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MockingQuantum posted:What else would you recommend for S&S comics? I have no real awareness of what's out there and I think I've been missing out, I love the Elric and Fafhrd/Grey Mouser books, and I really enjoyed a lot of the Conan stories, plus I'm reading a bunch of Clark Ashton Smith and the Zothique stuff in particular has a lot of that kind of vibe, I feel. I'd love to see that sort of stuff in comic form.
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Sep 14, 2023 08:38
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branedotorg posted:I love the dumb satire of the genre Groo the wanderer by mad magazine's Sergio aragones Groo is just good sword and sorcery in general. You can't parody a thing for hundreds of comics without becoming the thing fez_machine fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Sep 14, 2023 |
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Sep 14, 2023 09:16
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I always recommend gemmell for anyone looking for sword and sorcery. Especially the druss books. Eddings has some great books but it turns out he was a horrible monster of a person, but now he's dead so there's that. Belgarath the sorcerer was my favorite of his but that book covers both of the book series he's in, so don't read it first unless you want about 10 books spoiled. Simon Green has a nice sword and sorcery setting in the hawk series. I loved KOTW and the sequel. Some of the Discworld's series fits as well. The hammer and blade series by Paul Kemp is great although the first one is kinda rapey. As always, the caverns and creatures series by Robert Bevan is amazing. I think the stuff got uploaded to kobo? if you are looking for it. It's a litrpg but the basic idea is "what if you and your friends got teleported into a game that is contractually different than dungeons and dragons, and you all are assholes, even the dude who teleported you." There's very little actual litrpg stuff, but they do mention exp points and leveling up and skills and failed roles. Definitely a dude bro kinda read. Hilarious though.
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Sep 14, 2023 09:41
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MockingQuantum posted:What else would you recommend for S&S comics? I have no real awareness of what's out there and I think I've been missing out, I love the Elric and Fafhrd/Grey Mouser books, and I really enjoyed a lot of the Conan stories, plus I'm reading a bunch of Clark Ashton Smith and the Zothique stuff in particular has a lot of that kind of vibe, I feel. I'd love to see that sort of stuff in comic form. The Dark Horse Conan comics are pretty good. Some of the arcs adapt the original stories, but most of it is new stuff.
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Sep 14, 2023 10:38
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MockingQuantum posted:What else would you recommend for S&S comics? I have no real awareness of what's out there and I think I've been missing out, I love the Elric and Fafhrd/Grey Mouser books, and I really enjoyed a lot of the Conan stories, plus I'm reading a bunch of Clark Ashton Smith and the Zothique stuff in particular has a lot of that kind of vibe, I feel. I'd love to see that sort of stuff in comic form. P. Craig Russell's adaptations of Elric are great. (Not really S&S, but his adaptation of Wagner's Ring Cycle is well worth checking out too.)
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Sep 14, 2023 12:31
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MockingQuantum posted:What else would you recommend for S&S comics? I have no real awareness of what's out there and I think I've been missing out, I love the Elric and Fafhrd/Grey Mouser books, and I really enjoyed a lot of the Conan stories, plus I'm reading a bunch of Clark Ashton Smith and the Zothique stuff in particular has a lot of that kind of vibe, I feel. I'd love to see that sort of stuff in comic form. Basically every Conan comic starting with the original Marvel run is good. Some of the highest hit rate of any comics property. Everything from old Marvel to new Marvel, to the Dark Horse run, to public domain based European stories (published by Titan in NA in the last few years). Jim Zub (guy writing Conan right now) wrote Skullkickers which is a fun S&S comic. There are Fafhrd/Grey Mouser comics by Mignola worth grabbing. Also by others, though Mignola / Chaykin are the standout.
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Sep 14, 2023 12:59
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MockingQuantum posted:What else would you recommend for S&S comics? I have no real awareness of what's out there and I think I've been missing out, I love the Elric and Fafhrd/Grey Mouser books, and I really enjoyed a lot of the Conan stories, plus I'm reading a bunch of Clark Ashton Smith and the Zothique stuff in particular has a lot of that kind of vibe, I feel. I'd love to see that sort of stuff in comic form. Barbarian Lord, by Matt Smith is Norse-flavored S&S, there's a book : https://www.amazon.com/Barbarian-Lord-Matt-Smith/dp/0547859066 and some side stories online: http://matt-illustration.squarespace.com/barbarian-lord-1.
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Sep 14, 2023 13:34
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Selachian posted:P. Craig Russell's adaptations of Elric are great. They just came back into print, too. Julien Blondel's recent rendition is pretty good too. Great art.
