Review: Sometime Lofty Towers - David C. Smith

I’ve known David C. Smith for about thirty years. We met in Cross Plains at the first Robert E. Howard Days get-together I ever attended. He’s been a top author of sword-and-sorcery fiction for decades, having co-authored the Red Sonja novels and pastiches featuring Bran Mak Morn and Black Terence Vulmea, as well as numerous novels set in his own created world of Attluma. The original edition of his novel SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS came out a few years ago, and the book has just been reissued in a beautiful new edition by Brackenbury Books. This is one of Smith’s novels I hadn’t read, so I was glad to be able to back the Kickstarter for the new edition and read it.

The protagonist of SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS is a retired mercenary soldier named Hanlin, who, years earlier, was part of a force that made war against the kirangee, people native to the western part of Attluma. Now, an ambitious aristocrat named Lady Sil is mounting an expedition to try once again to conquer the kirangee, and she wants Hanlin to be part of her army, along with one of his old friends Thorem. Hanlin wants nothing to do with this and refuses to sign on with Sil. Instead he starts back toward his homeland in the far northwestern reaches of the continent, wanting only to live out his life in peace, but of course, he winds up being drawn into Sil’s war anyway, only this time around, he’s fighting on the other side.

The plot of this novel bears some resemblance to both AVATAR and DANCES WITH WOLVES, but for my money, it’s considerably better written than either of those movies. All the characters are very well-developed, and Hanlin is an intriguing, compelling protagonist, very conflicted in his emotions but driven to do the right thing, if only he can figure out what that is. This is very much a shades-of-gray story with few outright heroes or villains. Also, unlike most sword-and-sorcery fiction, it’s told in a deliberate, richly detailed, literary style that delves as much into the mind as it does action.

But that doesn’t mean SOMETIMES LOFTY TOWERS skimps on the action. It definitely doesn’t, and there are some great battles and satisfying showdowns. There’s plenty of blood and thunder to be found here. Smith’s voice is a distinctive one, and I found myself swept along in my reading of this novel and thoroughly enjoying it.

Now, about that new edition . . . As a backer of the Kickstarter for this project, I received both print and e-book editions, and the digital copy arrived first. I intended to read it, but then the print book showed up in the mail. It’s the traditional mass market size (you know, the kind the regular publishers are in the process of doing away with; after all, what’s 85 years of history?), and it has purple page edges. I swear, it’s almost like holding a Lancer book from the Sixties, except this edition is sturdily made and probably won’t fall apart in five years, the way Lancers had a tendency of doing. Anyway, it’s a beautiful thing, and I had to read that edition instead of the e-book, and I give an enormous amount of credit to the folks at Brackenbury Books for doing such a great job with it.

If you want to read this—and if you’re a sword-and-sorcery fan, I give it a very high recommendation—you can order it directly from the publisher. SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and it reminds me there are other novels by David C. Smith I haven’t gotten around to reading yet. I really need to do that.

Now Available: Lair of the Serpent Queen (Snakehaven #3) - James Reasoner

Jorras Trevayle is back, exploring the sprawling city of Nucarrah, a cesspit of sin and corruption, the hub of a world of danger and sinister sorcery where the giant serpents known as Nloka Maccumba roam. Rescued by the beautiful Llorna Valyasha from an attempt on his life, Trevayle pledges his allegiance to this queen of Nucarrah’s underworld, unaware that he’s sinking deeper and deeper into a war between criminals from which he may not escape! 

LAIR OF THE SERPENT QUEEN is the third exciting entry in the critically acclaimed Snakehaven saga, following the adventures of soldier and swordsman Jorras Trevayle in a world where death may strike from any direction without warning. New York Times bestselling author James Reasoner spins another breathtaking tale of sword and sorcery action in a brilliantly inventive and compelling setting. If you haven’t begun exploring Snakehaven yet, now is the time to start!

(I'm really enjoying writing these stories. This is the longest one yet, not quite long enough to call it a novel, but close. A print edition that will combine the first three stories is in the works and will be available later this fall for those of you who prefer print. I plan to do several more Snakehaven novellas next year, so as I always say at the end of these--Jorras Trevayle will return!)

The Chronicles of Hanuvar #1: Lord of a Shattered Land - Howard Andrew Jones

I’ve been online friends with Howard Andrew Jones for a number of years now and have enjoyed his essays on various pulp-related subjects on his own blog and in various other places. He was one of the first people I came across who was also a fan of the Ki-Gor series from JUNGLE STORIES, for example. But I’d never read any of his fiction until now. I picked up LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND, the first book in his new series THE CHRONICLES OF HANUVAR, and tackled it, although it’s considerably longer than the books I normally read.

