From the Bookshelf of Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
Cult-favorite Sword and Sorcery novel! It's not as polished as his later Red Sonja books but this is a very fine, classic Sword and Sorcery tale. Mythic in style. It has everything a Karl Edward Wagner reader will want, find and enjoy. Not equal to Wagner's finest Kane stories but it will definitely scratch that itch. This is a dark story that finally charmed me in its last 100 pages. I'm very interested in reading the rest of Oron's series and finding more works by Mr. Smith.
...more
It is as subtle as the Clyde Caldwell art adorning its cover and pages: brash, lurid, oddly decorated, and anatomically suspect at times. The kind of story where the characters make grand operatic speeches to themselves in private, and where battle explodes from the page with utter violence and a lot of shouting. The overall effect is uneven: striking action and imagery and astonishing ideas leaven unfortunately over-the-top dialog and a bit of fattiness around the midsection. I'd snooze through
...more
Sword and sorcery is usually compressed in form, such tales more often tales told as short stories or novellas. Smith's *Oron,* however, is undeniably a novel and undeniably sword and sorcery. But this surprising "long novel" length treatment works because of *Oron*'s scope: mythological, cosmic, and epic, like the two-dimensional renderings on an amphora. This novel reminds me of listening to Gustav Holst's, *The Planets,* or looking at a Hieronymus Bosch painting. There are so many evocative e
...more
First and still my favorite in the Oron series.
The past year or two has been my Smithisaunce and what a trip it has been.
I personally wouldn't call Attluma sword and sorcery in a strict sense. It has the same vibe and pacing but is much more dark high fantasy-akin to Berserk. It is, however, very much like sword and sorcery *films* of the 70s and 80s in its vibe and I imagined all of these set pieces and the characters in them with that shiny color saturated sheen so common in the movie posters of that time. The monsters also had a kind of r ...more
I personally wouldn't call Attluma sword and sorcery in a strict sense. It has the same vibe and pacing but is much more dark high fantasy-akin to Berserk. It is, however, very much like sword and sorcery *films* of the 70s and 80s in its vibe and I imagined all of these set pieces and the characters in them with that shiny color saturated sheen so common in the movie posters of that time. The monsters also had a kind of r ...more
I paid .99cents for this book, which was .98cents more than it's worth. I love sword&sorcery, but it's a lost sub-genre in the fantasy field. Having read through all of Robert E. Howard (about 15 times), Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, and whoever else is left, I find myself thirsting for the soothing stories of warriors cutting their way across dark worlds with weird place names and endless numbers of totally hot chicks, undead wizards, and monsters.
Sigh ...more
Sigh ...more
Sep 15, 2013
John
marked it as to-read
Oct 11, 2014
Joseph
marked it as to-read
Feb 03, 2016
Matt
marked it as to-read
Mar 04, 2017
Michael Fierce
marked it as to-read
Apr 24, 2017
Woelf Dietrich
marked it as to-read
Dec 21, 2017
Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom
marked it as to-read
Jul 15, 2019
Colin Leidner
marked it as to-read
Jun 22, 2020
Danielle
marked it as to-read
Jul 08, 2020
David C
added it
Apr 24, 2022
Oliver Brackenbury
marked it as to-read
Jul 14, 2023
Barry
marked it as to-read
Nov 24, 2023
Jason Waltz
marked it as to-read
