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

Dean wrote: "Dave wrote: "Hi, I'm Dave and I write Sword and Sorcery.

I cut my teeth on the Lancer Conans..."

Those Lancer Conans with the Frazetta covers are still, for all their shortcomings, my favorite ed..."

I no longer have mine, but even when I traded many of my print books for ebooks (long story involving downsizing and moves) I kept some Howards. As for Leiber, the first ebooks I really spent money on were the complete Fafhrd/Mouser books.

Hi. I'm Greg and I'm log over-due for introducing myself.
I guess my love of sword and sorcery can be traced originally to comic books, which I've read my whole life -or just looked at the pictures before I could read.
Then the beautiful covers by Boris and Neal Adams on the Ballatine edition series in the 80's caught my eye. Not long after starting that series, Frazetta and Boris drew me to the Ace Editions of Conan. (I was already familiar with both characters from their comics). I've been hooked ever since.
For several years I reviewed sci-fi/fantasy books over at www.fantasyliterature.com.

Welcome to the group, Kidgreg.

I took the opposite path, starting out in paperbacks (the lure of those covers is still a siren song to me, and I have bookcases of paperbacks to prove it) and only recently--in the past few years--began looking at comics. I'm certainly glad I did. Not only some powerful storytelling to be found, but so much evocative and beautiful art...

You are in good company. There are quite a few cover-junkies in these parts, I believe.

Hello - another Greg here! :P Seth invited me to join so here I am. I'm in a few other groups but I'm most active in Horror Aficionados. While I like horror and science fiction, I like a bit of medieval-style fantasy too. However, as a kid I much preferred reading fantasy as I was an avid AD&D player/referee.

From the writing side, I have one short story in the dark fantasy genre ('Demon eye' in Aoife's Kiss 6(3), Dec 2007) and a role-playing scenario ('Inn of Chaos' in Adventures Unlimited 5, 1996) published. Hope to write some more fiction soon - once I have some non-fiction projects out of the way.

Welcome

Thanks Charles! :)

Greg wrote: "Hello - another Greg here! :P Seth invited me to join so here I am. I'm in a few other groups but I'm most active in Horror Aficionados. While I like horror and science fiction, I like a bit of med..."

Glad to see you here Greg! Also welcome to Kidgreg and Dave.

Thanks S.E. Good to meet everyone.

One nasty side-effect of joining this group is that I want to be finished the current story I'm writing (a pulp/ZeppelinPunk novella) and move on to the next which is more a sword & sorcery novel (a follow-up to Amadar).

Discipline, Dave, discipline.

Thanks Seth! And hi Dave!

Hello to all the group members,

I really enjoy reading sword & sorcery books. That's why I'm here!

I've written some role-playing game scenarios and sourcebooks. I've also written a fantasy novel.

I've worked as a writer and editor for game companies and small publishers.

I have a website and you're more than welcome to stop by for a visit.

Anyway, looking forward to discovering some new books here and getting to know all the regular group members.

Cheerio for now,
Jon

Welcome, Jon. You're in good company.

Charles wrote: "Welcome, Jon. You're in good company."

Thanks Charles!

Jon wrote: "Hello to all the group members, I really enjoy reading sword & sorcery books. That's why I'm here!I've written some role-playing game scenarios and sourcebooks. I've also written a fantasy novel..."

Jon (and other new folk),

Welcome. There is a decent subset of RPGers here, so I echo Charles is saying you are in good company. Lots of established and emerging authors too. In addition to the discussion threads (please browse existing ones or start a new thread), note that we have group reads that last 2-months...and usually have 2 thematic topics. For example, For March-April we are reading "anything with a Whelan cover" and "any Sword & Sorcery written by a female author." Bonus points to those who find books that count for both:

Groupread link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hello, everyone!

My name's Richard, and I've been a Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith fan for an awfully long time, and by extension a sword and sorcery fan for about as long; I've managed to pick up quite an assortment over the last few years, and should I confess at this point that I have a sneaky fondness for Lin Carter's work? I stumbled across this group as part of my desire to dive into Goodreads a lot more than I previously have...

I'm primarily a military science-fiction author, but I've dabbled in sword and sorcery a couple of times over the last few years, and plan on doing more work in the genre in the near-future. My 'in' to fantasy in general was through role-playing and the old Fighting Fantasy books; I edited a magazine called OD&DITIES back in college, and did a bit of RPG writing a long time ago...

