By Joseph A. McCullough Copyright 2007 by New Epoch Press. All rights reserved. Despite the great debt owed to Robert E. Howard and the writers who followed him, the sword-and-sorcery tale was not quite born in the pages of Weird Tales; in fact it predates the concept of literature. Long before the printing press made popular literature a possibility, people told and occasionally wrote down stories to entertain, teach moral lessons, or as a means of recording the past. That…
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The Chronicles of Hanuvar: Lord of a Shattered Land and The City of Marble and Blood by Howard Andrew Jones (Baen, August 1, 2023 and October 3, 2023). Covers by Dave Seeley Friends, Carthaginians, Dog-Brothers, I come to praise Howard Andrew Jones, not to bury him… That was a lot of mixed-metaphors, but Howard’s mixed a lot of themes, tropes and reached back into the very roots of early heroic fantasy in his Chronicles of Hanuvar to breathe new life…
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Weird Horror issues 4 and 5 (Undertow Publications, Spring & Fall 2022). Covers by Drazen Kozjan and Barandash Karandashich. I love watching a new fantasy magazine get its sea legs. It’s been a real treat to see this decade’s crop of best new mags — including Tales from the Magician’s Skull (edited by Howard Andrew Jones), Startling Stories (helmsman Douglas Draa), New Edge Sword and Sorcery (edited by Oliver Brackenbury), and Wyldblood (Mark Bilsborough) — carve out unique identities, and grow better and…
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I reviewed five science fiction magazines from mid-2021 to early 2024. Here are my overall notes and rankings. Asimov’s Science Fiction, September 30, 2022 Edited by Gardner DozoisCover by Wayne BarloweRanking 1st out of 5 Megan Lindholm’s (AKA Robin Hobbs) “A Touch of Lavender” and Walter Jon William’s “No Spot of Ground” really elevate this issue. Allen Steele’s “Ride to Live, Live to Ride” was solid, and two trying-to-get-in-on-the-‘cyberpunk’-wave stories, Robert Silverberg’s “Chiprunner” and Orson Scott Card’s “Dogwalker” had a…
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Perseid Press recently announced the passing of author, editor, and publisher Janet E. Morris (JEM, August 2024). A group of us who have known and written for her and published by her, decided to honor her memory and her legacy with this group memorial. This ad-hoc remembrance has organically turned into a virtual shrine. This post initially has ~17 contributions, but collecting testimonials can be chaotic and more comments may be added. Janet and Chris Morris made a remarkable creative…
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High Couch of Silistra (Bantam Books, May 1977) and The Golden Sword (Baen, November 1984). Covers by Boris Vallejo and Victoria Poyser Just after I put up my first Harold Lamb post I found out that an author I much admired and who has influenced my work, had died. Janet Morris. I’ll get back to Lamb next post but wanted to take a moment to comment on Ms. Morris. I only wish I’d done this before she died. I knew…
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Conan: City of the Dead, by John C. Hocking (2024, Titan Books. 507p) It’s June of 2024, and Titan Books has just delivered John C. Hocking’s City of the Dead which contains both Conan and the Emerald Lotus (1995, TOR) and its follow-up Conan and the Living Plague — a book lost in the limbo of publishing craziness for ~two decades! Hocking also wrote a bridging novella set in between these two novels called “Black Starlight” (serialized across Conan comics…
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Monsters in Hell just released this May 2024 (Kindle and Paperback editions published by Perseid Press). Hell is a real place. Anyone who has broken a commandment winds up there. That’s pretty much everybody. Satan is the boss. You’re okay until you’re not. But never fear, all your friends are here. As well as everyone you’ve ever heard of. You are not alone and the party is in full swing. However, keep in mind: our Hell is unlike any other. Picking…
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Neither Beg Nor Yield (Rogue Blades Entertainment, April 2024) I can’t say if Jason M. Waltz and his Rogue Blades Entertainment’s swansong is the largest collection of Sword & Sorcery ever published, but it’s damn close. It’s also the most metal. From this over-the-top, blood-splash cover featuring an axe headed toward the reader’s face to the powerful black & white line art that runs throughout. there’s a Savage Sword of Conan-meets-Heavy Metal vibe to the layout that tells you exactly…
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Roger Corman, the Godfather of American independent film, is gone. He died at his home in Santa Monica, California, on May 9th. He was ninety-eight. Legendary both for his cheapness (no one could squeeze more out of a budget than he could) and for his generosity (he gave countless actors, directors, writers, and technical people their first chance in Hollywood), Corman began his almost seventy-year long career in the mid 50’s by directing extremely low-budget movies for the fledgling American…
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