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

Hey all, for anyone that missed the relatively recent group read and wanted to join me and Richard for this buddy read feel free.

Started last night, got through the Intro, the essay by Saunders, and the first chapter before falling asleep on the couch. Not the best way to start a book, but better than nothing. :-)

I'm at the same point as well. I'll read more before hitting the hay tonight. Interesting intros from Saunders and De Lint, I had no idea that they were friends.

I have the original DAW paperback, signed by Charles, on my shelf. If I recall, the book is a collection of interconnected short stories. Very good stuff too. Enjoy!

S.wagenaar wrote: "I have the original DAW paperback, signed by Charles, on my shelf. If I recall, the book is a collection of interconnected short stories. Very good stuff too. Enjoy!"

I'm not jealous, no, not at all...

I'd like to get a copy of the original paperback so I could read the original. In the reissue, Saunders dropped a story that he thought was too close to the genocide happening in Rwanda, and replaced it with a new chapter. This also meant rewriting some of the rest of the book, as it changed some major elements of the story. I have no problem with him doing that, but I'm curious about that story.

I'm about 50 pages into the book, and I'm enjoying it. I do have two complaints about it, however.

First, I'm getting tired of the frequent italicization of words that are in the glossary at the back of the book. I can see italicizing them the first time they appear as a signal to look them up, but doing it every time they appear is annoying. This may be a small thing, but it drops me out of the story every time, and it occurs with great frequency. On top of that, it's not all the words that appear in the glossary, just some of them. Even in the glossary, the words that appear in italics in the story are listed in italics. I haven't figured out a reason why some words are and others are not.

The second issue I have is (view spoiler)[Imaro is a superman. He's only 14, yet he can break rope bonds when he's tied up, can kill an entire raiding party by himself, kill a giant hyena with his bare hands, and throw a lion that has him pinned to the ground. I get that he's supposed to be very strong and almost a perfect warrior, but it's just a little too much to believe. I'd rather see him get into a difficult situation he can't resolve based on strength alone, and have to come up with a different way of escaping or saving himself. (hide spoiler)]

I kind of have the same issue with the italicized words, the first time used, or the first time in each story could make sense, but time after time reading Ngombe italicized without purpose is redundant. Not too far yet (just half way through the first short) as I've been pretty busy so I won't click the spoiler yet. Hopefully I can make some more speedy progress soon.

Just finished Imaro. Will post more after I've had some time to get my thoughts in order.

I've really been slacking here, been busy as hell the last couple of weeks and fishing season finally opened so my free time has been monopolized a bit...

Dan wrote: "I've really been slacking here, been busy as hell the last couple of weeks and fishing season finally opened so my free time has been monopolized a bit..."

No worries. I just happened to have a lot of extra time to read lately, so I went through the book much faster than my normal pace. Whenever you get to it, I'll be ready to discuss.

I read the first three Imaro books years ago. Great stuff.