Far Away and Never in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Oct 23, 2022 Joseph rated it really liked it

A collection of Ramsey Campbell's early sword & sorcery stories, which remind me of nothing so much as H.R. Giger paintings -- disturbing, organic, ... glistening; repellant but poisonously fascinating. ...more

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Nov 15, 2021 Derek rated it really liked it

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery, anthology-or-collection

In a way you have to look at this collection in reverse. It leads with the more mature, formed stories of the mercenary Ryre and progresses earlier in the author's writing to the formative "A Madness from the Vaults" with its early conception of the planet Tond and all its unhinged weirdnesses.

The theme that carries through is the essential power of words. Ryre defends his name and his deeds, and one can steal a person's strength by taking ownership of the name behind it, whether by theft or by ...more

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Oct 28, 2021 Jason Ray Carney rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery

This is a re-issued anthology of sword and sorcery tales Campbell published in various fiction periodicals from 1966 to 1996 (most of them were published in the 1970s). Except, perhaps, for the second to last story--which was part of the eclectic sword and sorcery round robin, *Ghor, Kinslayer*--these are all self-contained and cohesive and demonstrate a literary craftsman at work. The first four are unified by a shared protagonist, the unlucky Ryre, a stubborn swordsman. The first of these Ryre ...more

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Jan 05, 2013 S.E. Lindberg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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

Far Away & Never: Pulp Fantasy for the Horror Fan. This is Dark heroic fantasy--stuff that Clark Ashton Smith and Lovecraft, Howard Phillips fans will devour.

Almost a “Tond Cycle” Anthology: Far Away & Never only has 7 tales (not 8 like the backcover claims). The first 4 all star the warrior Ryre, which were all published first in Andrew Offutt's Sword Against Darkness series. Numbers 5-6 are also in Ryre's world Tond (without him) and were weird and dark, akin to Clark Ashton Smith’s style. N ...more

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Jul 24, 2024 Charles rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I'm reviewing here the second edition of this book, from DMR, which has an additional story. it includes:

Introduction (Well worth reading)
The Sustenance of Hoak
The Changer of Names
The Pit of Wings
The Mouths of Light
The Stages of the God
The Song at the Hub of the Garden
The Ways of Chaos
A Madness From the Vaults (2nd edition only)

The first four of these are about the character Ryre, and are the jewels of this collection. They all originally appeared in the Swords Against Darkness anthology seri ...more

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Nov 21, 2022 Riju Ganguly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

While Ramsey Campbell is considered by a Grand Master of Horror, his works of fantasy— that too classifiable as Sword & Sorcery— were completely unknown to me. Thanks to the good people at DMR Books, those works became available in this beautiful paperback.
Following a witty 'Introduction' it contains~
1. The Sustenance of Hoak;
2. The Changer of Names;
3. The Pit of Wings;
4. The Mouths of Light;
5. The Stages of the God;
6. The Song at the Hub of the Garden;
7. The Ways of Chaos;
8. A Madness from the ...more

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