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

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

Thanks for sharing that, wasn't aware of a site dedicated to that. LPs is a nice way of going through the games without losing (reading?) time or days... :)

Good news is, that Square Enix is also developing Thief 4, another "classic" title (which could be considered S&S) from the '90s...

An interesting & humorous post from Richard Lee Byers:

" Blame Zeus. Him and all the other Greek gods who couldn’t keep it in their pants. [...] Or blame Merlin. He engineered or at least endorsed the test of the Sword in the Stone to identify the Rightful King, the dude whose bloodline gives him the mojo to do what others can’t. [...] [W]e also have good old gritty, often cynical, and occasionally downright nihilistic sword-and-sorcery, where antiheroes live and die according to purely personal codes and authority is typically hostile and corrupt. "

...followed by an equally interesting observation by Paul Weimer: "It may have lost some of its cachet as a label, but I don’t think S&S has lost any of its power. If anything, some of the intense character focus and “telephoto” look that S&S offers has been appropriated by epic fantasy."

Paul wrote: "After reading Blood of Ambrose, I have to agree that the short stories work much better than the novels."

I'm sure you'll enjoy This Crooked Way much more. I'm planning on reading The Wolf Age sometime soon. The mixture of werewolves and politics is really enticing.

Jsnows wrote: "Hi everyone. My name is Jorge and, as it seems, like a few others here my introduction to S&S began with the Conan books and magazines.

I'm currently reading Glenda Larke's
Stormlord's Exile. On..."

Welcome Jorge, thanks for joining us. There are two group-reads running, until the end of April:
Ramsey Campbell's Ryre
and Sword and Mythos

Fell free to participate!

I have started Gonji: Red Blade from the East and really enjoying this so far...

I have actually read two or three stories, I fondly remember "The Valley of the Worm". I really have to find a copy of "Spear and Fang". Thanks for recommending this!

An anthology focused on "Barbarism vs. Civilization"? sounds interesting. How about Frazetta's illustrations, are these one-page, B&W illustrations, one for each story?

The latest book in the Kormak the Guardian series is released and author, William King, writes on his blog:

"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilisation is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph. [...] Beyond the Black River illustrates Howard’s theme all too well. [...] It was a story that was very much on my mind when I came to write the third book about Kormak, my monster hunting hero, although I did not realise it at first. I did not consciously set out to emulate Beyond the Black River at all. I originally had something very different in mind: The Hobbit! [...]The elves themselves turned stranger and darker as the book progressed. The spirit of Beyond the Black River seemed to possess them. [Weaver of Shadow] illustrates a somewhat different quote, from another of my favourite authors, George Orwell. Men can only be highly civilised while other men, inevitably less civilised, are there to guard and feed them."

On Black Gate Magazine, Howard Andrew Jones writes:

" I always wished I could find a way to draw more attention to the Flashing Swords e-zine when I helmed it. Well, it’s gone now. But HFQ is alive and well, and doing good work. So I’m using the mighty bandwidth now possessed by Black Gate online to point you to the e-zine. I can personally vouch for the stories I’ve named above. If you’re a fan of sword-and-sorcery and heroic fiction, you owe it to yourself to check them out. Go there, celebrate the stories, and the writers, and the market, because markets are fragile things and should be cherished while we have them. So often, it seems like the only people frequenting the markets are the writers wanting to be published there. I want to send some readers to HFQ.

I hope to see you there. "

Heroic Fiction Quarterly

Terrific masthead and great moodsetter for this read.
I will be reading The Scroll of Thoth: Simon Magus and the Great Old Ones, which collects most of the "Simon of Gitta" stories ever published, in their internal chronology.

Rogue Blades wrote: "Thanks all! Here's the info and list of contributors:

"Fantasy heroes endure. They are embedded in our cultural fabric, dwarfing other literary figures and the mere men and women of history. Achil..."

Really looking forward to this. Especially Esslemont's, Morris' and Cook's entries.

Bruce wrote: "Periklis wrote: "Authors whose stories I'll be looking out for in the future include:
- Bruce Durham- "Valley of Bones", who delivered an excellent tale of musket & magic, a military fantasy tale h..."

Thanks for pointing them out! Regarding "Mortlock", is there a cycle of stories where he's the central character?

