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

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

Bruce wrote: "Hi, I'm Bruce Durham and I'm a S&S author and fan (sounds like an AA intro...). I discovered S&S way back in the 60's while perusing a selection of pocketbooks and coming across a title with artwor..."

Welcome Bruce, thank you for joining!
I'm looking forward to the re-release of "The Marsh God", as mentioned on your website.

Sarah wrote: "Hi, I am the Muse of Hell for the "Heroes in Hell" series started by Janet Morris in the 1980s and rebooted in 2011. I have two short stories published in the anthologies Lawyers in Hell and Rogue..."

Welcome and thank you for joining, O Muse!
I have added the "Tempus and his Sacred Band" books on the group's Bookshelf. Feel free to discuss these books, here and here. Also there is a Poll running, about a future group read.

Howard wrote: "Hey gang -- sorry I've been a little absent the last few days. It's book launch week, and I'm crazy busy running around promoting my next novel, The Bones of the Old Ones."

I really enjoyed reading Bones of the Old Ones and I'm grateful for the opportunity that allowed this to happen. The BookPage review is spot on!
Good luck with promoting the book, I'm eagerly waiting for the next Dabir & Asim adventure.

Jonathan wrote: "Hi everyone,

My name's Jon Moeller. I came to sword-and-sorcery via computer games, specifically the old Infocom "Arthur: The Quest For Excalibur" text-based adventure game, the "Quest for Glory"..."


Welcome! Thank you for joining us. Feel free to participate in the group, if you like, and promote your work in this thread.

Black Gate Magazine after 15 printed issues, started publishing short story fiction, online, for free. Here's the announcement, from the founder & editor John o'Neill:

"We are very pleased to announce that Black Gate magazine, your home for the finest in adventure fantasy, will begin publishing original online fiction starting Sunday, September 30."
"What can you expect from online fiction at Black Gate? We will be presenting original fiction from some of our most popular contributors, as well as exciting new authors and many of the best writers in the industry. All stories are presented completely free of charge."
"We will be offering fiction at all lengths, including short stories, novellas, and novel excerpts. It’s just like reading an issue of Black Gate, except you can do it from the comfort of your couch. Or that uncomfortable chair in front of the computer, whatever."

Here is the complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction.

John wrote: "Hello, everyone; and thanks to Periklis for inviting me to join.

I write as John Grant, and my S&S qualifications, outside a few short stories, are that back in the late '80s and early '90s I wrot..."

Thank you for joining us!
I first encountered your work, as co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Having read the Lone Wolf gamebooks, I'm really interested in reading their novelisation, as their essentially a Sword-and-Sorcery take on game-books.
Albion looks like a very interesting read of fantasy/S&S through a slipstream/New Wave of SF "lens", from the little information I could find on the Encyclopedia of Fantasy:
"set in a Land whose common people have only short-term memory except for rote activities, it depicts the tyranny imposed by those equipped with full memories [...] in fact it is an exploration of the relationship between physical and created Realities, both of which JG depicts as parts of the "polycosmos", a Multiverse".
Good luck with your work on the encyclopedia of film noir and feel free to join us in any discussion, here on the group, when your time allows it.

Thank you for joining! I'm looking forward to discovering your work, after reading these sample chapters of Miserere. Also, this blurb convinced me that your book fits very well in the group's Bookshelf:
"Miserere is about redemption, and the triumph of our best impulses over our worst. It's also about swords, monsters, chases, ghosts, magic, court intrigues and battles to the death. It's also (and this is the important part) really, really good." - Alex Bledsoe

How about the Sword and Sorceress anthologies?

Phil wrote: "Hand-painted sword & sorcery movie posters from Ghana"

Interesting link Phil, thanks for sharing. Funny thing is, the last painting (the "Deathstalker 1") looks almost like a hagiography painting (painting of a holy patron)...