This series is loosely based on the wars between Rome and Carthage, with Derva being Rome, Volanus being Carthage, and Hanuvar being Hannibal. But that’s just a starting point as Jones creates a very different world from our own, one with dragons and sorcerers and monsters and spirits, and the events in Hanuvar’s life don’t play out the same way Hannibal’s did. Hanuvar is both the political and military leader of Volanus, but as the book opens he’s believed to be dead following the conclusion of the third war between Derva and Volanus. But Hanuvar actually survived the death of the dragon he was riding and a plunge into the sea, and now, alone and friendless, he sets out to rescue the survivors of his people and take them to the colony of New Volanus, which he started across the ocean several years earlier.

LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND is a fix-up novel comprised of fourteen novelettes and novellas, some of which were published previously in magazines and anthologies, and this episodic nature really works in its favor, allowing Jones to keep the story moving at a good pace as we follow Hanuvar on his quest. So many books like this are full of padding, but LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND really isn’t. Each section builds on the previous tales as Hanuvar gathers information, makes friends, battles both new threats and old, travels with a circus, and finally, at the end of the book, positions himself to launch the next step of his plan to free his people. This novel has an epic feel to it that works very well.

As for the stories—the characters, the writing, the action—I felt like I was reading Robert E. Howard in the Lancer editions, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories in the Ace editions, John Jake’s original Brak the Barbarian stories in the Avon paperback, and even good old Thongor in the first Ace edition of Lin Carter’s THE WIZARD OF LEMURIA. In other words, I was right back there in the Sixties, sitting on my parents’ front porch, having a spectacularly good time reading rousing sword and sorcery yarns. LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND is that good. Better than Jakes and Carter, for my money, and if it doesn’t quite rise to the level of Howard and Leiber . . . well, those guys have nostalgia going for them, too, while Jones’ novel is brand new. In time, as I continue reading the Hanuvar books (the second one will be out next month, and I already have it pre-ordered), he may give those giants a run for their money. I can’t wait to find out. If you’re a fan of sword and sorcery fiction, this one has my highest recommendation. It's available in ebook and hardcover editions.

The Paperback Fantastic, Volume Two: Fantasy

Following up on the success of THE PAPERBACK FANTASTIC, VOLUME ONE: SCIENCE FICTION, editor and publisher Justin Marriott switches his emphasis to fantasy in the second volume. THE PAPERBACK FANTASTIC, VOLUME TWO: FANTASY also features dozens of reviews of various novels and comic books, with great cover art from those books and top-notch production by Marriott and Bill Cunningham. The reviewers in this volume are Steve Carroll, S. Clayton Rhodes, Andreas Decker, James Doig, Ian Millsted, Roy Nugen, John Peel, Scott Ranalli, Penny Tesarek, Tom Tesarek, and Benjamin Thomas.

Most of the reviews are of heroic fantasy/sword-and-sorcery novels and story collections, with a few side ventures into sword-and-planet and more literary fantasy. Given that, it’s not surprising that books by Robert E. Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, Michael Moorcock, and Fritz Leiber dominate the table of contents. Howard is one of my all-time favorite authors, of course, so that’s fine with me, and I read all of Leiber’s stories about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser back in the day, as well. I’m less familiar with Moorcock and Wager, although I’ve read and enjoyed both. There are also reviews of books by John Jakes and Lin Carter that I recall reading with great fondness, and a couple of reviews of books by an author I want to read, C.L. Werner, although I haven’t gotten around his work yet. Two of Kenneth Bulmer’s heroic fantasy novels are reviewed, including the first book in his long-running Dray Prescot series, and although I’ve read and enjoyed several of Bulmer’s historical novels, I’ve never read his fantasy. I need to get around to those books, as well.

I enjoyed Volume Two of this series every bit as much as I did Volume One, and for the same reason: it’s well-done, very informative, and highly entertaining. If you’re a long-time reader of heroic fantasy like I am, you really should pick it up, because I think you’ll have a fine time reading it.

Conan and the Living Plague - John C. Hocking

John C. Hocking is the author of CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS, a novel which is widely regarded as the best of the Conan pastiches published by Tor in the Eighties and Nineties. I finally got around to reading it several years ago and agree that it’s easily the best of those pastiches. Hocking wrote a sequel to that book called CONAN AND THE LIVING PLAGUE, but unfortunately, Tor cancelled the Conan pastiche program and Hocking’s second novel was left languishing in limbo.

