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

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

Added an "anthologies" shelf and started listing the books from the thread. Also added a "collections" shelf and start adding books soon.

We've been considering the group's Bookshelf and how helpful it is. The recent Anthology thread helped a lot towards this.
These are a few thoughts on how to modify and improve it:
1)Move all books to the "read" shelf. Use the "to read" shelf about upcoming releases only. The "currently reading" shelf is formed (up to this point) by your comments on the what are you currently reading?" thread.
2)Add more shelves or rename/rearrange existing ones. The shelves created so far, are:

classics-genre-history
comics-graphic-novels [Should we add only the first volume in a series?]
magazines-short-stories [only Black Gate magazine listed so far, perhaps rename this: "magazines-anthologies-short fiction"? the short fiction part may be useful for kindle entries, where short stories are listed as books]
media-tie-in [RPG-related "shared world" or movie adaptations]
non-fiction-biographies
of-genre-interest [this shelf needs a lot of work. it contains books from Gary Gygax's list to Rafael Sabatini]
planetary-romance-sword-n-planet

Should we add a gaming-related (i.e. gamebooks/modules) shelf?

3)Regarding series and multiple editions: The Elric, Conan, Lankhmar and Dying Earth series for example.
I have added the Elric series from the recent DelRey collected editions. The "Stormbringer" book (with the gorgeous Whelan cover) has also been added. Should we keep both entries of the book?
The same happens with the Conan series. I have added the two-volume, Gollancz/ Fantasy Masterworks, but it may be better to add only the Delrey editions.

Many books are still missing from the shelves. Comment below and offer your suggestions (providing a link for the book, if posssible) or write which shouldn't be on the shelves. I will start adding the books mentioned in the anthology thread.

Please, share any thoughts and suggestions you might have about this...

Joseph wrote: "OK, I'm officially interested."

I became aware of Gonji through Joe Bonadonna's article on Black Gate, where he writes:

"What Rypel gave us was another complex, thoughtful, and even cultured warrior born and bred in the samurai tradition, a warrior trying to live by the Bushido Code, against all odds. Five excellent novels of Gonji were published, again pushing the envelope, breaking through boundaries and expanding the genre of sword and sorcery."

Ted C. Rypel's Gonji, is a character I've always wanted to read about. He seems like a genuine Sword-and Sorcery outsider, an eastern warrior exiled, fighting supernatural horrors and a cosmic -"Moorcockian"- (i.e. Multiversal) conspiracy.
An update earlier today (on the official FB page) announced the release of the newly remastered versions:

"The first book of The Deathwind Trilogy---RED BLADE FROM THE EAST---which launches the Gonji Series, is prepped and ready for imminent release in paper and e-book from Borgo Press. All that remains is wrangling over the covers to be used for the series, as art budgets are limited at a small press like Wildside (Borgo's parent company), and artists, like everyone else, generally need to be paid. But we'll come up with something. I'm just being stubbornly picky, since this Gonji reissue for a new generation of fantasy readers is important to me.

The second and third books of the trilogy, THE SOUL WITHIN THE STEEL and DEATHWIND OF VEDUN, are being prepped now.

No new word on the releases of the remaining books on audio from Audible. The first book has been available for some time, on CD and MP3, from the usual places---Amazon, Audio Realms, Audible, etc. The rest were slated to start coming out by the end of the year. But they all needed to be recorded, and I'm not kept in the loop for that procedure.

Neither are there any updates on the releases of the anthologies containing the new Gonji tales "Reflections in Ice" (from Wildside) and "Dark Venture" (Tor Books). "Reflections in Ice" is a stand-alone revision/expansion of an excerpt from FORTRESS OF LOST WORLDS (Gonji 4). "Dark Venture" is a hyperkinetic action-orgy in an adventure-fantasy/horror tale; a long novella (40,000 words), featuring Gonji in his youth, on the run from Japan, with both human and supernatural agencies chasing the price on his head.

I got a genuine kick out of going over the old novels in the series for these Borgo Press reissues. I seemed to become more engaged in richer presentations of the stories as I went along. Thus, what began with some tweaking in Book 1 evolved into some restoration of excised material (clumsily executed by Zebra Books in the 1980s) and rewriting in Book 2... until, by Book 3, I was clarifying ideas and foreshadowing events for the books to come, and adding new material, to the tune of 4000 additional words in the final trilogy book!

Books 4 and 5, though, shouldn't require or inspire anything nearly so elaborate. Just some slight polishing.

He said, with a shuddersome muse chuckling icily over his shoulder..."

Joseph wrote: "I'm not saying it's a good sword & sorcery film, but I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Beastmaster yet. It was another of my formative films back in the day."

I really enjoyed Beastmaster. That and The Sword and the Sorcerer.