Welcome, Richard. Sounds like you fit in nicely here.

Richard wrote: "Hello, everyone! My name's Richard, and I've been a Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith fan for an awfully long time, and by extension a sword and sorcery fan for about as long; I've managed t..."

Welcome Richard. You have many liked-minded folk here. Thanks for joining. BTW, the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were one of my gateways into S&S too. You might be interested in a kickstarter campaign by Jonathan Green (this was my first kickstarter venture...and the product has yet to come out, though it is due soon). It is a book of the history of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks which comprehensively covers the artists, authors, and design.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

I'll be looking into that when it comes out; I missed the Kickstarter when it launched...I loved 'Playing at the Game' by Jonathan Green, and it sounds like it might be in a similar vein...

Hi everybody! I am Evgeny; some you you know me from other groups :) According to my GR bookshelves most of the books I read are fantasy. My current read is Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy which I like - for the quality of writing if nothing else.

Welcome Evgeny

Evgeny wrote: "Hi everybody! I am Evgeny; some you you know me from other groups :) According to my GR bookshelves most of the books I read are fantasy. My current read is Joe Abercrombie's First ..."

Evgeny, welcome. If your other groups relate to sci-fi you may be interested in our May-Jun groupread: "Sword and Planet." It just started.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Evgeny wrote: "Hi everybody! I am Evgeny; some you you know me from other groups :) According to my GR bookshelves most of the books I read are fantasy. My current read is Joe Abercrombie's First ..."

Welcome Evgeny! I'm another montréalais (by birth and maternal descent) but I live in Ireland now.

Hi, everyone. Thanks for letting me join the party! These days, I'm mainly focusing on fantasy. In fact, my debut dark fantasy novel, Wytchfire, just came out last month. I've also published a few books of poetry and I was happy to have a poem Goodreads' June newsletter. Feel free to check out my page, if you like! I have pretty eclectic tastes but I'm always happy to talk with fellow writers and readers. Take care and thanks!

Welcome,

Welcome, Michael, and congrats on having your first fantasy novel published!

Michael wrote: "Hi, everyone. Thanks for letting me join the party! These days, I'm mainly focusing on fantasy. In fact, my debut dark fantasy novel, Wytchfire, just came out last month. I've also ..."

Hey, welcome Michael. Wytchfire sounds pretty good. I was enticed to enter the Giveaway, though my to-read pile is glaring at me.

LOL You should see my to-read pile! :P

Thanks, everyone! Yeah, my to-read pile is so bad that the neighbors are starting to complain.

I consider every book on earth that I haven't already read to be in my TBR pile. Some of the ones I have read I plan to read again, so I guess they're on the pile too. :)

My TBR pile:

http://eduscapes.com/history/contempo...

Charles wrote: "I consider every book on earth that I haven't already read to be in my TBR pile. Some of the ones I have read I plan to read again, so I guess they're on the pile too. :)"

:O

Hi, everyone. I reviews series fantasy for Black Gate 15 - Spring 2011, and one of my short stories appeared in that magazine's last print issue before it went all-online. I coedited an anthology, Trafficking in Magic, Magicking in Traffic, that included stories by James Enge and Darrell Schweitzer. My collection of novellas, Tales from Rugosa Coven, is contemporary fantasy with a humorous twist, but I did find that I needed to borrow some of Robert E. Howard's favorite adjectives for describing Conan (including, thanks to Howard Andrew Jones, "scintillant") to describe the Wiccan personal injury attorney protagonist.

Sarah wrote: "Hi, everyone. I reviews series fantasy for Black Gate 15 - Spring 2011, and one of my short stories appeared in that magazine's last print issue before it went all-online. I coedite..."

Welcome to the group, Sarah. It is nice to meet you, albeit in an electronic format.

Sarah wrote: "Hi, everyone. I reviews series fantasy for Black Gate 15 - Spring 2011, and one of my short stories appeared in that magazine's last print issue before it went all-online. I coedite..."

Sarah, Welcome. Glad to have you here. BTW: Black Gate 15 - Spring 2011 is special issue for me, since I discovered Blackgate through their last printed issue.

Welcome!

Welcome, Sarah! We already exchanged posts re: Red Sonja in June and I added Tales from Rugosa Coven to my TBR shelf at the time as it looks interesting. By the way, I like (and envy) your description of yourself as an 'escaped academic'!

Welcome Trey, you are in like company.

Welcome Trey, you are in like company.

