Browsed by
Category: Series Fantasy

What I’ve Been Reading: November, 2024

What I’ve Been Reading: November, 2024

Comments 6 comments

So, I managed to actually read a few books since September’s What I’ve Been Reading. That was while listening, yet again, to Tony Hillerman’s fantastic Navajo Tribal Police series. I never tire of those. And I’m now listening to The Caine Mutiny – great novel, movie, and even play. Gotta do a major piece on that some day.

I tried to listen to my current Malazan Book of the Fallen, but it’s 44 hours long! I simply couldn’t make myself tune in on something that long. I may try again, or just read it (I’d read all the prior books).

PORT OF SHADOWS – Glen Cook

I’m a huge Glen Cook fan. Hopefully you saw my Q&A with him earlier this year. While it was focused on his fantastic Garrett, PI, series, I did work in a little The Black Company. Last year, I listened to the entire series; except for Port of Shadows. I had bought the hardback when it came out in 2018, but had not read it yet. I wanted to read it, rather than listen.

Ala Raymond Chandler, this was created out of three short stories, published in 2010, 2011, and 2014. It takes place between the first two in the series: The Black Company, and Shadows Linger. There are two stories going on set in different times, and I didn’t see the link-up until about two-thirds of the way through the book. You’ll probably get it a lot sooner.

It was good to read about this incarnation of the Company, and I enjoyed it. Recommended for Black Company Fans. If you’re new to the series, I would definitely start with the first volume, and you could read this second.

If you read my Q&A (you DID, right???), you know that the next three volumes are completed, with a fourth in progress. Still hoping they get published soon.

…

Read More Read More

Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction, Part II: Dray Prescot and Gor

Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction, Part II: Dray Prescot and Gor

Comments 20 comments


Dray Prescot 20: A Sword for Kregen (DAW, August 1979) and Players of Gor
(DAW Books, March 1984). Covers by Richard Hescox and Ken Kelly

My second exposure to Sword & Planet chess came in one of my favorite Sword & Planet books, which I’ve mentioned in this series already a couple of times. This was A Sword for Kregen, by Alan Burt Akers (aka Ken Bulmer). In this book, Dray Prescot, our earthman hero, becomes a living Jikaida piece in a battle to the death.

Jikaida is war game similar to chess, although considerably more complicated. There are several different variations played across the world of Kregen. It’s usually played on a board of much more than 100 squares of either black and white or blue and yellow. There are typically 36 pieces to a side, arranged in three ranks. I never tried to play Jikaida, though the rules are available. Here’s a link to an online description of the game.

John Norman also introduced an S&P version of chess in his Gor series. He called it Kaissa, which is clearly a nod to the Goddess of chess — Caissa — who first appeared in a 1527 poem by Hieronymus Vida telling the story of a chess game between the Gods Apollo and Mercury.

…

Read More Read More

All My Robert E. Howard Essays (October 2024)

All My Robert E. Howard Essays (October 2024)

Comments 9 comments

I am the in-house mystery guy (that’s how I hoodwinked John O’Neill into giving me a weekly column). Ten years later, he’s still trying to configure the Firewall to keep me from getting up my Monday morning post! I organized the Discovering Robert E. Howard, and Hither Came Conan series’ here at Black Gate. And contributed, of course. That’s the advantage of being in charge of them!

Robert E. Howard is my second-favorite writer (trailing only the terrific John D. MacDonald), and I’ve written over two dozen essays related to him here at Black Gate. With more to come, of course. I posted my second Kirby O’Donnell post in last month, and I’m working on my second spicy tales post.

I came late to Howard. I have loved mythology since grade school. The Iliad remains one of my all-time favorite stories, and I have a copy of Schleimann’s Ilios. That led me to Dungeons and Dragons in middle school, and I know I was reading The Lord of the Rings somewhere around the 8th grade. I was a fantasy fan for life.

I bought the first Ace Conan paperback, but it sat on my shelf, unread. Not sure why. I know I read David C. Smith’s Oron, but not that one. As my son was playing with the Thomas the Train layout in the kids section of Barnes and Noble one day, I started reading the first Dely Rey Conan book. I read that the next time we were there. And I bought it. And Robert E. Howard would move up the ranks of my favorite writers, as I bought more Del Reys.

Conan and El Borak are about even at the top, and then Solomon Kane. But I just continued to like Robert E. Howard, more and more.

