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

We have a tradition to read anthologies for the Jan-Feb group reads here. The S&S genre certainly grew out of short stories, anthologies are a great way to explore past and current authors, and most of us have them in our to-read pile.

So, have a look at your TBR pile, and chime in with the anthology you plan to read.

Magazine count!

There are plenty of good lists, and some of the historic ones from G. W. Thomas's site are back online!

1963-1985 link to GW Thomas
1986-2008



We'll start a poll shortly....not to select "winners" but just as a device to keep track of what might be read. So write-in your option... or type it in these comments and I'll add it for you.

Click here to see and vote or write in new options (link)

I have accumulated several S&S anthologies recently, so the timing is right. Perhaps I’ll tackle Echoes of Valor III, or Swords Against Tomorrow, or Heroic Visions, or...
You see the dilemma here.

S.wagenaar wrote: "I have accumulated several S&S anthologies recently, so the timing is right. Perhaps I’ll tackle Echoes of Valor III, or Swords Against Tomorrow, or Heroic Visions, or...
You see the dilemma here."

S.Wagenaar, great! Time to tackle at least one of those. Looking forward to hearing which one(s) you do.

I aim to read Swords of Steel, which has been on my TBR for far too long.

I just realized I neglected to include Tales from the Magician's Skull #1 on the poll. Just finished #3 and really enjoyed that. I know the group would too.

Happy Yuletide, Xmas, etc... and especially Happy New Year.

The next two months are slotted for Anthology reading, the foundation of the S&S genre is formed from short stories... and plenty of new collections are out there. Classic or new, grab one from your TBR pile and join in.

The Jan-Feb 2020 Anthology discussion folder (link)

"What anthologies are people reading?", a list (disguised as a Poll): Link to list/poll, feel welcome to add your vote (or write one in)


The inspirational Image Banner credits (L-R)
Blackest Spells - cover by Max Shevchenko - Breaker Maximus
Lost Lore: A Fantasy Anthology - cover by Andreas Zafeiratos
Swords of Steel - cover by Martin Hanford

I have a coule of these to read, so that's cool.

Beautiful covers man and not just because I'm biased. :)

A fun thread on BlackGate.com by John O'Neill stirs the fire for S&S anthologies!

https://www.blackgate.com/2019/12/24/...

Starting The Year's Best Fantasy Stories 2 ed. by Lin Carter

Starting with an oldie and kinda scarce here in the States.

Savage Heroes: Tales of Sorcery and Black Magic

Reading one of DMR's anthologies:
Death Dealers & Diabolists


Then I hope to read Blackest Knights

Those DMR anthologies are pretty awesome. Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria contains Manly Wade Wellman's collected Kardios stories.

Gonna give Echoes of Valor III a go. It opens with one of my favorite REH tales, Shadow of the Vulture. And it has a ton of stuff I’ve never read by the likes of Henry Kuttner, Jack Williamson and Nictzin Dyalhis.

Onward to Heroic Fantasy.

Richard wrote: "Onward to Heroic Fantasy."

I really need to read Heroic Fantasy. Sigh, not enough time!

Just wrapped up Death Dealers & Diabolists.

It was a solid anthology of authors I didn't know before. Highly recommended for this crowd.

Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Started The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Volume 1, 2009-2011

Art of War

Christian wrote: "Started The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Volume 1, 2009-2011

"

Finished this last night and really enjoyed all the stories. A little bit surprised just how good they were considering they were posted online for free. 4/5

I finished off Rogues at the first of the year and have been working on Unfettered

Christian, nice. I really need to read HFQ. Black Gate just had a kind write up this week too.

https://www.blackgate.com/2020/01/12/...

S.E. wrote: "Christian, nice. I really need to read HFQ. Black Gate just had a kind write up this week too.

https://www.blackgate.com/2020/01/12/......"

Yeah, I saw that. Reminded me I should pick up that 3rd volume sooner rather than later.

Starting Skelos II



Didn't care for the first issue so hoping this one is better. It is off to a good start with Adrian Cole's tale of Romans, Druids, Cthulhu, and lots of blood, "Slayers at the Gate".

Finished Skelos II

After not being that impressed with the inaugural issue I was a bit sceptical going into this one, but I needn't have worried as it turned out to be a fantastical turnaround and much more to my tastes. With killer tales from Scott Oden, Adrian Cole, W.H. Pugmire, Howard Andrew Jones, and Milton J. Davis, this one definitely scratched that Sword & Sorcery itch I felt the first one lacked. 4/5

Nice reviews Christian.