Until now. A new imprint called Perilous Worlds has started a line of Conan pastiches, and Hocking’s CONAN AND THE LIVING PLAGUE is the first book, rescued at long last. And that’s a very good thing for those of us who are fans of Robert E. Howard and Conan, because it’s an excellent novel.

Conan is recruited to be part of a small mercenary force headed to the isolated mountain city of Dulcine, which is rumored to have been wiped out by a mysterious plague. But rumors also say that there’s a fortune waiting to be had in Dulcine’s treasure vaults, and an ambitious prince has his eye on that loot. In order to get his hands on it, he hires not only Conan and several other hard-nosed soldiers but also a sorcerer who had something to do with the plague that wiped out the city. Conan hates and distrusts sorcery, of course, but the magic conjured up by this mage Adrastus is the only thing that can get the treasure seekers safely in and out of their destination.

Well, of course, lots of stuff goes wrong. The plague hasn’t wiped out everybody in Dulcine, but the people who are left have been transformed into crazed, bloodthirsty semblances of their former selves. Even worse, a creepy figure who’s actually the living personification of the plague is wandering around the castle where the treasure is supposed to be. Conan and his companions are in constant danger not only from this living plague but also from treachery within their own ranks. Not all of them will make it out alive . . .

Hocking doesn’t try to slavishly imitate Robert E. Howard’s style, although there are Howardian touches to the prose here and there. Instead he tells the story in his own voice, with well-drawn characters, a head-long pace, and plenty of epic action scenes. I think this is the best approach to pastiche, producing a novel that’s recognizably a Conan tale, steeped in the background and setting Howard created, but in the author’s own distinctive style. Hocking has given us another fine novel, and I certainly hope it won’t be the last. I really enjoyed CONAN AND THE LIVING PLAGUE and give it a very high recommendation.

UPDATE: I've talked to one of the folks at Perilous Worlds and learned that not only will they be publishing this book, they'll also be reprinting John Hocking's excellent CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS (mentioned above) as well as a lot of other stuff that sounds good, some Robert E. Howard-related, some not. You can check out their website here. THE SONG OF BELIT by Michael Stackpole sounds especially intriguing to me, and I plan to read it when it becomes available.

Tragon of Ramura - John M. Whalen

John M. Whalen’s new novel TRAGON OF RAMURA is a sword-and-sorcery adventure in the classic mold, set in a world that seems an alternate history approximation of our own. The protagonist Tragon has been framed for the murder of his king and is already on the run when this yarn begins, having fallen in with the crew of the ship Orion. But he has sworn that someday he’ll return to his home of Ramura and overthrow the sorcerer Caldec, who is responsible for all the evil that plagues the country as well as for framing Tragon.

While in a dangerous port city, Tragon encounters an old soldier/mentor of his named Darius who has fallen on drunken hard times. When Tragon and his companions on the Orion are hired to travel to a lost city and rescue the daughter of their client, Tragon decides to sober up Darius and take him along.

The man who hires them has been to the lost city of Caiphar before, in search of a mystical gem called the Crimson Eye. His daughter was captured during this trip, and he barely got away. Now he has to return and rescue her before the time rolls around for a ritual in which the city’s evil king will take her as his wife. And of course, stealing the Crimson Eye is still on the table as well, so in addition to hiring Tragon and his crew, the man also brings along a group of hardened mercenaries.

Of course, the whole thing winds up being complicated by double crosses, traps, monsters, immortal evil, a tower full of dead souls, and a beautiful high priestess who may or may not be trustworthy. There are a lot of influences in this book: Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE DIRTY DOZEN . . . and plenty of Whalen’s own talent, as he spins a fast-moving yarn with interesting characters, a lot of well-written action, and some surprisingly poignant moments. There’s enough back-story left unresolved for a number of sequels, too, although this novel is quite satisfying on its own.

I’ve written many times before about what I call front porch books, the sort of thing I read sitting on the front porch of my parents’ house on long summer days when I was a kid. TRAGON OF RAMURA, although it’s brand new, is that same sort of pure pleasure, so I’m naming it an honorary Front Porch Book and recommending it if you’re a fan of sword and sorcery action.

Forgotten Books: The Bronze Axe (Richard Blade #1) - Jeffrey Lord (Manning Lee Stokes)

I’ve written before about what I call front porch books—the sort of book I read when I was a teenager, sitting in a lawn chair in the shade of my parents’ front porch on summer days when it was too hot to play baseball. THE BRONZE AXE, the first book in the long-running Richard Blade fantasy adventure series, is definitely a front porch book. Which is not always a good thing and is, in fact, sometimes a mixed blessing.

