Summer of Sword and Sorcery: It's A Wrap

Looking back, here's how I would rank my readings (by author)

Karl Edward Wagner.  Wagner wins the day.  These were the best of the stories I read over the summer, both gritty, dark and violent, but also evocatively supernatural, with magic that felt like magic.  Lovecraftian monsters and full of suspense as well.

Fritz Leiber.  Leiber is a very close second.  The polish and professionalism of his writing, and the wit and humor make these stories really stand out.  Plus Fafhrd and the Mouser are great characters.

Robert E. Howard. Howard is the undisputed (by me) king of this kind of fiction (of which he is largely the original architect - sorry, Sprague/Carter - it wasn't Dunsany, William Morris or Homer), and his best stories just burn off the page.  I mostly stuck to unread/less-remembered Conan's this go-around, and, while good, none of my favorites were on the racks this summer.

Michael Moorcock. Moorcock is a bit of a bring-down from my teenage years.  The tales I read ranged from brilliant ("The Dreaming City") to inspired-pulpy (most of the others).  That's not to say they were bad - there's good imagination and some fine writing here, and of course Elric is a standout and original character.  But it's not quite the gold I thought it was at 17.

Jack Vance.  I read The Dying Earth at 17 as well and thought it was phenomenal.  This time around I'm still impressed by its imagination and lovely writing, though I'm less floored by it.  You can't have my copy, though.

Thieve's World books. I really liked these in my HS years and the best parts and characters still hold up pretty well, though what impresses me most is the gritty setting and the fact that the most impressive and memorable characters are not fierce warriors or magicians or nobility, but poverty-stricken and powerless ones who get by on wits and ingenuity.

C.L. Moore. I first read Jirel of Joiry when I was around 20 and (again) was pretty knocked out by it and (again) am a bit less so now, but still impressed.  Moore was a fine writer and Jirel is a female hero who's all woman.  These adventures often deal more with thoughts, feelings, and spiritual experiences which are just as fearsome as the monsters and evil swordsmen who populate most s`n's.  

Andre Norton. I'm very fond of Norton's Witch World books (as well as others) even though I sometimes find her writing hard to follow and the stories exceedingly compressed, as if a longer and slightly more relaxed telling would serve them better.  Nonetheless she was always imaginative, original, and thoughtful.

Leigh Brackett. Sword of Rhiannon is the first Brackett I've ever read, and while it didn't blow me away, I'm still intrigued enough to seek out some more.

Gardner Fox.  Although one story was fairly fine, overall I'd have to say Fox's Kothar left me cold, and I don't plan on investing and more time on the sequels.

Lin Carter.  I've long had this weird, perverse desire to read some of Carter's fantasy novels, even though their notoriously not-that-great.  This one proves the rule.  I think my desire has been cured.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery Week 11

"The Dream of the Sorceress" by A.E. Van Vogt.  Alten Stulwig, a sleazy (though tame by Sanctuary standards I suppose) herbalist finds himself in the bizarre position of getting on the wrong side of the conquering god, Vashanka.  Funny in an odd way, thanks to Van Vogt's dry, sometimes choppy, sometimes elegant style.  I liked it.

"Black God's Shadow" by C.L. Moore. This was the sequel to "Black God's Kiss", and tells of Jirel's latest trip into Hell(?), this time to find some kind of redemption for her foe from the first tale.  Moore's vision of Hell is not one of fire and brimstone, but of dark, solitude, and mystery.  The story is more metaphysical than action-oriented, which is not in and of itself a problem, but this time out I think Moore gets lost in Jirel's feelings and thoughts to her own detriment.  Not a bad one, just lacking.

"Shadow's Pawn" by Andrew Offut.  Hanse Shadowspawn again finds himself in over his head when a number of enchanted, and dangerous, items make their way into Sanctuary.  This tale is a bit choppy and feels like it needs some editing, but the humor is there and the enchanted items and their powers are given a gritty, realistic feel which I really liked.

"The Sustenance of Hoak" by Ramsey Campbell.  Campbell is best known as the author of numerous horror stories (and several novels) which are introspective, subtle, and at times flat-out surreal.  Therefore he's hardly the type one would expect to take on s&s, but - he's also a child of the pulps, and it seems he did so, with a series of stories in Offut's Swords Against Darkness volumes, of which this was the first.  It's not bad, as Ryre, a mercenary who's left his battles in search of a fabled treasure, finds himself in a secluded fortified town that like something out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  There's a lot of grim mindset, gloopy Lovecraftian horror, and an unusual hero for s&s - Ryre is a skilled mercenary, tough and smart, but in now way superhuman.  It's no classic but I find myself intrigued enough that I will probably track down more Ryre stories.

"The Bleak Shore" by Fritz Leiber.  One of the earliest of the F&GM stories written, one of the first I read, one of most evocative, and one of the weirdest.  Faf and the GM, after a strange encounter at The Silver Eel, their favorite dive, head out on a boat to a remote location, seemingly under some kind of hypnotic spell.  An evocative story, as I said, but somehow I'm missing something here...

"Claws in the Night" by Fritz Leiber. Interestingly, this one, with its gangs of thieving birds terrorizing Lankhmar, made me think of a Batman comics story (given that DC put out a Fafhrd/Mouser comic in the early 70's - a pretty good one I might add, its a surprise this one was not among the stories adapted). However, instead of the Penguin, F&GM find themselves up against a reincarnated goddess.  Full of humor, suspense, and unresolved mystery, this one's one of the best.