Here are all of my own Robert E. Howard-related essays here at Black Gate. A couple are pretty good, I think. Mostly in the first two sections below. Check out a couple, please. By Crom!

…

Read More Read More

What I’ve Been Reading: September, 2024

What I’ve Been Reading: September, 2024

Comments 4 comments

I listen to audiobooks because I can fit them in far easier than I can actual books, to read. But even as my bifocals have to continually work harder, I still enjoy actually reading, be it a physical copy, or on my Fire tablet (I prefer the former, but needs must win out sometimes). So, let’s look at some of what I’ve been reading lately.

THE WATERS OF ETERNITY – Howard Andrew Jones

I’ve been talking more about my Black Gate buddy since he announced he is battling brain cancer. As I mentioned last week, I re-listened to his two Dabir and Asim novels. I prefer the short stories, and this collection of six of them is my favorite featuring the duo. While still being sword and sorcery, with elements of the fantastic, these are more mysteries, which is what I really enjoy about the two.

Howard’s a really good writer, he loves these Arabian fantasies, and they mix sword and sorcery with mystery. And the ebook is dirt cheap. You can’t go wrong with this one.

WOLFE OF THE STEPPES – Harold Lamb

Lamb was a prolific Pulpster in the early 20th Century. A historian as well, his adventure stories are detail-filled thrill-rides. There are eighteen tales of Khlit the Cossack, a gray-bearded survivor on the Asian steppes around the start of the 17th Century.

Lamb was a great influence on Robert E. Howard, and Howard Andrew Jones collected all the Khlit stories in four volumes. There are three more books of Lamb’s adventure tales as well. The first story, which was much shorter than the others, didn’t do anything for me. However, the next two were novella-length adventures and much better. Other than REH, I don’t read Adventure stories, but I am enjoying Khlit and will continue on.

…

Read More Read More

What I’ve Been Listening To: September 2024

What I’ve Been Listening To: September 2024

Comments 0 Comment

And it’s time for you to find out what I’ve been listening to. I know you’ve been anxiously waiting since last month. Now, if you read last two blog posts. Which I’m SURE you did….you know I watched 26 Marvel movies. While that was fun (and ridiculously indulgent), it did cut a bit into my listening (and reading). But I still managed to get in some of both. So, awaaaay we go.

THE DESERT OF SOULS – Howard Andrew Jones

If you follow me on Facebook, you’ve seen me talking about my Black Gate buddy Howard Andrew Jones, who recently revealed he’s battling a fast-acting brain cancer. I’ll write more about that topic, but I decided it was time to get back to some of his work.

A couple years ago, he wrote an epic fantasy, The Ring Sworn trilogy. He switched publishers, and the third book of his latest trilogy, The Chronicles of Hanuvar, is due out October 1. It seems destined to go down as one of the best in modern sword and sorcery.

I really like his Arabian fantasy stories featuring Dabir and Asim. I’m re-reading the short story collection, The Waters of Eternity (an absolute steal in digital). But on a trip to visit him a few weeks ago, I decided to re-listen to the first novel, Desert of Souls.

Robert E. Howard is about the only Adventure stuff I read. I never got into H. Rider Haggard, and I’m familiar with Ali Baba and Aladdin (no, not from Disney). But these sword and sorcery mysteries are good reads.

…

Read More Read More

The World of Tiers and Beyond: Philip Jose Farmer, Part I

The World of Tiers and Beyond: Philip Jose Farmer, Part I

Comments 11 comments

The World of Tiers, Volumes 1 and 2 (Science Fiction Book Club, November 1981). Covers by Boris Vallejo

Philip Jose Farmer (1918 – 2009). Farmer was a versatile writer. I discovered him from his Sword & Planet work with his World of Tiers series, but went on to read a lot of other books by him, including some pastiches he wrote in ERB’s universe. I’ll be discussing him here in two posts.

My introduction to Farmer came through the Science Fiction Book Club. They offered the first five books in The World of Tiers in a two-volume set, and I still have mine (shown here, with covers by Boris Vallejo.) I read them straight through and looked for more. There weren’t any. Not at the time. Years later, another book (More than Fire) was published, but I haven’t read it. I did read a connected book called Red Orc’s Rage.

