Periklis’s Comments (group member since Sep 30, 2012)

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

LOVE Mignola's covers on these...

Swords Against Death (V.2) is more representative of the duo's adventures as it saw printing in the magazines of its era. Short action-packed tales, often filled with horror and/or humour.Swords and Deviltry (V.1) is as good as place as any to start though...
I've been slowly reading The First Book of Lankhmar (v.1-4, internal chronology) and it's really nice to see these two characters grow older, but not necessarily wiser.

Love Rogues in Sword & Sorcery tales, so this is going to my (endless...) to-read shelf.

Here's a link to the Giveaway.

Joe Abercrombie writes on his website:

" [...] There’s nothing quite like seeing a good artist bring your work to life, and when you find a great artist you’ve got to give them some freedom to do it the way they see it. On this job Andie Tong has done the work of casting agent, wardrobe co-ordinator, set designer, and all the actors, and there’s a degree to which this really is his vision of the books. But at the same time Chuck Dixon with his master’s eye for adaptation, Pete Pantazis with his vivid and varied colours, and Bill Tortolini with his lettering and design, have all added their own stamp to it, each under the close supervision of my one flaming eye, of course, to produce an ensemble effort that I feel is a unique take on the material, and one that I’m very happy with and proud of. "

It seems that the First Law Trilogy will be serialised for free, updated every Monday-Wednesday-Friday.
Every 22-page issue will be available for purchase digitally on Comixology and there are plans for a Hardcover Collection filled with extras.

Jeremy wrote: "Greetings to all. I am a huge Sword and Scorcery fan. Like most I really got into the Conan books at a young age and I love reading just about anything set in the Forgotten Realms world. I am an av..."

Welcome Jeremy, thank you for joining us. Feel free to introduce your book on this thread, or join this month's group read.

There is a 50% discount on Beyond Sanctuary and The Fish the Fighters and the Song-Girl on Amazon-Kindle.

Here are the links:

Beyond Sanctuary

The Fish the Fighters and the Song-Girl

Thanks to Rogue Blades Entertainment Facebook page for the update!

Janet wrote: "We have released two Sacred Band Tales as audiobooks, and are working on an audiobook for The Sacred Band. These two audiobooks are both from audible.com, but use different narrators. I'd love so..."

Thanks for posting and especially the background info. From the samples above I prefer "Wake of the Riddler"'s narrator.

Thanks for posting this. I wasn't aware of Forrest's blog.
I'm not afraid that Amazon (the Corporation) will censor reviews like it does on its site. For one it may make Librarian Status more difficult to obtain which is not such a bad thought, as there have been a number of times where books added, have disappeared. Worse case senario, it'll probably keep the social platform aspect of GR but make it more difficult for indie authors to promote themselves. Like the Amazon PoD branch, Lulu press.

Great news from RBE's Facebook page:

"Henceforth, all RBE anthologies will be part of one continuous anthology line (numbered on the spine, distinguished by the subtitle in the colored banner line) and priced at $14.99 US. Note: Challenge! titles (Yes, they're still coming) will be their own numbered series and remain priced at $9.99."

It's ironic that Goodreads librarians were forbidden to add book descriptions based on Amazon. One nasty effect I can think of is, Amazon restraining authors from promoting and/or reviewing their work.

Janet wrote: "I was a fine arts major in school. My first cover was a Boris, commissioned by Bantam for High Couch of Silistra. I didn't think it matched the description, so I got Bantam to arrange for me to t..."

There are two ways to add an image. Either:

(some html is ok)> image:> and choosing: width 300 height 400> add the url of the image.

or, add book/author> type book title> choose add cover

I have added two covers mentioned above:

William wrote: "Thanks for re-posting this Periklis. I feel I should point out that the lines quoted are from a link I posted to Charles Rutledge's blog :). It has inspired me to do a post about Kane which should ..."

Thank you for posting this, I didn't mentioned Charles but attached a hyperlink on the text to his original blogpost. Looking forward to your post about Kane!

I created another thread dedicated to The Gonji Series here. Feel free to continue the very interesting discussion there.

P.S. thanks to T.C. Rypel for his active participation!

Mr. Rypel wrote on another thread:

"Back in the late '70s, as a very young fictioneer, I developed the highly unusual, cross-culture/myth/genre character Gonji Sabatake, a halfbreed samurai/Viking, as it were. His life-story arc covered a bizarre series of adventures involving an age-old tyranny ruling over multiple, concentric worlds (including our own historically accurate---save for the monsters and magic!---16th-century Earth).

Around the same time as George Lucas, I came to the similar crossroads he faced with his nascent STAR WARS: What if I manage to get ONE of these out, and there isn't sufficient commercial interest to continue it, much less complete it? Which PART of the story arc would I then most like to (*sigh*) leave hanging our there for posterity to regard as a curiosity?

