Search Results for: New Edge Sword

Heavy Metal Lyrics, Sword & Sorcery Fantasy and Video Games: A Cultural Synergy by Dr. Fred Adams

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Last year, Dr Fred C. Adams, Ph.D., joined our parade of writers in the Discovering Robert E. Howard series with an entry on Esau Cairn, REH’s classic science fiction character. Dr. Adams is back for another guest post here at Black Gate. Put on your headphones and go! The parallel (and almost simultaneous) ascensions of heavy metal music, video game technology (which later migrated to personal computers), and sword and sorcery fantasy to mass popularity from the early 1970s forward…

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The Conclusion to a Grand Adventure: Hobgoblin Night by Teresa Edgerton

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Hobgoblin Night (2015) is an e-book rerelease (and revision, and repackaging, along with three previously published short stories) of The Gnome’s Engine (1991), Teresa Edgerton’s charming follow-up to Goblin Moon (1991). In it, the adventures of brave Sera Vorder and dashing Francis Skelbrooke, and the evil machinations of the faerie-human hybrid, the Duchess of Zar-Wildungen, continue. In my Black Gate review of Goblin Moon, I wrote, Goblin Moon is a model of what light entertainment can be. It’s not going to change your…

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More Metal on Metal: Swords of Steel II edited by D.M. Ritzlin

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From its emergence out of the hard rock genre, heavy metal has drawn from the inspiration of swords & sorcery. “The Wizard” is the second track on what is considered the first metal album, the eponymous Black Sabbath. Uriah Heep upped the ante with its albums Demons and Wizards and The Magician’s Birthday. Manowar’s epic song “Battle Hymns,” from the album of the same name, channeled all the blood and thunder of heroic fantasy into 6 minutes and 55 seconds. Behold: Gone are the…

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February Issue of Swords and Sorcery Magazine Now Available

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Issue 49 of Curtis Ellett’s Swords and Sorcery Magazine, cover-dated February 2016, is now available. In his February Short Story Roundup, Black Gate‘s roving reporter Fletcher Vredenburgh had this to say about the latest issue: Issue 49 kicks off the mag’s fifth year. Congratulations are definitely due Mr. Ellett for holding the genre’s banner high… The magazine’s second story, Lynn Rushlau’s “The Garden of Dreamers” is much better at achieving its author’s goal, which apparently was to creep the everloving snot…

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Part Gothic, Part Sword and Sorcery, and Part Horror: Andrew P. Weston’s Hell Bound

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Hell Bound By Andrew P. Weston Perseid Press (464 pages, $23.85 paperback/$8.90 digital, November 5, 2015) Cover art and design by Roy Mauritsen Hell Bound is the latest novel by Andrew Paul Weston, best-selling author of The Guardian series, The Cambion Journals, and The IX, (which I reviewed for Black Gate here.) Hell Bound is also the latest novel in the Heroes in Hell shared-world universe, created by author/publisher Janet Morris. The main character in Hell Bound is Daemon Grim, Satan’s…

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New Treasures: The Best Of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Volume 1

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I’ve been very pleased to watch Heroic Fantasy Quarterly‘s reputation grow by leaps and bounds over the past few years, to the point where it is openly acknowledged as one of the premier sources of adventure fantasy. Howard Andrew Jones calls their output “Stirring, polished adventure fiction [that] needs to be seen by more readers,” and Fletcher Vredenburgh proclaims it “My favorite fantasy magazine… Always true to the traditions of heroic fiction, they yet manage to publish tales that push the…

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Try the First Chapter of Swords Versus Tanks 1: “Armored Heroes Clash Across the Centuries!”

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Swords Versus Tanks 1: “Armored heroes clash across the centuries!” spent most of its first week in the Amazon US Top 20 Steampunk books. Now with book two out (“Vikings battle Zeppelins while forbidden desires spark!“), so I think book 1’s first chapter merits a showing on Black Gate. Here goes… Chapter 1 Sir Ranulph’s prowess won him an heroic death, but it was Albrecht’s artistic vision that granted him immortality. — K Lucy, “Exhibition Review: Four Hundred Years of Sir Ranulph…

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New Treasures: Multiverse: Exploring the Worlds of Poul Anderson, edited by Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois

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Poul Anderson was one of the greats of 20th Century science fiction and fantasy. He was astoundingly prolific, writing over 70 novels and numerous short stories before his death in 2001. He won virtually every award the field has to offer, including seven Hugos and three Nebulas, and the ambitious project to collect his short fiction, The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson from NESFA Press, stands at six thick volumes and counting. Multiverse: Exploring the Worlds of Poul Anderson…

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The Future of Fantasy: The Best New Releases in June

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There are precisely 30 days in June, and we’ve compiled a list of the 30 most exciting and anticipated novels, collections and anthologies being released this month. You know what that means — if you want to keep up, you’ll need to read at least one book a day (and since we’re already a dozen days into June, you better get hopping… you’re behind already!) Our June catalog of the best new fiction includes new releases from Stephen King, Garth…

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Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro on Sword & Sorcery

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The New Republic has posted a lengthy conversation on fantasy, titled Breaking the Boundaries Between Fantasy and Literary Fiction, between Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book, American Gods) and Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day, The Buried Giant). Among other fascinating topics, the two discuss sword & sorcery, and the different cultural approaches to swordfights.