Just Curious ... What do You Like about Sword and Sorcery?

[A.R.]

This topic is kind of a follow up to the last one I started. Some of the comments I found interesting in the fact that they went against what I had believed most readers wanted, for example, longer stories.

But, it's still a topic I'm interested in and still curious about and realize there is more to learn about what readers want and even more what other people find interesting about sword and sorcery.

So, I would like to know, what are three things you like about sword and sorcery? What brought you to the genre? Why do you continue to read it today?

I've also thought up some ideas that may help people point out what they like, but it is by no means an all inclusive list. So, if there is something you like that you don't see on the list below, just write it in. Also feel free to open up about why that particular element or elements gets you excited about the genre.

Thanks, I'm curious to see the results.

A list of possible reasons:

- Plot focused story telling
- Character based story telling
- Adventure / action
- Grey characters
- Tropes
- Monsters
- Length (shorter than novel length)
- Length (novel length or longer)
- Barbarians
- Adult content / themes
- Grit / realism
- Setting
- Tone / mood
- Minimal sorcery
- A little bit more than minimal sorcery
- A lot more than minimal sorcery
- Battle scenes / combat
- Heroic heroes or heroic fantasy
- Women warriors
- Lack of dwarves, elves, and other such societies / characters
- Entertainment / fun
- No themes / non-literary goals
- Old-style sword and sorcery
- More modern sword and sorcery
- Antithesis to epic fantasy
- Low fantasy
- Lack of science
- Minimal science
- Super natural / horror elements
- Protagonist outside of society
- Anti-heroes / rogues
- Character self-interest over save the world
- Decadent societies / civilization
- Evil magic
- Evil gods
- Evil priests
- Loin cloths and chain-mail bikinis
- Snakes / giant snakes
- Reptile gods
- Ape men
- Taverns
- No magic
- Lotus flowers / powerful drugs
- Ancient civilizations
- Broke (poor) heroes
- Heroes who are thieves
- Heist stories
- Dark age setting
- Bronze age setting
- Sword and sandal
- Lack of magic items
- Minimal magic items
- Unique language / style the writing
- Grimdark
- Dark fantasy

[A.R.]

For me, the answers to the above questions differ based on the writer-self and the reader-self. So, I’ll list both and some of my reasons for why those particular points suit my interest.

As a reader my three favorite points are:

(1) Barbarians
(2) Entertainment / fun
(3) Grit / realism



1. Barbarians –

Barbarians, I would say, is probably one of my number one reasons for liking sword and sorcery. As a boy, my first introduction to fantasy in general was probably through two Conan mass-market paperback comics. Conan. The ultimate barbarian. In no other genre of fantasy does the barbarian play such a role in the genre. For epic fantasy, I think, knights and kings, and knights who are kings play a much bigger role.

But there is something about the way sword and sorcery has presented barbarians that has kept me interested. And not just barbarians, but Norse style warriors in general. I like stories where the characters have the warrior ethos. And Conan presented one of the best examples of those types of characters.

2. Entertainment / Fun -

Sword and sorcery is fun for a whole lot of reasons. It can be serious in tone and mood. Serious in the type of characters that strut across the page. But it’s a genre that doesn’t try to take itself to a literary level. It doesn’t try to make the statement of good versus evil—and good must win.

It’s about heroes who are just trying to survive in a world that doesn’t possess the comforts we have today. It’s about the adventure. It’s about being tougher than the circumstances that try to pull you down.

3. Grit / realism –

I like the realism that sword and sorcery brings to the table. Part of fantasy is to create that suspension of disbelief. The create the feeling that this story could actually have happened. I like that about sword and sorcery—that it feels so real and so gritty.

When I pick up epic fantasy, I have grown tired of one trope in particular, the dark lord has returned after 10,000 years!

With sword and sorcery, I don’t have to worry about that. One thing I like about Howard is he knew how to capture the grit and realism.


As a writer my favorite points are:

(1) Plot focused story telling
(2) Barbarians
(3) Battle scenes / combat

1. Plot focused story telling –

As a writer, learning how to write well, is a balancing act. Some things you will be good at. Some things you will have to work on and it is impossible to work on everything all at once. So, you have to focus on certain aspects, improve them, and keep everything else at a level that it doesn’t detract from the story.

For me, plot-based story telling is a little easier than creating deep character based, evolution, change at the end of the arc type stories. Plot focused writing allows for more adventure style stories, more summer block buster than emotional introspection.

To be balanced, more character-based stories are a definite. But they can be improved if the plot keeps the reader reading along.

2. Barbarians –

Yep! Barbarians again. No other genre or sub-genre handles barbarians the way sword and sorcery does.

3. Battle scenes / combat scenes –

This goes along with improving the writing. Sword and sorcery is expected to have combat scenes—a lot of them. It’s easier to improve something if you’re constantly working with it. Sword and sorcery allows that to happen better than epic fantasy in my opinion. Readers want it and enjoy it, maybe even look for it more in a genre that is more plot focused rather than have a character change over the course of a quest.

[S.E., Gray Mouser (Emeritus)]

Nice post AR.

I seem to need
1) Sorcery (over swords)
2) creatures
3) a sense of unknown weirdness/exploration

[Charles]

Things that originally attracted me to sword & sorcery include, imaginative adventure, exotic locals and peoples, the mythic elements, escapism from the mundane world, a certain amount of wish fulfillment regarding both physical combat and sexual prowess.

Things that keep me reading it as an adult are: adventure, escapism, research (since I write it myself), and the fact that it fires the imagination of my inner teen male.

[Mary]

I like the less than epic plots. Especially since so many epic plots don't bother to make the world real before putting it in danger.

[John]

S.E. wrote:

3) a sense of unknown weirdness/exploration"

This! Not just in Sword and Sorcery fiction but in SF, Fantasy and (especially) Horror.
If it's one single thing that the pulp era has over the present it's the sense of the opening of unexplored vistas, of encountering the mysterious and strange.
Maybe it's because the genres were new then but, to me at least, it seems a challenge to find much modern work that delivers that kind of charge.

[S.wagenaar]

S&S tales are generally short, even in novel format. The cast of characters is compact; you generally don’t need a scorecard to keep track. The main character or protagonist is often fully formed and complete, thrust into the adventure without a tedious backstory or origin. You learn bits a pieces about him/her over time and several tales. The sense of wonder and adventure is often paramount in terms of mood and setting-no long and boring world-building, just colorful descriptions and fast, adventure-filled pace.
Action. Lots of it if you’re reading someone like Howard. I crave bloody battles of epic proportions and one on one duels. And bloody they must be. Sword and Sorcery provides that for me. It is escapism in it’s purest form, and whisks me away from humdrum reality with a flash of jewels, the glimmer and crash of whetted steel and the spurt of bright red blood. Hooves thunder, monstrosities gibber and warriors roar their barbaric battle cries. Sword and Sorcery is what I crave...

[Jason]

^^^^This, this, this, thank you for wording what I'd been trying to mentally phrase and falling short. You said it so much better too, S.wagenaar! And that's why S&S doesn't need to get more popular - you either want it or you don't, and you already know whether you do or not, nothing some new-fangled marketing says will sway you.

[Μάριος]

It is generally said that the fantasy genre help us take a look in our world through a different prism and I believe that this is a great truth. I do not think that the same applies to the Sword and Sorcery genre, but who can say no to stories of primal magic, full of battles, evil magicians and peculiar monsters that live in peculiar environments? S&S stories always take me back to when I was a kid and I was watching cartoons like Thundercats and Masters of The Universe with an unrivaled interest. And as most of the guys mentioned in the previous posts, do not forget about the barbarians.