Again similarly to Lucas, I decided to do the pivotal turning point in the protagonist's life---in my case, involving Gonji's pivotal meeting/alliance with another "singularity" character who was also chosen as a kind of "sword-arm of Destiny." This first, long-prophesied encounter would occur during an epic siege of the legendary city of Vedun, in the escarpments of the Carpathians. (Yes---Dracula territory. I find it therefore ironic that the books should be reissued by "Borgo" Press, whose name resonates in Stoker's novel!)

That massive book---DEATHWIND OF VEDUN---was published in the '80s by Zebra Books in three volumes (exasperatingly treated as three SEPARATE books by the publisher, a criminal misdirection that has been corrected for the Borgo Press reissue). Happily, they proved immensely popular, were kept in print for several years, and were followed by two more books in the series before Zebra turned its stripes and canceled their entire line of fantasy, concentrating on other, more lucrative genres. (Gonji simply wouldn't fit the parameters of their Romance list, though there is romance within its pages...to a degree...)

For the next few books, they had insisted that I move FORWARD in time with Gonji, though I'd argued my case for doing the three "young Gonji" books, which would have dramatized material that turns up in the published books as tantalizing hints at what had transpired earlier to bring the character to his increasingly bizarre quest.

So only "Dark Venture"---which I hope will be out soon, as beta readers have been intriguingly enthusiastic about it---exists as a completed narrative concerning Gonji at 20, whereas the novels pick him up in his 30s.

The Gonji Prospectus, a 10,000-word document that details his entire life, calls for three early books (beginning before his birth and bringing us up to the Battle of Vedun) and three more that cap the widening import of the character's life-work, as dramatized in the extant five books.

Existing books 1-3 comprise a single work that must be read in sequence to complete its broad narrative. Books 4 and 5 can be read as stand-alones, though they advance the ominous framing story arc. Running characters and themes reappear in the tales, and everything/everyone is resolved in the end.

Will there be an end? Contemporary demand will tell..."

P.S. Mr. Rypel, also offered his input regarding Gonji in these two threads.

Noticed this from William King's Fb:

" Got a notice from Centipede Press that the publisher has acquired the rights to reprint the adventures of Karl Edward Wagner's hero-villain (Karl hated the term anti-hero) the immortal Kane. I know a lot of folks have been waiting for this as the Nightshade Press hardback books have been out of print for some time and have become very expensive in the collectors market. Even the old Warner paperbacks demand high prices.
The plan is for the books to be illustrated, and Centipede is looking at possible artists right now.
There would be four hardbacks, one for each novel, Darkness Weaves, Bloodstone, and Dark Crusade, and a volume collecting all the short stories. I'm hoping the size and format will be in line with the recent Centipede KEW horror collections so I can line it all up together on the shelf. No word on pricing, but hopefully the books will be in line with the other Wagner volumes as well. An affordable set of Kane books for new readers and old fans.
KEW's estate has reported that the Kane books will be available as Ebooks this year as well. A Good year for Kane fans."

Great news all together but Centipede Press is known for their pricey editions. Good news is that there are Kane e-books planned...

From John R. Fultz's Website:

"So here’s the just-finished cover for my first-ever short story collection. [...] This collection will be released in a few weeks—first on Kindle and later in a limited print run. Artist Josh Finney (Titanium Rain) has outdone himself!"



" Pictured here are Artifice the Quill and Taizo of Narr, who are the two main recurring characters in these twelve interrelated tales of dark fantasy.
I once referred to these stories as “Pen & Sorcery” (rather than “Sword & Sorcery”) because their central protagonist is an author/playwright instead of a sword-swinging warrior. Yet there is plenty of swashbuckling adventure and fantastic sorcery here. "

Read, "When the Glimmer Faire Came to the City of the Lonely Eye" at Black Gate Online Fiction.

I tried listening to a A Game of Thrones but it was a straight reading of the book. Compared to Pacey's masterful narration in Abercrombie's book, it felt disappointing...

Peter wrote: "Two books I bought on the merits of the covers alone and really, really enjoyed weere:
Legend A Blackbird in Silver"

Welcome to the group Peter. Nice picks. The "Legend" cover is probably painted by Mark Harrison. How about "A Blackbird in Silver", is it as good a tale as its cover?

Tom wrote: "Hello to all of my companions in Sword & Sorcery! My name is Tom. I joined the group just over a month ago and have been truly inspired to recapture a large piece of my life that I had drifted away..."

Welcome Tom, thank you for joining us.
It's interesting that, apart from most things (comics, RPGs) common to S&S afficionados, you mention audiobooks. Are there any particular titles that worked best in this format? Feel free to discuss it in this thread.
Thanks also for bringing your enthusiasm to the group!

Have you "read" any S&S books in audiobook format?
Feel free to discuss in this thread.

My personal experience with audiobooks was with The Mongoliad: Book One and Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold, read by Steven Pacey.