Welcome

Finally gotten around to introducing myself. I'm Ashe. Like a lot of folks, my introduction to the genre came through Conan and an assortment of strange movies from the 80s and early 90s. I didn't really discover the genre whole hog until about 6 years ago when I finally really dove into the Conan movies and then the short stories. I definitely prefer S&S over higher fantasy for the most part.

And, forgive me here, but I'm trying to get my first book funded on kickstarter. Not a S&S book, it's a weird western. Link's in my profile, got 11 days left as I write this. Clock counts down and I'm startin to hit that desperation point ya know?

Anywho, I was excited when I found the group. I hope y'all are doin well.

Welcome Trey and Ashe! I see a common Conan theme here!

I've only started reading Conan (outside of comics) this year - my introduction to sword & sorcery books as a child being The chronicles of Narnia. In my teens, I was more into The Hobbit, LOTR, the early volumes of the Fighting Fantasy and Thieves' World series, the Dragonlance Chronicles and sundry other fantasy novels.

I think I would've liked the Conan books a lot as a teen.

Ashe, good luck with your Kickstarter project! I see you uploaded the first chapter of your book on deviantart. I'll give it a read as soon as I finish Conan (possibly tomorrow).

Cheers, man!

I really do love the Conan stories though. So much fun. And the first movie, while not a great Conan adaptation, sets the bar for S&S movies. I need to watch that again soon.

Interesting view on Narnia. I've never heard them referred to as S&S, especially with all the religious allegory. I could say the case being made for that though.

Ashe wrote: "Interesting view on Narnia. I've never heard them referred to as S&S, especially with all the religious allegory. I could say the case being made for that though."

They are, of course, children's books so they would really be at the soft end of S&S fantasy (no skimpily clad women for example :P), but as a young boy I wouldn't have known that. I don't think I grasped the Christian allegory in it either at the time. Some of Tolkien's early work on Middle Earth also clearly had a Christian influence in it (e.g. the god Ilúvatar granting Men 'free will' in The Book of Lost Tales, Part One, p. 61, n. 12) and LOTR is a straightforward good-versus-evil tale, which lends itself well to a religious interpretation (if one wanted to give it one). (I should add, by the way, that I'm not religious.)

Funniest thing about the allegory in the Narnia series is the last book doesn't even pretend anymore.

And yeah, Tolkien was pretty black and white with all that. That's one reason I decided to make my main character an Orc. I'm so tired of the "non-hero" races being paragons of virtue mowing down the black-blooded inferiors. Life's more complicated than that. Though there enjoyment in the GvsE stories still.

Ashe wrote: "Funniest thing about the allegory in the Narnia series is the last book doesn't even pretend anymore.

And yeah, Tolkien was pretty black and white with all that. That's one reason I decided to ma..."

Your desire to write from the perspective of an orc reminded me of a D&D supplement I've had for years but never got to use it in a game: The Orcs of Thar. I added the cover picture and book description to Goodreads' entry. The supplement provided rules for players of the game to assume the character of an orc or other type of humanoid creature. I don't know if that idea ever really caught on though.

That is pretty interesting. And you're right, it has never seemed to catch on. I read The Goblin Corps earlier in the summer and despite focusing on the races considered "evil," it still a) kept them evil, and b) did nothing to enhance their mythology. While a fun read, it was basically like reading the game Overlord.

It seems when they're done differently, mostly they're just made into the Noble Savage trope. There are issues with being Orc-centric but I'm trying my best to work them out and create a world where they can exist as other people alongside the "hero" races.

I have a lot of feelings about that haha.

My own entry into the Orc saga is "Harvest of War," which is available on Amazon. I tried to make it neither orc centric nor human centric but an examination of both sides when they come together.

http://www.amazon.com/Harvest-War-Cha...

This group apparently attracts Orc-a-philes.

On a similar line, I've always been partial to Grunts by Mary Gentle. And has anyone read the Orcs by Stan Nicholls?

Joseph wrote: "On a similar line, I've always been partial to Grunts by Mary Gentle. And has anyone read the Orcs by Stan Nicholls?"

I checked out reviews for Orcs and its current incarnation is an omnibus of a trilogy that came out in 99 and the early 2000s. And it is apparently boring and paint-by-numbers.

S.E. wrote: "This group apparently attracts Orc-a-philes."

Orcs are fun. So are savage Cimmerians though haha.

Future group read theme : swords n orcs?