First some background on the series, which was packaged by Lyle Kenyon Engel before he formed Book Creations Inc, the company I worked for many years later. I’m going by memory here, but I seem to recall reading in an interview with Engel that it was George Glay, the editorial director at Macfadden-Bartell Books, who actually came up with the concept of this series. Knowing how Engel worked, I imagine Glay said something like “How about a series mixing James Bond with Conan?”, since those were two very popular literary figures at the time. So Engel called up Manning Lee Stokes, one of the authors who regularly wrote books for him, and said, “I need a series mixing James Bond with Conan”, and then Stokes came up with everything else. I suspect that’s how it went, anyway.

But no matter what the details of its creation, the Richard Blade series really is James Bond meets Conan. Blade is a top agent in British Intelligence, working for a secret division of MI6 called MI6A, which is headed up by a spymaster known only as J. Blade is recruited as a test subject in an experiment being conducted by gnomish scientest Lord Leighton, who hooks him up to a supercomputer. The object of the experiment is to download all the information in the computer directly in Blade’s brain, but there’s a glitch and instead it hurls him into a parallel dimension that comes to be known as Dimension X, which has all sorts of different alternate Earths in it. (I gather that some of this is established in later books.)

In this book, THE BRONZE AXE, Blade winds up in an alternate history version of Bronze Age England, where he rescues a beautiful princess and runs afoul of a beautiful queen, a beautiful witch (the witches are known as Drus, obviously inspired by Druids), and another queen who’s not really beautiful, but Blade fools around with her anyway, as he does most of the women he encounters. When he’s not getting laid, he fights the Dimension X equivalents of Vikings and not surprisingly kills their leader so he can take over the dreaded sea raiders. Then Lord Leighton fixes the problem with the computer and manages to bring him back to good old England in the Swinging Sixties.

Stokes was one of the regular authors on the Nick Carter, Killmaster secret agent series also packaged by Engel, and I gobbled those novels down with great enjoyment in those days (definite front porch books). I didn’t know at the time who was writing them, but I didn’t care, either. Now, all these decades later, I find that Stokes’ prose hasn’t aged all that well, at least in this book. He can get awfully long-winded and pretentious at times.

However, there are also some really good action scenes in THE BRONZE AXE, some likable and interesting characters, and a surprising amount of humor, most of which actually works. If I had read this when it was first published in 1969, I suspect I would have loved it. Somehow I never saw it back then, though. Reading it now, I still got a considerable amount of enjoyment from it, despite being able to see its flaws.

A little more history on the series: Macfadden-Bartell published six Richard Blade books in 1969-72, all with pretty good covers by Jack Faragasso, but that seemed to be the end of the series. Then in 1973, Engel struck a deal with Pinnacle Books, which had grown enormously in the past few years due to the success of the Executioner, the Destroyer, and other men’s adventure series. Pinnacle reprinted the six books originally published by Macfadden-Bartell, this time with covers by Tony Destefano that I don’t like nearly as well, and then continued on with original novels until the series totaled 37 books. Manning Lee Stokes wrote the first eight, and Roland J. Green wrote all the books after that except for #30, which was written by Ray Faraday Nelson. Engel, or an editor who worked for him, talked to author Geo. W. Proctor about continuing the series, but that never came about. After Russian reprints of the early books were successful, a couple of Russian authors began writing their own sequels, so there are a number of unauthorized Richard Blade novels that have only been published in Russia and have never appeared in English.

I have the first three books and then maybe a dozen more scattered through the rest of the series. I enjoyed THE BRONZE AXE enough that I’ll probably try to round up the rest of the Manning Lee Stokes entries, but whether I continue beyond that is sort of doubtful since I’m not a fan of Roland Green’s work. I’m glad I read this one, though. It brought back enough of those old feelings to create quite a bit of nostalgia for those days. I wouldn’t go back there permanently, but I sure like to visit.

Now Available: Tragon of Ramura - John M. Whalen

A dream starts Tragon of Ramura and his friend/bodyguard Yusef Ahmed on a search for an amulet said to be the source of the most powerful magic in the universe, Their search leads them to the lost city of Caiphar and the beautiful and mysterious Sai-Ul-San, high priestess of the cult of Zoth-Amin. Tragon finds the Crimson Eye of Caiphar, but the city holds dark secrets of an evil a thousand years old that threaten to unleash a demon intent on destroying the world. Can Tragon defeat the ancient forces that rule Caiphar, or will he remain trapped forever in the Tower of Lost Souls?

