Neither Beg Nor Yield - Jason M. Waltz, ed. (Part 2)

Last week, I reviewed the first four stories in NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD, the massive new sword and sorcery anthology from Rogue Blades Entertainment. This week I’m moving on to the next four stories.

I’ve read and enjoyed Steve Dilks’ Gunthar stories. His novella in this volume features one of his series characters I hadn’t encountered before, Bohun, a giant black warrior from a world that seems to be very loosely based on our own. “Harvest for the Blood-King” is set in an alternate version of Britain, which is ruled by a Rome-like empire called Valentia. Bohun and a Valentian soldier named Tibeirus are dispatched to rescue the son of a Valentian politician who has been kidnapped by barbarians that bear a resemblance to the Scots. Dilks doesn’t belabor the background or the world-building, though, a quality I’ve noticed in his work that I really like. He’s more about character and action, and he does a great job with both in this yarn. He’s written other stories about Bohun and I have to seek them out, because this one is excellent.

I’ve been a fan of Chuck Dixon’s work going all the way back to his great runs on THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, THE PUNISHER, BATMAN, NIGHTWING, and AIRBOY. In recent years he’s become a bestselling novelist with his Levon Cade series (Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture, as they say). His story in this volume, “The Stone From the Stars”, features a new pair of heroes, Hagen and Pilsner, a couple of mercenaries who find themselves on the wrong side of a war and have to strike out on their own. They wind up trying to save a wizard and his beautiful redheaded daughter from a monster summoned up by an evil necromancer. This story has some great action scenes and really races along, and Hagen and Pilsner wind up being very likable protagonists. I thought at first they might be a bit of an homage to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but they’re actually very different from those characters and stand just fine on their own. This is a thoroughly enjoyable yarn.

John R. Fultz’s “Evil World” features a series character I hadn’t encountered before, an indomitable warrior named Gnori. This story begins when Gnori is a child and follows him as he becomes that fierce battler, giving the reader just the right amount of world-building as the story moves along but never sacrificing the pace and scope that give it an epic feel. This is the darkest story in the anthology so far, but it works very well considering the story that Fultz is telling. Another excellent tale.

Keith J. Taylor has been writing sword and sorcery tales even longer than Chuck Dixon. His series character Nasach the Firbolg, a reiver and mercenary in and around medieval Ireland, has been the protagonist of stories since the 1970s. In “Reckoning”, Nasach and some companions of his find themselves throwing in with a motley crew of pirates. The captain is married to a woman who may or may not be a mermaid, and he's convinced she can find a sunken treasure for them. Unfortunately for him, even though he doesn’t recognize Nasach, the Firbolg has an old grudge against him, and when the time is right, Nasach intends to settle that score. This is a wonderful story full of action and humor and color, and it’s very well-written. I haven’t read any of Taylor’s Nasach stories until now. I hope at some point there’ll be a complete collection of them.

Four more stories into the book now, and NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD hasn’t taken its foot off the gas. It’s picking up speed and getting even better. So far, this is a terrific anthology and I give it a very high recommendation. You can find the e-book edition on Amazon while the print editions are still in the works.

Shattered Shields - Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt, eds.

A lot of heroic fantasy uses armies and wars as a backdrop, as the editors of this new anthology point out in their introduction, and since I like both fantasy and military fiction, SHATTERED SHIELDS has a built-in appeal for readers like me. That said, it's kind of a mixed bag, as anthologies often are. A number of the stories feel more like excerpts from novels rather than actual short stories, and some come across as introductions or prequels to larger works and seem a little incomplete. But there are some real stand-out stories, too, and my favorites include:

"Keeper of Names" by Larry Correia, which suffers a little from that "intro to a new series" feeling I mentioned above, but Correia's fast-paced writing and interesting characters 'way more than compensate for that. I'll definitely be interested in the novel that follows this story.

"Rising Above" by Sarah A. Hoyt is a great alternate World War I flying ace story that involves dragons. Some of the humor is groan-inducing in a good way, but there are also some poignant moments and some nice action. It works as a stand-alone, too, and I really enjoyed it. Probably my favorite story in the book because it's so much fun.

"A Cup of Wisdom" by Joseph Zieja is a much grittier story about the nature of war, very well written and effective. I don't know what else Zieja has written, but I'm going to have to look into that.

"Vengeance" by Robin Wayne Bailey is a straight-ahead sword and sorcery story about a warror and the demon-possessed dagger she carries. Plenty of action in this one, and a likable protagonist.

Nancy Fulda's "Deadfall" features an intriguing concept: airborne floating island kingdoms powered by wood with anti-gravity properties and filled with barbarians. This story does a good job of being self-contained, yet making me want to read more about the setting.

"Yael of the Strings" by John R. Fultz features an unusual protagonist, a minstrel whose job is to inspire the soldiers in a battle with his songs. It won't come as any surprise that before this one is over, he has to do more than sing.

Glen Cook's The Black Company is a series I've been meaning to read for years. I already own quite a few of the novels. But "Bone Candy", his Black Company story in this anthology, is actually the first one I've read. It's told in a very distinctive, hardboiled style, and I really enjoyed it despite the fact that it ended too abruptly for my taste, leaving me feeling like it was part of something intended to be bigger.

Elizabeth Moon is another author I've meant to read. "First Blood", her story that wraps up SHATTERED SHIELDS, makes me more convinced than ever that I should. Good characters, excellent action scenes, and an interesting enough setting that I want to read more.

All the other stories in SHATTERED SHIELDS are good except for a couple I didn't care for, but that's a pretty good percentage for an anthology. And it introduced me to several fine writers whose work is new to me, also a good thing. If you're a fan of heroic fantasy that's on the gritty side, this one is well worth reading.