SF Signal on Liar’s Blade: “Fafhrd-and-Grey-Mouser-style Sword and Sorcery”
SF Signal‘s Karen Burnham gives a big thumbs-up to Tim Pratt’s latest Pathfinder novel, Liar’s Blade, with the kind of review that sends me scrambling to find a copy:
The Pathfinder line of RPG novels is doing a lot of things right. They’ve been publishing intelligent adventure novels that showcase their gaming system and their campaign setting in lush detail. They’ve hired a variety of solid, professional authors, and they’ve spread their tales among a wide variety of heroes instead of following one party for multiple books. The one thing that they had been missing – until now – was the particular brand of [charm] that I have recently come to love in Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series. Tim Pratt has done an excellent job of capturing that spirit in this Pathfinder outing.
Fafhrd-and-Grey-Mouser-style Sword and Sorcery in a Pathfinder setting? Sign me up!
Tim’s first Pathfinder Tales novel was City of the Fallen Sky (June, 2012), which seems to be unrelated to this one. But maybe not; I’ll have to read them both to be sure. The “variety of solid, professional authors” Karen mentions include Howard Andrew Jones, Richard Lee Byers, Dave Gross, Robin D. Laws, Elaine Cunningham, Ed Greenwood, James L. Sutter, and many others.
We’ve been telling you about Paizo’s premiere fiction line for a while; don’t pretend we haven’t. We presented an exclusive excerpt from Dave Gross’s new Pathfinder Tales novel, Queen of Thorns, in October; we also covered the release of Howard Andrew Jones’s Plague of Shadows in October 2011. Bill Ward’s four-part Pathfinder Tales story “The Box” was published online back in October 2011, and Howard had his own Pathfinder Tales piece, “The Walkers from the Crypt,” a 4-part mini-epic, published free online in March 2011.
Liar’s Blade was published March 12, 2013 by Paizo Publishing. It is 400 pages in paperback, priced at $9.99. You can download a free sample chapter or purchase the digital edition for $6.99 directly from Paizo.com, or read Karen’s complete review at SF Signal.
This volume probably gets my “Best PF Tale So Far Not Authored by Dave Gross” award. When I got to the note at the end about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, I laughed out loud.
Theodric,
Thanks! Good to hear. 🙂
BG Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones is locked away in a wind-swept tower, putting the finishing touches on his second PATHFINDER novel. From the tantalizing, half-burned draft pages I recovered from the fireplace, it looks like another excellent adventure. PATHFINDER has been a recent source for quality S&S and adventure fantasy, and no mistake.
I’m behind on my HAJ. I need to read his next Dabif & Asim novel. Why doesn’t Paizo have him write a Qadira novel?
Dabir, I mean. The ability to edit elswhere has made me incautious.
So, PFT Qadira? Typecasting? Don’t cross the streams?
> So, PFT Qadira? Typecasting? Don’t cross the streams?
Theodric,
Sadly, the half-burned manuscript pages I covertly recovered do not reveal the exact setting, and the elusive Dr. Jones is not talking. When we know more, so will you.
From time to time he does drop hints at his blog, however:
http://www.howardandrewjones.com/
Hey Theodric,
I deliberately chose to write in a NON-Arabian area. Didn’t want to step on my own toes, or come off like a one-trick pony…
Although I did stay true to my sword-and-sorcery roots!
[…] SF Signal on Liar’s Blade: “Fafhrd-and-Grey-Mouser-style Sword and Sorcery” […]
[…] you why: it works. When Karen Burnham at SF Signal noted that Tim Pratt’s latest Pathfinder novel Liar’s Blade had done “an excellent job of capturing the spirit” of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, I […]
[…] If you want to try a complete novel, may we suggest Howard’s Plague of Shadows, or Tim Pratt’s Liar’s Blade? […]
[…] Unfamiliar with Pathfinder? No problem! You can check out the latest right here at Black Gate — including the first chapters of both King of Chaos and Queen of Thorns, Bill Ward’s complete four-part story “The Box,” and the 4-part mini-epic “The Walkers from the Crypt” by Howard Andrew Jones. If you want to try a complete novel, may we suggest Howard’s Plague of Shadows, or Tim Pratt’s Liar’s Blade? […]
[…] recently with a popular series of Pathfinder novels, including the tales of Rodrick the thief, Liar’s Blade and Liar’s Island. He also writes the Marla Mason fantasy series under the name T A Pratt. But […]