Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" discussion

Exactly, it ended up a bit like DVD extras rather than a properly constructed book. The Del Rey series provide more context for the essays, I think. I'd still recommend the old Elric Saga 1 and 2 volumes for those new to the series, though.

Phil wrote: "Exactly, it ended up a bit like DVD extras rather than a properly constructed book. The Del Rey series provide more context for the essays, I think. I'd still recommend the old Elric Saga 1 and 2 v..."

Right now the White Wolf editions are my preferred version of the Eternal Champion, but my understanding is that a British publisher (Gollancz?) is going to be reissuing a lot of Moorcock's back catalog in uniform editions. Here's hoping that they make it over to this side of the pond, especially as eBooks ...

And I finished the Morgaine books with Exile's Gate and moved on to The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh, which does have at least a bit of a sword-and-sorcery connection -- one of her early stories, "A Thief in Korianth", was originally published in Flashing Swords! #5: Demons and Daggers.

So I'm reading (and enjoying) Gonji: Red Blade from the East and I've got to ask, are there any short stories about his earlier life?

Fletcher wrote: "So I'm reading (and enjoying) Gonji: Red Blade from the East and I've got to ask, are there any short stories about his earlier life?"

Hi, Fletcher, and many thanks for the interest in GONJI!

There are only two shorter works in the Gonji canon, and both are awaiting the publications of the anthologies for which they were commissioned. But only one of them chronologically takes place in the "young Gonji" era. That's "Dark Venture," a 40,000-word novella commissioned by Robert M. Price for his MIGHTY WARRIORS anthology.

The second is "Reflections in Ice"---a 13,000-word novelette---which is actually an expanded version of the opening of the fourth novel, FORTRESS OF LOST WORLDS. This one was excerpted and rewritten at the behest of Cynthia Ward, for an anthology which has now passed into the hands of Wildside Books (Gonji's current publisher) for a coming Fantasy Megapack anthology---on e-book only, I believe.

Here's how the Gonji chronology evolved:

Back in the late '70s, as a very young fictioneer, I developed the highly unusual, cross-culture/myth/genre character Gonji Sabatake, a halfbreed samurai/Viking, as it were. His life-story arc covered a bizarre series of adventures involving an age-old tyranny ruling over multiple, concentric worlds (including our own historically accurate---save for the monsters and magic!---16th-century Earth).

Around the same time as George Lucas, I came to the similar crossroads he faced with his nascent STAR WARS: What if I manage to get ONE of these out, and there isn't sufficient commercial interest to continue it, much less complete it? Which PART of the story arc would I then most like to (*sigh*) leave hanging our there for posterity to regard as a curiosity?

Again similarly to Lucas, I decided to do the pivotal turning point in the protagonist's life---in my case, involving Gonji's pivotal meeting/alliance with another "singularity" character who was also chosen as a kind of "sword-arm of Destiny." This first, long-prophesied encounter would occur during an epic siege of the legendary city of Vedun, in the escarpments of the Carpathians. (Yes---Dracula territory. I find it therefore ironic that the books should be reissued by "Borgo" Press, whose name resonates in Stoker's novel!)

That massive book---DEATHWIND OF VEDUN---was published in the '80s by Zebra Books in three volumes (exasperatingly treated as three SEPARATE books by the publisher, a criminal misdirection that has been corrected for the Borgo Press reissue). Happily, they proved immensely popular, were kept in print for several years, and were followed by two more books in the series before Zebra turned its stripes and canceled their entire line of fantasy, concentrating on other, more lucrative genres. (Gonji simply wouldn't fit the parameters of their Romance list, though there is romance within its pages...to a degree...)

For the next few books, they had insisted that I move FORWARD in time with Gonji, though I'd argued my case for doing the three "young Gonji" books, which would have dramatized material that turns up in the published books as tantalizing hints at what had transpired earlier to bring the character to his increasingly bizarre quest.

So only "Dark Venture"---which I hope will be out soon, as beta readers have been intriguingly enthusiastic about it---exists as a completed narrative concerning Gonji at 20, whereas the novels pick him up in his 30s.

The Gonji Prospectus, a 10,000-word document that details his entire life, calls for three early books (beginning before his birth and bringing us up to the Battle of Vedun) and three more that cap the widening import of the character's life-work, as dramatized in the extant five books.

Existing books 1-3 comprise a single work that must be read in sequence to complete its broad narrative. Books 4 and 5 can be read as stand-alones, though they advance the ominous framing story arc. Running characters and themes reappear in the tales, and everything/everyone is resolved in the end.

Will there be an end? Contemporary demand will tell...

Very interesting insight into the considerations of author and publishers. That's great to hear about the story for Price's anthology. Gonji's such a dynamite mashup. I still can't believe I never heard of them until recently. I hope to polish off the first book this week and get areview up next week.