This is a very good sum up Josef. I'd love to see if there are more anthologies out there. Perhaps we could add Rogue Blades entertainment's anthologies (Return of the Sword, Rage of the Behemoth and Demons: A Clash of Steel Anthology) or the two Pitch-Black Books anthologies (Lords of Swords & Sages & Swords: Heroic Fantasy Anthology). I've also noticed G.W. Thomas' Swords of Fire. Also, from older stuff, the various Thieves' World books. Feel free to add any anthologies missing from the groups' Bookshelf.
My gateway drug into recent S&S authors was Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery.

Interesting link Joseph, thanks for posting.
After watching Reclaiming the Blade I started following the work (and occasional videos) of Hank Reinhart and John Clements. Also this Spartan reenactment group's, History channel, video may interest you.

Phil wrote: "Deathstalker II's blatant recycling of Deathstalker I footage (the orc/pig-man, the skinny guy with the horned helmet eating at the pub) was pretty amusing."

I think you'll enjoy a 2003 film, titled Barbarian. It's a Roger Corman production, somehow retrofitted around the first Deathstalker film (the palace scene near the ending of the original film takes place in this movie's background at some point).

Phil wrote: "My thanks to Perikles for creating the list! [..]I'd been primarily a Dragonlance kid to that point, so this sort of weird, non-PG fantasy blew my mind...."

Welcome Phil and thank you for participating!
It's good you mentioned comics (I also grew up with -translated- Savage Sword of Conan) and Dragonlance (an early reading habit I recently revisited).
Please share any thoughts on what to improve and/or modify on the group.

Phil wrote: "If you have a high tolerance for schlock, the Roger Corman's Cult Classics Sword And Sorcery Collection DVD set is pretty fun and readily available."

I really enjoyed most of these films on DVD or VHS. In fact The Warrior And The Sorceress was a really good Yojimbo rip-off. Out of these four, I think only Deathstalker II was quite unbearable to watch...

Howard wrote: "As to a brief education on Lamb, my old site, The Curved Saber, should tell you a lot of what you need to know...."

More than a brief education, if I may say so, The Curved Saber looks like THE place to read about Harold Lamb. Thank you for sharing this!

Joseph wrote: "It's a total parody, but I have a great fondness for Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire .And a great fondness for Thundarr the Barbarian, come to think of it."

I really liked the Kröd Mändoon pilot. Also, you might like Korgoth of Barbaria.

Quite possibly of Sword & Sorcery interest, the trailer for "Hammer Of The Gods" debuted today.
According to Imdb: "a passionate young man transform into a brutal warrior as he travels the unforgiving landscape in search of his long lost brother Hakan The Ferrocious, whose people are relying on him to restore order to their kingdom.

Hi, I'm Periklis and have been an S&S reader for the past ten-to-fifteen years. I first became acquainted with the genre from local compilations of Fantasy & SF stories, that translated many stories from Flashing Swords and Swords Against Darkness. Apart from Howard's Conan and a few Elric stories, I discovered Wagner's Kane and Saunder's Imaro. It was around 2007, when I picked-up a copy of the Black Gate magazine at a local hobby store and discovered a new era for fantasy literature.
I created this group, initially as a list, in order to gather any relevant information about (written) Sword & Sorcery. I'd like to thank everyone for joining so far and especially Seth for making this work a LOT better.

Jason wrote: "I do find I enjoy them more when I dole them out over a longer period rather than sit down and go at them cover to cover."

Hello Jason and welcome to the group.
I feel the same way about collections/ anthologies. In fact, I'm about to start re-reading We Are All Legends after a long hiatus.

Is anyone willing to write a post on Harold Lamb, here, on the group?

The Brak the Barbarian books - on kindle - $0.99:

Brak the Barbarian - Mark of the Demons

Witch of the Four Winds - When the Idols Walked

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is on-line for free and here's a few sentences from the Sword & Sorcery entry:

"The true father of S&S may be an author no longer widely known for his stories of supernatural adventures: Alexandre Dumas.[...]It is possible, therefore, to see Howard's Conan as a figure combining characteristics of two characters[...]"

"The geography of S&S is designed as an arena for heroes and heroines who awake each morning at the beginning of their lives; it is designed for more to happen."

"In developed S&S, protagonists may often act heroically, but are generally happy to do a deal [...] Where epic fantasy celebrates heroic virtue, S&S prefers moderate virtue allied with good sense and a capacity to compromise."

S.E. wrote: "[...]wrote many essays on how to write weird fiction (which encompassed early S&S, but also early Horror too) and were likewise motivated to write adventures that explored the unknown and evoked emotion (fear/anxiety). The below are short but useful links from these masters[...]"

I especially enjoyed C.A.Smith's essay.
Over the past few months, I've been following Joe Bonadonna's and The Swords & Sorcery League, pages on facebook. Many helpful writing resources & links are mentioned there, over the time, like Plot or Lin Carter's Imaginary Worlds.

Rogue Blades wrote: "As for stretching it, how 'bout Scott Lynch's Locke & Jean?"

The protagonists of The Gentleman Bastard Sequence. Thanks for commenting!