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

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

Any Kevin Sorbo fans may enjoy supporting this Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

Click here to vote on the Nov-Dec groupread.

Top two usually win. Write-in other options in the "your Choice" field.

Barbarian Crowns - Anthology
Dossouye by Charles R. Saunders
Overkill by Steven Shrewsbury
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany
The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien
The IX by Andrew P. Weston
Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues Anthology

All,
This January we'll repeat the popular Anthology theme, with a possible second topic.

But between now and then we have Nov-Dec to tackle, and the group's feedback is needed. What are Sword & Sorcery are you reading that you thinking others should too? Any in your to-read pile that you could use a boost reading? Please share some ideas for us to vote on!

Peter wrote: "I would have submitted something but kept putting it off. Maybe next time..."

Hey Peter, I had hopes one of us would get through phase one of Mark Lawrence's "Great Self-published Fantasy Blog-off!" held this year. Your Black River and my Spawn of Dyscrasia were in the same bracket, and both dismissed (after months of neglect) because of an apparently random "no sequels" rule applied for our section. Ugh/whatever. I had some hopes for some feedback at least; the concept of the event is rather cool regardless. Lots of other dark fiction writers being identified.

s.wagenaar and Joseph, I agree that opening chapter is worthy as an excellent stand alone CASlike story. I don't usually read huge tomes, but this one reads quick, which one may not expect when it is compared to CAS. I'm halfway thru and it seems more inspired-by Smith --- it is a narrative style, but is not as dense.

Double post.... Clark Ashton Smith... Double Shadow?

Weirdbook 31 returns after a nearly 20-year hiatus under the editorship of Doug Draa! In Kindle and Paperback. W. Paul Ganley once received a World Fantasy Award for this series.

Contents of #31:



Chivaine, by John R. Fultz

Give Me the Daggers, by Adrian Cole

The Music of Bleak Entrainment, by Gary A. Braunbeck

Into The Mountains with Mother Old Growth, by Christian Riley

The Grimlorn Under the Mountain, by James Aquilone

Dolls, by Paul Dale Anderson

Gut Punch, by Jason A. Wyckoff

Educational Upgrade, by Bret McCormick

Boxes of Dead Children, by Darrell Schweitzer

The Forgotten, by D.C. Lozar

Coffee with Dad’s Ghost, Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Missed It By That Much, by Gregg Chamberlain

A Clockwork Muse, by Erica Ruppert

The Rookery, by Kurt Newton

Wolf of Hunger, Wolf of Shame, by J. T. Glover

Zucchini Season, by Janet Harriett

The Jewels That Were Their Eyes, by Llanwyre Laish

The Twins, by Kevin Strange

Princess or Warrior?, by S.W. Lauden

Half way through Seven Princes; the pace just stepped up a lot. It reads as a dark Young Adult book; the ~7 prince characters match many tropes, and the good/evil intentions are clear cut (so the characterization is not deep). Fultz's passion for poetic wording works well for me. It is epic in scope and has sudden deaths of characters you may not anticipate, making it feel like a Games-of-thrones slanted toward a PG-13 rating.

Steve wrote: "I have been a professional copy editor since 1987..."

Steve, nice to see you chime in here.

Allison wrote: "Hey! I'm Allison, and I'm a freelance illustrator. I'd really like to get into cover design and illustrating for fantasy novels. I'm here to get to know fellow illustrators, fantasy lovers, and may..."

Hey Allison, welcome! Note we have an emerging pinboard of sorts for networks. Please peruse and add any info. re: your illustration services.

Link to networking folder, which has subtopics:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Rock on Alamojack! I have Stealer of Flesh in queue, so I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

I am chipping away at Seven Princes for the groupread ... but found myself enamored with Walter Rhein's Reckless Traveler... a non-fiction adventure based on Walter's ~9yrs in Peru. He also writes heroic fiction BTW. Anyone who travels abroad may enjoy his biographical chronology. I'm back to Seven Princes now.

Review Challenge: this anthology is written by an established master of weird fiction, was published in 1981 originally, and somehow only has 2 reviews on Amazon.com and Goodreads.com. I am proud to be one who posted. I'd love to get feedback from this group... and to increase the number of reviews on this.

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

We Are All Legends is a must-read for fans of doomed protagonists (Karl Wagner’s Kane, Michael Moorcock’s Elric, David Gemmell’s Druss, etc.). It is Sword and Sorcery for the adult crowd. Darrell Schweitzer tapped into his extensive weird fiction expertise to craft this great string of tales. It is gritty, poetic, and intellectually rewarding. We Are All Legends mixes the horrific atmosphere of H.P. Lovecraft, with the story telling action of R. E. Howard, with the emotive style of C.A. Smith.

Andy wrote: "S.E. wrote: "Hopefully, this grumpy old b**ger has successfully bod..."

Sweet illustrations. Thanks for sharing! and for fighting the HTML

Andy wrote: "Did the three interior illustrations, 'Lilith', 'Warrior' and 'Dragon Ride..."

Andy, no images appeared at all :(

Andy wrote: "Sorry.... now posted, along with a couple of interior illustrations.
I am a sucker for cover art but finding decent artists for Of Demons and Blue Moons was a bit of an ordeal at first. Thanks to F..."

Andy, your cover did not show up, so I add them below using the code hints above the dialogue box:

ADD BOOK/AUTHOR
'Of Demons and Blue Moons': With Interior Illustrations


SOME HTML IS OK
For image: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I...

HTML:

That sounds great! Curious how your cover came out.

S.E. wrote: "In the vein of cursed, wandering Kane, Darrell Schweitzer's apostate warrior (in We Are All Legends) is a must read for Sword & Sorcery fans... well I think so anyway. Read and discu..."

Aug 27th is Darrell Schweitzer's Birthday, so it is timely we celebrate by reading his fiction.

Note that there are a dozen authors, some of which are members here. Read and vote on them ALL: http://grimdarkmagazine.com/pages/the...

A few highlights:

Excerpt from Lawyers in Hell, story by Scott Oden: Vote: http://grimdarkmagazine.com/pages/gri...

Excerpt of The Shadow Cycles by Philip Emery: http://grimdarkmagazine.com/pages/gri...

Excerpt from Lords of Dyscrasia by S.E. Lindberg :
Vote: http://grimdarkmagazine.com/pages/gri...

Just finished The Birthgrave, with review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I really enjoyed reading this experiential novel and am saddened over Tanith Lee’s death. Thankfully, she was a prolific writer and wrote a large library of weird, dark fantasy... I need to read more of her work.