Their remarkable achievements notwithstanding, the Romans also did a lot of harm, physically, socially and politically. Conquered tribes and nations were absorbed into the Roman way of life. So you might ask, what has this got to do with Sword and Sorcery? I’m coming to that.
Read MoreThis past year has given everyone their fair share of trials and tribulations. It's a wonderful thing to find respite from our daily grind in a good book. In this past year I read about sixty books. In this post I wanted to share some of the books that made my year not only bearable but enjoyable.
Read MoreWho was Clifford Ball? Serious readers of sword and sorcery fiction may think they already have the answer. It goes like this. Clifford Ball was a reader and fan of Weird Tales in its 1930s heyday. As an early successor to Howard, his work has attracted a bit of scholarly mention since the 1970s. But Ball was a fantasy writer for only a brief portion of his life. Who was he beyond that?
Read MoreThis week: Robert E. Howard, A. Merritt, Clark Ashton Smith, Elric, Northwest Smith, Captain Blood, weird menace stories, and more.
Read MoreWhen it comes to a study of Robert E. Howard and the texts he left behind, any serious scholar soon runs into contradictions. What might be found in an earlier draft or a fragment might be at some variance with what was actually published. So, which version 'counts'? This is where the "basis for judgment; standard; criterion" comes into play.
Read More"Black Wind Blowing" first appeared in Thrilling Mystery magazine, issue June 1936. It’s a reasonable assumption that it would be among the last of Robert E. Howard’s stories actually published in his lifetime.
Read More'No Man's Land' by John Buchan immediately recalled themes very familiar to sword-and-sorcery enthusiasts.
Read MoreMerritt’s Dwellers in the Mirage hit 90 today. Everyone from Robert E. Howard to Karl Edward Wagner drew inspiration from it.
Read MoreThe Hayakawa Bunko SF series line reprinted several vintage U.S. SF and fantasy stories in Japan during the 1970s, including works by Edgar Rice Burroughs and A. Merritt. The Merritt books are profusely illustrated, each with a double-page color interior as well as several black and white interiors.
Read MoreEdgar Allan Poe’s writings have long been a perennial subject of adaptation to other media. But there is one largely forgotten medium that even devoted followers of Poe adaptations rarely encounter anymore: radio drama. And, though few realize it today, it’s here that some of the finest of all Poe adaptations have been created.
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