|
Post by Von K on Jul 30, 2023 18:40:53 GMT -5
Garbanzo, in lieu of the Howard Days presentation from Brian Murphy (which seems to have gone astray) I present the following:
Brilliance of Sword and Sorcery, with Brian Murphy
Brilliance of S&S, with Brian Murphy. Part 2
Big thanks to Dave and Deuce over at DMR Books for the Links of Steel where I found out about these.
|
|
|
Post by Von K on Aug 7, 2023 20:07:38 GMT -5
Here are a couple of recent discussions on the modern S+S scene that I think all S+S writers, editors, bloggers and scholars should probably be aware of. We lack a central magazine/website like the old Amra to discuss this stuff, but it's the sort of genre based discussion that may well have appeared in it's pages. Here's the original article by editor and scholar Jason Ray Carney over at The Spiral Tower: the-glut-of-new-sword-and-sorceryspiraltower.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-glut-of-new-sword-and-sorcery.htmlAnd a response to this plus some fascinating comments on Brian Murphy's blog The Silver Key: assessing-sword-and-sorcery-glutthesilverkey.blogspot.com/2023/08/assessing-sword-and-sorcery-glut.htmlThanks again as usual to Deuce and Dave Ritzlin of DMR Books blog Links of Steel where I found the original linkage.
|
|
|
Post by Von K on Aug 7, 2023 21:58:44 GMT -5
Nathan reviews Howard Andrew Jones new novel Lord of a Shattered Land over at Castalia House:
|
|
|
Post by cromfelge on Aug 8, 2023 3:26:29 GMT -5
Here are a couple of recent discussions on the modern S+S scene that I think all S+S writers, editors, bloggers and scholars should probably be aware of. We lack a central magazine/website like the old Amra to discuss this stuff, but it's the sort of genre based discussion that may well have appeared in it's pages. Here's the original article by editor and scholar Jason Ray Carney over at The Spiral Tower: the-glut-of-new-sword-and-sorceryspiraltower.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-glut-of-new-sword-and-sorcery.htmlAnd a response to this plus some fascinating comments on Brian Murphy's blog The Silver Key: assessing-sword-and-sorcery-glutthesilverkey.blogspot.com/2023/08/assessing-sword-and-sorcery-glut.htmlThanks again as usual to Deuce and Dave Ritzlin of DMR Books blog Links of Steel where I found the original linkage.
I have to agree with a lot of points. In general I'd say, there's not a really a "too much", the problem is rather to know beforehand which anthologies/novels are worth the read. I don't mind being able to choose between 10 new S&S books coming out every month. It's just so difficult to differentiate good and bad releases.
|
|
|
Post by Von K on Aug 8, 2023 17:01:32 GMT -5
Here are a couple of recent discussions on the modern S+S scene that I think all S+S writers, editors, bloggers and scholars should probably be aware of. We lack a central magazine/website like the old Amra to discuss this stuff, but it's the sort of genre based discussion that may well have appeared in it's pages. Here's the original article by editor and scholar Jason Ray Carney over at The Spiral Tower: the-glut-of-new-sword-and-sorceryspiraltower.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-glut-of-new-sword-and-sorcery.htmlAnd a response to this plus some fascinating comments on Brian Murphy's blog The Silver Key: assessing-sword-and-sorcery-glutthesilverkey.blogspot.com/2023/08/assessing-sword-and-sorcery-glut.htmlThanks again as usual to Deuce and Dave Ritzlin of DMR Books blog Links of Steel where I found the original linkage.
I have to agree with a lot of points. In general I'd say, there's not a really a "too much", the problem is rather to know beforehand which anthologies/novels are worth the read. I don't mind being able to choose between 10 new S&S books coming out every month. It's just so difficult to differentiate good and bad releases.
Plus - scholars of a genre like Jason Ray Carney and Brian Murphy like to keep up with all the latest publications so that they can remain comprehensively well informed in their field, so it's natural they might feel overwhelmed when so many titles come out. But from both a producers and consumers perspective I'd tend to agree with you - the more choice the better.
