Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy, Volume 1 - David A. Riley, ed.

I’ve been reading quite a bit of sword and sorcery fiction in recent months, and I’m still in the mood for it. So after finishing the new anthology NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD, I moved on to SWORDS & SORCERIES: TALES OF HEROIC FANTASY, VOLUME 1, which came out several years ago. Edited by David A. Riley and published by Parallel Universe Publications, it features eight stories, some by authors I’m familiar with and some by authors I’m encountering for the first time. The cover and interior illustrations are by Jim Pitts.

The book leads off with “The Mirror of Torjan Súl” by Steve Lines, a British writer and musician whose work I haven’t read before. It’s the story of an apprentice wizard sent by his necromancer master to an abandoned city in the desert to recover a mystical artifact of great power. Naturally, that abandoned city isn’t really abandoned at all. It’s full of dangerous creatures out for the protagonist’s blood, and he has to battle through them only to come face to face with an even worse menace as he tries to carry out his mission. To me, this story reads as if it were influenced quite a bit by the work of Clark Ashton Smith. I’ve read and enjoyed a few of Smith’s stories, but I’m far from being any sort of expert on his work. “The Mirror of Torjan Súl” reminds me of it, anyway. And I found it to be a pretty enjoyable yarn, too, with plenty of action and a satisfying ending.

I’ve read several stories by Steve Dilks and enjoyed every one of them. His novella “The Horror From the Stars” is another tale of Bohun, the black warrior from Damzullah I first encountered in NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD. This story takes place before that one in Bohun’s adventurous life, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of it. Bohun’s search for his missing wife takes him to a sinister city in the desert, after he survives a deadly sandstorm, and what he finds there is even worse. Lots of bloody, eldritch action with an indomitable protagonist, told in a colorful style that races along. This is sword and sorcery in the classic mode and very well done.

I was aware of Susan Murrie Macdonald’s Western stories but didn’t know she also writes fantasy. Her short story in this volume, “Trolls Are Different”, is a very well-written, entertaining yarn about how a hearthwitch and a troll shaman deal with a threat to the land where they live. It’s light on the world-building but has plenty for the reader to understand what’s going on, and the characters are all likable. This is only borderline sword and sorcery—there’s a little sorcery (on-screen, so to speak) and a battle (off-screen)—but it’s a very enjoyable story no matter what you call it.

At first glance, “Chain of Command” by Geoff Hart is a gender-swapped Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser yarn, as female warriors Freya (big, good with a sword) and Mouse (little, quick, also good with a sword) are hired to accompany a couple of sorcerers to a lost city in a dangerous desert created by wizardry, on a quest to recover a mystical artifact. Geoff Hart, another writer new to me, readily acknowledges the Fritz Leiber influence in this yarn and spins his tale with such enthusiasm and skill that I had no trouble accepting Freya and Mouse as good characters and protagonists in their own right. This is another one in the classic sword and sorcery style, and a very good one, too.

Like “Trolls Are Different”, Gerri Leen’s story “Disruption of Destiny” doesn’t appear to be traditional sword and sorcery at first glance. It’s about a woman who’s a seer and sorcerer and her ability to take someone’s destiny and give it to someone else through a magical rite. In this story, that’s a soldier who’s fated to die in battle. So it technically fits the definition, although there’s no real action in the story. It is, however, superbly written, poignant, and very moving and satisfying. I know I’m burying the lede here, as they say, but this is a wonderful story. I’d never heard of Gerri Leen, but I’ll be on the lookout for her work.

Eric Ian Steele is another writer new to me. His story “The City of Silence” is about a former king who renounced his throne due to a terrible tragedy and now roams the land in silence as an adventurer. His only companion is the wizard who was his chief councilor. The two of them come to what seems at first to be an abandoned city. There are people living there, but they soon discover the population is under the heel of a supernatural menace. This is another terrific story with a couple of great protagonists, and I hope to find more by Steele.

This volume wraps up with two stories that didn’t really connect with me. “Red” by Chadwick Ginther is about a female warrior searching for her brother, who has been kidnapped for nefarious purposes by a sinister cult. “The Reconstructed God” by Adrian Cole (whose story in NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD I liked a lot) is about a magical familiar that has lost its master. Both are well-written with interesting characters, and I can’t tell you why they just didn’t resonate with me. It’s always possible that I just wasn’t in the right mood for them.

Overall, I found this volume to be really good, and if you’re a sword and sorcery fan, I think there’s a good chance you’d enjoy it quite a bit, too. I’m definitely planning to read others in the series. This one is available in paperback and e-book editions on Amazon.

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.

The City of the Black Flame - Steve Dilks

It’s back to sword and sorcery I go with “The City of the Black Flame”, the second novella in Steve Dilks’ GUNTHAR—WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD. In this one, Gunthar and two companions—a pirate who has a grudge against him and a female warrior—are hired to cross a desert and an inland sea and then penetrate an untamed jungle to a lost city where the secret of eternal life can be found. Along the way they pick up an ally, a mutant “reptiloid”, evidently part man and part snake and a further indication that these Gunthar stories are set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, long after some sort of nuclear war or disaster.

But as in the previous story, “Priestess of the Fire-Gods”, Dilks never allows his world-building and back-story to interfere with the headlong pace of the action. Gunthar and his companions face all sorts of dangers in the ruined city, which is a little reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Opar, and everything builds up to a pretty explosive climax. (The lost city is built next to a volcano, if that gives you any ideas.)

Gunthar is just a really likable protagonist, young and a little inexperienced but plenty tough. Dilks gives us a little more of his background in this story. The supporting cast is excellent all around, the villain is suitably despicable, and there are even a few poignant moments to go along with the slam-bang action. Dilks’ writing style is a blend of Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Lin Carter, Gardner Fox, and John Jakes (the Brak stories). Reading these first two Gunthar stories has given me a real sense of nostalgia. This is sword and sorcery in the classic mold and done very well. It's available on Amazon in paperback and e-book editions.

Priestess of the Fire-Gods - Steve Dilks

Still in the mood for sword and sorcery, I decided to give Steve Dilks’ character Gunthar a try. “Priestess of the Fire-Gods” is the opening novella in the collection GUNTHAR: WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD. Gunthar is a brawny, blond-haired warrior, thief, and mercenary from the northern steppes of his world—which may or may not be Earth in the far, post-apocalyptic future. In this story, he’s hired by a priestess to steal an idol from the temple of a rival cult and deliver it to her on her private island where she’s surrounded by warrior women. Naturally, he and a beautiful young woman who falls in with him are pursued by the evil high priest from whom he stole the idol. The whole thing turns out to be involved with a sorcerous threat that could destroy the world in which they live.

This novella is a lot of fun. There’s a decent level of characterization and world-building, but no real info-dumps like you might expect in the first story of a series. Instead, Dilks gives you just enough information for everything to make sense without ever interfering with the headlong pace. The action never slows down for long in this yarn, and it’s well-written action, at that. The prose is maybe a little unpolished at times, but the story’s sheer enthusiasm more than makes up for that. I also found Gunthar to be a very likable protagonist.

I really enjoyed “Priestess of the Fire-Gods” and look forward to reading the other stories in this collection, which you can find on Amazon in both e-book and paperback editions. Based on what I’ve read so far, I give it a solid recommendation for sword and sorcery fans.