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

Any anthology will do! This echoes our inaugural group read in Jan-Feb 2013.

Sweet! Looking forward to this as this was the start of the group which I have enjoyed ever since that first group read. This time I plan on reading:



Mainly because I loved Return of the Sword so much (Man I found so many new fave authors through it!).

I've been procrastinating too long, time for me to read it!

Great pick Sean, if I say so. looking forward to your thoughts on it.

To respond to something from the Heroine thread: All three of the Echoes of Valor anthologies are great. (But they were edited by Karl Edward Wagner, so no great surprise there.)

I might go for Fearsome Journeys: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy edited by Jonathan Strahan this time around. Or maybe I should pick up one of my old & unread issues of Black Gate magazine. (Would be so very happy if they were able to reissue the whole run in Kindle format. But I have all the actual magazines, so I'll manage one way or another.)

This will probably sound dumb, but do we just pick a book, or do we all read the same one, and, if so, which one?
There is an old (70s-80s) Female Heroine Lead series that starts with High Couch of Silistra and has 3 more books. It was so daring and different from the science fiction/fantasy at the time, the fandom was split between loving it and being offended at the character. Will be republished in the coming year.

Sarah, we generally pick topics rather than specific books, which works for this "small" group. Some will gravitate to the same book. It is always fun to hear suggestions, as you provided. Thanks for joining in!

And Janet Morris, author of High Couch of Silistra is a regular in the group, so there is a good chance you can engage her in conversation directly.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can arrange that! ROFLMAO I'm her editorial assistant...

Sarah wrote: "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can arrange that! ROFLMAO I'm her editorial assistant..."

That is funny. I should have recognized you. I got you confused with some of the new members names. Anyway, it is always good to have Janet chime in.

We have another thread for the Heroine groupread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Sarah wrote: "This will probably sound dumb, but do we just pick a book, or do we all read the same one, and, if so, which one?
There is an old (70s-80s) Female Heroine Lead series that starts with [book:High Co..."

They were so hard to find in the UK, before the internet, only have book2 in the series, so never started it.

Mark, we will be republishing Silistra after the first of the year. Our website will be up soon and you can sign up for notices when we release anything. It's much easier now that we have enooks, also. :)

Sarah wrote: "Mark, we will be republishing Silistra after the first of the year. Our website will be up soon and you can sign up for notices when we release anything. It's much easier now that we have enooks,..."

Good to hear.

I'll be getting High Couch of Silistra if I can. Glad to see you'll be republishing as it is a pain to get in the UK.

Dangerous Women

Decided to go with something nice and light -- Swordsmen and Supermen from Centaur Press. No idea who actually edited it -- I'm tempted to say Lin Carter just because it has one of his stories in it, but that's not dispositive.

If anyone is looking for a decent S&S anthology, I just completed Azieran Adventures Presents Artifacts and Relics: Extreme Sorcery, edited by Christopher Heath. My review for it is here . Now to dig into my backlog...

Bruce wrote: "If anyone is looking for a decent S&S anthology, I just completed Azieran Adventures Presents Artifacts and Relics: Extreme Sorcery, edited by Christopher Heath. My..."

Bruce, that looks like a great collection. Nice review...and yours is the book's first review here on Goodreads! Cripes,I hope more people are reading it. At a $4.99 Kindle price, it seems like a steal. I just spent more on my fast food lunch.

I never used to read many anthologies but recently I've been quite getting into them. Useful to dip in and out of.

Finished Swordsmen and Supermen -- it was only 120 pages. My basic attitude: Meh. Not even much actual sword & sorcery, come to find out -- the Robert E. Howard story was a Breckenridge Elkins; it also included excerpts from a couple of novels from the 1920s (one lost-race and one historical adventure) and two new stories -- one by Darrel Crombie, whom I don't think ever published anything else, but which had its moments, and one Lin Carter in one of his more Dunsanian moods.

Sheesh. Only two stories into Rage of the Behemoth and already it had me hop on ABEBooks to buy something. Of course I checked all over for ebook versions to no avail.

Just bought up the whole War of the Wizards (https://www.goodreads.com/series/7383...) series by Andrew J. Offutt and Richard K. Lyon. If they get here before I finish this anthology I may even use the first book for my Heroines group read selection since apparently the lead character is someone named Tiana.

Sean wrote: "Just bought up the whole War of the Wizards (https://www.goodreads.com/series/7383...) series by Andrew J. Offutt and Richard K. Lyon. If they get here before I finish this anthology I may even use the first book for my Heroines group read selection since apparently the lead character is someone named Tiana."

