In booktalk we have considered old works of Sword & Sorcery and some modern works that have a hint of the power and energy of the olden days but it is legitimate to ask if the genre has any lifeblood left in it. Enter Samhain Sorceries, the superlative collection of contemporary S&S tales centred around … More [Booktalk] Samhain Sorceries

Its about time for another one of these. The Godsblade was not the only DMR title I purchased. The other one was Necromancy in Nilztiria, by none other then this year’s NAP finalist D.M.Ritzlin! With the mainstream publishing industry suffering a slow, drawn-out collapse as a result of archaic business models, political co-option and assorted … More [Booktalk] Necromancy in Nilztiria by D.M.Ritzlin

There is no genre of fantastical fiction more fundamental to Dungeons & Dragons then that of Sword & Sorcery. It is perhaps ironic that the days of D&D’s ascension also oversaw the near extinction of the genre that inspired it. The genre that was born from the pens of Howard, Lovecraft and Smith and was … More [Booktalk] The Godblade by J. Christopher Tarpey

Last time on Booktalk we tackled C.A. Smith’s most exotic, most refined and most seductive of worlds in the form of the Zothique Cycle. Today we tackle his Hyperborea Cycle, where we approach what is closest for Smith to what would later be Sword & Sorcery. Indeed! Of all the four cycles that bear elements … More [Booktalk] C.A. Smith’s Hyperborea

As I finish reading the exquisite Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith Vol 5. by Nightshade Books, the time has come to reflect on that most exotic and alluring of his myriad fantastical worlds, the Zothique cycle. Described in a series of short stories, the exotic funereal world of Zothique, with its swollen crimson sun, … More [Booktalk] The Zothique Cycle by Clark Ashton Smith