Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" discussion
Introduce Self + Getting Started
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Introductions
I'm Richard, and I'm a S&S and Heroic Fantasy junkie. I get my fix from thrift stores and the few local book stores still open. I prefer physical books to the digital ones. My wife actually bought me a kindle to try to curb my enormous collecting habits; with very little success. Over the years I haven't encountered anyone else with similar reading interests; so finding this group has been great. I would love to tell you that I found this or that title by this or that author in the store when they were new, but sadly I wasn't around back then. My jumping on point was the reprints of Jirel of Joiry, Midnight Sun, Gods in Darkness, Mask of the Sorcerer by the SFBC back in the '90's. From there I have read the tent poles: Howard, Carter, Burroughs, Moorcock, ect. but I really enjoy finding the lesser known pastiches. Most recently, I have discovered a interest in Sword and Planet books. Currently I'm reading through the Dray Prescott and Richard Blade books. I'm not really sure if they are relevant in this group because I have heard no mention of them. Anyhoo, thanks for having me and thanks to S.E. Lindberg for recommending some new books.
Mod
This group has introduced/exhumed lots of different authors for me too. A few years ago it was Charles Saunders .... last month Keith Taylor. Lots of gems out there.
Jack wrote: "Richard wrote: "I'm Richard, and I'm a S&S and Heroic Fantasy junkie. I get my fix from thrift stores and the few local book stores still open. I prefer physical books to the digital ones. My wife ..."Swordsmen in the Sky is one of the many I've been looking for locally for many years. The thrill of the discovery!!
Welcome to the group, RIchard! I also prefer physical books to digital ones and like to browse secondhand bookshops from time to time so that I can find long out-of-print titles.
You've come to the right place, my friend. Welcome!
Hi, All,Jack is my name, reader and writer of fantasy and some science fiction. Some of my favorite authors are Robert E. Howard, Roger Zelazny, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber. I could go on.
I'm currently reading The Dragon Scale Lute by J.C. Kang. Very impressed with his writing.
Cheers.
Welcome to the group, Jack! Both of your books Mooncrow and Cloak of the Two Winds sound very interesting.
Mod
Richard wrote: "Welcome to the group, Jack! Both of your books Mooncrow and Cloak of the Two Winds sound very interesting."Thanks, Richard. Mooncrow was a lonnnng time ago. Cloak is new and I'm running a promo on it now. (Will announce in the promo thread.
- Jack
Welcome to the crew, Jack!I knew Zelazny, briefly, when I was a kid here in Cleveland with writing aspirations of my own. Before Roger had achieved stellar acclaim, he was working here until his government job transferred him to Baltimore. I was the youngest member of a local sf/movie club when I met Roger---around the time of the digest appearance of "The Bells of Shoredan," I think.
At our group's first excited screening of METROPOLIS, Roger ironically kept falling asleep! A fact I've shared with his writer son, Trent.
Write on!
Hello, T.C.I never had the privilege of meeting the man, but he was a big influence on my work.
I went to a small liberal arts college and in my third year there was a woman student named Zelazny. One day, my girlfriend asked her if she had ever heard of Roger Zelazny and she said, "Oh yeah. He's my uncle. I haven't read anything by him though." Go figure.
HiI'm Martin Owton and I'm the author of an old-school epic fantasy adventure with a bit of romance. I'm a longtime fantasy reader, my principle influences are Gemmell and Glen Cook.
I commend my work to your attention.
Exile
Mod
I'm Martin Owton and I'm the author of an old-school epic fantasy adventure with a bit of romance. I'm a longtime fantasy reader, my principle influences are Gemmell and Glen Cook.
I commend my ..."
Glad to have you here Martin. Lots of Black Gate authors/fans here. Thanks for joining!
Welcome aboard, Martin! "Old-school epic fantasy adventure" sounds right out of my own playbook, my friend. You could slap that banner on my old GONJI series (now in re-issue and continuation). So you're traveling in the right mercenary army. At some point we can commiserate about what a tough sell that is, however, with today's gamer crowd.
Meanwhile...you mention Gemmell, whom I also admired. I was humbled to have my series actually fill the gap in the fantasy catalog list of my German publisher, Bastei Lubbe, after his untimely passing several years ago. Tough act to follow.
Hello everyone! My name's Tim. I'm Washington State in the US, but I live in China. Currently, I'm working on my 4th novel, which is the start of an Asian fantasy series. Anyway, I just joined the group and look forward to getting to know you. From the looks of it there's an interesting crowd here.