I look forward to your review.

I created another thread dedicated to The Gonji Series here. Feel free to continue the very interesting discussion there.

P.S. thanks to T.C. Rypel for his active participation!

Finished The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh, which had some fine fantasy in it, mostly Celtic-themed but at least one genuine S&S tale ("A Thief in Korianth" -- it's a shame she's never returned to the setting) and started Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross, one of the Pathfinder RPG tie-in novels.

Just finished Callisto Volume 1, which I reviewed here. It was OK. I was hoping for sword & planet stories written in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and it turned out being ERB with the serial numbers filed off. But I guess that's Lin Carter for you.

Finishing the 4.3 million word, giant of Epic Fantasy, . Part of me really doesn't want this series to end. :(

Just about to start The Door to Saturn by Clark Ashton Smith, which should count as both Sword & Mythos and and Vintage S&S. Let's hear it for efficiency! :)

Joseph wrote: "Just about to start The Door to Saturn by Clark Ashton Smith, which should count as both Sword & Mythos and and Vintage S&S. Let's hear it for efficiency! :)"

Your efficiency rocks, Joseph. I look forward to your comments on CAS.

S.E. wrote: "Your efficiency rocks, Joseph. I look forward to your comments on CAS."

He's been one of my favorites ever since I picked up a copy of The City of the Singing Flame from the public library in Austin, MN, back in the day.

And I finished The Door to Saturn which did indeed have some vaguely Sword & Mythos stories in it -- both "The Door to Saturn" and "The Testament of Athammaus", part of his Hyperborea cycle, and "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" would probably count. As with all collections, it had high points and low points, but being that it was a Clark Ashton Smith collection, the really, really good stories more than made up for any clunkers.

And now for something completely different (since I just finished playing Dishonored and am in the mood for vaguely Victorian thieves) I'm about to start Thief's Covenant by Ari Marmell.

I'm reading The Marching Dead by Lee Battersby right now, with Gonji: Red Blade of the East and the final Merkabah Rider book on deck.

Dan wrote: "I'm reading The Marching Dead by Lee Battersby right now, with Gonji: Red Blade of the East and the final Merkabah Rider book on deck."

DAN---

GONJI author Ted Rypel here...

Hope you find this first book of The Deathwind Trilogy compelling and will seek out the next two books and the rest of the series!

Periklis wrote: "I created another thread dedicated to The Gonji Series here. Feel free to continue the very interesting discussion there.

P.S. thanks to T.C. Rypel for his active participation!"

Periklis---

You are most welcome! Your enthusiasm, and that of other new readers, is invaluable to reintroducing my heroic fantasy series from the 1980s!

Fletcher wrote: "Very interesting insight into the considerations of author and publishers. That's great to hear about the story for Price's anthology. Gonji's such a dynamite mashup. I still can't believe I nev..."

Fletcher---

It's most gratifying to hear your generous praise of my GONJI series! It was out of print for a long time, here in the States, so I'm not surprised that so many new readers are reporting the same bewilderment at not having heard of it.

I hope you continue to enjoy it! Join me on Facebook, or hook up with the GONJI Fan Page there, to keep up with Gonji release news, info about the character and series, etc.

Many, many thanks!


My best,
Ted

You're welcome. For all sorts of reasons I'm still not done. As soon as I am I'll get a review up over on my site, http://swordssorcery.blogspot.com/, and at Amazon.T.c. wrote: "Fletcher wrote: "Very interesting insight into the considerations of author and publishers. That's great to hear about the story for Price's anthology. Gonji's such a dynamite mashup. I still ca..."

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 any writer.

As soon as the Gonji Trilogy is completely republished, I'm reading it all over again. That will get me ready for books 4 and 5.

I humbly doff my helm to you, Joe! Thank you for paying me the supreme compliment of re-reading my work. That, as you well know, is gold to a writer.

These Borgo Press editions are really beautifully packaged. More people will of course buy the e-book versions. But I'm very happy with these handsome trade paperback editions. A big step up from the old Zebra mass-market paperbacks from the 1980s. A very reader-friendly type face and spacing template; clean and typo-free... An iteration I'm proud of.

Hope you find them as engaging the second time around, when you're in a better position to appreciate some of the foreshadowing subtleties that portend matters even in the later installments of the larger background narrative. Also, that you enjoy a reunion with some characters and action set-pieces you came to feel an affinity for on first read.

Arigato, my friend!

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

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

Will do!

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 starting with The Gods of Pegana.

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...

Periklis wrote: "Sounds great! Dunsany could also be considered Vintage S&S..."

Most definitely, although Pegana is less S&S than some of his later stories like "The Sword of Welleran." I've always loved his use of language, and he (together with Clark Ashton Smith and Jack Vance) does great invented names.