After receiving a newsletter from NewCon Press (where it had a 144-pages-long short story sampler attached), I was happily surprised to notice this announcement:

"NewCon Press are proud to announce that we are collaborating with the Gemmell Awards to produce an anthology of all original fantasy stories. The book (working title Legends) is a tribute to David Gemmell and his work, and will be published, in part, to raise funds for the Gemmell Awards.
Legends will feature an exciting array of stories from many of the world’s leading fantasy authors. It is due to be unveiled on the opening night of World Fantasycon, Brighton, 2013, which hosts the Gemmell Awards for the first time."

This announcement precedes the Adrian Tchaikovsky short story "Fallen Heroes" in the sampler and confirms that Tchaikovsky will be one of the contributors in the anthology.
Having a look on the registered guests of the World Fantasy Convention, I really hope that many of them may be a part of this...

Indeed, most Wuxia films could be considered (the Eastern equivalent of) S&S cinema. I'm thinking of the recent Detective Dee (who reminded me of W.H. Hodson's Carnacki character). Perhaps what doesn't make those films S&S on first glance, is the "epic" scale of them. On Dragon Inn, in particular, there are three versions of the same story (Dragon Gate Inn (1967), New Dragon Gate Inn (1991) and the recent Flying Swords of Dragon Gate 3D) and each of them takes a step towards "widescreen" epic.
King Hu's (director of the first Dragon Gate Inn) films feel more S&S , mostly due to the morally tormented characters. I'd highly recommend Come Drink With Me (1966) and Touch of Zen.

I've added the artbooks shelf.

Joseph wrote: "I think the shelves as listed make sense. For of-genre-interest, I wonder if we should split it into non-fiction (for things like The Blade of Conan where it's more of a collection of essays rathe..."

Thanks for the suggestions and additions, so far, Joseph. I renamed the shelf "fiction-of-genre-interest" and "non-fiction-biographies" (or perhaps rename it to: non-fiction- biographies-studies?). Hope it works better this way.
What do you think about multiple editions of long series/characters (Elric, Lankhmar or Howard's works)?

Joseph wrote: "Speaking of the Pitch Black anthologies, did Lords of Swords II: Fantasy Fiction Anthology ever actually exist? Or will I only find a copy if I venture to some other portion of the Multiverse?"

Seems you're right. Found this thread here on GR. I shall remove it from the Bookshelf.

Welcome Jason and thanks for sharing your passion for the genre. I really enjoyed your story "The Duellist" on Black Gate. Feel free to promote your work (as mentioned above), share your views and maybe offer some suggestions regarding the group's Bookshelf. There is also a poll concerning a possible group read/discussion.
I look forward to reading your future writings & posts.

M.d. wrote: "I'm MD Lachlan - author of the Wolfsangel series and soon to be author of the Son of the Morning series from Gollancz under the name Mark Alder.
Sword and Sorcery's in my blood - ..."

Thanks so much for joining. Son of the Morning seems mighty interesting. You could promote, present or discuss this upcoming work of yours (or any of your books) in the Promotional Space thread, or start a new post, either in the General Discussions thread or Writing, Crafting Dark Fantasy.

I have added the Historical Fantasy and Sword and Soul shelves. Here's a post on the definition of Sword and Soul.

Read Milton Davis' blogpost here :

"Sword and Sorcery is one thing, but Sword and Soul? [...] Sword and Soul is Sword and Sorcery with black people! [...] Add to the mix my love of history and the idea came to me to create fantasy stories based on African history, culture and mythology as a way to entertain and educate."

Phil wrote: "Nice. As a samurai history fan living in Japan, this is relevant to my interests. Now all we need is a revival of Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Tomoe Gozen books."

Fingers crossed for a Tomoe Gozen revival...

Thank you for starting this thread Joseph and thank you everyone for participating. I've created a thread where we can discuss how to arrange the group's Bookshelf and added the books listed so far in the anthologies shelf.
I was thinking about creating separate shelves for "anthologies", "collections" and "Gate-way-Drugs" or "introduction to S&S" (unfortunately no more than 30 characters allowed). We should discuss this on the Bookshelf thread.
And Howard, I'm anxiously waiting for more obscure titles from your library!