"Isle of the Torturers" by Clark Ashton Smith.  A side trip as this project winds down.  Most of Smith's stories skirt the edges of s`n's, as this one surely does.  But I remembered "Isle" from the time when I read all of Smith's stuff in college, and chose it for revisit.  As is usual, its a dark little tale with a fatalistic sting at the end, as the king of Yoros, having left behind his kingdom, devastated by plague, finds himself held prisoner on an island of extremely creative sadists.  As always Smith's best qualities are his wicked imagination and what I once read described as his "acidic" writing.  Does that mean lysergic, or caustic?  Either, or both, could apply.

"Sea Magic" by Fritz Leiber.  The Knight and Knave of Swords, the final F&GM collection, has been sitting on my shelves since 1988 and this is the first time I've cracked it.  This tale, originally published in 1977, is a vignette, but it shows Leiber undiminished, as Fafhrd finds himself in a knotty situation with a refugee from Simorgya, the Sunken Land.

"Reflections for the Winter of My Soul" by Karl Edward Wagner.  One of my favorites sword-and-sorcery tales, one of my favorite Wagner tales, and easily one of my favorite (spoiler!) werewolf tales.  Kane finds himself snowbound in a castle with a retinue of oddballs, a madman, and the aforementioned werewolf.  A suspenseful game of Ten Little Indians ensues.  Superb!

Summer of Sword and Sorcery Week 10

"The Price of Pain-Ease" by Fritz Leiber.  Fafhrd and the Mouser steal a house, but find themselves haunted by the literal ghosts of their deceased lovers.  Ridding themselves of these ghosts means putting themselves in the service of Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, and a trip to the Shadowlands, to steal the mask of Death (him?)self.  One of the funniest of the F/M stories and as usual up to Leiber's high standards.

"Bazaar of the Bizarre" by Fritz Leiber. F & M are tasked to thwart the plans of The Devourers, extraterrestrial merchants who use illusions to make worthless junk look like prized goods and their plan to get Trump re-elected decimate the world of Nehwon.  Funny, as usual, with an exciting battle with The Devourers automaton guard, and again as usual for Leiber, witty and well-written.

"Caravan of Forgotten Dreams" aka "The Flame Bringer" by Michael Moorcock.  Elric, now happily married and settled down to the life of an idle fruit, is summoned back action, and his old ways, when a Genghis Khan like barbarian horde threatens the Young Kingdoms.  Sraightforward pulp sword and sorcery action, with Moorcock's usual solid writing.

"Black God's Kiss" by C.L. Moore.  The first of the "Jirel" stories.  In this one, Joiry having been taken by Guillaume, bad-guy extraordinaire, Jirel journeys into a dark underworld to find a weapon terrifying enough to not only take out her foe, but let him damn well know he's been taken out.  She finds it - but the use of it comes at a terrible cost.  Pretty excellent stuff.

"Goddess" by David Drake. Drake, before he became known for his military sci-fi, was a horror writer with a particularly hardboiled, bare-knuckled approach.  His sword and sorcery was equally tuff, and it shows here as "hero" Samlor hil Samt explores the underground tunnels beneath a temple, which serve as the capstone to a much darker gods' demesne.  Strong stuff.   

"Hellsgarde" by C.L. Moore.  The last of the "Jirel" stories, and one that I remembered made a strong impression.  It still does, as Jirel is drawn to a crumbling, haunted castle and its sinister inhabitants, and finds herself dealing both with malevolent ghosts, and something else that may be far worse.  That and an evil (hehehe) ending.  A small classic, this.

"The Phoenix on the Sword" by Robert E. Howard.  The first "Conan" story, and proof of what I've long held - that it isn't Conan himself but the settings, atmosphere, and Howard's powerful writing that makes these stories shine.  Conan is barely even a character here - we learn more about Cimmeria than we do about him.  But the tale is steeped in the supernatural, as Conas receives aid from a ghost to fight off a demon - barely described, and yet palpably chilling in its presence.  That's the reason this caught on.

"Mirage" by Karl Edward Wagner. On the run again, Kane stumbles into the ruins of a ghoul-haunted, burned-out fortress, and then into a hallucinatory sojourn among the less-than-alive.  Not exactly full of surprises per se, but in no way predictable - particularly in the denouement.  I think this is the least compelling of the Kane stories I've read this summer, but that only means its excellent instead of awesome.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery Week 9

 "Spiders of the Purple Mage" by Philip Jose Farmer.  Kicking off the second volume of "Thieve's World" tales, Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, Farmer's epic tells of the quest to retrieve some treasure and enact divine vengeance on a rogue priest of the goddess Weda Krizhtawn (who requires her followers to cover themselves in butter); said quest undertaken by Shmee, a low level priest of WK, and Masha, an almost penniless midwife who lives in horrific poverty with kids, mom, and an alcoholic husband.  Illusions, spiders of all sizes, and unusual magic.  This is one fun, lively, fast-moving read, made especially memorable by its humor and strong characterization.  It occurs to me re-reading these that a hallmark of "Thieve's World" stories, at least so far, is that, where most sword-and-sorcery tales deal with characters who have, and wield, considerable power, most of the characters that appear in the stories I've re-read are characters who are nominally, virtually, or actually powerless figures who discover power of their own - Ilyra is a fortune-teller; Hanse a competent but overconfident thief and lover, Myrtis runs a brothel (her power is considerable, but very subtle), and Masha is the almost at the rock-bottom of the social ladder.  Conversely, Jubal, who's closer to a typical s&s hero, finds himself in a situation that his forceful physical power can't actually resolve.  Might I add also, most of these characters are women.  Interesting indeed. 

