Blood on the Blade: Ten Tales of Slashing Swords and Sinister Sorcery in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Dec 29, 2021 Richard rated it really liked it

Shelves: anthologies, sword-and-sorcery

Sword and Sorcery is alive and well today, just take a look at the new release from Flinch Books, Blood on the Blade. Ten stories of monsters, swinging swords, and sorcery. The table of contents is a who's who of talented individuals working in the genre today. See for yourself:

Godkiller by Cliff Biggers

Very traditional in set up and execution. The dauntless warrior mounts the tower of a god. An awful secret lies at the heart of the power of this god. A blade will not end this threat.

While his m ...more

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Feb 12, 2022 Charles rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

Blood On the Blade, Edited by Jim Beard and John C. Bruening. 2021. Flinch! Books, 180 pages. This is a collection of ten Sword & Sorcery tales, with an introduction “There Will Be Blood” by John C. Bruening. Several of the authors were new to me, although I had heard of most of them. However, I’d previously only read tales by four of the writers. The book ends with a short bit about each of the writers, which is always something I enjoy in any collection. Below are the tales, with brief comment Blood On the Blade, Edited by Jim Beard and John C. Bruening. 2021. Flinch! Books, 180 pages. This is a collection of ten Sword & Sorcery tales, with an introduction “There Will Be Blood” by John C. Bruening. Several of the authors were new to me, although I had heard of most of them. However, I’d previously only read tales by four of the writers. The book ends with a short bit about each of the writers, which is always something I enjoy in any collection. Below are the tales, with brief comments from me on each.

“Godkiller” by Cliff Biggers: Godkiller is a term not unfamiliar to sword and sorcery fans, but it fit this tale as a title. The hero of the story, “Gondar” indeed goes after a god. I’ve read a few things by Biggers before but this is the longest piece. Good characters, good setting and excellent pacing.

“The Unlidded Eye” by James R. Tuck: The main character, Theok, has quite a Conanesque feel to him, including in his taste and interaction with women. The setting also has a number of Hyborian Age references drawn from REH’s work. These actually felt a bit weird to me but the story itself captured the feel and action of Sword & Sorcery quite well. S & S is supposed to be fun, I think, and this one is.

“The Island of Shadows” by Paul R. McNamee: A unique Polynesian kind of setting with a pair of friends as heroes—Makani and Lono. A touch of wry humor lightens the grimness. One of my favorites in the collection. I’d definitely enjoy reading more about this pair’s adventures

"More Blood" by D.M. Ritzlin: The strangest tale in the collection. A warrior finds himself in the midst of battle after battle with no understanding of how he came to be there. Although the writing was good, I was beginning to wonder what the point was...until the ending. Which explained it all. Nicely done.

"Hounds of Morhullem" by James A. Moore: Another pair of heroes, though not such close friends as Makani and Lono. Berek and Valen face undying monsters. Or nearly so. The “hounds” were indeed quite well described and nasty to the extreme.

"The Sorceress Maiz" by Anne Marie Lutz: A mother and son relationship like few you’ve seen, and not exactly a loving relationship. Maiz is the mother, a sorceress, and Vintin is the son, a warrior. They have to find a way to work together to save another son/brother of the family. Good story.

"The Bloody Crooked One" by Charles R. Rutledge: I know there have been other tales published about Kharrn but this is the first I’ve read. The writing here is quite good so I’ll no doubt seek out more. The setting is Roman and Druid. Excellent fight scenes. The story is almost a vignette rather than a complete tale, but it works.

“Knock the Hell Out of You” by Steven L. Shrewsbury: I’ve read some of Shrewsbury’s work before. Tough guy stories with real bad asses for characters. Gorias is no exception. Lots of fightin’ and killin’ in this one, with a foe who proves very difficult to defeat.

"Dishonor Among Thieves" by Adrian Cole: I’d say that Cole is the biggest name in this collection. I remember really loving his Dream Lord stories from the 1970s. This tale was much more light-hearted than those old stories. I generally prefer the darker stuff but this was a fun piece and a necessary addition to the atmosphere of this collection.

"Blood Games in the Temple of the Toad" by Frank Schildiner: Another unique setting. Mesoamerica. Which hasn’t been explored as much as it should be for heroic fantasy tales. The main character is Obsidian Jaguar, an almost indestructible warrior, who teams up in this piece with a sorceress. Most of the tales in this collection wrack up a pretty good body count but I’m guessing this one had the most. O. Jaguar is a killing machine. Although perhaps a little longer than necessary, this one ended up in my top two tales for the anthology, and it wins for best title.

So, there you have it, my capsule views on the stories here. Well worth the read. ...more

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Jan 02, 2022 S.E. Lindberg rated it really liked it

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

Overview: Blood on the Blade (Edited by Jim Beard, John C. Bruening) offers 10 varied S&S tales, several that stick to the tropes (super-charged male hereos take on evil sorcerers), and several that showcase non-standard milieus (such as Polynesian and meso-American settings). The subgenre/tones range too, from violent-Grimdark, to light-adventure, YA-fantasy, to humor. I star the ones that I most enjoyed.

The “Scroll of Scribes & Artisans” Afterword offers nice biographies of all the contributo ...more

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Feb 16, 2022 Jason Waltz rated it really liked it

Shelves: s-s, heroic, fantastical, ebooks, anthologies

The middle rocks!

More ups than downs, overall a fun (mostly) S&S collection of tales. Pretty good storytelling, a bit of editing lacking, and lots and lots of bloody mayhem. The middle 3 stories really rock, with Rutledge's adventure being hands down my favorite and the best of the book. ...more

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Aug 18, 2022 Jason Ray Carney rated it it was amazing

This is an intriguing anthology of contemporary sword and sorcery that tends toward the visceral, violent, and frenetic side of the genre. There are several memorable stories: "Godkiller" by Cliff Biggers features a classic sword and sorcery standoff between a barbarian and a sorcerer; it strikes a fine balance between giving the genre-lover what they expect while also surprising them. "More Blood" by D.M. Ritzlin is an acid trip. It evokes the reality-warping narratives of Philip K. Dick and ea ...more

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Sep 27, 2024 Derek rated it really liked it

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery, anthology-or-collection, kindle-unlimited-trial

Uniformly quite good. It doesn't experiment and doesn't stretch the concept of the genre but not every collection needs that kind of navel-gazing. It does traverse setting, plot, and character and that means that it really feels like ten different stories instead of shallow variations on a theme.

The ones that stuck with me includes: "The Unlidded Eye", whose sudden change of direction was genre-obvious but I got fooled, "Hounds of Morhullen", which switches to what feels like a side quest that b ...more

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