Bruce wrote: "I'm ready to crack open The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. I'll admit I'm a bit leery. I really enjoyed The First Law Trilogy, but found Best Served Cold relentlessly depressing. I think Joe is an exce..."

I had the same problem with both books you mention, although Red Country that followed, was much more enjoyable.
On a side note, your " Valley of Bones" reminded me both of Abercrombie and "Nekht Semerkeht". Ol' school S&S with modern sensibilities? or perhaps, the best of both worlds...

I've been reading the entries on Lovecraft and Weird Tales, from The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, co-edited by fellow group-member Mr. John Grant, trying to find a more viable definition...

S.E. wrote: "With the poll for Mar-Apr coming to a close, the front runner theme is Sword & Mythos (weird, Lovecraftian stuff) and will likely win.
Please help define the scope of this, by chiming in on the thread:
What is Sword and Mythos? ..."

I understand Sword & Mythos stories, as Heroic Fantasy fiction in the "sandbox" universe of H.P. Lovecraft. That would include settings and characters associated with HF or Sword & Sorcery often including, faux grimoires, tentacled menaces and ancient deities. Early Sword & Sorcery tales share some of these characteristics, although I'm not sure if the could be defined as Sword & Mythos. A couple of Kull tales and Fritz Leiber's "The Sunken Land" come to mind.

"The Mask Oath" being one of my personal favorites in Return of the Sword, I was wondering if there are more Faceless Sons tales (apart from Gram's Gift), planned or published.

Just finished reading Return of the Sword and it's a first class S&S anthology.I especially appreciated its cohesion and that it serves as a primer for new storytellers writing in the genre. Jason M Waltz has a deep passion and knowledge of the genre, which is evident in the presentation of each story. From the fabulist S&S (Altar of the Moon) opening the anthology to the historical S&S (Red Hands) in the end, RotS has only a few minor notes that didn't fit this symphony of heroic deeds.
Most of my favorite tales fall, either into the "Gemmellian" - heroic last stand category ("The Wyrd of War", "The Battle of Raven Kill"), or stories that fit the "concept of the outsider" ("The Red Worm's Way", "Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow", "The Mask Oath").
Stories that unfortunately didn't resonate with me were: "Altar of the Moon" - a fabulist(?) take on S&S, "Fatefist at Torkas Nahl" - which felt like an excerpt from a longer, epic fantasy work and "Guardian of Rage" - which started-off as a satire(?) but lost me a few paragraphs in...
Authors whose stories I'll be looking out for in the future include:
- Bruce Durham- "Valley of Bones", who delivered an excellent tale of musket & magic, a military fantasy tale hinting at the absurdity of war and the "irony" of being a "war hero".
- Nathan Meyer - "The Hand that Holds the Crown" who wrote a viceral, cinematic tale full of lyricism.
- Lloyd & Clunie - "An Uneasy Truce in Ulam-Bator" for writing a fast-paced yarn with a very interesting "Heroic Duo".
- Michael Ehart, Angeline Hawkes, Robert Rhodes and Jeff Stewart, for writing stories in the classic mode of the genre, bringing back good memories of the past (the Swords Against Darkness series) with a modern voice.
- Harold Lamb - "Red Hands", a master storyteller.
- Phil Emery - "The Last Scream of Carnage", for writing cinematic prose, along with the pyrotechnic experiments of page layout and mixed media, which reminded me of the best, Alfred Bester books.
To conclude, "Claimed by Birthright" and "The Dawn Tree" showcased the glory of
Flashing Swords Magazine and E.E. Knight's essay on the craft was as enjoyable and insightful as Screenplay or The War of Art.

***

(Thanks so much, Jason M Waltz and Bruce Durham)

Jason wrote: "Jason,
That is an absolutely beautiful cover. For those of us not Facebooking it, where can we catch a glimpse of the ToC?"

I found the full cover, titled "The Hunt" on the artists deviantart page.

Phil wrote: "Hi Periklis -
Those early de Camp anthology covers didn't do the form any favours in my opinion - but the final collection of the four, 'Warlocks and Warriors', has my favourite s-&-s image of al..."

Thank you for sharing this, it's really impressive!



As I wasn't aware of this anthology, I was surprised with the inclusion of H. G. Wells' story, The Valley of Spiders.