"The Dark Land" by C.L. Moore.  I read the Jirel of Joiry collection in my twenties and was really impressed by it.  Although more recent encounters with the stories have left me slightly less whelmed, I still find them very well-written and featuring an excellent lead character in Jirel, a woman warrior who's all woman and all warrior.  "The Dark Land" though evocative, is lesser Jirel, I think.  Here she's spirited off into another reality by a sinister character named Pav, who's apparently more (and less) than he seems, and becomes part of a metaphysical battle, rather than swordplay, that's interesting and effective but leaves a lesser payoff.

"The Unholy Grail" by Fritz Leiber.  This is a tale of the youth of the Gray Mouser, then known only as "Mouse", and, as it begins, a young nobody apprenticed to a wizard whom only he considers powerful.  When the wizard is offed by a local Republican corrupt noble, "Mouse" seeks his revenge - how he gets it is mostly a tale of wits and blind luck.  But the Mouser is already an appealing character, even as an impetuous youth, and Leiber's writing is as sharp as ever.

"Sing A Last Song of Valdese" by Karl Edward Wagner.  The "Kane" stories are as much supernatural horror as they are swordplay, and this one, the first "Kane" I ever read, in fact, puts the emphasis on it, as a group of travelers end up stuck in a remote inn on a dark night, debating, listening to the songs of a dwarfish bard, and finally swapping spooky tales of the region - including some about Kane.  Said tales turn out to be all too true.  Not unlike a fantasy version of Conor McPherson's The Weir. 

"Misericorde" by Karl Edward Wagner.  Kane is enlisted to take out a family of degenerates, a job which he willingly accepts and goes about with singular skill.  The result is as suspenseful game of Ten Little Indians as Kane stalks the scumbags through their castle one by one.  But there's more to it than that, as the tale takes some dark and unexpected twists.  Excellent stuff!

Summer of Sword and Sorcery Week 8

Web of the Witch World by Andre Norton.  I don't think Norton's Witch World books are widely read anymore, which is a shame being as they're pretty cool.  As was often the case in the era, they mix sci-fi technology (in this case the alien race the Kolder, the villains of the piece) and magic (the psychic powers of the titular witches, which ranges from classic EPS to full-on sorcery).  This is the second book in the series, the sequel to Witch World, and it picks up so immediately on the heels of book one that they might as well be under one cover (and they are, in my copy).  Like its predecessor, I found it a little hard to follow at times with all its twists and turns, and the somewhat rushed feel that often appears in Norton, and I found it more interesting in retrospect than in the immediate moment.  It definitely reads more like a chapter in a series, rather than a standalone novel (which, of course, it is).  I like Judith Tarr's observation: "This is not your standard medievalist fantasy. It’s like a mashup of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, classic swords and sorcery, political intrigue, and a little inarticulate romance. Simon and Jaelithe are not demonstrative, but they are deeply bonded—emotionally and magically. It’s that bond that carries through everything that happens, and ends up saving them all."  As always, Norton's characters are more human, not superheroic, and there are good male and female characters (much of the plot deals with hero Simon Tregarth's fears when his wife, Jaelithe suddenly begins to manifest magical powers previously thought to have been lost), and both Simon and Jaelithe undergo growth and transformation in the course of the novel.

"Two Suns Setting" by Karl Edward Wagner. Kane, having left his most recent HQ under the usual suspicious circumstances, encounters a giant, one of the last of a dying race, and helps his new friend in the quest for an artifact he hopes will restore glory to his people.  This tale gives us a slightly more sympathetic Kane (though he does at one point wonder if it would be in his best interests to betray the big guy) and has a slightly bittersweet quality that's unusual for an s&s tale.  Highlight: Kane and the giant debate the virtues of the human race vs the races which preceded them.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery Week 7

The Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett. I think this is Brackett's most famous sword-and-planet book, a melding of Burroughs-ian Martian adventure (the story takes place in the prehistoric age of Mars, a mars more closely resembling Barsoom than Bradbury) and fantasy-like sci fi. Matt Carse, a Martian colonist (Earthling in origin) finds himself exploring an ancient tomb on Mars, having acquired the legendary sword of the title, whence he finds himself tossed back in time to a lush, green Mars populated by several human and humanoid races, including sinister snake-like Dhuvians.  He becomes a war leader, a hero, and a rather uncertain demi-god in a war for the dominance of old Mars.  

