Independent Author Spotlight: Tais Teng
“I am completely original, even when I am not original.”
Read MoreAt the End: Zothique, Dying Earth, and the New Sun
Fantasy stories are typically set in either an imaginary world like Nehwon and Narnia or an imagined past like the Hyborian Age or Middle Earth. Then there is the Dying Earth genre which is set not only in the future, but at the end of Earth’s history.
Read MoreKlarkash-Ton's Sword-and-Sorcery: Another Look
It seemed to me that I should revisit my old essay for The Cimmerian blog, “The Sword-and-Sorcery Legacy of Clark Ashton Smith”. While recognition of Klarkash-Ton as the co-founder of Sword-and-Sorcery has increased since I wrote that essay in 2010—most notably in Brian Murphy’s excellent Flame and Crimson—it appears to me that Smith’s influence on the S&S genre is still very undervalued.
Read MoreThe Fiftieth Anniversary of DAW Books
Today marked the anniversary of the passing of Donald A. Wollheim. Today also marks—perhaps exactly, perhaps within a few weeks at most—the founding of DAW Books by Wollheim in 1971. Throughout the 1970s and well into the 1980s, DAW Books kept the pulp aesthetic alive, publishing far more sword-and-sorcery and sword-and-planet than its competitors.
Read MoreJack Vance's Dying Earth: A Gallery
Jack Vance was born on this date in 1916. Despite Vance being one of my favorite authors, he’s been woefully underrepresented on the DMR Blog. Time is short right now, but I’m not going to neglect the 105th anniversary of his birth.
Read MoreConcerning and Unsnarling Sword and Sorcery, Romanticism, Dark Romanticism, and Fantasy (Part Two)
The connection between Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery is easy enough to see, but what kind of sub-class of Fantasy should Sword and Sorcery call home? Should it fit closer to the Low or to the High Fantasy fields? And what is Fantasy on its own? Is there such a thing as a purely “Fantasy” work? Is Fantasy only a label for works that came after the 1600s?
Read MoreREVIEW: Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons has become a household name. It is firmly embedded in our pop culture. Whether you have played the game or not, you are aware of it. Within its pages, co-creator Gary Gygax shared a list of stories that inspired him. This list is known as Appendix N.
Read MoreThieves in the Night: A History of Thievery in Sword and Sorcery
When you think of literary thieves, who do you think of? Aside from the crime genre, thievery as an occupation appears most often in sword and sorcery.
Read MoreThe Face in the Wall
Hooked by the sixth paragraph of Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth, I devoured page after page and came at last to the Museum of Man, where in my imagination I stood with young Guyal of Sfere and Shierl, his lovely companion, gazing with horror upon a gigantic, hideous face that protruded from a wall. It was the demon Blikdak, and his intentions were dire.
Read MoreGael DeRoane: The DMR Interview
The latest release from DMR Books is The Road to Infinity, a picaresque fantasy novel in the style of Jack Vance. I thought the public would want to know more about the man who wrote it, so here’s my Q&A session with Gael DeRoane.
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