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

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

Joseph wrote: "I finished Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword (lots of swords; no magic) and The Fall of the Kings, and started Thomas the Rhymer (both..."

@Joe, I've never read Ellen Kushner, but I've had her on my radar (partly because she has Ohio connections, and I have a strange state-patriotism when it comes to fiction. Her magic based ones appeal to me, and your good-ratings helps too.

@Ashe, I think you'd like Chip Shop.

Just finished Chip Shop Horrors ... not S&S, but an anthology of horror focused on street vendors, french fries, and gluttony. A quick read, like fast food :). Now back to The Birthgrave....

Phil thanks for sharing. "Jews with Swords" looks interesting for sure.

Via Facebook's REH page, I found this post.

Solomon Kane Timeline (Link)

It is the first of 5 parts, originally posted in 2013.
Awesome chronology of Solomon Kane's adventures.

Jeff Jones image:

Death Panel Explains Why Going To Hell Is Welcome At Anytime (link) (round table interview with 7 of the 11 authors -- "Doctors in Hell" a Heroes in Hell anthology: Janet E. Morris Christopher Crosby Morris ZombieZak Snider Andrew Paul Weston Jack William Finley Joe Bonadonna and Richard Groller).

Some authors from the Doctors in Hell anthology convened for a death panel to decide your fate. Your affliction needing help? Well, you heard about the recent release of this book but realized it is #18 in the Heroes in Hell series... is it okay to jump in now? You are a bit timid to jump into death, so why not have the tour guides explain your worries away?

Black Gate continues to publish thorough reviews of Tanith Lee's works:

The Novels of Tanith Lee: The Wars of Vis by John O’Neill

The Novels of Tanith Lee: Tales From the Flat Earth by John O’Neill

The Novels of Tanith Lee: The Secret Books of Paradys by John O’Neill

The Novels of Tanith Lee: Days of Grass by John O’Neill

The Collections of Tanith Lee by John ONeill

Tanith Lee’s Secret Books of Paradys by Matthew David Surridge

Return to The Flat Earth: Reviving a Masterpiece by John R. Fultz

Tanith Lee’s Lionwolf Trilogy by John R. Fultz

Watch out Ashe, Greg is drinking your beer

Greg, that's funny.

The Mammoth Book of Warriors and Wizardry has Tanith Lee as a contributor, so that can feedback into the groupread! Jack and others reading that, please share your thoughts with the group when ready on that collection.

I have Lee's The Birthgrave in queue, but have been first sucked into Hell...Doctors in Hell actually. Good stuff.

Jon wrote: "Greetings, all!"
Welcome Jon, you are a fine addition to a group of like minded author/readers. I was more into Talisman back in the day, but Heroquest looks good. BTW of board games, I just backed a cool "Zombicide: Black Plague" board game due out in Dec; so RPG board games are on my mind.

Check out all the discussions, from the groupreads (Tanith Lee and Solomon Kane for next two months), to networking, etc.

Charles, this group has a history of enabling purchases :). Your books are all ~99cents too, or close to it. To feel less guilty,I'll pimp your wares:

http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Gramlic...

Charles wrote: "I'd like to get this. As soon as I manage to get a month where my budget doesn't run in the red."

Charles, it is just 99 cents :), for the Kindle. So that lower the bar a little. Assuming you are talking about The Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK TM, Vol. 4: Nictzin Dyalhis

Thanks to group member Joseph, I bought and read the obscure Nictzin Dyalhis' Weird Tales, just released as The Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK TM, Vol. 4: Nictzin Dyalhis.

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

In short:

Today Dyalhis's name and work is more obscure, but his style well represents the mash-up of the weird-fiction genre. The soup of weird ingredients seldom complement each other as well as they do in this volume. Karl Edward Wagner's 1991 anthology Echoes of Valor III that has three stories by Nictzin Dyalhis and as I was reading these obscure tales, I learned from the Sword and Sorcery group that this MEGAPACK was just released (April 2015). This one has seven stories (6 from Weird Tales and 1 from Adventure), and is a steal at $0.99 (Kindle, 2015 price).

...

The first five stories are various twists on the same premise: reincarnation/past-lives are real phenomenon; and everyday humans get embroiled with ghosts, gods, and aliens anxious to tell tales and seek vengeance. Trippy sequences make apparitions tangible in real life, and send our protagonists into dreamy alternative realms. Dyalhis was enough of a chemist to infuse his knowledge of electromagnetic radiation into his creatures, magic, and sci-fi technology; he does this in most all his stories. Expect a great mix. There are “lost worlds” here, and dwarves with axes (not the fairy tale type, and decades before J.R.R. Tolkien), and there are Star-Trek-like sorties from Vehnuz (Venus) to Aerth (aka Earth) that pits humans against pudding-like Lovecraft creatures (written after Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars series), but still decades before space travel); there is even a Sword and Sorcery tale that takes our hero to a realm that is actually the incarnation of the emotion Hate.