All in all Sword is a pretty fun read; definitely pulpy, and Burroughs-influenced,  but with Brackett's own mix of science and sorcery and some unusual characters, such as the cruel warrior princess Ywain, and Borghaz, Carse's fat semi-comic-relief sidekick.  This was a big improvement after last week's unfortunate pulp bottom-scrapings - this is pulp grande.  It's also short!  This is my first Brackett novel and yeah, I definitely will be checking out others.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 6

The Enchantress of World's End by Lin Carter.  I don't quite know what to say about this one. For awhile I thought I might actually like it, somewhat in spite of itself, but in the end I was disappointed. There are a couple of potentially interesting characters (a fussy woman warrior and a cranky wizard who keeps his face hidden behind a perpetual cloud of shifting mists, and a tiger-man) but no one is developed along the way, except possibly Phaida, a rescued sex-slave, who starts out as an extreme gay stereotype but then becomes a red-blooded hetero once given the chance. Main hero Ganelon Silvermane is as uninteresting as they come, and the whole book is tongue-in-cheek, suggesting Carter took none of it in any way seriously.  Some of the humor is amusing at first (I kind of liked the city of Chx, which is Moral Majority central by day and a den of iniquity after dark - our heroes get arrested for failing to debauch themselves sufficiently) but this bizarre Vance/Smith/Oz mashup wears out its welcome fast. Carter seems never to have taken his own fiction very seriously; he wrote as if it were a hobby for him, and it shows in everything I've read (I pushed myself through most of his Lovecraft-inspired stuff a couple years ago, and of course read most of his Conan pastiches as a kid).  And that was his downfall.  Whatever talent he might or might not have had fell by the wayside as he ground out clever but amateurish tales for small change and (I guess) his own amusement.

Kothar - Barbarian Swordsman by Gardner F. Fox.  Honestly I'd never have picked this up if it hadn't been for the highly positive review on the Appendix N Podcast, which stressed so strongly that Kothar was largely a tongue-in-cheek parody of Conan, rather than a mere shamelessly derivative rip.  Wellll... while I did find Kothar at times amusing, the parodic aspects really didn't jump out at me.  It seemed merely derivative.  Like Jakes' "Brak the Barbarian" stories, there's an empty, all-but personality-less hero, who's big, tough and a barbarian, not one of these namby-pamby city fags (we are constantly reminded of how Kothar is not an ordinary, civilized man, and how mighty his thews are, and of his yellow mane)(to be fair Howard does this a bit too much as well).  There's a Hyboran-like backdrop, with exotic place names dropped left-and-right, but unlike in Howard's stories, the backdrop never resonates, never comes alive.  

Fox writes better than Jakes did, and his monsters are imaginative, but they're still just there for Kothar to knock over with his magic sword, Frostfire.

But then...

Kothar is, strictly speaking, made up of three novellas.  The first "Sword of the Sorceror", which tells of how Kothar got his magic sword, does feature an evocative lich.  The second, "Treasure of the Labyrinth" is nothing special but does have a surprising kick of a twist ending.  But the third, "The Woman in the Witch Wood" is actually damn good!  

It's not so much that "Woman in the Witch Wood" is so much better plotted or written (Fox's writing is never actually bad) or that it rises above any of the aforementioned problems.  Its just that Fox genuinely seems engaged here.  The story actually resonates, has at least one unexpected (and one fully-expected) twist that are pulled off with some aplomb, and some of that humor does poke through, particularly in a moment when Kothar damns himself for an idiot for always playing the hero.  Also the big K shows some intelligence here for a change.  "Woman in the Witch Wood" is good enough as a standalone to have a place in the ranks of my favorite sword-and-sorcery tales.  So the book is by no means a total loss, even though I doubt I'll read any more of Fox's Kothar opus.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 5

This week's menu includes the remainder of the 1979 anthology Thieve's World (one story, "Shadowspawn" by Andrew Offut, got covered separately a while back,  "Sentences of Death" and "The Face of Chaos" I posted on last week), and R.E.H.'s "Hour of the Dragon".  And I guess I'll start with Conan.

"Hour of the Dragon" is the only novel-length Conan Howard ever wrote (albeit a short one by today's blockbuster standards), but in the end its basically a fairly typical Conan tale set during his reign as king of Aquilonia; in fact, the plot is almost identical to the story "The Scarlet Citadel", which basically tells the same tale in 1/5 the space.  Nevertheless "Hour" is a good, hairy-chested read, but I ultimately found myself wanting to fast-forward through the clandestine meetings of the nefarious usurpers and the large military battles (albeit Howard does a good job describing them).  No, "Hour"s best moments are small ones, such as the resurrection of evil wizard Xatltotun and the latter's confrontation with a helpless (not for long!) Conan, and Conan's later encounter with the wolf-familiared witch Zelata, who I'd like to have seen more of.  "Hour" is a fun read but it doesn't rank with my favorite Conan stories.

As for  Thieves' World, well I first read it when it was fairly new and was quite impressed with it.  I'm still fairly impressed with it, though I sure as hell get it a lot more now than I did at 14/15, when things like love and sex and politics were more concepts than experiences.  Some surprising changes in my perception of the stories.  Poul Anderson's "Gate of the Flying Knives", one of the ones I'd most looked forward to, let me down a bit.  Jamie the Red and Cappen Varra seem like good characters who could have used a bit more mileage, and a confrontation with the serpent-like sikkintairs seemed mostly anticlimactic, and though its certainly well-written, I found something in Anderson's prose kept sort of kicking me out of the story.  Odd.  Joe Haldeman's "Blood Brothers" was tasty but slightly confusing - am I dumb or did I not get the point of innkeeper One-Thumb's secret?  I really enjoyed Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Secret of the Blue Star", with its (as usual for Bradley) issues of gender and sexuality, and the fact that it's the most "magical" i.e. fantastical of the stories.  I was also impressed with editor Robert L. Asprin's "The Price of Doing Business", a tale involving the sinister and corrupt Jubal.  Partly because I came prepared not to like it.  I've not read much of Asprin but those tiresome Myth books started to get on my nerves with their silly, smirking titles (to be fair, I've never read them).  Perhap I've been unfair to Asprin.  Finally, the story I found most compelling was "Myrtis" by newcomer Christine DeWees, described as a "kindly white-haired grandmother".  It seems her only other published appearance was a co-write with CJ Cherryh in an Elfquest anthology some years later.  A damn shame - DeWees' story outshines the big names, and makes what could have been a minor character into one of the best in the series.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 4

"Ulan Dhor" by Jack Vance. The is the most science-fictional of the Dying Earth stories (although Guyal of Sfere remains to be re-read), with its flying cars, portable force field/tents, and a Cthulhu-ish gloop monster making its appearance at the close.  Its also one of the most sword-and-sorcery-ish for that very reason.  It's a bit of a footnote compared to the first few stories, but still retains its charm.