Flying W Press announces the release of John M. Whalen’s new sword and sorcery novel, TRAGON OF RAMURA. It’s a novel deeply rooted in the traditions of the sword and sorcery genre, but which attempts to take that kind of story into a new realm.

Tragon of Ramura is a character that has been around a while. He first appeared in 2006 in a short story, “Island of Fear,” published in Howard Andrew Jones’ Flashing Swords e-zine. “That was the first cash money I ever got for a short story,” author John Whalen said. “Howard said he thought I had something with the characters of Tragon and his sidekick, Yusef Ahmed. I think he was right. So I finally gave them their own novel.”

 

Tragon and Yusef also were also featured in Christopher Heath’s Artifacts and Relics anthology, and another antho, “Shadows and Light,” published by the now defunct Pill Hill Press. They have also been published in Greece and translated into Greek.

In TRAGON OF RAMURA, our two adventurers are in search of the Crimson Eye of Caiphar, said to be the source of the most powerful magic in the universe. Tragon believes he must obtain it in order to return home from exile and combat the evil wizard who assassinated his king and framed him for the killing. In the Lost City of Caiphar Tragon encounters the beautiful and mysterious Sai-Ul-San, high priestess of the cult of Zoth-Amin. The priestess agrees to help Tragon in his quest, but can they overcome the dark forces that rule the city and defeat an ancient god who threatens to destroy the world? And what terrible secret is the priestess hiding?

“I didn’t want to write the same old Robert E. Howard Conan pastiche,” Whalen said. “It’s been done to death. The book has some of the usual tropes, but they’re handled in a different way, and mixed with some mind-bending ideas that S&S fans probably haven’t seen in this context before. It’s a combination of horror and adventure, and some far out things. It’s different.”

Forgotten Books: Kothar--Barbarian Swordsman - Gardner F. Fox

I must have read hundreds of comic books written by Gardner Fox when I was growing up, but at that time I had no idea he was also a novelist. The only books by him that I read were his sexy spy novels in the Lady From L.U.S.T. series, which he wrote as Rod Gray. I figured Rod Gray was a real guy and never dreamed he was the same person writing all those issues of THE FLASH and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA I read. Anyway, I've since learned that Fox was a prolific paperbacker and wrote quite a bit of science fiction and fantasy under his own name, including a couple of sword and sorcery series. I've seen these books around for years and finally read one of them, KOTHAR: BARBARIAN SWORDSMAN, the first book in the Kothar series.

Kothar is a mercenary swordsman from the northern land of Cumberia (any resemblance to Cimmeria is totally coincidental, I'm sure), although he wasn't born there. He was found as an infant in a boat that washed up in a bay, and his true origins are unknown, at least when this book opens. Maybe his history will be revealed later on. This volume consists of three related novellas, which as far as I can tell were written for it, instead of being published elsewhere and then collected here.

In the first story, "The Sword of the Sorcerer", Kothar is working as a captain of foreign mercenaries in the land of Commoral, which is engaged in a civil war between the witch Red Lori, who has claimed the throne through sorcerous means, and Elfa, the rightful queen. Both women, of course, are breathtaking beautiful. After a battle against Lori's forces in which he's the only survivor, Kothar stumbles over the crypt of an ancient wizard who gives him a magic sword and commands him to help Queen Elfa regain the throne. The only catch is that whoever possesses the enchanted blade Frostfire can't own anything else valuable, which amounts of a vow of poverty. With that in mind, off Kothar goes to battle a sea monster, rescue another wizard who's on Elfa's side, and hack and slash with a bunch of Red Lori's soldiers before finally battling the witch in a final showdown. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to reveal that Kothar wins and Elfa's kingdom is restored to her.

The second story, "The Treasure in the Labyrinth", finds Kothar being hired by a wealthy merchant to penetrate to the center of a labyrinth filled with deadly traps and steal the treasure that's supposed to be hidden there. No one knows what that treasure is, but everyone believes it's something immensely valuable. Kothar, naturally enough, battles his way to the center of the labyrinth, taking on several different supernatural menaces including a giant spider, rescues a beautiful girl, and eventually recovers the treasure. There's a twist, of course, but it's not too obvious and turns out to be fairly satisfying. Even more than the first story, this one shows a lot of Robert E. Howard influence.

"The Woman in the Witch-Wood" is the Lady Alaine, a sorceress who's been trapped there by an evil warlock who has taken over her castle. When Kothar meets her, of course he agrees to defeat the warlock and lift the spell holding Alaine in the evil woods. This leads to Kothar battling all sorts of mystical dangers that the warlock throws at him, then squaring off against the wizard himself. This final story in the book has a very nice twist at the end that I didn't see coming.

