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 lot of fantasy writers of my generation have in common. But Howard specifically mentioned something I had not thought about in years, and that was the list of further reading in the back of the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. A quick look at Appendix N brought the memories flooding back, and I’m certain that it was probably my first exposure to many of the classic authors of fantasy and sword & sorcery fiction — some of whom would prove life-long favorites.

Here is the book list from Appendix N, but the whole thing is worth reading (follow the link above):

Anderson, Poul: THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS; THE HIGH CRUSADE; THE BROKEN SWORD
Bellairs, John: THE FACE IN THE FROST
Brackett, Leigh
Brown, Frederic
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: “Pellucidar” series; Mars series; Venus series
Carter, Lin: “World’s End” series
de Camp, L. Sprague: LEST DARKNESS FALL; THE FALLIBLE FIEND; et al
de Camp & Pratt: “Harold Shea” series; THE CARNELIAN CUBE
Derleth, August
Dunsany, Lord
Farmer, P. J.: “The World of the Tiers” series; et al
Fox, Gardner: “Kothar” series; “Kyrik” series; et al
Howard, R. E.: “Conan” series
Lanier, Sterling: HIERO’S JOURNEY
Leiber, Fritz: “Fafhrd & Gray Mouser” series; et al
Lovecraft, H. P.
Merritt, A.: CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP; MOON POOL; DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE; et al
Moorcock, Michael: STORMBRINGER; STEALER OF SOULS; “Hawkmoon” series (esp. the
first three books)
Norton, Andre
Offutt, Andrew J.: editor of SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS III
Pratt, Fletcher: BLUE STAR; et al
Saberhagen, Fred: CHANGELING EARTH; et al
St. Clair, Margaret: THE SHADOW PEOPLE; SIGN OF THE LABRYS
Tolkien, J. R. R.: THE HOBBIT; “Ring trilogy”
Vance, Jack: THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al
Weinbaum, Stanley
Wellman, Manley Wade
Williamson, Jack
Zelazny, Roger: JACK OF SHADOWS; “Amber” series; et al

Now, all these years later, there are still plenty of books and authors on this list I’ve never read — maybe it’s time to discover another new old favorite. One more reason to say “Thank you, D&D.”

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 this sort of thing, first Beneath Ceaseless Skies back in October and, as of last month, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. I’m pleased to report that I really liked what I saw in HFQ’s inaugural issue.

HFQ #1 features three stories and two poems — like BCS, it seems to focus on quality rather than quantity, something I’d like to see from more online venues regardless of theme. And HFQ’s three stories are each meaty, well-drawn tales of secondary fantasy worlds that contrast and compliment one another nicely.

The issue opens with James Lecky’s ‘Black Flowers of Sevan,’ a Near Eastern flavored story of in which roguish mercenary captain Tula becomes infatuated with his Prince’s consort. After winning the ruthless Prince’s favor, Tula pushes beyond the bounds of hospitality and discovers a dark secret about the woman he has become fascinated with. A nicely crafted setting and smooth style distinguish the piece (though I did find the use of the word ‘Nestorian’ to indicate an imaginary kingdom a little jarring).

Perhaps my favorite of the issue is the tale of an over-the-hill dragon-slayer’s last battle, ‘Man of Moldania.’ In it, Richard Marsden gives us a real-world Eastern European setting injected with a dose of the fantastic. Golorus, an itinerant killer of drakes, plies his trade in a small town and ends up stepping on the toes of the town’s local favored son. Facing a skeptical citizenry and hostile hetman, Golorus cleverly defeats threats both draconic and human. A very fun story.

The final story of the issue, ‘Beyond the Lizard Gate’ by Alex Marshall, is a gritty dark fantasy very reminiscent of Warhammer Fantasy fiction. It deals with a quest for revenge against an evil sorcerer by his siblings, a warrior and a blind sorceress. Verging at times into the horror spectrum, this action-packed tale revels in a dark aesthetic, and its often ornate prose, though at times straining the purple, compliments the theme well.

Three stories, all good reading. If HFQ can deliver the same four times a year, fans of adventure fantasy might just find short stories back on the menu. And if that happens, maybe we really will be able to say we are living at the dawn of an electronic pulp revolution.

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.

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 includes quite a few unexpected surprises — which I was at pains not to spoil in my review.

Imaro: The Trail of Bohu continues the saga of the outcast warrior Imaro in the land of Nyumbani; a rich fantasy setting based on African history and myth. But, while the first two books in the series, Imaro and Imaro: The Quest for Cush, were essentially episodic in structure (constructed as they were of Saunders’ short stories), The Trail of Bohu, the first Imaro book written as a novel from start to finish, presents us with a bigger overall story — it is, in fact, the beginning of the arc that will carry the reader through books four and five and, let’s just say, things really start to get going in this installment of the Imaro saga.

And as I and many others have said many times — this series is the work of an overlooked master of the genre and to miss it would be to miss a modern day Howard or Leiber. Thankfully, Sword & Soul Media are making Imaro, and Charles R. Saunders’ other work like the equally fantastic Dossouye, available again, and you can find The Trail of Bohu by clicking this link.

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 beasts, with each story furthermore belonging to a section based on setting (desert, jungle, ocean, frozen wastes, mountains). From John’s review:

Although at first glance, it seems that with such a singular theme, the stories would simply be repetitious in content, the authors chosen have managed to broaden the man versus monster theme and give it more depth. Rage of the Behemoth takes the best of Robert E. Howard and revitalizes it for the twenty-first century.

Nice words indeed, paricularly that quaotable and sound-bite friendly closing line. But, of course, I’m not going to stop there, since my own story ‘The Wolf of Winter’ recieved a great review from John:

Bill Ward writes a tale in “Wolf in Winter” where the monster the protagonist faces is as much himself as it is a physical being. Ward’s story of death, renewal, and the beast inside each person is one of the best of the anthology, and turns an apparent sword and sorcery tale into something quite a bit deeper. Worthy reading.

Stuff like that just makes my day.

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 Champion books seemingly reprinted every decade or so. New editions of Elric from Del Rey are out right now, as a matter of fact.

Click here for Happy Birthday Michael Moorcock