"Guyal of Sfere" by Jack Vance. I think this is my least favorite in the Dying Earth, but it is fun and decidedly weird.  And it leaves the book on a hopeful and adventuresome note.

"Introduction" by Robert Asprin. A capable little tale that imaginatively lays out the backstory of Sanctuary, the shared-world setting of the Thieve's World books and helps set the tone.

"Sentences of Death" by John Brunner.  The first formal story in the series.  It was probably my favorite story in the book Thieve's World when I first read it in 1983, and so far it looks like it may hold onto its position; nice gritty skullduggery involving a sheet of paper with cursed sentences, a tough young street girl (the still-excellently realized character Jarveena) hell-bent on vengeance, and Enas Yorl, the mysterious magician cursed to be an involuntary (and frequent) shape-changer.

"The Face of Chaos" Lynn Abbey. It seems this was one of Abbey's first published stories.  It's a somewhat minor tale of body-switching trickery, but the character of Illyra, one of the Romany-like fortune-telling peoples of Sanctuary, is one of my favorites from the series, and there is an interesting, unresolved supernatural element, involving the mysterious Blue Star wizards and the power of fate itself.  

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 3

"The Circle Curse" by Fritz Leiber. Kind of an odd, amusing vignette which introduces Fafhrd and the Mouser's patron wizards, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face.  Not much happening here, plot-wise, but Ningauble and Sheelba are two of the strangest and most memorable characters to appear in Leiber's stories.

"The Jewels in the Forest" by Fritz Leiber. One of the earliest-written Fafherd/Mouser tales; this involving the hunt for a treasure in a strange and enchanted ruin.  There's enough of these scenarios in the Fahrd/Mouser canon that its a wonder the two didn't stop seeking such things.  Nonetheless, a fun and mystifying tale.

"The Howling Tower" by Fritz Leiber.  An eerie and effective tale involving a haunted tower and a battle with wolves on the astral plane.

"The Sunken Land" by Fritz Leiber.  Something of a fave, even though the meat of the story is only a moderately-interesting journey aboard a megalomaniacal captain's raiding ship - it's the denouement in the (usually) sunken city of Simorgya that makes this one memorable.

"The Seven Black Priests" by Fritz Leiber.  F/M play ten little indians with a gang of pissed-off priests after stealing the eye out of their idol.  Mainly fun for the banter as our heroes get the better of their pursuers one-by-one ("I think they're unreasonably angry" says Faf; "Priests always are." shrugs the Mouser).  Fun stuff.

"Tsais" by Jack Vance.  The third tale in Vance's The Dying Earth.  All of these stories could be called fairy tales, for all intents and purposes, albeit of a decidedly ungentle and hallucinogenic sort, set on an Earth so far flung into the future that it might as well be an alien planet.  "Tsais" tells of the title character, a homonculoid young woman (she was not born but grown by a wizard), who exists with a fatal flaw - she cannot perceive beauty. The things normal people find beautiful, she finds hideous. She is sent to Earth from her home world (another planet or dimension) in order to see if she can develop the capacity to appreciate beauty or love.  She becomes involved in a tricky cat-and-mouse game between the lonely wizard who rescues her from bandits, and the evil sorceress who long ago cursed him.  This is my favorite Dying Earth story so far.
   
"Liane the Wayfarer" by Jack Vance.  Another fractured fairy tale, this time of Liane, a rat bastard who gets the tables turned on him by a witch.  Plenty of ambiguity and tantalizing, unanswered questions here.

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 2

"The Stealer of Souls" by Michael Moorcock.  This was the last of the orignal Elric novellas.  This is much closer to Howard territory insofar as its largely straight adventure, with Elric and a band of surviving Melniboneans assaulting the fortress of a rich merchant; plenty of exciting swordplay and wild sorcery.  This is pulpier than the earlier Elrics but still a blast of a read.












Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner.  This was the final Kane novel but actually the first one I read, so a good place to start.  Kane hooks up with Efrel, the insanely evil sorceress who's putting together a rebellion against the island empire of Thovnosten, with some decidedly inhuman allies.  Darkness is said to have been influenced by E.H. Visiak's legendary Medusa, and, as one who's read Visiak's opus, I can safely say he takes those influences and surpasses them.  This is one wild ride of court intrigue, betrayal upon betrayal, dark sorcery, kinky and sadistic sex, extreme violence, brutal battles, and horrible sea monsters (the oraycha should be enough to give a shudder to even the hardiest sea monster fan); R.E. Howard meeting Clark Ashton Smith and William Hope Hodgson at the crossroads of Hyboria and Zothique.  Yowzah!

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: Week 1

This week's book report....

