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

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

Thx to my daughter, Ive become a fan of anime/manga like Deathnote and Attack on Titan (especially the latter). Note sure what to take from this pirate Luffy thing :)

Started Skelos for the Jan-Feb book read.

Just polished off Lumley's Hero of Dreams. Reminded me a lot of his Khash series and Shea's Nifft the Lean.


If you put Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray mouser in Lovecraft's Dreamland you would get Lumley's Hero of Dreams
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Interesting blog post shared in Facebooks Heroic Fantasy group:
http://www.castaliahouse.com/skelos-m...

Seems similar to Fletcher's Blackgate article: https://www.blackgate.com/2016/10/04/...

It is on 3 Sword & Sorcery magazines
Weirdbook 31
Skelos
Cirsova: Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine



I did not know about Cirsova...any one read that?

Peter wrote: "I just finished Fata Morgana, a classis S&S anthology, with stories translated in Dutch. A review will be up soon, some great stuff. And of course I'll read some BCS issues!"

Peter, I thought of you while making the banner. Glad you are ready to share some of your many BCS reviews.

Looking forward to your Fata Morgana review too.

Richard wrote: "Thanks for the links for the anthologies! There were several titles I was completely unaware of."

Yep, author G.W. Thomas's website rocks. Great database of Sword & Sorcery anthologies.

Anthology vote: As per tradition and respect for the short stories that initiated Sword & Sorcery, we'll be reading Anthologies for the Jan-Feb groupread.

Looking for one? There are many. Check out these links...great listings by GW Thomas:
NOTE: these awesome database links appear defunct in Jan 2017, and we are checking with GW Thomas about status
(a) Anthologies and contents of each - 1963-1985
(b) Anthologies and contents of each - 1986-2008

Browse our group's "Anthology" bookshelf
Feel welcome to add books to the list!

Browse last year's Jan-Feb discussion


Web Anthologies Count too!:
Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly

Me? I'll be digging into Skelos by Mark Finn. It's a new magazine I backed via kickstarter:

Masthead Banner Credits


Representing “Unhewn Throne”: Richard Anderson’s cover for Brian Staveley’s The Providence of Fire (second in the Unhewn Throne Series).

The Emperor's Blades
The Providence of Fire
The Last Mortal Bond
Skullsworn

Jan-Feb 2017 Groupreads Topics have been decided!

Link to Anthologies Folder : Yes this is our annual tradition of delving into new and old short stories that are at the heart of the genre.

Link to Staveley's Unhewn Throne Folder : And its time for novel reading too!

Masthead Banner Credits

Representing “Anthologies”: Raphael Lacoste’s cover for the Beneath Ceaseless Skies’s Issue #209, Eighth Anniversary Double-Issue — September 29, 2016. Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #209 by editor Scott H. Andrews

Representing “Unhewn Throne”: Richard Anderson’s cover for Brian Staveley’s The Providence of Fire (second in the Unhewn Throne Series).

S.wagenaar wrote: "Welcome Raoul, you have come to the right place. You will find a wide range of S&S, heroic fantasy and dark fantasy here. I am of a similar mindset as I feel Howard's work is the core of traditiona..."

Welcome Raoul! Every 2 month period we have group reads, and this Jan-Feb we will be reading anthologies---there are many old and new and help find "new" authors in the genre.

Return of the Sword and Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues are some contemporary examples. Even magazines like the new Skelos and Weirdbook 31 work as anthologies.

Lots of these authors are members here too!

S.Wagenaar gave a great list: other novel length heroes/series may include Michael Moorcock's Elric and Glen Cook. Right now I'm reading Lumley's Hero of Dreams...which is like Leiber's duo stuck in HPL's dreamland.

Reading Hero of Dreams by horror aficionado Brian Lumley. Discovered it by running into publisher Paul W Ganley at the World Fantasy Convention.

This is part of a series: picture Fafred and the Gray Mouser adventuring in Lovecraft's Dreamland.

Jack wrote: "So, it's time for me to read a Conan pastiche. I planned to read Wagner's Conan: Road of Kings, but then I looked over my Conan bookshelf. So many good choices, some of unknown quality...I then rolled 1d100 die for a -51-. This gave me book #13 (covering the range 49-52). Book #13 is:."

Nice. RPG-like determination of bookreading.

I recall you trying to read the whole Lancer series. You still chomping away at that?

http://www.blacklibrary.com/now-on-ki...

Black Library finally moved to Kindle!

Thats a lot to read!

Greg wrote: "Ugg.. not a fan of Robert Jordan's Conan..
You ask me Jordan made Conan, PG13. Some -not all- of John Maddox Robert's Conan was pretty good. I still need to read Karl Edward Wagner's. I would th..."

Interesting; I've only read one Conan pastiche (via this groupread...it was Wagner's only one).

I am curious if members here have a "must-read" pastiche of Conan. ie, which one is "best"

Just wrapped up Wagner's Conan: The Road of Kings.

The milieu was true to Hyborbian Age as discussed above. Also, it followed Conan's development from buccaneer to potential king well; this would serve as a great prequel to REH"s only novel length Conan story The Hour of the Dragon.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Tim wrote: "Hello everyone! My name's Tim. I'm Washington State in the US, but I live in China. Currently, I'm working on my 4th novel, which is the start of an Asian fantasy series. Anyway, I just joined the ..."

Welcome Tim! Lots of good discussions here....folder names are representative of content. We always have groupreads going on (in two month intervals, usually two topics per period).

https://images.gr-assets.com/photos/1...

Howard Andrew Jones frequents here; he's been a big advocate for Lamb.
http://www.howardandrewjones.com/writ...

He even edited some of Lamb's editions:
http://www.howardandrewjones.com/hero...

We had a group read for Swords-sans-sorcery which was focused on Lamb
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


Stuck with my phone... tough to make this look prettier

Wow, this looks provocative:

http://www.vulture.com/2016/11/grant-...

Any Grant Morrison fans?

Here is a part of the interview:

"Jesus Christ may be the title character, but Der Führer makes a prominent appearance in this story. As any serious Grant Morrison fan knows, you’ve already penned a few tales about the guy. To what extent is Savage Sword of Jesus Christ a sequel to The New Adventures of Hitler?
Well, it started out as a sequel, way back in 1990, when I'd just finished that book with artist Steve Yeowell. Obviously, I had done a lot of research for that one, and I just came across this interesting idea that during the Second World War, the Nazis had attempted to rebrand Christianity, and rebrand Christ, specifically. Take him away from the gentle and peace-loving character of the Gospels, and to transform him into a Nordic and brutish and violent Messiah. Back then, I thought, “Well, there’s definitely a story in there.” But it’s taken 'til now to do. It suddenly seemed that this was a story that was much more pertinent now than it was even then. We kind of resurrected it with these artists, the Molen Brothers.

“Resurrected” being the key word. Why do you say it’s more relevant now?
We’re living in a time when it’s quite clear how even the most pacifist stories or narratives that one time were a lot more positive, can be perverted to stand in as catalysts for violence and mayhem. Especially now that we live in a world where we’ve seen that lies can easily be overlooked, and where celebrity culture is more powerful than the truth, and where people can quite happily twist any narrative to suit any new narrative, and almost twist narratives into their complete opposites, which is what the Nazis tried to do with the Gospels."

Cool. That one looked really good. After deliberation, I directed my Kickstarter funds into cooperative games but instead (Zombicide Black Plague and Deep Madness). Would like to hear your thoughts as you try it though.