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

Just finishing up Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress, by Christopher Ryan, PhD. Basically, we really really *really* screwed up ten thousand years ago when most of us moved behind walls and stayed inside cities. Lost access to Nature as a living thing, invited and spread disease, got all hopped up on following strong leaders... Lots of fascinating details brought in from contemporary hunter-gatherer societies and archaeological remains of those of the past. One piece of trivia: we have found virtually no evidence of tooth decay in the skulls of our hunter-gatherer forebears, and the same remains true today with contemporary hunter-gatherers.

David wrote: "Just finishing up Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress, by Christopher Ryan, PhD. Basically, we really really *really* screwed up ten thousand years ago when most of us moved behind walls and ..."

Civilization... Ancient and Wicked..... It's one thing to get yourself domesticated. (Marriage ain't so bad.) But it's another thing entirely to get 'civilized.

I keep picking up, and putting back down Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames. It’s not a bad book, it’s just not what I am in the mood for right now.

On a plane ride today, I read about 1/2 of Twilight of the Gods by Scott Oden. So far, I’m enjoying it more than the first book.

Clint wrote: "I keep picking up, and putting back down Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames. It’s not a bad book, it’s just not what I am in the mood for right now.

On a plane ride today, I read about 1/2 of Twilight..."

Although I have a soft spot for A Gathering of Ravens, Twilight is a better novel, and great fun to read. Scott is working on the third book, The Doom of Odin; its gonna be awesome!

C.A. wrote: "David wrote: "Just finishing up Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress, by Christopher Ryan, PhD. Basically, we really really *really* screwed up ten thousand years ago when most of us moved beh..."
You got it! : )

Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery by Brian Murphy

The Cosmic Courtship by Julian Hawthorne

How To Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life by Ruth Goodman

After finishing a bunch of Mass Effect novels, I started Susanna Clarke's new one, Piranesi.

@Joseph, I enjoyed Piranesi very much

I decided to reread H. Rider Haggard's She after rewatching the ridiculous (but hilarious) Sandahl Bergman film of the same name.

Clint wrote: "@Joseph, I enjoyed Piranesi very much"

I'm also enjoying it quite a bit -- it almost feels like George MacDonald writing Gormenghast.

@Joseph, good analogy. I can see that

And finished Piranesi (which was a gem; and short -- might've been bigger than a novella, but it was at least on the low end of being a novel) and started Simon R. Green's Blue Moon Rising.

How to Be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman

Dark Arts (Language of the Sword) Kindle Edition
by James Alderdice.
Sword and sorcery meets hard boiled detective.

Penric's Mission by Lois McMaster Bujold

Just wrapped up The Crimson Crown. Here's my review of the very edgy, "Punk AF" dark fantasy,Equally Enjoyable and Discomforting.: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


I'm onto reviewing our Groupread's Scott Oden Presents The Lost Empire of Sol: A Shared World Anthology of Sword & Planet Tales. Enjoyed that too.

Reread The Last Wish and just finished Season of Storms for the first time and loved that it felt more s&s again. Now rereading Sword of Destiny.

While I did mostly like the main Witcher saga, my favourites were always the early books + BoF, and now reading SoS and rereading The Last Wish and SoD remind me of how great it would have be if the Witcher series had retained its monster-hunting/Geralt on the road adventuring s&s vibes instead of morphing into epic fantasy.

Savage Realms Monthly: May 2021: A collection of dark fantasy sword and sorcery short adventure stories.

Off of a friends recommendation, I'm currently reading Jhereg by Steven Brust. I've seen it described as high fantasy but it reads like S & S so far.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

W E wrote: "Off of a friends recommendation, I'm currently reading Jhereg by Steven Brust. I've seen it described as high fantasy but it reads like S & S so far.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..."

That's a great series I need to revisit one of these years.

Myself, I'm still on my Simon R. Green kick -- I just started Swords of Haven: The Adventures of Hawk and Fisher, which is theoretically (and maybe retroactively?) a sequel to Blue Moon Rising, but is set in a grubby fantasy city and the main characters (Hawk & Fisher) are part of the beleaguered City Watch. So far this one is also giving me more of an S&S feel than the previous Forest Kingdom books.

Going to have to check those out.

Eclipse: The Girl Who Saved the World by George Phillies

Heroes Of Mars by Teel James Glen.
For over a hundred years the savage world of Mars has lived in the minds of generations of readers around the world!

