In Excalibur’s sound and fury we are witness to heroism, sacrifice, towering human achievement, codes of chivalric honor, hopeless battles against the encroaching dark, lust, betrayal, collapse… and the hope that order and goodness may one day come again.
Read MoreJack London, Robert E. Howard’s literary idol, wrote about a thousand pages worth of SF and fantasy fiction. Let’s take a look at a few collections of Jack’s SFF tales.
Read MoreFrom my perspective, sword and sorcery is not power-fantasy; it is barbarian-fantasy: the longing to return to the primitive, the past, the preindustrial, the raw of terrestrial nature, the simple.
Read More“I’m always trying to do something different, and I think people like that about my work. I usually get complimented on my fight scenes (I taught martial arts for three decades), my snappy dialogue, and the fast pace of my fiction.”
Read MoreThe second collection of Arthur D. Howden Smith’s tales of Swain the Viking is now available from DMR Books. Swain’s Chase collects the thrilling title novel as well as two novellas: “Swain’s Venture” and “Swain’s Payment,” all of which appeared in the classic pulp magazine Adventure in the 1920s.
Read MoreThis week: Robert E. Howard, Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser, historical fantasy, Barsoom, 300, H.P. Lovecraft, Wayne Barlow, and more.
Read MoreAcclaimed SFF/Horror artist, Wayne Barlowe, turned sixty-five today. His career now spans five decades and the time seems right for a look back on his body of work.
Read MoreThis year winds down with another remarkable collection. Many of the authors have appeared in previous installments of this series, but a handful are new.
Read MoreMy accounting of books read in 2022. A good year for REH-related reads.
Read More“An old bit of writing advice I heard is that story happens in the gap between expectation and reality. Thanks to my twisted humor, I tend to see those gaps everywhere.”
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