazny’s Dilvish, the Damned
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Roger Zelazny’s Dilvish, the Damned is a collection of short stories that includes both some of his earliest work, and later stories written with the established authorial voice familiar to fans of his Amber Series. One might say that in tone and style Dilvish, the Damned is as odd and unpredictable as the titular character’s adventures. Beginning with some of Zelazny’s earliest writing, two pieces that originally appeared in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination in the mid-60s written in the mode of a Dunsany or E.R. Eddison, and ending with work from the late seventies and early eighties, much of which was written to expand the story cycle to book length, Dilvish, the Damned is as much a fun romp through sword-and-sorcery fields as it is a snapshot of Zelazny’s evolution as a writer.