Now fans can enjoy new adventures in the grand sword and sandals tradition of the original tales! Inside you will find five all new adventures set across the mythic Martian landscape.

Featuring:
Divided Loyalties by Geoff Gander
The Tyrants of Mars by Evan Dicken
The Mermaids of Mars by Travis Hiltz
Exodus from Mars by J. M. Stewart
and
The Dregs of Mars by Mark Brandon Allen,
plus an essay by Teel James Glenn!

Edited by Nicholas Ahlhelm, Pulp Empire is proud to present this all new anthology of great pulp adventure tales!

Just finished... A Feast for Crows

George R.R. Martin



Starting Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead

@ David

I’ve been eyeing that particular one for some time.

Exile by R.A. Salvatore

Planetary Adventures

Just finished and reviewed The Eye of Sounnu, a short story collection by Schuyler Hernstrom. I enjoyed it a great deal, it's full of stories written very firmly in the tradition of the pulp greats, but it didn't feel derivative or slavishly ape any particular author.

Reading

Listening to

Both have been immensely enjoyable so far.

The Religion by Tim Willocks. It was recommended on The Cromcast, with a reminder that a sword & sorcery is arguably not fantasy per se, but "historical fiction with a twist".

The Religion was suggested as an example of great historical fiction and, 200 pages in, I'm inclined to agree! The opening chapter is amazing and very, very easy to find a classic S&S vibe minus the weird magic or horror. I'd recommend it too.

Sounds like my cup of tea. Thanks for the tip!

Deuce Richardson did a nice write up about The Religion by Tim Willocks awhile back.

https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2021/2...

It made me locate a copy, just have to find the time to read it now...

Sometime Lofty Towers



I am really enjoying this. I heartily recommend it.

Started The Journeyer by Gary Jennings, another of his big, fat, sex-and-violence-larded historical novels. This one is about Marco Polo.

Joseph wrote: "Started The Journeyer by Gary Jennings, another of his big, fat, sex-and-violence-larded historical novels. This one is about Marco Polo."

I have this one, along with Aztec and Raptor weighing down my shelves. I have not started any of them, as they seem pretty intimidating to tackle. I used to read some pretty big Wilbur Smith novels, so I'm sure I can do this again one day. Looking forward to your review; it just might be the catalyst I need to start one myself!

The Wilbur Smith Egypt books? I have a stack of those on my Kindle and need to get to them one of these years.

Also in the same vein: Nicholas Guild's The Assyrian/The Blood Star, and Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.

River God is fantastic, and the sequels are pretty good too. My favorites are Birds of Prey, Monsoon and Blue Horizon; fantastic historical adventure.

Oh neat, thanks for the link!

Richard wrote: "Deuce Richardson did a nice write up about The Religion by Tim Willocks awhile back.

https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2021/2...

It made me locate a copy, ..."

Aria: The Masterpiece, Volume 4 by Kozue Amano

Boundless by Jack Campbell

Reading

Listening to

For my next Howard sojourn I was going to go with either the Kull or Bran Mak Morn stories. Eventually, I'll get to both, but I'm curious which you all prefer.

@Jason, that is a hard pick. I’m going to wuss out and say “both”; however, “Worms of the Earth” is a favorite of mine.

Clint wrote: "@Jason, that is a hard pick. I’m going to wuss out and say “both”; however, “Worms of the Earth” is a favorite of mine."

Well, if you like both, that is a good thing as far as I'm concerned!

If I really had to pick, I'd probably say Kull, but that's in large part because my first real exposure was via the Donald M. Grant book with the Ned Dameron illustrations.

Halfway through the paperback edition of The Tears of Ishtar by Michael Ehart, a medium-paced historical-fiction/S&S novel which includes his novelette, The Servant of the Manthycore + continuing short stories, it's excellent but not as hack & slash as I was hoping, though some great fight sequences. And when I'm out and about reading, Swords v. Cthulhu, on kindle (though I own pb) so I don't F up my physical copies. 3 stories in not as good as I was hoping though the 1st story was pretty cool by John Langan.

I am rereading Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber. This time on audible. I plan to reread all of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories this year. These are the only stories I found to come anywhere close to equaling the Conan stories by Robert E Howard. I just finished THE SNOW WOMEN, the first story in this book. I have forgotten most of this story. It was very sublime listening to this wonderful story!

Michael wrote: "I am rereading Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber. This time on audible. I plan to reread all of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories this year. These are the only stories I found to come anywhere c..."

Awesome, Michael, recently been meaning to do the same!