Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" discussion
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Orcs
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Ashe
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Nov 04, 2014 01:42PM
Yeah I hadn't either but it has some good reviews.
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Trey, your story sounds absurdly interesting.
Hey Ashe, just read through your first chapter, very interesting. Looks like something I'd read. The idea of a gun wielding orc is both innovative and interesting. The setting also interests me. Hope you publish soon mate.
Ashe wrote: "Well, as long as it doesn't hurt me I guess haha."Just keep away from any warpstones and you'll be fine!
Trey: I think the biggest piece of trouble for some folks would be they're not use to that many combos. Me, it's things I love. Heavy Metal wasteland? Fuck yeah. Orc(k)s? Fuck yeah! Onward to adventure!Robin: Thank you! Unless something unforseen happens, book should drop in June.
Greg: I'll keep a lookout.
I still gotta read your story and then I can offer some ideas for how to better place it.
There's a solid base for that. Plenty of ladies like metal and vampires.
Gotta find the right groups. Find ladies to do reviews.
Scott wrote: "The figure moved nearer to the circle of light cast by the monks’ fire. The thunder had faded; the rain was a soft hiss. Weak flares of lightning revealed little more than a twisted silhouette, gnarled limbs bulging with muscle and sinew. “I am called many things, Christ-Dane," the figure said. "Corpse-maker and Life-quencher, the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. I am the eldest of Bálegyr’s brood, called Grimnir by my people.”But what stepped from the shadows was no man. It was not even human – not as Njal or Aidan or any other sane mind would reckon it. The flickering firelight threw Grimnir’s features in sharp relief. The planes and angles of its face were long and sharp, wolfish in the half-light of the cave. Coarse black hair, woven with gold beads and discs of carved ivory, framed eyes like splinters of rusted iron, set deep into a craggy brow. It was broad of chest and long of arm, almost apish in his posture, with tattoos in cinder and woad snaking across its swarthy hide. Grimnir was clad in antiquated splendor: a sleeveless hauberk of ring-mail and black leather, a kilt of poorly tanned horsehide cut from the flanks of a dappled roan, a cloak of wolf-skins, and arm-rings of gold, silver, and wrought iron. One black-nailed hand rested on the worn hilt of a long-seax. "
I like the attention to detail and the rich description. So when is this book coming out? :P
Greg wrote: "Scott wrote: "The figure moved nearer to the circle of light cast by the monks’ fire. The thunder had faded; the rain was a soft hiss. Weak flares of lightning revealed little more than a twisted s..."Thanks, man! With any luck, it'll be out by this time next year :)
Ashe wrote: "My inspiration was actually from playing an Orsimer in Skyrim for a while. It started off with me trying to roleplay the character a bit. He's not the savior of the world, not the Dragonborn, just an Orc adventurer. So I'd play and then prose what I played. One night, I'm talkin to a friend and we're discussing some ideas I'd had and I said I had the idea of an Orc gunslinger and then boom, Grimluk was born (kinda laughin that both our characters have names that start with Grim). There's a lot of ideas from a series I had started that was more on the side of Alternate Universe Earth that got cannibalized into this world now."It's interesting how you were using game-play on Skyrim as inspiration because it reminds me of a time when I was refereeing an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign for a motley crew of role-playing friends and I thought it would be fun to write up each gaming session as a narrative account. Alas! That proved to be too time-consuming. However, I've seen various blogs of gaming sessions and they can be fun to read from time to time (especially when they involve my only published scenario!).
Incidentally, I read The Flood during the summer, which was clearly (and intentionally) based on a lot of game-play in the computer game, Halo. I felt the book's first half was a bit dull in places, though, partly because it was dominated by combat scenes that felt very much like accounts of in-game experiences by a near-invincible player. There was less narrative development between each encounter. But the second half of the book read more like an horror novel set in space, making it a much more fun read for me.
S.E. wrote: "Trey wrote: "than my lesbian ork (preferred spelling) princess, lol. I've already met with some interesting resistance to having a strong female lead in a Sword & Sorcery story who isn't subject to getting rescued (and subsequently laid) by some muscle-bound male character..." Trey, your story sounds absurdly interesting."
