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

The Dyalhis stories are wonderful in my opinion. He is one of my favorite writers from Weird Tales, and he didn't write many stories.

Joseph.... Thanks man, for 98cents I snagged a copy.

S.E. wrote: "Joseph.... Thanks man, for 98cents I snagged a copy."

Likewise! and I think it's moving towards the front of my queue ...

S Wagnaar, I never heard of Sorcerers blood, looks obscure. You reading it?

The first time I came across mention of Nictzin Dyalhis, the name looked so much like it had started as an anagram for something else, I had to go run it through an anagram generator. Although “Clannish Ditzy I” has its charms, “Chain Ditzy Nils” seems more like something that would happen in a Sword and Sorcery dungeon. “Cannily Hid Zits” described the indignities adolescence held for all of us. “Satiny Zilch Din” would be an excellent band name.”Zany Chitin Slid” could caption many pulp cover image. And that’s more than enough of that.

Anyone here of Scourge of the Blood Cult
1961 publication


I caught wind of this via watching Richard Lee Byers's facebook page.

From the back cover teaser: "Violence and sadism gripped the land! Baring their bodies to the lashes of cruel whips, the blood-cultists incited the terrified townspeople to join with them in spreading the mystic scourge over the whole nation. But the young and two-fisted soldier Malcolm MacAlpine wielded a slicing sword as he led his troops against the blood maniacs on the loose."

Haven't heard of it. Sounds like it's down my alley

Yay! I finally selected and finished a book that qualified for a current group read! :) My brief thoughts on Barry Sadler's MORITURI https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Jason M wrote: "Yay! I finally selected and finished a book that qualified for a current group read! :) My brief thoughts on Barry Sadler's MORITURI https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..."

Looks interesting, Jason. Glad you shared. Where did you hear about Morituri? I never heard of Barry Sadler actually.

I've read Sadler's Casca (the challenge of linking on my tablet has defeated me) since discovering him in high school. Casca is the Roman soldier who pierced Christ's side with a spear while he hung on the cross. similar to Cain/Kane, he is doomed to stride the earth till Christ's return. unlike the other two, he is a white hat good guy. he dovetailed quite nicely with my Louis L'Amour western heroes...while also mirroring LL's style of essentially the same story over and over. I haven't read that whole series but enjoyed them and own just over half. as for this title, I discovered it just like my first Casca - browsing the spines at a used bookstore and recognizing a name on a cool cover :) one thing I think we lose with electronics, but I'm not bemoaning my Kindle App with 100s of books on my tablet.

Casca are worth reading. But can be hard to find and expensive in book form. I am waiting for more of the new ones to come out.

I've got quite a few Cascas and enjoy them as I read them. Not top tier stuff but entertaining. I wonder if Sadler actually wrote Morituri. Most of the Casca series was written by others I believe.

Thanks to group member Joseph, I bought and read the obscure Nictzin Dyalhis' Weird Tales, just released as The Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK TM, Vol. 4: Nictzin Dyalhis.

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

In short:

Today Dyalhis's name and work is more obscure, but his style well represents the mash-up of the weird-fiction genre. The soup of weird ingredients seldom complement each other as well as they do in this volume. Karl Edward Wagner's 1991 anthology Echoes of Valor III that has three stories by Nictzin Dyalhis and as I was reading these obscure tales, I learned from the Sword and Sorcery group that this MEGAPACK was just released (April 2015). This one has seven stories (6 from Weird Tales and 1 from Adventure), and is a steal at $0.99 (Kindle, 2015 price).

...

The first five stories are various twists on the same premise: reincarnation/past-lives are real phenomenon; and everyday humans get embroiled with ghosts, gods, and aliens anxious to tell tales and seek vengeance. Trippy sequences make apparitions tangible in real life, and send our protagonists into dreamy alternative realms. Dyalhis was enough of a chemist to infuse his knowledge of electromagnetic radiation into his creatures, magic, and sci-fi technology; he does this in most all his stories. Expect a great mix. There are “lost worlds” here, and dwarves with axes (not the fairy tale type, and decades before J.R.R. Tolkien), and there are Star-Trek-like sorties from Vehnuz (Venus) to Aerth (aka Earth) that pits humans against pudding-like Lovecraft creatures (written after Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars series), but still decades before space travel); there is even a Sword and Sorcery tale that takes our hero to a realm that is actually the incarnation of the emotion Hate.

I'd like to get this. As soon as I manage to get a month where my budget doesn't run in the red.

Charles wrote: "I'd like to get this. As soon as I manage to get a month where my budget doesn't run in the red."

Charles, it is just 99 cents :), for the Kindle. So that lower the bar a little. Assuming you are talking about The Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK TM, Vol. 4: Nictzin Dyalhis

all right. you talked me into it

Charles, this group has a history of enabling purchases :). Your books are all ~99cents too, or close to it. To feel less guilty,I'll pimp your wares:

http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Gramlic...

Thanks, man. I could use it.

I know, and these megapacks have got a lot of stuff in them. There's plenty of reading there. I've got a couple of the other ones.

Jack, hope you enjoy Harvest of War