Imho, while the market for such fiction may seem relatively small now compared with the number of publications, if the product is good enough the market for it can be grown, like any business, with sensible and judicious investment, with targeted ads for instance. Indy authors like Chris Fox and Dave Stewart have been doing that for years on Amazon, but I don't know what the latest state of play is in that arena. Building a small business around one's genre niche, sales, placing targeted ads, website builds, copywriting, increasing traffic and conversion rates are not the sorts of things that most writers, editors and scholars would necessarily be interested in or concerned with (or be able to afford) beyond a certain point.
|
|
|
Post by mindboggled on Aug 9, 2023 17:38:35 GMT -5
Here are a couple of recent discussions on the modern S+S scene that I think all S+S writers, editors, bloggers and scholars should probably be aware of. We lack a central magazine/website like the old Amra to discuss this stuff, but it's the sort of genre based discussion that may well have appeared in it's pages. Here's the original article by editor and scholar Jason Ray Carney over at The Spiral Tower: the-glut-of-new-sword-and-sorceryspiraltower.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-glut-of-new-sword-and-sorcery.htmlAnd a response to this plus some fascinating comments on Brian Murphy's blog The Silver Key: assessing-sword-and-sorcery-glutthesilverkey.blogspot.com/2023/08/assessing-sword-and-sorcery-glut.htmlThanks again as usual to Deuce and Dave Ritzlin of DMR Books blog Links of Steel where I found the original linkage.
I have to agree with a lot of points. In general I'd say, there's not a really a "too much", the problem is rather to know beforehand which anthologies/novels are worth the read. I don't mind being able to choose between 10 new S&S books coming out every month. It's just so difficult to differentiate good and bad releases.
" knowing which ones are good enough to warrant a purchase is the tricky part. I've gotten excited and bought a bunch of anthologies that had solid reviews and I was disappointed by many of them because a lot of the stories were just okay and or not even S&S. I am somewhat tired of one offs as well, it would would be nice if more authors wrote stories with returning characters.
|
|
|
Post by garbanzo on Aug 11, 2023 11:40:01 GMT -5
I've tried reading some new S&S in recent years, but haven't enjoyed most of it.
I'm OK sticking to the classics. Howard, Smith, Vance, Moorcock, Moore, Leiber... There's plenty to keep me busy!
|
|
|
Post by thedarkman on Aug 12, 2023 16:24:32 GMT -5
I am somewhat tired of one offs as well, it would would be nice if more authors wrote stories with returning characters.[/quote]
I’m of the same mind myself. I’ve been writing S&S for a while now, and everything I’ve had published has featured my character Gunnolf of the Northlands. I think for me it allows my writing to improve and grow along with my character, and hopefully readers will be interested enough to want to see what happens next. No real overall story arc, just random adventures featuring swords, sorcery, bloodshed and horrific beasties!
|
|
|
Post by Von K on Aug 15, 2023 14:22:28 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by mindboggled on Aug 28, 2023 16:36:58 GMT -5
I've tried reading some new S&S in recent years, but haven't enjoyed most of it. I'm OK sticking to the classics. Howard, Smith, Vance, Moorcock, Moore, Leiber... There's plenty to keep me busy! While a lot of it is disappointing and fails to scratch that S&S itch—Some of the best S&S I've read is contemporary! Howie Bentley's "The Snake-Man's Bane" is top tier, up there with the classics easily. I'd describe it as hardcore retrogressive S&S, it's a bit of a mix of Howard and Wagner with the heavy metal dialed up to 11. Can't recommend it enough, it's one of the best books I've read in a while in general, and I read a fair amount.
|
|
|
Post by gary on Sept 17, 2023 10:43:31 GMT -5
I say it is Sword & Sorcery and Damn Good Sword & Sorcery. My review of Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker. Micheal Moorcock liked it. (That helps my case, I think?)
|
|
|
Post by cromfelge on Sept 17, 2023 12:14:28 GMT -5
I always wanted to read a Sanderson novel but never got into them. Maybe this will be the one. At least this one is just one novel of 700 pages instead of the usual 8*700 pages you often get nowadays
|
|
|
Post by thedarkman on Sept 18, 2023 6:52:29 GMT -5
The definition of S&S is different from person to person. For me, what I gathered from this review doesn’t feel very S&S; too long, too many characters and too epic of a scale. But again, this is measured against my definition of S&S, which might be different than yours…
|
|
|
Post by Von K on Sept 18, 2023 20:25:53 GMT -5
I've not yet read any Brandon Sanderson. He's very prolific, writes about 30 to 40k words a week, or he did a few years back. Just the kind of speed needed for knocking out those epic series.
|
|
|
Post by mindboggled on Sept 24, 2023 13:36:32 GMT -5
|
|