Mod
Welcome Tim! Lots of good discussions here....folder names are representative of content. We always have groupreads going on (in two month intervals, usually two topics per period).
Hi I'm Raoul. I like Sword & Sorc in general, but I'm a particular fan of Howard's Conan. I'm sure everyone here has some read Conan, but if you haven't read the unabridged versions (Ballantine/Del Ray), I highly recommend it.I have also read some Jirel, Elric, and Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser, but outside of that, I can't say I know many Sword & Sorc novels. Recommendations would be welcome.
Welcome Raoul, you have come to the right place. You will find a wide range of S&S, heroic fantasy and dark fantasy here. I am of a similar mindset as I feel Howard's work is the core of traditional S&S, along with Clark Ashton Smith, a little H P Lovecraft and also pulp historical adventure like Harold Lamb. If you have not read Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories and novels, I highly recommend them. Also Charles R Saunders Imaro adventures, David C Smith 's Oron novels, and the Berserker trilogy by Chris Carlsen. Stick around, there is tons of great stuff to be discovered here!
Mod
Welcome Raoul! Every 2 month period we have group reads, and this Jan-Feb we will be reading anthologies---there are many old and new and help find "new" authors in the genre.
Return of the Sword and Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues are some contemporary examples. Even magazines like the new Skelos and Weirdbook 31 work as anthologies.
Lots of these authors are members here too!
S.Wagenaar gave a great list: other novel length heroes/series may include Michael Moorcock's Elric and Glen Cook. Right now I'm reading Lumley's Hero of Dreams...which is like Leiber's duo stuck in HPL's dreamland.
Wow my To Read list has just tripled in size. I better get to it! Just one question about Clark Ashton Smith, and I suppose it applies to Weirdbook and others as well: How can I separate the more pure-fantasy Sword & Sorc stuff from the more Scifi and Horror-style Weird Fiction? I've never been much of a fan of Scifi or Horror, and Lovecraft is just not really for me.Thanks for all the welcomes!
Mod
For Smith, if you want the more sword & sorcery-inflected stuff, I'd recommend trying the stories set in Zothique (far, far, far future where all of the continents have merged into one and magic & demons abound), Hyperborea (lost continent) or maybe Poseidonis (the last bit of sinking Atlantis).
I initially discovered sword and sorcery upon reading The Savage Sword of Conan magazines as a teenager in the early 1980s. These led me to seeing John Milius's Conan the Barbarian which in turn led me to the Frazetta paperback covers with the original (though edited) Robert E. Howard tales. The Frazetta covers were what sold me on the books. I have been a Robert E. Howard fan ever since. Fortunately, my school library had Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars paperbacks. Howard and Burroughs (though sword and planet) piqued my interest and I read every sword and sorcery book I could find. I still go back and reread all of the old classics;everything from Karl Edward Wagner's Kane novels to David C. Smith's The Sorcerer's Shadow and Richard L. Tierney's Simon of Gitta tales.
I have even had a few of my own s & s tales published in the last couple of years. I won't lie and say that I am not here to plug my own writing, but it is nice to find a group in which I can hopefully participate in the discussions, as well as stay informed of new developments in the genre.
I am currently reading T. C. Rypel's Red Blade From the East.
Richard wrote: "Welcome aboard Howie!"Thanks, Richard!
Jack wrote: "Howie wrote: "I initially discovered sword and sorcery upon reading The Savage Sword of Conan magazines as a teenager in the early 1980s. These led me to seeing John Milius's Conan the Barbarian wh..."Thanks, Jack! How does the group read work?
Mod
Hey Howie.
We have a couple of Key Folders of interest. On the group read front, we take polls to guide two-month duration / two parallel topics (and we change the homepage banner to match). We start polling a month in advance (so the next poll will start end-Jan)
I have a Pinterest site with all the previous banners/topics:
https://www.pinterest.com/sethlindber...
Here's a link to all the groupread folders: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
We are pretty liberal with topics/themes. Anything to stir discussions. So if a topic is on a specific book, any discussion on the author's work is fair game.
Hey, Howie, welcome aboard here! (I think you check in at my "Ted Rypel" FB page now and then, so we're not strangers.)Thanks for the interest in my GONJI series. Hope you find the Deathwind Trilogy engaging and that I get to hear your impressions one day. We're still waiting for Wildside Press to release the new DARK VENTURES (shorter tales; creation/publishing history of the series; preview excerpt of the coming origin novel). Evidently they're sitting on it long enough for it to hatch(?)...
Anyway, this is a really nice site, frequented by a lot of thoughtful readers and pros.