Kothar makes one big mistake in this book: he leaves Red Lori alive, and although she doesn't really play a part in the other stories, I have a hunch she'll show up again in later books in the series to cause more trouble for Kothar.

So what did I think of KOTHAR: BARBARIAN SWORDSMAN? Well, starting out, it struck me as generic, derivative, and downright silly. And really . . . it is. But somehow Fox won me over. His writing is vivid and fast-paced and has plenty of action, as well as being appropriately creepy when it needs to be. And the plots, while very typical of the genre, take an interesting turn here and there. Plus Kothar is a likable protagonist, not the smartest guy around but not exactly dumb, either, and certainly stalwart when it comes to battling evil. Novellas like these are the perfect antidote to the enormous doorstopper endless series that have come to dominate heroic fantasy. I had a lot of fun reading this book. I have the other four books in the series and suspect that I'll get around to them, too.

Stealer of Flesh - William King

I know William King primarily as an author for the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 lines of epic fantasy and science fiction, although I haven't read any of his work for them. But he's also written quite a bit in universes of his own, including a sword-and-sorcery series about a warrior/priest (a Guardian of the Dawn) named Kormak. The first book in this series, STEALER OF FLESH, is a series of four linked novellas: "The Demon Unleashed", "The Wolves of War", "The Flesh Stealer", and "That Way Lies Death". In his notes on the collection, King discusses how as a young man he was a reader and fan of the sword-and-sorcery tales of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and others, especially the way so many of the stories by those authors were novellas instead of the enormous doorstop trilogies and endless series that passes for heroic fantasy these days. He set out to write something similar, and STEALER OF FLESH is the result. I can certainly see the influence of those authors in these yarns.

In the first story, "The Demon Unleashed", a nobleman takes Kormak prisoner and uses his sword, which has some limited sorcerous abilities, to free a demon known as a Ghul that has been trapped for centuries. Feeling at least partially responsible for the Ghul being loosed on the world, Kormak pursues it as it takes over various hosts and vows to destroy it. In "The Wolves of War" he encounters werewolves being used as a military force. "The Flesh Stealer" is set in the squalid criminal underworld of a big city. "That Way Lies Death" takes Kormak and several companions he's picked up along the way to a lost city in the desert for a final showdown with the Ghul.

The world in which all this takes place seems to be based, not surprisingly, on ancient Europe and Asia. King establishes some history in broad strokes and sets up an eternal clash between the west, which worships the god of the sun, and the east, which worships the gods of the moon. It's pretty easy to pick out the analogs to our own world, but to give King credit, he never dwells much on such things. They're just there as background to stories full of sorcery and swordplay.

To be honest, this book could have used another copyediting pass. But I'm willing to cut King some slack for that simply because these stories really are throwbacks to the sword-and-sorcery yarns of an earlier era and are lean and fast-moving instead of bloated and never-ending. I can easily imagine myself sitting on my parents' front porch reading a Lancer paperback of this book, and anything that can make me feel like that is well worth reading, as far as I'm concerned. Hey, I can edit those typos in my head and just keep right on going. King has written a number of full-length novels featuring Kormak, and I have the next few already on my Kindle, ready to go. If you're a fan of old-school sword-and-sorcery, STEALER OF FLESH is worth a try.

Now Available: The Rhymester of Ulm - James Reasoner

Shunt is a thief, Park a tavern dancer and part-time whore. Neither of them is the least bit better than they have to be, because that’s the only way to survive in the squalid, perilous city of Under-Ulm. But when Shunt comes into possession of a pen apparently filled with sorcerous power, he and Park are drawn into a web of deceit, political intrigue, and murder that reaches all the way to the court of the Empress of Ulm! 

Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author James Reasoner spins a compelling tale of fantasy and danger in this short story originally published in the anthology DREAMS IN THE FIRE and now available for the first time as an e-book.

Mage, Maze, Demon - Charles Allen Gramlich

The story “Mage, Maze, Demon” by Charles Allen Gramlich is the latest entry in the Veridical Dreams series, based on the dream journals of Kyle J. Knapp and developed by David Cranmer of Beat to a Pulp. It’s the tale of a barbarian named Bryle, whose help is enlisted by a sinister sorcerer (really, what other kind is there?) to recover a valuable artifact hidden in a maze and guarded by a demon as well as other mystical threats. Don’t think you know everything that’s going to happen once Bryle gets in that maze, though. Gramlich has a few nice plot twists up his sleeve.