Jason M wrote: "Yay! I finally selected and finished a book that qualified for a current group read! :) My brief thoughts on Barry Sadler's MORITURI https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."

Looks interesting, Jason. Glad you shared. Where did you hear about Morituri? I never heard of Barry Sadler actually.

Kidgreg wrote: "For any interested; I just posted my review, that I did for The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, that I did a few years ago."

Kidgreg, nice review: Here is the direct link to it:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

"What makes Solomon Kane so endearing to read is, on one hand, Solomon Kane is the archetypal swash-buckler -- much like a character from a Robert Louis Stevenson adventure story. On the other hand (probably the left because left-handedness was once thought to be of the Devil), Kane is as foreboding as what he faces -- most often horrors as nightmarish as anything Edgar Allen Poe ever created."

I'm re-watching the Solomon Kane movie now (~$8 USD from Amazon for BlueRay). I enjoy this

Amazon review: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1XQVU2...

A new Kane: This Solomon Kane is not R.E. Howard's hero (Howard being the originator of the character with his ~1930's pulp fiction), but the movie remains true to the core elements that made the Solomon Kane stories so appealing for Howard fans: dark adventure, witches and witchcraft, puritan vs. devil conflict, cool creatures, and emotive imagery. Rather than a puritan hunting Satan's devil with immeasurable passion, Michael Bassett portrays Solomon Kane as a rebellious royal avoiding the devil claiming his sinful soul.

Ultimately the conflict is still "Solomon Kane vs. Devil", but rather than Howard's paranoid crusader who was ostensibly "good" (motivated by his perception of God to confront evil), we get treated to an anti-hero who avoids being dragged to hell. This Kane tries to renounce violence, joins a ministry, and eventually gets paired with some Puritans--so he still wears the Puritan hat and fights devils. Sparse guns exist, but this is best classified as Sword & Sorcery. Those disappointed in the 2011 movies of the same genre (Season of the Witch 2011 and Conan the Barbarian 2011) should be very excited to see horror-fantasy done professionally. With the mix of adventure and spiritual horror, expect a blend of the infamous Exorcist (1973) with Jackson's famous Lords of the Rings movie trilogy.

Joseph, thanks to you for identifying and sharing the megapak availability. I'm about 70# done... I'm counting this as my "obscure group read".

Anyone here of Scourge of the Blood Cult
1961 publication


I caught wind of this via watching Richard Lee Byers's facebook page.

From the back cover teaser: "Violence and sadism gripped the land! Baring their bodies to the lashes of cruel whips, the blood-cultists incited the terrified townspeople to join with them in spreading the mystic scourge over the whole nation. But the young and two-fisted soldier Malcolm MacAlpine wielded a slicing sword as he led his troops against the blood maniacs on the loose."

T.C. wrote: "Highly effective sample of the LORDS OF DYSCRASIA audio book. Read with dignity and authority, and in a fitting dramatic cadence that doesn't rush this challenging passage of rich and complex expo..."

Thanks TC! Thomas Hackett has a great voice, and his accent matched the European/medieval milieu well. Thanks for checking it out. It is wild to work with a voice professional to bring "text" to sound.

I have promotional codes I need to distribute, so I post some here. If anyone in this group has an audible account, its pretty simple:

1) Head to the site: Audible.com Link to Lords of Dyscrasia

2) Enter the code for a free credit: These are one-time-use codes, so if a code doesn't work its probably taken, just try the next on the list! If they are taken, just PM me...or wait for me to add some more codes here.

H64CSLGHRAENS
DZLBDXZTL3FUS
YR9PPYA5WRUYA

3) Rate or review as you see fit.

Phil Overby and the Grim Tiding podcast (with Rob Matheny) is growing in popularity quickly....and they have some neat news:

"Huge news on the podcast front. Rob Matheny and I will be interviewing R.A. Salvatore for The Grim Tidings Podcast in September. Many of my friends know I was a huge reader of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books back in the day and Salvatore's The Cleric Quintet, The Dark Elf Trilogy, and The Icewind Dale Trilogy (as well as the computer game) were big influences on my love of fantasy early on. Drizzt is also one of my favorite fantasy characters of all time. It's surreal to think I'll get to interview an author I idolized and read extensively as a teenager. I'm beyond pumped for this! grin emoticon Our podcast is listed at the bottom! http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/..."