Just finished Gonji: Red Blade from the East by group member T.C. Rypel and posted a review on my site: http://swordssorcery.blogspot.com/201... Now I'm reading A Game of Thrones which I'm finding OK and Dossouye which I'm finding great.

Currently reading A Princess of Mars. Enjoying it enormously.

Love me some Burroughs. I finished Time and the Gods, which turned out to be essentially a continuation of The Gods of Pegana, at least in style, and started Shield of Sea and Space by Erin Hoffman, whom I was first introduced to on one of the SF Signal Sword & Sorcery Megapanel podcasts. (Along with you, Paul, for that matter ...)

Highly, highly recommend those podcasts -- they had some great discussion and introduced me to a number of fine authors.

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012...

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012...

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011...

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011...

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011...

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.

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

I knew we'd talked about it before ...

And it's time to revisit Lankhmar for the first time in many, many years (well, aside from occasional reprinted stories in anthologies). Although as I'm starting from the beginning (Swords and Deviltry), I actually won't be in Lankhmar for quite a while.

I'm currently reading through Shadow's Edge; I read the first book The Way of Shadows some years ago and I was actually put off by it. While well written, I couldn't find any characters I liked or felt were very heroic, which was perhaps the author's point. I wasn't going to continue the series, but finding book two in the bargain book section of a local Salvation Army store I decided to pick it up.
I'm of two minds on the book, and I'm a third of the way through. I want to say it's an improvement over the first part of the trilogy thus far, being less heavy about the grim nature of the setting and calling the characters to real action for the first time in probably their lives to move the plot along. But at the same time the main character, Kylar Stern, is such a whiny putz that I can't root for him, and I can't help but feel the setting is, overall, just average when compared other fantasy series. Maybe I'm being too critical. Unless there is some amazing reveal however, or unless I happen across book three in another bargain bin, I don't think I'll be finding out how this trilogy ends.

Finished Swords Against Death -- such very, very good stuff.

And given what happened today in 1936, it seemed appropriate to start The Best of Robert E. Howard: Crimson Shadows.

Just won me a copy of John Fultz's new story collection, "The Revelations of Zang", over at Black Gate so I'll start that tonight.

Just finished the non Sword-n-Sorcery, illustrated book: The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black. It will appeal to fans of pulp horror who also enjoy anatomical art: it tracks the descent into madness of a 19th century doctor.

I'm reading the last three of Jennifer Roberson's Tiger and Del books at present; I'd read the first four long ago. I'm liking the deeper delving into the magic of the world and the increased depth this is giving the stories, though I do find that in Sword-Born, depending on my mood, the more-or-less-married couple explaining the male versus female perspective on things to one another so frequently can get irritating, rather than being humorous. Sword-Sworn doesn't have so much of that and is a more complex adventure, which I'm enjoying a lot.

I just started reading Scorpio Invasion, in the Dray Prescot series. More S & P than S & S but Bulmer always had plenty of sword slinging in his tales.

In the fantasy arena, I'm reading Scorpio Invasion, number 40 something in the Dray Prescot series. This is one of the books that was originally published only in a German language edition, although originally written in English. It's finally out in English. I'm just getting started but it's got all the Sword and Planet type stuff going on that I remember from this great series.

I'm just finishing up The Dragon Lord, by David Drake; pretty fun.
Now I want to start Morigu; The Desecration, by Mark C Perry. I don't know much about it, but it seems to have quite a following.
Also, I want to try Zorachus, by Mark E Rogers. Anyone here know about these books?

I read and reviewed one of the Morigu books, the one subtitled "The Dead." you can see my review on goodreads if you want.

S.wagenaar wrote: "Now I want to start Morigu; The Desecration, by Mark C Perry. I don't know much about it, but it seems to have quite a following..."

S.wagenaar, After Charles reviewed Morigu: The Dead, I was inspired to track down a used copy of Morigu: The Desecration; like you, I noted it had a following. It's in my To-Read pile, but it's having trouble rising to the top. Would be interested in your take.

Just started The Revelations of Zang by John R. Fultz -- decided it was time for a nice weird-fantasy story-cycle a la Dunsany, Lovecraft or Smith.

Joseph wrote: "Just started The Revelations of Zang by John R. Fultz -- decided it was time for a nice weird-fantasy story-cycle a la Dunsany, Lovecraft or Smith."

I'm almost done with it. Lots of fun.

Fletcher wrote: "I'm almost done with it. Lots of fun."

Yep, lots of fun indeed. It's nice to see somebody working in more of the Smith/Dunsany vein.

And, having finished The Revelations of Zang, I decided it was time for A Discourse in Steel.

I find myself revisting Jason E. Thummel's work.

Just enjoyed his Sword & Sorcery chronicles of the warrior Khal The Harsh Suns, and enjoyed it. Review = http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...