Enjoy and reap the benefits!
Hi everyone,I am a long time reader of obscure sci fi, fantasy, sword and sorcery. Obscure because they are mostly dusty old pulp paperbacks in op shops. Looking to modernise my reading a little in the future.
I also write action adventure, crossing genres with time travel romance, sci fi, fantasy and sword and sorcery. I have a time travel romance coming out this year. It is set in Roman Britain, with plenty of action, druids, ancient ruins and old Gods.
Looking forward to meeting people with the same interests here, so feel free to friend me.
PS. Happy Birthday RE Howard. May Crom look kindly upon you.
Mod
I am a long time reader of obscure sci fi, fantasy, sword and sorcery. Obscure because they are mostly dusty old pulp paperbacks in op shops. Looking to modernise my reading a little i..."
What a great day to join! Howie recently joined and also had a call out to REH 's birthday.
Glad to have you here.
I know. I was just thinking how much he contributed to writing sword and sorcery. Would the genre exist without him?
Not in its current form. One could, for practical purposes, define the genre as "stuff like Howard wrote."
S.E. wrote: "Howie wrote: "Jack wrote: "Howie wrote: "I initially discovered sword and sorcery upon reading The Savage Sword of Conan magazines as a teenager in the early 1980s. These led me to seeing John Mili..."S.E., I clicked on the anthology links but there were no lists there?
T.C. wrote: "Hey, Howie, welcome aboard here! (I think you check in at my "Ted Rypel" FB page now and then, so we're not strangers.)Thanks for the interest in my GONJI series. Hope you find the Deathwind Tril..."
Thanks, T.C. ! Yeah I have been following your work on Facebook. My friend, Juan J. Gutierrez called my attention to Your Gonji series. Great stuff so far! I am loving it!
Mod
Howie, you are right! I posted a reply in the Anthology group section:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Hey everyone, I'm relatively new to sword and sorcery. I hope to use this group to find more to read.Howie, I really enjoyed your stories in Swords of Steel I and II! Also Cauldron Born! Sword and sorcery heavy metal at it's finest!
Welcome aboard Wes! This is the place to be if you want your TBR pile to grow.
Mod
Welcome Wes!If you're looking for more reading material I commend my own work to your attention. Reviewers have described it as old school S&S adventure https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Holy shit (yes, this is me being tame) that's a lot of introductions, forgive me if I skip and read them when needed, or bored. Not that you guys are boring! It's just that reading bios of people I don't yet know is a little counter intuitive... besides, I'm the new guy and like any room one enters, allow me to get my bearings first.I write, I read, I snark, provided there is something to snark about. Also, I'm foulmouthed and opinionated. Seth invited me to the group and I accepted.
My writing, to a degree, is heavily influenced by Howard, his economy of language is simply beautiful. Another influence is George RR Martin. There are a few more who inspire me, but this is about me, not them. I published my first novel, Shattered Dreams, last year and I'd be a pretentious idiot if I declined that one of the reasons of me joining is to find more readers. But that's neither here nor there... everything has its place, and if I'm one thing it's being honest.
Now I need to head back to compiling street and building references so that the cartographer has as many details as needed.
Thanks for having me!
Mod
You seem to have a grimness to you, so thats good. Browse the folders and feel welcome to extend any discussion no matter how old.
We have many 2month, 2topic groupreads. Looks like May-june will be "Moorcock" and "Leiber"
I'm Matt Hughes. I write S&S in a Jack Vance, Dying Earth mode. Also space opera and crime.I'm not much use at discussing other people's books because I stopped reading most fantasy (except Vance and Wolfe) back in the eighties. But I'm pretty good at discussing craft and technique and I always aspire to be useful.
Webpage: www.matthewhughes.org
Mod
Howdy, all!It's taken a while for me to find this group, but I think I ought to join it. The first two paperbacks I remember buying as a kid with my own money were Howard's The People of the Black Circle (the reissue edited by Karl Wagner) and Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot, and battered, old S&S books have been in my backpacks and briefcases for decades. I'll definitely wade into the read-alongs whenever time permits.
Peace!
Mod
Howdy! You'll fit right in Anthony! Have a look around and participate when you can. We have 2-month, 2-topic groupreads going continuously.
New ones just started for Moorcock's Eternal Champion series and Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar.
Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"
Books mentioned in this topic
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Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert E. Howard (other topics)Robert E. Howard (other topics)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (other topics)
Mary Gentle (other topics)
Stan Nicholls (other topics)
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Welcome George!