Anyone here have the scoop on Skelos Press? I thought they struggled a bit, but managed to get a third volume out a few yrs ago.

I wish I knew. I backed on Kickstarter for a Lifetime Digital Subscription and haven't received the third issue yet.

I created a separate thread elsewhere, but speaking of magazines and anthologies, Weird Tales is back! There's a new issue Weird Tales #363(363) available either for Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Tales-36...

or if you want a physical copy, your best bet is Darrell Schweitzer's eBay page (which I can vouch for -- I've ordered directly from him in the past, always with good results).

I've gotten personalized copies of his books from his ebay store. I was over the moon to discover him on ebay.

Just finished Heroic Fantasy, and it was hands down my favorite anthology! In retrospect, the table of contents really shows what kind of talent DAW books had in their stable back in it's heyday. Donald Wollheim did a lot for this type of fiction.

Starting Cirsova: Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine #6

Never read EC Tubb... (@Richard who reviewed Heroic Fantasy).

May add him to the Groupread options

Just finished. Supports a worthy cause. Many well known authors and just as many not so known authors. Worth a look.

finally starting my anthology read: KEW's ECHOES OF VALOR. That first chapter of Howard's "The Black Stranger" still rocks!

LOL, so I go to do my page update and discovered that I read EOV. Now I've read that Conan story several times so I would have caught on by the time I got to the Leiber tale, but I am now immediately jumping to EOV2.

The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Volume 1, 2009-2011

Starting up Kingdoms of Sorcery.

Ooh! I’ve never heard of that one before.

It was one of a pair he did for Doubleday in 1976 -- the other being Realms Of Wizardry, which I also plan to read. They're not sword & sorcery anthologies per se, although they certainly include S&S stories. They're mostly kind of a spiritual successor to some of his earlier Ballantine Adult Fantasy anthologies, with a mix of older (Voltaire) and more recent (Fritz Leiber) authors, and a mix of short stories and novel excerpts. They were my first introduction (even if I didn't realize it at the time) to a number of great authors, including (from this book) William Morris and E.R. Eddison.

I joined the group a bit late for this group read, it seems, but I do have a good number of anthologies and fantasy magazines queued up for reading, if I can finish what I'm currently reading before February ends. The trouble with the magazines is that none of them would be strictly sword and sorcery (Amazing Stories, Unknown, Astounding, Planet Stories, Fantastic, etc.), and though I have several general fantasy anthologies ready to go, the only S&S one was on a backburner, that being Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! #1. Personally, though, I'm more in the mood for one of the magazines.

We’re a pretty easy going lot. I don’t think anyone would criticize you for reading something not strictly S&S.

Yeah, we're nothing if not flexible.

Good to know! 😀

Joy, we are totally laid back here. We often chime in on on old groupreads. Anytime you can share your thoughts, please do. Sword and Planet counts!

S.E. wrote: "Sword and Planet counts!"

Even better!

Well, as it turns out, Alexa selected the May 1964 issue of Fantastic for my next read (v13n05), which will do nicely for the anthology. There's no listing of it here on Goodreads, but it contains the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novella Adept's Gambit, as well as Master of Chaos by Michael Moorcock!

The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Volume 1, 2009-2011 was a good read. I'm really glad Christian brought it up earlier in the feed or otherwise I wouldn't have known about it. Solid collection. Shattering of the Spear by P. Djeli Clark was perhaps my favorite. It was a Sword and Soul similar to Imaro.

Onward to StoryHack Action & Adventure, Issue Five which has a story by our very own Stan Wagenaar.

And now I'm into Realms Of Wizardry. If I had to pick just one of the two anthologies, it would probably be Realms because I think it has a very slightly stronger selection of stories & excerpts; also, it was my first introduction to H. Rider Haggard.

Realms Of Wizardry is finished, and it really was a very strong collection of early-to-mid-20th Century fantasy.

And I'm continuing on the short story path with The Last Hieroglyph, vol. 5 of the complete short stories of Clark Ashton Smith. (I started it because I wanted something going when I took my Kindle along with me, while I was reading the Carter anthologies at home; and I kind of screwed up because I should've been reading A Vintage From Atlantis, #3 in the series, but I jumped ahead to #5 by mistake. Ah, well.)

Joseph wrote: "And I'm continuing on the short story path with The Last Hieroglyph, vol. 5 of the complete short stories of Clark Ashton Smith."

I read two of the stories in that volume last year ("The Witchcraft of Ulua" and "The Coming of the White Worm"), and they were very good. I'll have to read the rest of them.

Smith has been one of my favorite authors for, well, a very long time now.

Three cheers to Smith, his Zothique tales blew my mind.