Sages & Swords at Rogue Blades Entertainment

Sages & Swords, the 2005 follow-up to Lords of Swords, is an example of just how fine a small press anthology can be. If I didn’t already have my copy, the latest special offer from Rogue Blades Entertainment would have me jumping out of my gym shorts to get it. Follow this link and you’ll see what I mean.

Lords of Swords and Sages & Swords were both edited by Daniel E. Blackston, and published by the sadly defunct Pitch-Black Books, the originators of Flashing Swords ezine. Lords has sold out, last I heard; but Jason at RBE has lucked into some copies of Sages which, truth be told, was my favorite of the two. Firstly, the Storn Cook cover is a thing of beauty, and that alone would have had me halfway to the cash register if I had found it in a book store.

But check out the names in it. Tanith Lee, Eugie Foster, Michael Boatmen, Vera Nazarian . . . Harold Lamb! There’s a Dabir and Asim tale from Howard Andrew Jones, a smooth-as-butter actioner from Sean T. M. Stiennon, and the great, much talked about piece from Barbara Tarbox, ‘Detour at Abbinford.’ My favorite story is probably Robert J. Santa’s ‘Game of the Krillihitchkin,’ in which a dragon-hunting sorcerer and the beast itself square off in a battle of wits. Every story in Sages is a winner, covering a gamut of adventure fantasy fiction from the suspenseful to the sublime.

And it has some great, writer-oriented non-fiction as well. There’s an interview with R.A. Salvatore of Drizzt fame, an article on the necessity of realism in fantasy fiction by Edward J. McFadden III, and Daniel E. Blackston’s own great primer for beginning writers ‘How to Break Into Fantasy Fiction.’ Couple all that with a book that looks and feels like the highest quality, from the texture of the pages to the iconic interior illustrations, and you have a modern classic.

And RBE has the remaing stock and is selling them at more than a third off the cover price. They’re also running a deal on the first printing of Return of the Sword. Both deals are worth checking out — you can thank me later.

Sages & Swords and Return of the Sword at Rogue Blades Entertainment