I'll second that!
Regarding strong female leads, has anyone read Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthology series? I read the first volume 25 years ago and so remember very little about it now. I wonder if any orcs (or indeed orks) make appearances in these tales?
Scott wrote: "Greg wrote: "Scott wrote: "The figure moved nearer to the circle of light cast by the monks’ fire. The thunder had faded; the rain was a soft hiss. Weak flares of lightning revealed little more tha..."You're welcome! Looking forward to it!
The Sword & Sorceress books, she was the editor on, not the author.
Ashe wrote: "I've definitely gone with the Skyrim aesthetic for their appearance but with mixtures of the designs from Tolkien. The greens will be more natural looking and there will be browns and blacks as well. If you read the first chapter, you might've noticed I mentioned Grimluk's skin having a gray mottle to it. So, things of that nature."We've already discussed your first chapter via PM, but I thought I'd add that I'm interested to see where the story will go. While I like traditional, Tolkienesque fantasy, I love the idea of a gunslinging orc! I've read very little of the emerging 'weird west' sub-genre of fantasy/horror but I like the concept.
Trey wrote: "Greg wrote: "S.E. wrote: "Trey wrote: "than my lesbian ork (preferred spelling) princess, lol. I've already met with some interesting resistance to having a strong female lead in a Sword & Sorcery ..."You're welcome! As Mary says, Bradley's the editor of the series although it's possible there are one or two stories by her in some volumes. Do you know if that's the case, Mary?
Greg: Yeah, I went for a full narrative approach. So I'd play a couple of hours, keep a tight space on where my character would go with the help of mods. So I got to start in an Orc stronghold and then play out from there. I even wrote a backstory for my character. So, say, when I started and I went to fight the Chief so I could work in the stronghold, instead of doing like the Halo book apparently did, I actually wrote out a quick but brutal fight that ended with my character being given a healing potion and sitting in the sun waiting for it to do its thing. Why bother just writing exactly what you played? That'd be boring as hell. The character and the writing got me goin though, got me to where I had a regular writing schedule and that let me then create Grimluk and his world (though you never stop creating the world when you're doing a series, do you?).I'm excited that people are responding so well to what bits I've posted. I can't really say I feel like the story's gonna be innovative in itself, I feel like it's a pretty straightforward monster hunt, I guess, but it's the world and the way I'm doin characters that's gonna make it stand out more. Though maybe I'm underselling myself. And I mean, barely anyone does anything with Orcs in the lead to begin with, much less taking traditional fantasy settings and tossing them the hell out of medieval settings. I definitely feel like I hit something there.
Ashe wrote: "I even wrote a backstory for my character. So, say, when I started and I went to fight the Chief so I could work in the stronghold, instead of doing like the Halo book apparently did, I actually wrote out a quick but brutal fight that ended with my character being given a healing potion and sitting in the sun waiting for it to do its thing."I like that idea! Some role-players would this for their gaming characters, but I think most just use their campaign experience to do that instead.
Ashe wrote: "Why bother just writing exactly what you played? That'd be boring as hell. The character and the writing got me goin though, got me to where I had a regular writing schedule and that let me then create Grimluk and his world (though you never stop creating the world when you're doing a series, do you?)."
I agree - it would be boring just to write exactly what you played! At the same time, it's useful as a springboard to further and more creative writing which is what you're saying. And yeah I think you don't stop creating your fantasy world so long as you keep writing stories set within it.
That really did help me a lot. I spent a couple of months doing it, slowly built myself up. I started with a minimum of two sentences a day and built up from there. Though now, with all the other shit I have to take care of, it's a matter of distributing my energies which can be hard.
Afraid not. Haven't heard of that one before.
I'll read the sample soon and report back.
Got around to the sample and it was good. Hooked pretty easily. I'll have to nab it.
Also, I read the sample for The Orc of Many Questions and...not sure yet. Still have some of the sample to read but I'm not sure what to make of it just yet.
