by Bill Ward on March 14, 2011
in On Books
Two weeks ago I finished up my three-part interview with Howard Andrew Jones over at Black Gate, and Howard mentioned something about his own childhood experience with D&D that paralleled my own. I’ve talked in the past about how D&D helped geek-forge me into a reader and writer — and I think that’s something a [...]
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 [...]
by Bill Ward on July 28, 2009
in Promo
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 [...]
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 [...]
by Bill Ward on April 30, 2009
in Promo
Prolific online reviewer John Ottinger of Grasping for the Wind has just posted an early review of Rogue Blade’s forthcoming Rage of the Behemoth anthology, the follow up to 2008′s Return of the Sword. Behemoth has a more focused theme than Sword, as it deals specifically with the confrontation between man and large, powerful, fantastical [...]
At Black Gate this week I’ve just posted a quick ‘happy birthday’ to Michael Moorcock, who turned sixty-nine yesterday. Really an extraordinary and diverse writer, Moorcock has been one of my favorites for a long time. He’s also one of those writers that continues to sell sword & sorcery fiction, his Elric books and Eternal [...]