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!