"The Slithering Shadow" by Robert E. Howard.  Well, Fritz Leiber no less rated this the worst Conan tale Howard ever writ, and he may well be right. From the turn-off opening, with Conan grumpily ignoring his clinging and annoying dishrag of a companion, Natala, a slave girl he's rescued in his latest military disaster, this reads like Howard almost parodying himself (one more reference to "iron thews" and such and I'm gonna hurl).  A certain amount of suspense does arrive as Conan and his whiner explore the Marie Celeste-like setting of the shunned city of Xuthal, and there's a kinky bondage and whipping scene for those with an appreciation of such things (and Natala deserves it!).  The Beastie in the Cellar this time out is Thog, an improvement on the nondescript menace of "A Witch Shall Be Born", but only by a bit.  Definitely lesser stuff.  "Shadow" was adapted a couple times, once in the 70's (Savage Sword of Conan #20) with some very nice Alfredo Alcala art over John Buscema roughs, and less memorably a few years ago in Conan the Avenger.  Neither of them made it a better story, alas.  An inauspicious start.

"The Jewels of Gwahlur" by Robert E. Howard.  Another tale considered one of Howard's prize turkeys.  Actually its an improvement over "Slithering Shadow"; which it rather resembles (abandoned city, helpless slave-girl)  Howard's more on here, and leans less on Conan Cliches to describe his hero.  Conan uses his wits a fair bit, and his plan to turn the tables on the evil priesthood is Leiber-worthy.  But this is still a lesser adventure tale, albeit with some good action and characterization.  I'd classify it as a good enough read but not remotely an essential Conan tale. "Jewels" got the comics treatment in Savage Sword of Conan #25 and Dark Horse's Jewels of Gwahlur miniseries.  Neither of them terribly inspired (much as I like P. Craig Russell)

"The Scarlet Citadel" by Robert E. Howard. This is more like it.  King Conan captured by rival kings and a particularly nasty wizard, held prisoner in a castle full of creepies, then leading an epic counterattack against his would-be usurpers.  Only the big battle scene didn't engage me, and, as in the best Conan stories, its outside characters and forces - in this case, the imprisoned wizard Pelias - that make the tale.  PS Marvel took this one on in Savage Sword of Conan #30, poorly, but Dark Horse did an awesome version entitled King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel which I highly recommend.

"The Dreaming City" by Michael Moorcock.  Now this one was a pleasant surprise!   While I thoroughly enjoyed "Kings in Darkness", I found the writing a bit comic-bookish, and feared the Elric stories would not be as impressive this time around.  Not so! The prose of "The Dreaming City" is perfect, cool and modern with just a touch of flower in its tone, appropriate to the tale.  Not only that, its cinematic - the opening scene is not only vivid enough to conjure up a clear mind-movie, it also manages to give the reader a full understanding of what's going on in about four paragraphs of expository dialog that doesn't even sound expository.   Moving on, it manages to perfectly set up the whole Elric scenario and setting in the course of the tale - important, since this was the first published Elric story, and introduced the world to the albino sorceror-prince and his milieu.  After reading, its easy to see why Elric caught on; "The Dreaming City" definitely leaves one wanting more.  Its also groundbreaking - in 1961, the story inverted practically every sword-and-sorcery trope there is.  What's more, without giving too much away, the story ends not so much is triumph; perhaps more like one of the biggest "be careful what you wish for" endings ever presented.  We have winner, folks.  Might I add, Marvel adapted this into a very fine graphic novel in the 80's with fine artwork by P. Craig Russell.   

"While the Gods Laugh" by Michael Moorcock.  While this doesn't have the punch that "Dreaming City" had, being as much a metaphysical exercise as it is an adventure story, Moorcock's writing is still vivid and imagination is still impressive.  This time out, Elric isn't even an anti-hero; loser supreme might fit him just as well.  An impressively non-derivative fantasy tale.

"The Singing Citadel" by Michael Moorcock.  Very much like "While the Gods Laugh" in that its as much philosophical as it is adventure-ish; "Citadel" comes off as something of a transitional tale, meant to introduce certain ideas and characters and set up future events.  Nevertheless, Elric's rendevous with Yishana is another piece of fine, cinematic writing, and Moorcock's imagination is as vivid as ever.  There's a hint of the pulp tone creeping in, but not enough to overwhelm the otherwise strong storytelling.  

Summer of Sword and Sorcery: the Prologue

The summer of 1980.  It was a hot one, as I recall.  I spent a lot of weekends playing D&D and the weekdays mostly reading and listening to rock and roll a whole lot.  There wasn't much else going on.  And mostly I was reading fantasy.

Ah, Appendix N, Gary Gygax's list of influences buried in the back of the Dungeon Master's

Guide.  It gets a lot of attention these days, much of it centered around trying to figure out where EGG's head was at (don't get me started) and what it was he drew from the listed authors/titles.  What gets left out and forgotten in this day and age, when the shelves groan with thick-as-a-brick fantasy fiction, is that its a pretty comprehensive list of all there was in the way of fantasy back in them thar days.  

By no means its is a complete list of every fantasy of the swords or epic variety (the Earthsea, Narnia and Prydain books are notable omissions) - nor, after all, did it claim to be.  Rather it was EGGhead listing his major favorites and influences.  A highly personal list.  And yet for all its selectiveness, it really was pretty comprehensive.  There aren't a lot of holes, and I'd say it was a nigh-unbeatable starting point - most of what was worth reading was there, and, once immersed, the missing items would soon reveal themselves to the dedicated geek.

