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

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

Thanks for posting this Joseph.
His Dying Earth remains one of my favorite readings.
From the obituary at Tor.com:

“ I wrote The Dying Earth while working as an able sea-man aboard cargo ships, cruising, for the most part, back and forth across the Pacific. I would take my clipboard and fountain pen out on deck, find a place to sit, look out over the long rolling blue swells: ideal circumstances in which to let the imagination wander. ”

Kirk wrote: "Hi everyone. I've been following the posts and I find that the better fantasy series, and Sword & Sandal(Spartacus), all have something in common. An emphisis on the dramatic elements of the story ..."

Hi Kirk, good point there. While I wasn't eager to try watching Hercules and Xena again any time soon, an introductory remark from Slaine creator Pat Mills, pointing out the drama and gritty realism of a certain Xena episode, made me want to check it out. Seems he was right and when Xena left her weapons down interesting things started happening. If you're not familiar with Slaine, a fine British S&S comic-book series, here's a fan-film that does a good job portraying all the things that make the comic stand out.

Thank you for introducing your heroic duo. I'm intrigued by the "Momentary God", so may I ask how magic & religion (the "sorcery" in S&S) are featured in the series?

As for the "swords" part, it's illustrated on the book's evocative cover:


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Links of interest:
*The Hammer and The Blade - Pocast on Functional Nerds
*Howard Andrew Jones and Paul S. Kemp - Pocast on Functional Nerds
*Paul Weimer's review of The Hammer and The Blade

Milton J. Davis wrote a very interesting Sword & Soul chronology on Black Gate:

"Charles R. Saunders [...] create[d] a character that added an important perspective to sword and sorcery, Imaro [...] a man whose skills rivaled that of Conan’s, but whose world was grounded in African culture, history, and tradition. [...] What’s been happening with Sword and Soul in the five years since my publishing company MVmedia hit the ground running? [...] I know the readers embrace the variety; maybe one day mainstream publishers will as well. Until then and after then, Charles, myself, and others will continue to create fantastic stories. It’s what we love to do."

Jason M wrote: "Thanks for linking this, very cool!"

Issue two was released for purchase a couple of days ago: Joe Abercrombie's The First Law The Blade Itself #2.
So far, it complements the original work in a great manner...

Jason M wrote: "Yes, these all were great discussions, and the ones I was a part of were also great fun. It is most enjoyable gathering with friends to discourse on a topic of mutual interest to all."

These were great inspiration on reading S&S. I recall being interested in the Malazan cycle upon hearing your description of it. Something like "an epic fantasy series with S&S characters and scenes" if I recall...

The SF Signal Podcast (Episode 108): 2012 Sword & Sorcery Mega Panel Part 1

The SF Signal Podcast (Episode 110): 2012 Sword and Sorcery Mega Panel, Part 2

Joseph wrote: "[...] Highly, highly recommend those podcasts -- they had some great discussion and introduced me to a number of fine authors."

Currently reading No Return, which is a cross-genre gem (or a genre mash-up) of Science Fiction, Superheroes and Sword & Sorcery.

P.S. I'm adding the two "Mega Panel" podcasts to this thread.

Fletcher wrote:

"Just finished Gonji: Red Blade from the East by group member T.C. Rypel and posted a review on my site. [...]

T.c. wrote: "I look forward to your review of the first Gonji book and, hopefully, the subsequent books in the series.
Thank you again for your time and attention, surely the greatest compliment a reader pays ..."

It's up. http://swordssorcery.blogspot.gr/2013... I'm looking forward to the rest."

Paul wrote: "Hi! I'm Paul S. Kemp. I've been an avid reader of sword and sorcery since a friend first gave me Swords Against Death. From there it was more Leiber and Fafhrd and the Mouser, then Howard and..."

Welcome Paul, thank you for joining us. If you're interested in introducing your heroic duo to us, Egil and Nix, you can start a new topic here.

Thanks for sharing the good news!

So, so far there are three "Faceless Sons" stories:

The Mask Oath
Gram's Gift, and
Demons, Within and Without.

Is this a closed cycle of stories (perhaps 5 stories-long?) and should we hope for any new stories this year?

S.E. wrote: "Haven't watched the Deathstalker movies yet (in queue for this weekend), but I have graphed out the data from the Sword Cinema site Bruce had pointed me toward. Commentary on this on my blog: http..."

Great research Seth! If you decide to push your Deathstalker experience to the limits, there is a 2003 sidequel, titled Barbarian.

Steve wrote: "I just returned a contract to publish "Demons, Within and Without," a new Faceless Sons sword -and- sorcery tale, in Swords and Sorcery ezine. Link should go live soon, and I will share here when i..."

Looking forward to reading this... and hoping a "Faceless Sons" collection is in the works, too!

Joseph wrote: "I finished Thief's Covenant and False Covenant, both by Ari Marmell, and both of which I quite enjoyed, and decided to go back a ways -- I have a Kindle compilation of Lord Dunsany's works, so I'm ..."

Sounds great! Dunsany could also be considered Vintage S&S...

With the May-June Groupread having started yesterday, I've picked "Flame Winds" for the Vintage S&S part. I'm curious, since it's been listed as one of the earliest Sword & Sorcery books, first published in Unknown - June 1939 .
Also reading The Second Book of Lankhmar.

The Swords & Sorcery League broke the sad news, that Andrew J. Offutt passed away.

Read the obituary from Locus Magazine:

" Writer Andrew Offutt, 78, died April 30, 2013. Offutt wrote and edited more than 75 books, including fantasy, SF, and erotica. He was twice president of SFWA, serving from 1976-78. [...] In the ’70s and ’80s he wrote several novels about Robert E. Howard’s characters Conan and Cormac Mac Art, and contributed significantly to the Thieves’ World shared universe in the ’80s and ’90s. He also edited several volumes of the Swords Against Darkness anthology series in the late ’70s. "

"DeathStalker I" and "The Warrior and the Sorceress" are definitely worth your time & money. Barbarian Queen (1) was cheesy, but short (a little over an hour) and quite enjoyable. I couldn't get through DeathStalker 2-4 to be honest. I wouldn't recommend Barbarian Queen II, too...

Jason wrote: "Shameless Plug II: The Return of Shameless Plug.

I know that the folks frequenting this group are not lacking for things to read, but I thought I'd throw this up as my last tale to appear at Black..."

Great news. I'm bookmarking it now, for reading it later in the week. One thing that I really need clarified is, is this your last story for Black Gate, or just your latest, with many more *fingers crossed* to follow? ;)

Feel free to continue this discussion (hopefully filled with updates regarding Volumes 3&4) in The Gonji Sabatake Saga thread ;)

io9 ran a an article on S&S films of the '80s that could be possibly be revamped as modern TV series:

" Now that HBO’s Game of Thrones has stoked the public’s appetite for quality fantasy TV shows, other TV networks need to get in the game. There’s a gold mine of good and/or cheap (mostly cheap) ‘80s fantasy movies just begging to be remade into modern TV series — here’s nine of ‘em "

I wasn't even aware of "The Dungeonmaster" and its cheesy glory. I could also imagine "Hawk the Slayer" or "Deathstalker", even "Beastmaster" and "Ladyhawk" (mostly due to the Warg connection with "A Game of Thrones") being made into a TV show.
There was however a '90s Conan TV series, that managed to be as enticing as the 2011 re-boot. And that is probably a lesson in caution...