FRITZ LEIBER COINED the term “sword and sorcery” in 1961 after British author Michael Moorcock requested a name for the type of fantasy-adventure stories he had written. Originally, Moorcock proposed the term “epic fantasy”, but, in early 1961, Leiber replied in the journal Ancalagon, suggesting “sword and sorcery” as a good popular catchphrase for the field.
A consensus of literary opinion describes the S&S sub-genre as comprising fast-paced, action-rich, fantasy stories set in quasi-mythical or fantastical worlds. As opposed to high fantasy, sword and sorcery tales tend to be more personal, with danger confined to the moment of telling. Sword and sorcery stories are more often than not set in exotic locales, and protagonists are inclined to be morally compromised.
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Whilst sales of high fantasy have soared in recent years, support for sword and sorcery has declined amongst the big publishing corporations and imprints. It has fallen to independent publishers, such as Parallel Universe Publications, to keep it alive with reprints of classics and new tales with anthologies such as the Swords & Sorceries series, which contains this very mix. It is, as always, expertly edited by fantasy champion David Riley and illustrated by genre maestro Jim Pitts.
Volume 5 of this series – published towards the end of 2022 – is dedicated to Charles Black who inspired the series, and commences with a fulsome introduction by the editor which introduces the authors and provides background to some of the tales.
The anthology kicks off with a newcomer to the series but a veteran American author, editor and poet, Charles Gramlich, whose works include Swords of Talera, Wings Over Talera and Witch of Talera, novels inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars series. His contribution to this anthology, ‘The Rotted Land’, a fast paced, atmospheric tale, is the third instalment in a series featuring the the legendary warrior Krieg, who this time becomes entangled in a conflict between a witch and a sorceress whilst travelling through a gloomy, reptile-infested swamp.
British SF&F author Harry Elliott, largely known for his military fiction, showcases his prodigious genre-hopping talents with ‘Skulls for Silver’, featuring Mann and Hel, creature-hunting sell-swords who hitch up with a caravan of travellers with a monstrous, slave trading, secret.
Gustavo Bondoni’s ‘For the Light’ has the feel of ancient Rome, with bloody sport for the glory of the gods and a high stakes chariot race, while ‘People of the Lake’ by Lorenzo D. Lopez takes us back to the swamps as Morwenna runs from an army of skeletons sent after her by Skeloric, a sorcerer who will conjure anything to make her his bride.
Dutch writer Tais Teng’s silkily narrated ‘Free Diving for Leviathan Eggs’ stands out amongst cut and thrust of most heroic fantasy fare due to its ethereal style. It is more of an Arabian fable – somewhat in the mould of fiction by Ursula Le Guin or Tanith Lee – than a sword swinging action romp and unlike the previous entries in this anthology, it is a first-person narrative. His “heroine” is the third wife of a 300-year-old magician who keeps his spouses young with magic – his first wife is 90 years old and still looks young and voluptuous. Her aunts pity her plight, chained, as they see it, to such a decrepit old man. She is sanguine about the arrangement but when he turns her into a sea creature and uses her to further his own magical ends, she begins to understand the cost of the love she so desperately wants from him.
Dungeons and caves are the focus of the next two, much more traditional S&S stories. ‘The Black Well’, by Darin Hlavaz, tells the story of an expedition into the gloomy depths of the Well of Oanjuntoo in a quest to recover a sorcerous staff. It is very much a story in the tradition of H. Rider Haggard, a fast-paced adventure with natural and supernatural hazards along the way. ‘Degg and the Undead’ by Susan Murrie Macdonald, is similarly subterranean, but there the similarities end as Degg is a lone adventurer who incurs the ire of a necromancer when he steals an enchanted sword.
The next two stories have a historical twist to them and again read more like legends than straight S&S. Fantasy mixes with history in David Dubrow’s ‘The Mistress of the Marsh’ when a legion of Roman soldiers, sent to occupy the town of Parma and keep the peace, are suddenly afflicted with a deadly illness that turns man against man and which may have been inflicted by the Thucers, a mysterious tribe of swamp people.
‘Silver and Gold’, by Earl W. Parrish, begins on a Roman road where Pierre, a Holy Knight, rescues Jeannette, a woman, impaled by an arrow and hanging from a tree, who is about to be burned alive. As they journey on together, and she refuses to leave his side, he begins to wonder whether she was ever truly a maiden in distress.
‘Bridge of Sorrows’, by Dev Agarwal, is part three of the legend of Lord Commander Simeon, also called the Stone Snake – the first two tales, ‘Stone Snake’ and ‘The Iron Woods’ having been included in earlier volumes of the anthology series. Accompanied by Princess Irene, and guided by ben Kim as they journey towards The Bridge of Sorrows, they are not prepared for another confrontation with Silver Mask and the evil brood of Dagonists – yes, a nod towards Lovecraft’s Mythos – awaiting them there.
No contemporary sword and sorcery anthology would be complete without an entry by “Dream Lords” and “Star Requiem” author Adrian Cole. In the final entry in this anthology, Adrian takes us to the world of Elak of Atlantis, originally the creation of American pulp author Henry Kuttner, with ‘Prisoners of Devil Dog City’. King Elak has unified the Atlantean continent and his people are enjoying a time of prosperity and peace. And yet, in this tale set at sea and wrought with supernatural dangers, the gods and monsters will continue to have their battles.
Of the eleven tales laid out in this fifth volume of Swords & Sorceries, those that stand from the pack are the ones that exhibit a freshness, style and sophistication all of their own. They are ‘Free Diving for Leviathan Eggs’, which bears the form of a silkily written fable, ‘Silver and Gold’, which defies the more traditional, Conan-esque, tropes of the sword and sorcery sub-genre, and the gripping ‘Prisoners of Devil Dog City’, which demonstrates the versatility of a true master of the fantasy/SF genre. That said, each story in the anthology earns its inclusion and stretches the boundaries of what would normally be considered under the banner of sword and sorcery. This volume may be the fifth instalment of this anthology series but it ably demonstrates that the sub-genre continues to survive and to draw a lively audience.
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy
Volume 5 is
published by Parallel Universe Publications and is available to purchase from Amazon and other outlets. For more details please go to:
Phantasmagoria magazine
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