Rogue Blades Entertainment has just released its second anthology, and it’s a doozy. Three hundred plus pages of secondary world fantasy with a pulse, featuring stories in the classic Heroic Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery vein — but with a modern twist. Rage of the Behemoth‘s overarching theme of heroes battling colossal creatures is further divided into sections based on location, such as jungles, mountains, or oceans. This gives the stories in the anthology a very strong cohesive quality, and setting becomes as much a character as the giant beasts and demons that stride across Behemoth’s pages.
And those beasts are a startling array of the familiar, the bizarre, and the completely original. There are dragons and dragon turtles, frost hydras, griffins, manticores, giant animated skeletons, warped sea monsters, and even a few beast gods. Stories range from straight adventure, to more introspective and metaphorical pieces, and Jason Waltz has again done an excellent job in not only selecting a variety of tales, but arranging them for effect.
Those familiar with RBE’s previous anthology, Return of the Sword, will recognize some of the names in this one (including my own). Behemoth also features established authors whose names you may recognize such as Andrew J. Offut & Richard K. Lyon, C.L. Werner, Lois Tilton, Brian Ruckley, and Mary Rosenblum. Fantastic interior and cover art from Didier Norman and RBE regular Johnny Perkins really complements the action — and these artists have worked to create five beautiful limited edition covers (one for each terrain section in the book).
If you are a fan of adventure fantasy, or just secondary world fiction in general, you have no lack of choice when it comes to novels. But anthologies that celebrate such themes have become a rare thing indeed since the glory days of Flashing Swords and Thieves World. RBE is doing something about that, and they’re doing it with scope and vision enough to ensure that this present resurgence in Sword & Sorcery represents the best of classic themes told with modern voices.
Have a look at the Rogue Blades Entertainment site for information on special deals on all their books, including a ‘shout out’ campaign for Behemoth that offers rebates to every buyer that helps spread the word about the anthology.
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Thank you for the powerful words, Bill. Your support of RBE and its titles has gone far beyond that of simply contributions. Though both of your stories are integral additions to RotS and RotB and I wouldn’t give either of them up if you asked me, your friendship, encouragement, and assistance have been terrific boons.
Thanks for being you.
Thank you Jason — for being the one man publishing storm that you are. And I’m more than happy to promote your books on here — I’ll always be a fan first, and a contributor second.