As you’d expect from a veteran writer and long-time scholar of Robert E. Howard’s work, Gramlich spins a top-notch sword and sorcery yarn. The action races along and comes to a very satisfying conclusion. Bryle is an appealing protagonist, and I’m particularly fond of one of the non-human characters who becomes, in effect, Bryle’s sidekick, even with no dialogue. “Mage, Maze, Demon” is a very entertaining fantasy tale and gets a high recommendation from me.

Treasure of Ice and Fire - Wayne D. Dundee

Wayne D. Dundee isn’t just one of the best hardboiled mystery and Western writers around these days. With the release of TREASURE OF ICE AND FIRE, he proves that he can spin a fine sword-and-sorcery yarn as well.

Based on concepts created by Kyle J. Knapp and developed by David Cranmer, Dundee’s story takes place in the land of Brassik, which has been conquered and occupied by an invading army from Wyvar. There’s a resistance movement, though, and one of the leading figures is the rogue priest Nindocai, who’s on the trail of a long-lost treasure that may be the key to freeing his land from the invaders and restoring the rightful gods to their places. In order to do that he’ll need help from a blacksmith with what may be a magical hammer, a beautiful huntress, and a young man with an unusual and possibly sinister birthmark.

No matter what genre Dundee is working in, the reader is sure to be entertained by his well-drawn and interesting characters, his fast-moving plots, and his great action scenes. All of this is true of TREASURE OF ICE AND FIRE. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable book, and I hope he returns to the land of Brassik for more tales like this in the future.

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.

Exiles in Arms #1: Moving Targets - C.L. Werner

MOVING TARGETS is another heroic fantasy novella set in the Iron Kingdoms/Warmachine universe, like Dan Wells' THE BUTCHER OF KHARDOV that I read a while back. This one is by C.L. Werner. I've read some of Werner's stories set in the Warhammer universe (a totally different setting, although some people seem to get them confused) and enjoyed them, so I thought I might like this one as well. Turns out I was right.

This is the first book in a series called Exiles in Arms, which follows the adventures of a pair of mercenaries, Rutger Shaw, a big, tough but basically good-hearted brawler, and Taryn de la Rovissi, a beautiful gun-mage, which means the pistols she carries fire enchanted bullets that do different things depending on which spell Taryn uses. As the story opens, Rutger and Taryn are trying to get out of the country where they've been working, which is in the process of collapsing because of an invasion by a more powerful neighboring country. They get involved in the plight of some refugees, which leads to them being hired by a fleeing nobleman. That nobleman has a dangerous secret, though, and there are bad guys after him trying to capture and/or kill him. From there the action scenes are almost non-stop before Rutger and Taryn finally sort everything out and escape from the mess with their lives.

I really enjoyed this one, with a few reservations. The game-based setting, with its mixture of magic and steampunk, is really complex, and the back-story is so dense that I almost got lost a few times. The writing seemed geared more to gamers who are very familiar with the background, rather than general heroic fantasy readers like me. Understand, I don't fault Werner for that at all. Fans of the games are the real target audience for these books, after all. And I wasn't confused enough to keep me from being entertained. My other complaint is that there's not quite as much resolution to the story as I would have liked...but hey, what are sequels for, anyway?

What I really liked was the fast pace and the well-done action, as well as the colorful villains. The head bad guy's minions are gatormen, savage swamp-dwelling creatures who are, well, half-man, half-gator. (Paging Bill Crider!) Rutger and Taryn are likable heroes, too, and I plan to read the rest of the series to see what happens to them. If you're a fan of heroic fantasy, I think MOVING TARGETS is well worth reading, especially if you try to familiarize yourself a little with the setting first (as I'm doing by reading these books).

The Fyredrake's Prey Now Available in Trade Paperback

The print edition of my heroic fantasy novel THE FYREDRAKE'S PREY is now available from Amazon. I'm trying to figure out a way to write more books like this, but it's probably going to be a while.

Now Available: The Fyredrake's Prey - James Reasoner

Sir Gault the Red was once the fiercest knight in all Malachar, but that was before age and a life of peace reduced him to a shadow of the warrior he once was. Now his epic battles against the fyredrakes, the race of reptilian monsters that terrorized the countryside in times past, are just a memory...until an unexpected encounter prods him into a desperate attempt to recapture past glories.

Keldrick is the last of his kind, a giant fyredrake whose flaming breath once blazed a path of destruction across the land. He wants only to reach the legendary northland where others like him may still be found...but his journey will also be one last rampage of fire, death, and devastation across the domain of the hated humans.

These two natural adversaries are fated to meet, but before they do both will be drawn into a web of deceit, ambition, and lust that will leave them questioning who are the real monsters, humans or fyredrakes!

