Heroic Fantasy

‘On Thud and Blunder’ — Thirty Years Later

by Bill Ward on September 26, 2011

in Black Gate,On Books,Writing

Recently I wrote an essay about the dangers of too much ‘realistic thinking’ in fantasy fiction — When Realism Isn’t Real — Conan the Jazzerciser. In that article I used an example from Poul Anderson’s Conan pastiche Conan the Rebel to illustrate my point. The following post, which originally appeared at Black Gate, is a [...]

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Heroic Fantasy Quarterly’s Debut Issue

by Bill Ward on August 19, 2009

in Zines

Readers of this blog know that I often decry the lack of publications that feature secondary world fantasy — especially of the action-packed, fun sort that is called variously Sword & Sorcery, Heroic or Epic Fantasy, or just plain old pulp. Recently, we’ve been lucky to get two new online venues that cater to just [...]

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Imaro: The Trail of Bohu Reviewed at Black Gate

Post image for <em>Imaro: The Trail of Bohu</em> Reviewed at Black Gate

by Bill Ward on May 8, 2009

in Black Gate,Book Reviews

This week at Black Gate I was thrilled to step back into the lands of Nyumbani in my review of the third book in Charles R. Saunders’ superb Imaro saga. Imaro: The Trail of Bohu ramps up the action and increases the stakes over the previous two volumes (both of which I reviewed here), and [...]

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Examining Poul Anderson’s ‘On Thud and Blunder’

by Bill Ward on December 5, 2008

in Black Gate

Over at Black Gate this week I posted a short reflection on Poul Anderson’s 1978 essay ‘On Thud and Blunder,’ his call for more realism in adventure fantasy fiction. A lot has certainly changed in thirty years, but Anderson’s essay is well worth reading for a lot of reasons — not least of which is [...]

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Bran Mak Morn: The Last King (review)

by Bill Ward on October 19, 2008

in Book Reviews

As in a daze Cormac turned his steed and rode back across the trampled field. His horse’s hoofs splashed in lakes of blood and clanged against the helmets of dead men. Across the valley the shout of victory was thundering. Yet all seemed shadowy and strange. A shape was striding across the torn corpses and [...]

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Thieves’ World (review)

by Bill Ward on June 15, 2008

in Book Reviews

There are philosophers who argue that there is no such thing as evil qua evil; that, discounting spells (which of course relieve an individual of responsibility), when a man commits an evil deed he is a victim himself, the slave of his progeniture and nurturing. Such philosophers might profit by studying Sanctuary. – from Joe [...]

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