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

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

S.E. wrote: "Again I am impressed with Charles' economy of words. "A Whisper in Ashes" is a compact dose of carefully selected words and short sentences, but is not dense narrative. Reads fast, yet has depth. ..."

Well said S.E.!
Excellent short story, exactly what I'm looking for in the genre.
Charles, would you like to create a thread here where you can update it everytime you publish something new, like your recent poems?

On a side note, I really liked the laconic & suggestive name of your hero (Krieg being german for war). Hopefully there are more Krieg tales in the making.

Thanks to the Gonji Facebook Page we have an advance look at the cover of Book 3:



" The Borgo Press re-issue of GONJI 3: DEATHWIND OF VEDUN is about to be released any day now (in trade paperback first; Kindle soon), completing the series-opening trilogy. Here's an advance look at the cover... "

Charlton wrote: "Just joined,I've read alot of Salvatore,Feist and Eddings.And several others."

Welcome Charlton, thanks for joining. Hope you find more interesting readings in the group. Have a look at our bi-monthly group reads.

Alexandra wrote: "Hello:)

I write dark adult fantasy and read fantasy (among other genres). Always looking for recommendations too.

I am trying to get hold of the Janet Morris Thieves World books as my BFF recomm..."

Welcome Alexandra, thank you for joining us. You might be interested in this thread, where Janet Morris provides valuable information on the internal chronology of her series & characters.

Charles wrote: "As I read new books and add them to my own list here I'll start adding the right ones to this group bookshelf too. I've been remiss about doing that."

Thank you Charles, much appreciated. Especially since your reading list has been an inspiration in the past...

David wrote: "I did like his short story Viriconium Knights, though the first part more than the ending. I'm not quite certain what defines a book as sword and sorcery but to my mind The Pastel City was pretty m..."

I've created a thread dedicated to Viriconium. Feel free to discuss further there please. :-)

M John Harrison's Viriconium consists of four Books:

1. The Pastel City
2. A Storm of Wings
3 & 4. Viriconium: In Viriconium/Viriconium Nights

Good news from the Official Gonji Facebook page:

"The art designer at Wildside Press told me a few days ago that GONJI: DEATHWIND OF VEDUN---the third book of The Deathwind Trilogy---is in prep right now.

That means it should be released in paper within a few days."

No Return and Gonji: Red Blade from the East. Both terrific books, but since I have little reading time these days, I'm hoping to finish both of them during the Group Read.

I've started the omnibus edition, Tales of the Dying Earth a couple of years ago. My favorite "book" remains volume 1 (The Dying Earth) but I'm really looking forward to reading Cugel's Saga for the first time for the group read.

Jeffery wrote: "Hello all.

I've been a fan of science fiction and fantasy for thirty plus years and have always had a fondness for s&s, especially Moorcock, Leiber, and Howard. I'm also a fan of music with those..."

Welcome Jeffery, thanks for joining us!
We should create a music thread soon.
Feel free to join our Group Reads and present your work to the group.

As always, thanks for the update Randy. Keep us posted please...

David wrote: "As a youth I read almost all the Conan stories (though now I confess I only really like the ones by Howard himself (although I still like other stories by the 'Conan successor authors', I think the..."

Welcome David, thank you for joining us.
Interesting that you mention The Pastel City, an atypical S&S book that some love, others hate. I fall into the first group of readers, after reading it based on a Black Gate recommendation...

Here's a post about the cancelled titles in the saga, along with some great concept art...

Jon wrote: "Howdy! Just joined after Googling sword & sorcery groups on Goodreads and found this result. Glad I did. I'm an author with Baen Books and my new sword & sorcery series, the Shadow Warrior, debut..."

Welcome Jon, thank you for joining us. Your series sounds mighty interesting. Feel free to introduce your Series & characters in this thread.
It's interesting to see Sword & Sorcery inspired by eastern or oriental elements. Many of us have been reading the Gonji series and of course, everything is better with ninjas. Kidding aside, it'll be interesting to read a series informed by authentic Ninjutsu training.
Feel free to participate in the group in any way you prefer. We're finishing our May-June Groupread and voting for the July-August Group Read, here .

I remember Chris Willrich's name from a couple of other posts in the past, but thanks to The Swords & Sorcery League - Facebook Page we now know of a Gaunt & Bone Novel coming out this September from Pyr books:



The book description seems intriguing, too:

"It's Brent Weeks meets China Mieville in this wildly imaginative fantasy debut featuring high action, elegant writing, and sword and sorcery with a Chinese flare.

Persimmon Gaunt and Imago Bone are a romantic couple and partners in crime. Persimmon is a poet from a well-to-do family, who found herself looking for adventure, while Imago is a thief in his ninth decade who is double-cursed, and his body has not aged in nearly seventy years. Together, their services and wanderlust have taken them into places better left unseen, and against odds best not spoken about. Now, they find themselves looking to get away, to the edge of the world, with Persimmon pregnant with their child, and the most feared duo of assassins hot on their trail. However, all is never what it seems, and a sordid adventure--complete with magic scrolls, gangs of thieves, and dragons both eastern and western--is at hand."

The Revelations of Zang for Amazon-Kindle:

"A collection of dark fantasy tales with a metaphysical edge, full of grotesque wonders and weird splendor. Artifice the Quill flees from tyrant sorcerers into a world of strange magic, ancient gods, and exotic kingdoms. The exiled author joins a traveling troupe of performers known as the Glimmer Faire, where he learns the magical power of art and the art of magical power. These Twelve Tales of the Continent alternate between the exploits of Artifice and the adventures of Taizo the Rogue, a master of skullduggery who sparks a rebellion in the name of bloody vengeance. The Lost Gods of Narr were displaced a century ago by the Sorcerer Kings, a council of dictators who rule the Golden City with necromancy, alchemy, and terror. The mysterious folk of the Red Isle foster dissension in Narr by smuggling their enchanted goods into the city, while the ancient Zang Forest expands itself across the lands of men, devouring farms and towns as it reaches to smother the wicked city. Now that the Lost Gods are returning to destroy the world, only Artifice, Taizo, and a small band of rebels have any hope of preventing the apocalypse. Seven of these interrelated stories are previously unpublished, including the 16,000-word novelette “Spilling the Blood of the World,” which brings the entire Zang Cycle to a staggering finale."

J.W. wrote: "Hello all! I'm J.W. Kent, I started reading sword and sorcery when I was in high school... Howard, Carter, Buroughs... I really enjoyed Howard's non-Conan books as well... the short stories he did ..."

Welcome J.W. and thanks for joining us. I think it was in that cycle of stories that "Red Sonya" (later popularized as Red Sonja) was introduced as a character.
Feel free to introduce your work in this thread.

I've been slowly making progress with Swords Against Death. The humor in "The Seven Black Priests" didn't work that well for me, but Leiber's writing and characterization is always superb. It also seems to be the story that inspired the title of The Bones of the Old Ones.
Also started my Vintage S&S book, Flame Winds. So far, it seems on par with early S&S, especially Robert E. Howard's stories. The author seems to cross-reference many historical sources (like Howard did with his " Hyborian Age") in order to create an exotic landscape for his swordslingin' hero.

A Second Teaser-trailer was released a couple of days ago...