Having grown up in a house with fantasy/sci-fi loving parent and sibling, there wasn't much on the fabled list I hadn't heard of (hardly anything, really).  But at that point, I hadn't read much of it, yet.  That summer was when I dug in.  

It was an important summer.  I was 14.  In the fall I would begin high school.  I was looking forward to big adventures.  I was full of hormones, imagination, and curiosity.  I was home, alone, without much to do, all summer long.  So with the radio blasting its early 80's uneasy mix of old rock, "new wave" and dinosaurs, and in between bouts of intense study with my treasured Playboy collection, I was off in the lands of swords and monsters....

Forty years later, I'm a working stiff.  Home alone in the midst of our pandemic lockdown.  Every day at 11 I break from work or at least 90 minutes and have some lunch and a read.  My library is finally unpacked.  And the lands of swords and monsters beckon...

I actually started in May, with a week-long selection of long-unvisited texts.  My choices

being Michael Moorcock's "Kings in Darkness" (Elric and his sidekick Moonglum, a castle in a shunned forest kingdom, and the revenant of an ancestral king raised from the dead via blood sacrifice - c'mon how can you go wrong?);  Fritz Leiber's "Lean Times in Lankhmar" (religion and chicanery in the fabled city of the Black Toga) and "Thieve's House" an earlier Lankhmarian tale involving some sinister treasures and something potentially nasty in the basement of the Lankhmarian thieve's HQ; Robert E. Howard's "A Witch Shall Be Born", the infamous tale that includes Conan's crucifixion and vulture-chomping; Jack Vance's "Turjan of Miir" and "Mazirian the Magician", two odd little tales from the odd little Dying Earth; "Raven's Eyrie", one of Karl Edward Wagner's dark, knotty ditties of Kane, the immortal and amoral sorcerer/warrior/all-around S.O.B.; and lastly but not leastly pornographer and narcissist Andrew J. Offut's "Shadowspawn", his contribution to Thieve's World, the first of the Sanctuary books.  The attraction of these particular tales was that I had little memory of these stories other than certain details and that I had liked them.



So what did I (re)discover?  Well, I'll tell ya...

Mr. Moorcock.  I was a latecomer to Moorcock-mania; most of my fantasy friends pretty much started there.  But at around 16 I took the dive and it was easy for me to see why my buds were so taken with Moorcock's colorful, sorcerous S&S.  "Kings in Darkness" was one of the first Moorcock's I read - I remember getting a copy of The Dreaming City at the library near my beloved grandmother's apartment, and I went for "Kings" for the very logical reason that it was the shortest tale in the book!  "Kings" gives us Elric and his loyal sidekick Moonglum, fleeing trouble in the kingdom of Nadsokor, and finding themselves making their way through the dank forests of Org, a place with a relatively well-earned bad rep, since its the home of some decadent, dying aristocrats and their morlock-ish, lesser relatives who serve as slaves and foot soldiers.  Along with Elric's new squeeze Zarozinia, whom they meet along the way, they end up first guests, then prisoners, of some of those decadent aristos.   It all leads to a fiery climax in a dungeon full of ghouls, crazed, decadent aristos, human sacrifice, and towering undead king's skeletal remains slugging it out with Elric. While the details had slipped my mind, I retained a general impression in my memory of an isolated forest castle, dungeons, undead, the king's skeletal revenant. In truth I remembered the gist of it pretty well, since those are the outstanding features. 

The biggest surprise, honestly, was Moorcock's writing.  Not that its bad, per se, but its slightly comic book-ish; pulpy, purple, it reminded me of something Stan Lee might have penned in a classic Marvel comic issue.  Moorcock's writing, here at least, doesn't have the resonance of Leiber or even Howard, the ornate charm of Vance or C.A. Smith, or even the plainspoken contemporary solidity of Karl Wagner.  Again, it's not that it's bad, but of all these pieces, Moorcock required the most shifting of my headspace from sophisticated and well-read middle-ager to wide-eyed high schooler.    


Now Leiber - that's s a very different story altogether.  For one thing, the Fafhrd/Mouser

books were the major component of that summer `80 reading binge.  I loved them.  I got all the way through Swords of Lankhmar before taking a break before diving into Swords and Ice Magic.  Leiber also goes way back for me.  The first serious adult SF I ever read was Gather Darkness, back in 7th grade.  

"Lean Times in Lankhmar" was one of the most memorable of the Fafhrd/Mouser stories - most of which are pretty memorable.  In part because its a departure - it splits the two heroes apart for the first time.  The second reason is that I remembered it as one of the funniest - and most of the stories are pretty funny.  

In "Lean Times", the Mouser and Fahrd go their separate ways; the Mouser becomes a sneaky enforcer for a low-level protections racket, while Fafhrd becomes acolyte to a martyr-based religion centered around a very minor god called Issek of the Jug.  The story, a long-ish one, tells what happens and how our heroes are somewhat unintentionally brought together once more, and ends with a side-splitting climax involving an avatar of Issek (how that comes about I won't give away) and one of the Mouser's failed Big Plans.  This may come in just behind Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings as the funniest fantasy I've ever read.  "Theive's House", one of the earliest F/GM stories, involves a raid on a ring of thieves who have an unsettling secret even they don't quite understand in their basement.  Its an exciting, witty and at times outright spooky (Leiber was a fine horror author as well) tale.
 
