S.E.’s Comments (group member since Nov 01, 2012)

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

Makers of Zombicide have HATE out now, a competitive boardvgame made for Mature slaughterers!

Based on the "grim dark" warhammer art of Adrian Smith

Kickstarter Link to HATE

Al, way to tackle the 40 stories and share. Art of War: Anthology for Charity looks good!

BTW, a very-critical blog post on Castaliahouse on the The Book of Swords just posted. Anyone agree/disagree that the collection is soft on action? or not classical S&S?

CastaliaHouse blog link on "The Book of Swords"


Contents:
- The Best Man Wins by K.J. Parker
- Her Father’s Sword by Robin Hobb
- The Hidden Girl by Ken Liu
- The Sword of Destiny by Matthew Hughes
- "I Am a Handsome Man", Said Apollo Crow by Kate Elliott
- The Triumph of Virtue by Walter Jon Williams
- The Mocking Tower by Daniel Abraham
- Hrunting by C.J. Cherryh
- A Long, Cold Trail by Garth Nix
- When I Was a Highwayman by Ellen Kushner
- The Smoke of Gold Is Glory by Scott Lynch
- The Colgrid Conundrum by Rich Larson
- The King’s Evil by Elizabeth Bear
- Waterfalling by Lavie Tidhar
- The Sword Tyraste by Cecelia Holland
- The Sons of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin

Rogue Blades Entertainment is back in 2018, starting submissions again. Not necessarily Sword and Sorcery like its early works (Return of the Sword, Rage of the Behemoth, Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology....) but still could take those!

http://roguebladesentertain.wixsite.c...

I had no idea at the time that the story was slated for publication. A mark of how entertaining it is ; I could remember it a year later. The story is great by itself (and even better knowing the Challenge context: ie make a story from the cover).

Ok cool story. Ready Discovery! Challenge.

Got to “Someplace Cool and Dark” by FREDERIC S. DURBIN. Its first person, weird funny and dark .... and I heard this exact story before! It took me a while to figure it out, but I heard him read this at the WFC 2016 in Columbus OH.

Black Library / Warhammer:

Starts January 11th ish

Here is the blurb:

Want to write for Black Library? Think you've got what it takes? Now's your chance to prove it, as the Black Library Anniversary Open Submissions window is, well, open.

Find out more here, including all your questions asked and advice from Black Library's authors: https://www.warhammer-community.com/w...

John and Al,
Awesome.
Please reshare (or post future feedback on) your anthology feedback re: Groits and Art of War in the current Anthology group read (LINK)

Two stories into Rogue Blade Entertainment's Challenge! Discovery, in which the cover image was used to inspire all the stories.

Witch with Bronze Teeth by Keith J. Taylor = 5 star blend of military Warhammer-esque battle and zombie horror;

Fire Eye Gem by Richard Berrigan = 3 star; too corny for me (stars a do-good Kimmeriorian barbarian named ‘Jack’?)

Onto #3...

Welcome Henry and Clint!

Joseph wrote: "Having said which, of the original six Elric books (Elric, Sailor, Weird, Sleeping Sorceress (a.k.a Vanishing Tower), Bane, Stormbringer), only Stormbringer and Elric of Melnibone are actually novels -- the rest are short story collections or fix-ups. If you want an Elric novel (and you've read some of the short stories),"

Joseph hit the nail on the head there about the Elric saga being short story derived.

On a side note, there was an ok anthology of 1994 pastiche Elric: Elric: Tales of the White Wolf .... might be a fun read/connection to the Anthology Groupread. It has an entry from Karl Wagner, with a Kane-Elric crossover in it.

Kindle version free right now: Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Kyrik-Fights-D...

Kyrik Fights the Demon World Book #2

Kurt Brugel posted this in the Sword & Sorcery Facebook group
Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse Book #4 free right now on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Kothar-Conjure...

Al wrote: "Just started the Art of War anthology."

Awesome, Al. Please report back in the Group Read - Anthology thread as you dig into that monster tome.
Link =
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

People seemed to enjoy my chronicling of the Spawn of Dyscrasia cover (a Ken Kelly commission).

So I detailed how Helen's Daimones's cover came about in a 3-post blog: Link to connected blog posts (click here)

In short, it's been a honor connecting with Daniel Landerman. He makes movie posters and concept art for a living but free lances on occasion. Feels good to have virtual horror's realized in art. Of course, art & creativity are the source of magic & disease in the series. Hopefully by looking at the cover, you will be corrupted :).

Phil wrote: "I also backed Tales From the Magician's Skull and am excited to begin it. Hoping it will get a Goodreads entry soon..."

Phil, I made an entry for "Tales" Tales from the Magician's Skull #1

At the time of that entry's creation, I did not have ISBN's and some other key info, but we can add that later.

Recall, most magazines are essentially Anthologies and count for this groupread. John Oniel at Black Gate posted some thoughts on recent magazines of interest:

John Oniel:
“
2017 closed out with a splendid crop of new magazines, featuring fiction from Mary Robinette Kowal, Matthew Hughes, John Hornor Jacobs, Matthew Kressel, Gardner Dozois, Robert Reed, Octavia Cade, and a feature on one-shot vintage magazine digests by BG blogger Steve Carper. Here’s the complete list of magazines that won my attention in late December.

https://www.blackgate.com/2017/12/31/...
“

Happy new year, all! From scrolling my updates, I know many are reading anthologies already. Feel welcome to chime in and link to any reviews.

I'll be delving into Challenge! Discovery soon.

I've received my notfication via the Facebook Page for Gardner Fox.
If you follow it, you'll see the same notfications

https://www.facebook.com/Gardner-F-Fo...

Check the Gardner Fox author page on Amazon; every few days the “free” ones shift.

All,

A new anthology is our Feb 13th: Art of War: A BookNest.eu Anthology with Tales of War by Forty Masters of Fantasy.. The cover was just revealed:



From fantasybookcritic.blogspot., an excerpt:

The Booknest blog is made of several cool folks and while they are a relatively newer blog, they are doing things better than most accomplished ones. Last year they raised funds (to the tune of $4400) to support the Doctors Without Borders program. This year they decided to go one step further and create an anthology with an amazing roster of authors. The anthology is titled ART OF WAR and here’s the impressive lineup of authors assembled:

- Mark Lawrence

- Ed Greenwood

- Brian Scott Staveley

- Christian G. (Miles) Cameron

- John Gwynne

- Sebastien De Castell

- Mitchell Hogan

- Stan Nicholls

- Rob Hayes

- Charles Phipps

- Mazarkis Williams

- Ben Galley

- Graham Austin-King

- Michael R. Fletcher

- Nicholas Eames

- Anna Smith Spark

- Anna Stephens

- Ed McDonald

- RJ Barker

- Sue Tingey

- Benedict Patrick

- Michael R. Miller

- Dyrk Ashton

- Laura M Hughes

- Steven Poore

- Timandra Whitecastle

- Steven Kelliher

- J.P. Ashman

- Brandon Draga

- David T. Palmer

- Anne Nicholls

- Dominick M. Murray

- RB Watkinson

- M. L. Spencer

- Charles F Bond

- Andrew Rowe

- Ulff Lehmann

- Tom Gaskin

- Zachary Barnes

- Nathan Boyce

- With a foreword by Brian D. Anderson