Tales from the Magician's Skull #5 in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Jan 20, 2021 S.E. Lindberg rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery, reviewed-by-se

Heed me mortal dogs, Sword & Sorcery fans will devour these tales!:
Tales from the Magician's Skull #5 provides six new tales printed in superb format, with a bonus essay on Harold Lamb. And take in that beautiful cover by Manuel Pérez Clemente (better known as Sanjulián)!

As per the Tales from the Magician's Skull series, all are graced with RPG item/character statistics so readers can play out the stories, or play with key parts of them; the stats are in Dungeon Crawl Classics form which can rea ...more

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Dec 23, 2021 Jason Waltz rated it it was amazing

Sweet cover! Nice addition of the Howard Lamb profile. Oh, and a complete series of S&S tales, no matter how you define it! A very well-rounded and delightful quality magazine.

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Jan 03, 2021 Clint rated it really liked it

Shelves: sword-sorcery, dead-trees, 2021, fantasy, anthologies-and-zines, sword-sorcery-group-read

Issue 5 continues the trend of a high quality magazine (the paper of this book has such a nice tactile feel), good art, with a stellar cover by Sanjulian depicting a scene from the story “The Guardian of Nalsir-Fel”. The stories rangefrom 3 star at the low end to 4 star on the average. My three favorites from this issue are marked with a *.

“Pool of Memory” by James Enge. A Morlock Ambrosius story. Well written, and this has been one of the best in my opinion, but I have not yet become a Morlock Issue 5 continues the trend of a high quality magazine (the paper of this book has such a nice tactile feel), good art, with a stellar cover by Sanjulian depicting a scene from the story “The Guardian of Nalsir-Fel”. The stories rangefrom 3 star at the low end to 4 star on the average. My three favorites from this issue are marked with a *.

“Pool of Memory” by James Enge. A Morlock Ambrosius story. Well written, and this has been one of the best in my opinion, but I have not yet become a Morlock fan. 3 Stars

“The Guardian of Nalsir-Fel” by Adrian Simmons. Two street performers get caught up in a rescue mission. This had a “hustle and heist” feel to it that I appreciate. 4 stars.

*”In the Corridors of Bone” by John C. Hocking. Benhus the King’s Blade returns. His past actions nearly catch up to him and the reader learns a bit more about the King our antihero is protecting, as does Benhus. JCH’s Benhus stories have been a frequent occurrence in TftMS. I am a dedicated fan. 4 stars.

*”Road of Bones” by Violette Malan. A story of the mercenary duo Dhulyn and Parno. Malan’s tales of Dhulyn and Parno have not failed to entertain me yet. This one is my favorite so far. Malan takes a real sickness and tells a good story with it. This was my favorite story in the issue. 4 stars.

“Dreams of a Sunken Realm” by Adrian Cole. Mr. Cole returns with more pastiche of Henry Kuttner’s Elak of Atlantis. I have encountered a few Adrian Cole’s Elak pastiche. I appreciate what is being done, but have thus far found them adequate. 3 stars.

*”Demons of the Depths” by C.L. Werner. My second favorite story in the issue. Shintaro Oba the demon slayer takes on...well, I don’t want to spoil it. Trust me. It’s wicked cool. 4 stars.

In addition, Howard Andrew Jones gives a brief profile of Harold Lamb and his works.

In the first four issues, statistics for Dungeon Crawl Classics were given for monsters and items. This time around, just monster stats were given.

Tales from the Magician’s Skull is on the vanguard of keeping Swords and Sorcery relevant. Support it. Seek it out. You want more encouragement? Issue six will feature pastiche of two of Lankhmar’s most famous citizens by Nathan Long. ...more

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Dec 12, 2023 NOLA Bert rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery, fantasy

Issue No. 5 of Tales From the Magician’s Skull continues the high quality consistent with the earlier issues. I own them in print and the paper quality is top-notch. There are six stories in this issue along with a few articles. My favorite stories included “The Guardian of Nalsir-Fel” by Adrian Simmons, editor of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, “In the Corridors of the Crow” by John C. Hocking, a really interesting Benhus tale that left me very curious as to how Benhus would consider his service to b ...more

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