I need to read that sample. I'll bookmark it and check it out tonight . . .
Hey, Scott, is there any way to get your Orc short story, Amarante? I don't see it on Amazon.
Send me your email addy and I'll send you a copy . . .
Actually, here's a copy anyone can read, if they have a mind to. "Amarante" is my first Orc tale, set in the world of Tharduin -- where organized hordes of Orcs have put Humanity on the defensive. Here's a link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14...Let me know what you think . . .
Scott wrote: "Actually, here's a copy anyone can read, if they have a mind to. "Amarante" is my first Orc tale, set in the world of Tharduin -- where organized hordes of Orcs have put Humanity on the defensive...."will do scott.
Found this book - The Weight of Blood - on GR, which might be interesting. It's the first of a six-part series about two half-orcs. Has anyone read it?
Monster Hunter International features orcs. So do some of the sequels -- Monster Hunter Vendetta and Monster Hunter Legion.
Scott wrote: "Actually, here's a copy anyone can read, if they have a mind to. "Amarante" is my first Orc tale, set in the world of Tharduin -- where organized hordes of Orcs have put Humanity on the defensive...."sent you a message Scott about my thoughts on your start.
Hey Charles, i finally read Harvest. I hope you're gonna do more in that world. Or with that concept. It ended too quick!
Mod
Scott wrote: "Actually, here's a copy anyone can read, if they have a mind to. "Amarante" is my first Orc tale, set in the world of Tharduin -- where organized hordes of Orcs have put Humanity on the defensive...."Just read the story. I liked it a lot! Interesting to read about human ('whiteskin') sorcery as being 'evil' from the orcs' perspective (although one has to admit that it is necromantic in nature). I also liked the derisory way humans referred to orcs as well as the latter's term for human cavalry. Kraibag's recollections of the scenes of battle in various parts of the now largely deserted city is a nice touch too, adding both a sense of (recent) epic history and a touch of creepiness about the place.
A couple of issues with the text:
The opening part of the penultimate sentence on p. 3 seems to be truncated - '"Bah! [Has the?] whiteskin child marched [....]"'
Second paragraph on p. 11: '...they went back they way they had come....'
put in a request to netgalley for this. more like a gaming aid.
One more example of why I'm writing Orcs the way I am. So sick of hearing about how an entire race is just nothing but violent warmongers. Even the Klingons have poets, scientists, chefs, musicians, and so on. The Klingon restaurant owner from DS9 is a great example of a non-warrior Klingon who is still very Klingon.But Orcs? "Violent brutes." Gotta evolve that.
Mod
Crew, it is time to pick a side and go to battle, for Mar-Apr we have war:
Orcs versus Goblins Here are the discussion links:
Goblins AND ORCS
Cover Artist Credits L to R
1) Tim Lauten - Stan Nicholls's Orcs: Inferno
2) Barbara Remington E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros Ballantine Books edition
3) Cheoljoo Lee - Guy Haley's Skarsnik (Warhammer-Black Library, 2013)
Mod
Greg, of course. But note: all Goblin comments (even those regarding X-files) belong in a different thread. Which side are you on anyway, orc or goblin?
Clearly he's an Orc! I mean, really, everyone knows goblins are terrible.
Goblins count . . . as a source of food and entertainment (not necessarily in that order).
Hmm. A goblins thread... intriguing. And I could be a hobgoblin... ;)
In mentioning Skyrim, I like them but would rather fight them or fight with them and be one. I never did like the grunting sound you make when you play an Orc character and get hit. Something about it just irritates me
Grunting sounds in games are just kinda weird anyways. But hey, there's no grunting if you just hack down everyone haha.
Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"
Books mentioned in this topic
Fixer (other topics)Harvest of War (other topics)
Seven Heavenly Virtues - Fantasy Noir Anthology From The Fringe (other topics)
Goblins (other topics)
Goblins (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Stan Nicholls (other topics)E.R. Eddison (other topics)
Guy Haley (other topics)