That's assuming that Tiana doesn't turn out to be a huge Yorkshireman with a beard like a rhododendron bush.

Rofl, now there's an image.

I'm going to look at Wyrd Worlds. It is spec fic, I've a couple of pieces in it but I haven't read the rest and probably should.

Anthologies seem to take me a while to get through I've noticed but I finally finished Rage of the Behemoth, my selection for this group read.

A little background information on this title's selection. A while back (over a year) before SASAESOFG reads had started I stumbled upon a Rogue Blades publishing site and/or book deal where I ended up buying Return of the Sword, Sages & Swords: Heroic Fantasy Anthology, and this one. I figured these would be a great way to find new sword & sorcery; remember this was before this Periklis and Seth had really gotten this amazing group rolling so I was STARVED for good new S&S!

Anyhow, I inhaled the Return of the Sword, found a ton of great new authors (for example one of the books I've bought since because of that collection: The Tears Of Ishtar and now have a bunch of new authors to investigate/follow for new works.

I read Sages and Swords after that (for the first ever SASAESOFG read I might add), and it fizzled for me. I didn't enjoy it. That slowed down my excitement and I didn't get around to Rage of the Behemoth until now.

This is an excellent follow up to Return of the Sword. In my mind, Return of the Sword is pretty much the best anthology I have read, ever, so when I say it doesn't succeed that book its no big deal. It's still a great one. Yes, like all anthologies there are some dry areas. Areas where either the story just didn't grab me or it just was not a style I can appreciate. However, the editor Jason M Waltz has selected another excellent batch of stories that hit the mark for me more often than miss.

The book is divided up into sections, seas, frozen wastes, sands, jungles, and mountains. Each story is a monster sword and sorcery tale with each author usually writing about a monster that suits that section's setting.

An unforeseen benefit I have received through reading this collection is now I know which settings I prefer. Some highlights for me were Portrait of a Behemoth by Richard K. Lyon and Andrew J. Offutt (in fact, right after reading about Tiana Highrider, I logged onto ABEBooks and bought up all of their War of the Wizards series), Thunder Canyon by Jeff Draper, Where the Shadow Falls by T W Williams, Black Water by Sean T. M. Stiennon. These above listed highlights were in the seas and mountains sections so while I enjoyed many of the tales all of the sections, the strongest stories for me were in the two book ending ones.

Many of the authors in here also wrote in Return of the Sword, but with the new additional ones, my list of S&S authors to explore has definitely gotten longer.

I recommend this collection to every S&S fan. As a matter of fact if I ever visited a friend's house and they stated they were a fan of sword and sorcery fiction and DIDN'T have this and Return of the Sword on their bookshelves, I would call them a poser.

So, in closing, great read. Second only to the amazing Return of the Sword. I'll buy anything Jason Waltz puts out unless it was something about actually writing fantasy fiction which I have no personal interest in.. I'm a reader of it!

Sean wrote: "Anthologies seem Phil Emeryto take me a while to get through I've noticed but I finally finished Rage of the Behemoth, my selection for this group read...An unforeseen benefit I have received through reading this collection is now I know which settings I prefer..."

Sean, awesome experience. So you are a "seas and mountains" adventurer.

I had a similar experience with Return of the Sword and Rage of the Behemoth. They led me to new authors...so my to-read pile got stacked high. In particular, I targeted Jason E. Thummel, Bill Ward, and Phil Emery (Philip Emery)...all of whom have a great library of offerings.

Although not an RBE production, Azieran Adventures Presents Artifacts and Relics: Extreme Sorcery is themed like them (and has contributions from RBE regulars Steve Goble and Bruce Durham). That one is on my radar for the next Anthology group read (next Jan-Feb?...not sure I can wait that long).

Actually, I'm not in Azieran Adventures Presents Artifacts and Relics: Extreme Sorcery, though I 'did' review it here on Goodreads.

Bruce wrote: "Actually, I'm not in Azieran Adventures Presents Artifacts and Relics: Extreme Sorcery, though I 'did' review it here on Goodreads."

Bruce, my apologizes for getting my wires crossed. Looks like I mixed you and Bill Ward up momentarily. Cripes. Anyway, you remain a contributor to the RBE anthologies ... and are still contribtuting to recent works including Lawyers in Hell and Rogues in Hell. A "Hell" group read topic may be in order :).

Bruce and Bill both write good stuff.

Thanks Steve. And I second the notion of a 'Hell' group read.