Links of Steel, 1/29/2023
This week: Elric, Kull, Thieves’ World, A. Merritt, Clark Ashton Smith, Crypt of Cthulhu, and more.
Read MoreGrell's Starslayer -- Forty Years On
In Starslayer: The Log of the Jolly Roger, Mike Grell created a sword-swingin’, blaster-slingin’ Celtic Space Pirate for the ages.
Read MoreKeith Taylor’s Other Fantasy Series
Most readers of Sword and Sorcery are fans of Keith Taylor’s Bard series of stories and novels set in historical Post-Roman Britain. They are indeed some of the best S&S tales to come out of the late '70s/early '80s, but some folks might not know of some of his other heroic fantasy/S&S works that came later. I’m talking about The Danans trilogy of Historical Fantasy, published in the late '80s and early '90s.
Read MoreThrough a Nighted Abyss
I had the chance to read Leigh Brackett’s “Lord of the Earthquake” and almost immediately was struck by a number of parallels between it and her later The Sword of Rhiannon. “Lord of the Earthquake”, published in June 1941 issue of Science Fiction, concerns godhood, time-travel and the lost continent of Mu.
Read MoreThe Riddle of Pulp
The pulps were mass produced for a growing, increasingly literate middle class, and reflected their readers’ values. Indeed, working-class sensibilities underlay many pulps, particularly the Western, crime, and sword and sorcery stories, where murder, corruption, and deceit are found out and punished.
Read MoreIndependent Author Spotlight: D.M. Ritzlin
That’s right, I interviewed myself. Believe me, it’s not the weirdest idea I’ve ever had, not by a long shot. Now that Cirsova Magazine has completed the serialization of my novel Vran the Chaos-Warped, I thought now would be a good time to sit down with the author for a chat. Let’s see what I have to say about it.
Read MoreA Review of Titan Books’ Blood of the Serpent: Is the New Conan Novel Really Conan?
Blood of the Serpent is the semi-anticipated latest entry in the prose adventures of Conan of Cimmeria. We’ve had recent video games, RPGs, comics, etc., featuring the barbarian, but the last original standalone authorized prose work of Robert E. Howard’s greatest creation was Harry Turtledove’s Conan of Venarium (Tor, 2003).
Read MoreLinks of Steel, 1/22/2023
This week: Robert E. Howard, A. Merritt, C.L. Moore, Michael Kaluta, George Barr, Clark Ashton Smith, and more.
Read MoreA. Merritt: Forgotten Father of Space Opera
A. Merritt’s influence on the first generation of Space Opera authors was as profound as it was on the First Dynasty of Sword-and-Sorcery authors—if not moreso.
Read MoreWar-Dogs, Picts and Bran Mak Morn
Did the Picts employ war-dogs? According to Robert E. Howard…maybe.
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