THE FYREDRAKE'S PREY is a gritty fantasy saga packed with bloody action and unexpected heroism from New York Times bestselling author and legendary storyteller James Reasoner, a never before published 70,000 word novel available only from Rough Edges Press.

A number of years ago I wrote and sold a fantasy novel, but due to some odd circumstances, it was never published. It would have been lost in the fire of '08 if I hadn't sent it to several friends to read, and a couple of them sent it back to me. I planned to do something with it someday...but you know how that goes.

Earlier this year I decided I wanted to get it out and polish it up. That polish job turned into major revisions, to the point that the basic plot and a few character names are about all that's left from the original version of the novel. I really enjoyed working on it, though, and definitely would like to do more with this setting, which ties in loosely with a few short stories I've done. When will I get a chance to do that? Heck if I know.

THE FYREDRAKE'S PREY is available right now in a Kindle edition, and a print edition is in the works and should be out in a few days. It's not quite sword and sorcery, not quite high fantasy, but more along the lines of what George R.R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie write, whatever you call that. Mostly I think it's an entertaining novel, and I hope some of you will check it out.

Coming Soon From Rough Edges Press: The Fyredrake's Prey - James Reasoner

Here's the cover Livia's done for my heroic fantasy novel that should be out sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Troll Mountain - Matthew Reilly

Matthew Reilly is best known as an author of big, action-packed thrillers, but in TROLL MOUNTAIN he ventures into YA heroic fantasy fiction with interesting results. Raf, the plucky young protagonist of this stand-alone novel, is a member of a tribe of humans that exists in a state of constant fear of the savage, brutal trolls who live on Troll Mountain just to the north of their valley. As if that wasn't bad enough, a mysterious illness strikes Raf's tribe, killing everyone who falls prey to it. The trolls have a cure for the disease, but they demand a high price for it: a lifetime of slavery. When Raf's young sister becomes ill, he decides on a daring plan of action. He's going to Troll Mountain to steal the cure.

This sets up a traditional fantasy novel quest, and Reilly handles it in a traditional manner for the most part. Raf meets an enigmatic older man who becomes a mentor to him, winds up with some other allies, has assorted adventures, and finally penetrates to the depths of Troll Mountain where he'll risk his life trying to get his hands on the cure for his sister's illness.

That disease and its cure are where Reilly throws in some interesting, unexpected angles, and that helps bring the novel to a satisfying conclusion. There's plenty of action along the way, which you'd expect from one of Reilly's novels. I've read only one other book by him, HELL ISLAND, which I thought was okay but maybe a little too action-packed (and regular readers of this blog can imagine how difficult it must be to provoke that reaction from me). TROLL MOUNTAIN is a little more leisurely, but in a good way. Overall I thought it was an entertaining book, and fans of YA heroic fantasy ought to enjoy it. 

Vestments of Pestilence - John C. Hocking

"Vestments of Pestilence" is a new sword-and-sorcery story by John C. Hocking, author of CONAN AND THE EMERALD LOTUS, and what an absolute joy it is to read (which you can do right here, in fact). This story is part of a series about a character known to the reader only as The Archivist, who is sent by the archive for which he works to investigate and/or recover various artifacts found in the more uncivilized parts of the world where he lives. Accompanying him on these adventures is his bodyguard and companion, the female soldier Lucella.

In this particular yarn, The Archivist and Lucella have returned to civilization only to find themselves immediately drawn into a clash between two members of the royal family, a brother and sister who are bitter rivals and who have tried to kill each other in the recent past. The princess coerces The Archivist and Lucella into helping her get her hands on an artifact from the old Southron civilization that may contain sorcerous power.

Of course, with a street gang, an oily "astrographer", a sinister tower, and a plague demon in the mix, things don't really go all that smoothly, and The Archivist and Lucella will need all the brains, cold steel, and courage they can muster to survive.

The plot of this story is traditional sword-and-sorcery, but the prose is pure hardboiled action writing of the best sort, reminiscent of, yes, Robert E. Howard and the fantasy novels written by Ben Haas under the names Richard Meade and Quinn Reade. I'm sure most of you knew I was going there, but dang it, it's true. Hocking is that good. There are touches of humor as well, and The Archivist and Lucella are very appealing characters. I really hope that eventually Hocking will put together a collection of this and the other stories about this duo, because I'm eager to read them.

For now, if you haven't already you should head over to the Black Gate website and read "Vestments of Pestilence". If you're a fan of action-packed heroic fantasy, I guarantee you'll be entertained.