…

Read More Read More

The End of Time and Me: Michael Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time

The End of Time and Me: Michael Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time

Comments 6 comments


The Dancers at the End of Time trilogy: An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands,
and The End of All Songs (Avon Books, September and November 1977,
and June 1978). Cover art by Stanislaw Fernandes

When I discovered Moorcock in the early 1980s, I read his trilogy Dancers at the End of Time and the associated novel A Messiah at the End of Time. I remember enjoying the trilogy, though I have only vague memories of the stand-alone novel. Back in 2017, I re-read Moorcock’s Elric series and wrote about it for Black Gate. In 2020, I did the same for his Corum novels and in 2022, I revisited Erekose. Rather than look at Hawkmoon, which I last re-read in 2010, I decided to dive into The End of Time sequence.

In addition to The Dancers at the End of Time trilogy and the novel The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming (also published as Messiah at the End of Time and Constant Fire), Moorcock has written several short stories that belong to the sequence: “Pale Roses,” “White Stars,” “Ancient Shadows,” “Elric at the End of Time,” and “Sumptuous Dress: A Question of Size at the End of Time.” Although most were published before I read the trilogy, I believe I missed all of them with the exception of “Elric at the End of Time.”

…

Read More Read More

What I’ve Been Listening To: August, 2024

What I’ve Been Listening To: August, 2024

Comments 5 comments

A (Black) Gat in the Hand takes another week off, as I’ve continued listening to audiobooks daily. Last month I talked about some of my Audible choices. Whether I’m working, writing, driving, or trying to fall asleep, I am often listening to an audiobook. Often it’s a repeat, so my attention doesn’t have to be focused. But also, new things I wouldn’t get to otherwise.

EGIL & NIX – Paul S. Kemp

My Dungeons & Dragons-playing middle-school self devoured Elric, and Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser; loving both series’. But while I’ve re-read the Melnibonian many times, Leiber’s series lost its appeal. I’ve tried re-reading it a couple times, and just wasn’t into it.

I did enjoy, however, the first two of three Egil & Nix novels by Paul Kemp. These are absolutely an homage to Leiber’s duo. Anyone who likes Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser should really enjoy this pair. The constant non-swearing swearing (shite, farkin) is tiresome, but some authors seem to think it’s useful. Whatever.

…

Read More Read More

Neverwhens: Ancient Civilizations Topple and the Age of Heroes ends in the Blades of Bronze Trilogy by Mark Knowles

Neverwhens: Ancient Civilizations Topple and the Age of Heroes ends in the Blades of Bronze Trilogy by Mark Knowles

Comments 3 comments
Seriously, how many D&D encounters did this one scene inspire? (Jason and the Argonauts, 1963)

I sincerely doubt any Black Gate reader needs an education in who Ray Harryhausen was or why his films, despite the sea-change in special effects technology, remain seminal classics (I’ve been making my way through a bunch of his swashbuckling adventures with my Zoomer son, who notes, time and again, how ‘cheesy and awesome’ the stop motion is, but also calls out how perfect at times the strange movements are at making monsters seem, well…strange and *monstrous* in a way that smooth CGI does not).

I myself am young enough that the only Harryhausen film I saw in theaters was his grand finale, Clash of the Titans (1981), though thanks to Saturday matinee TV I had a steady diet of all that came before.

Clash itself is interesting, because, written by Beverley Cross, while ostensibly the story of Perseus — one of the few *likable* Greek heroes, and one of the few with a reasonably “happy” ending to his tale — the film is to large extent a reworking of an early film Cross had done with Harryhausen, Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

…

Read More Read More

In the tradition of Conan: The Kyrik and Kothar Novels by Gardner F. Fox

In the tradition of Conan: The Kyrik and Kothar Novels by Gardner F. Fox

Comments 19 comments

The Kyrik novels by Gardner F. Fox (Leisure Books, 1975-1976)

I’m getting ready to embark on a series of posts about Philip Jose Farmer, but got distracted looking through my shelves and decided to throw in a post about the Sword & Sorcery work of Gardner F. Fox, who I mentioned here a while back for his two book S&P series set on the planet Llarn.

While my small hometown library didn’t have anything by Robert E. Howard, they had various books claiming to be “In the tradition of Conan.” That’s how I found out about Howard. The first “In the tradition” book I read was Kyrik: Warlock Warrior by Fox, from Leisure Books, 1975. The cover was candy to a starving teen. By Ken Barr (although I didn’t know it at the time), the cover showed a muscled barbarian swordsman astride a pterodactyl with a nearly naked green-haired beauty beside him. My imagination ignited. And when I started reading it, I loved it even more.

…

Read More Read More