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

Had an interesting question about Imaro book availability on the Black Gate Tour Guide: https://www.blackgate.com/2020/12/07/...

That tour guide was written prior the author's passing. The Lulu.com links to his books appear to find no items now.

Anyone here know how to get electronic (and even print) copies of Imaro 1-4 now?

Man, these books have always been so difficult to track down. I remember they were available for at time at Lulu, and then gone. The original Daw paperbacks are pretty rare. Somebody needs to get these back in print; I wonder if DMR could get it done?

Who even owns the rights now that Saunders is deceased? I was unaware of any next of kin. You think Milton Davis would know? I believe they were in contact.

I wish someone would collect Saunders uncollected short fiction and publish it. I believe there are enough uncollected Imaro stories for its own collection.

You can actually get a bunch of his stuff (including the first two Imaro books) on Amazon. But it took me YEARS to track down "The Trail of Bohu" and I'm just now finally reading "The Naama War."

Richard wrote: "I wish someone would collect Saunders uncollected short fiction and publish it. I believe there are enough uncollected Imaro stories for its own collection."

I agree 👍

I would like to think that someone like Milton Davis would be working on gathering and organizing Charles Saunders’ works for future publication. The Godfather of Sword and Soul deserves to be remembered and celebrated through his novels and short stories.

I have nothing to add but concurrence. I would love a new collected edition.

S.wagenaar wrote: "I would like to think that someone like Milton Davis would be working on gathering and organizing Charles Saunders’ works for future publication. The Godfather of Sword and Soul deserves to be reme..."

This too. 100% this.

I cornered the esteemed champion of Sword and Soul, Milton J. Davis, and he even had little to reveal about the Imaro availability going forward.

@Seth, anything you can share?

Keep us in the loop, Seth!

Clint wrote: "@Seth, anything you can share?"

I shared what little I could gather. I do not know much. Milton Davis, who has published Charles's work and is the closest I know to his work, is fairly in the dark too (from my limited correspondence). I chose not to pry further.

Similar issues have occurred with other authors passing... i.e., often it can be difficult to identify who owns any estate, let alone the status/availability of certain works. I fear Charles Saunder's work is drifting away for a time.

Of course, I'd love to be assured that the Imaro books would become broadly available. Others can keep me in the loop! In fact, I was hoping someone else would clue me/us in.

It's sad that Saunders died alone and largely unrecognized, and ended up being buried initially in an unmarked grave. Happily, his friends and acquaintances appear to have got a headstone for him, according to an article in the New York Times (Neil Genzlinger, "A Black Literary Trailblazer’s Solitary Death: Charles Saunders, 73", NYT, 21 January 2021).

Of particular interest in regard to this topic, however, the article states:

"Taaq Kirksey, another organizer of the memorial, first made contact with Mr. Saunders in 2004 while in his final semester at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after having become enamored of his fiction, and ever since he has been working to turn the Imaro stories into a movie or television series, an effort he said is close to bearing fruit."

If there is going to be a movie or TV series, then it seems possible that the Imaro books could be republished as tie-ins, but this is so long as Kirksey, or the production company has the rights to reprint the books. Even if the books are not re-published, an Imaro movie or series would be very cool!

(Incidentally, I had intended to post a link to the New York Times's article but Goodreads now prohibits links to other sites in comments "for the safety of members". Sigh. You can find a link at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database's entry on Saunders.)

Greg wrote: "It's sad that Saunders died alone and largely unrecognized, and ended up being buried initially in an unmarked grave. Happily, his friends and acquaintances appear to have got a headstone for him, ..."


And Greg offers hope!

GR interface does suck, but you can post links (just not as cleanly as before). Just copy/paste the entire URL...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/bo...

S.E. wrote: "And Greg offers hope!"

I aim to help (where possible)! :)

S.E. wrote: "GR interface does suck, but you can post links (just not as cleanly as before). Just copy/paste the entire URL...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/bo...
"

Well that makes no sense! I'd used the anchor tags (which are still included among the "some html is ok" list) around the newspaper's title and then got the warning that links could not be used....

Greg wrote: "Well that makes no sense!"

Yep. Adding URLs is nutty now. I usually ask GR to fix their interface (and they are usually pretty fast), but whatever motivated them to mess up the "add HTML link helper code" .... may also make them against the work-around I mentioned above... so I was avoiding submitting a ticket.

Goodreads sux now. Almost everything is just bs ploys to make money and nothing makes sense of why they are taking away the fun of previously being able to post links using html code or otherwise, no more pictures in comments, no book condition of books you own and saved on your shelves, no way to note a specific date of when you purchased a book (only the year now), no note of you recommending a book to someone or vice versa, and having been a prolific Goodreads Librarian for 11 years with a perfect record during all that time I can barely add or alter book information any longer and if I add an ISBN even if entered correctly or incorrectly I can't change it immediately afterwards no matter what I do, and soon they are taking away pictures in reviews, and as far as links go you can't even link to Amazon who bought Goodreads for $150 million in 2013. They've ruined hundreds and hundreds of hours of metadata I've entered or updated in hopes my efforts would make Goodreads a better, more fun place for $90+ million members, including at least 25% of all the Sword & Sorcery and Sword and Planet books we discuss. It's hurtful and hard to not take personally. And all seemingly for Amazon/Goodreads to cut back on metadata, books not making money for Amazon and for less time needing to be spent by Goodreads Librarians, Staff members and associates. And yet Amazon is worth $1. 105 trillion and is projected to make $730 billion this year, their average revenue increasing annually between 21% - 37% the last few years. They've completely lost it, thinking taking away options and our fun, and for people like me, even our livelihood to a certain degree is going to go unnoticed and somehow increase interest and book sales. The thing is Amazon and Goodreads WILL increase their annual revenue this year and those that follow. But it will be a cold, homogenized transition of unnecessary changes implemented by people who are committee members and hands-off investors who do not spend time here or care one bit about Goodreads or its members. And they could have spent a miniscule portion to keep us all happy while utilizing not less options and features but more.