Now Howard is no surprise.  I've been a staunch defender of Howard for many years.  Every time I revisit a favorite Howard story, I'm impressed by the sheer power of his writing.  His best writing practically burns with dark and sorcerous energy.  I couldn't remember a damn thing about "A Witch Shall Be Born" except Conan getting crucified and chomping the vulture that tries to peck his eyes out.  Unfortunately, even though Howard was a fine writer, not all of his stories were classics.  The reason I couldn't remember anything else about "Witch" is that the crucifixion is the only really memorable part of the story, though it does feature an impressive villainess (the witch of the title); by and large the story is a bit of a throwaway, with an anticlimactic ending and a tacked-on monster that's a real letdown given some of the memorable horrors of Howard's best stories.  

"Turjan of Miir" and "Mazirian the Magician" are the opening volleys of Vance's classic The Dying Earth.  These are odd little stories, clearly heavily influenced by Lord Dunsany with a strong touch of Clark Ashton Smith in the elegant prose style, which is Smith-like but distinctly Vance's own - less spicy and dripping with acidic decadence.  Quite lovely stories that deal more with love and yearning than typical S&S adventure.  These didn't quite hit me as hard as they did when I last read them, at 17, only because I've read many of Vance's influences and antecedents, but their peculiar charm is still there.

I was a jaded 20 y.o. when I read Wagner's "Kane" books - all of `em.  And loved them.  I haven't revisited Kane much for a long time either, but the couple times I did I was always re-impressed.  

After the light-hearted Leiber story, "Raven's" was a bit like a sudden cold wind on a warm day.  Kane and some pals have been terrorizing a mountain community, raiding, raping and pillaging, for years.  Now with a heavy price on their heads, they're fleeing a battle with some mercenary vigilantes.  Kane is mortally wounded but, being Kane (he is immortal after all) is struggling towards recovery.  The bandit band is moving through hostile territory with their leader barely conscious and tied to his horse, with a mercenary crew on their tails, and its the Moon of the Demonlord, an annual event in which the Lord of Hell is said to roam the woods, hunting for souls with his great black hound.  Kane tells them to stop at Raven's Eyrie, a roadhouse in the area.  But it turns out Kane has some history with its owner … and not good history.  

Things get darker still as the story unfolds, as Raven's Eyrie turns out to be a full-on gothic nest, complete with secret passages and dungeons; mercenaries stalk and torture bandits, while Kane stalks them, and The Demonlord stalks the woods, black hound in tow.  Kane even experiences a bizarre vision of hell as he goes to his confrontation with The Demonlord.

This was a great ride.  Wagner was a fine writer, with a plain and straightforward style that suits the story perfectly.  The tale drips with dark, supernatural atmosphere.  Kane is easily the most complex sword`n'sorcery "hero" - Wagner uses Stanley Kubrick's trick of making his hero a despicable human being, but one we root for simply because the characters around him are even more loathsome.

Saving the most recent title for last, though this 1979 tale could hardly be called "new" (hard to believe, when I first read it in 1982, it most assuredly was on the new side).  "Shadowspawn" is an entry in the Thieve's World series, what would now be called a shared-world fantasy series set in and around a Lankhmar-ian town currently under occupation by the Roman-like Rankan empire.  Shadowspawn is the nickname of a young fellow named Hanse, a young thief with a little skill and a lot of chutzpah, who finds himself way over his head when he's employed to pull off a particularly nervy theft - only to find he's part of a subversive plan to humiliate the Ranken regent Prince Kadakithis - and then finds himself even further over his head when double-crosses and court intrigue come into play.  Offut's writing is plain and solid, with a touch of wit.  I started out not so sure, but the cleverness of the plot and the way Hanse goes from hero to chump is almost Leiber-worthy.

My takeaway: Leiber is the clear leader here, the wittiest and best writer.  Howard remains pretty much definitive sword`n'sorcery, Wagner comes in behind him, having taken the lessons of all the above (and below); Vance is so unique in his odd way as to be difficult to pin down - more like a treat than a meal but a pretty nice treat; still I think there might be more to it when I dig deeper into the book; Offutt is probably worth reading more by, and my interest in Thieve's World is re-piqued; Moorcock comes in the last, writing-wise, but is still fun to read.

Anyway, my dipping my toe in the sword`n'sorcery water was enough to lead to a decision; which is to make this my second summer of sword`n'sorcery.  Remember summer reading lists?  I made myself one, and here it is:

Robert E. Howard - "The Slithering Shadow", "The Jewels of Gwahlur", "The Scarlet Citadel", "Black Colossus", "Drums of Tombalku", "Shadows in the Moonlight"
Michael Moorcock - "The Dreaming City", "While the Gods Laugh" The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
Karl Edward Wagner - Darkness Weaves, Dark Crusade 
Jack Vance - The Dying Earth
Fritz Leiber - Swords Against Death
Anthology - Thieve's World
Gardner Fox - Kothar - Barbarian Swordsman
Andre Norton - Web of the Witch World
Lin Carter - The Enchantress of World's End
Leigh Brackett - The Sword of Rhiannon

So, it's going to be a summer full of swords, lusty broads, monsters and magic.  And a lot of fun, I imagine.  It'll keep me from thinking about the pandemic or the election anyhoo.  I'll post more thoughts here as I read along.

Special mention to the guys who do the Appendix N Book Club podcast, who got me interested in the Carter and Kothar books I would otherwise have likely passed on.