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Sep 14, 2023 13:51
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I always recommend gemmell for anyone looking for sword and sorcery. Especially the druss books. Gemmell and his books are a treasure. Eddings books I enjoyed, but the whole child goddess that just loves kisses that kept cropping up put me off him and his later books, it was just really really suspect. Belgariad and Mallorean are good, even if the author was not a good man at all. I do wonder what Polgara would think about caging adopted children.
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Sep 14, 2023 15:10
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fez_machine posted:Lord Dunsansy's Legends of Pagana stories is the bed rock origin of Sword and Sorcery and they still own. Dunsany's early stuff, indeed, still owns. "The Fortress Unvanquishable Save for Sacnoth" is all of sword and sorcery in a nutshell.
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Sep 14, 2023 17:22
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 Amazon Kobo I have a new story out! PM me for a free review copy. This one actually sold to Penumbric Speculative Literature for ten dollars, but they only buy non-exclusive rights, and the editor is fine with me publishing it before him. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Sep 14, 2023 |
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Sep 14, 2023 19:37
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Have many here read the Elderlings/Farseer books? I loved the first book and liked the second but am having some trouble getting excited about continuing. I don't care for the wolf stuff and from my understanding the rest of the series is going to heavily revolve around the Fool - a character I'm not really interested in. I'll probably continue with the series anyway because I like Hobb's focus on interpersonal relationships and character development. I guess I just wanted to express my reservations somewhere. And also was wondering if anyone has recommendations for books with similar focus on character relationships preferably with good, well-written characters.
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Sep 14, 2023 20:38
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I felt like the series was overall pretty consistent in focus and tone, I didn't really feel like the Fool took over the story or anything if that's your concern.
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Sep 14, 2023 21:29
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Giggy posted:Have many here read the Elderlings/Farseer books? I loved the first book and liked the second but am having some trouble getting excited about continuing. I don't care for the wolf stuff and from my understanding the rest of the series is going to heavily revolve around the Fool - a character I'm not really interested in. I've got such a soft spot for the series and Robin Hobb in general that I might be blinkered though.
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Sep 14, 2023 21:37
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Giggy posted:Have many here read the Elderlings/Farseer books? I loved the first book and liked the second but am having some trouble getting excited about continuing. I don't care for the wolf stuff and from my understanding the rest of the series is going to heavily revolve around the Fool - a character I'm not really interested in. I read all of them but I don't have a photographic memory - the Fool only really exists in relation to Fitz despite being the title character for one of the trilogies. The side trilogies in the same universe (Liveship Traders, Rain Wild Chronicles) do not feature fitz or the fool. The Solder Son trilogy is also good but not in the same universe. I don't know another author who writes fantasy with the depth of emotion that Hobbs does. Locked Tomb series has complex characterization. What I found draining in Hobb's books was that Fitz seemed to get the poo poo kicked out of him by life and it doesn't really let up. It's a different type of bleak than GRRM or Abercrombie grimdark. "Yes, there are people that care deeply about you, but you will be sad forever"
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Sep 14, 2023 22:04
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SimonChris posted:
I'm in no place to start reading something new right now but I put it on the wishlist for when that day comes. (The blurb reminds me of Richard Garfinkle's "Celestial Matters" which I thought was great, and so I've got high hopes for yours)
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Sep 14, 2023 22:26
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Eon by Greg Bear - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J3EU5RC/ Hammerfall (Gene Wars #1) by CJ Cherryh - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC122S/
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Sep 14, 2023 22:30
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fritz posted:I'm in no place to start reading something new right now but I put it on the wishlist for when that day comes. (The blurb reminds me of Richard Garfinkle's "Celestial Matters" which I thought was great, and so I've got high hopes for yours) drat, I just looked that up and the plot sounds extremely similar, complete with the Greek being at war with the Asians and an expedition to a celestial object to retrieve a magical substance. At least I only wrote a short story and not an entire novel.
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Sep 14, 2023 22:44
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re-reading the gateway series by frederik pohl - still love the central idea of a asteroid full of ships which go to unknown preset destinations. the writing's pretty forward in some ways for the 1970s (pretty diverse set of characters - a japanese amputee, a prospector family from singapore etc.) and not in others (talk of calcutta, the female characters being props for the protagonist)
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Sep 15, 2023 02:56
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SimonChris posted:
Just decided to pick up the Kindle and I really liked it! I enjoy works of speculative fiction that use alternate cosmological theories, and this is one I haven't seen before. Also enjoyed your short story collection with the penguin tentacles (pentacles).
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Sep 15, 2023 06:04
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I forgot to mention The Worm Ouroboros. There is nothing like it in the English language.* Swords, sorcery, great lords doing great things (and bickering). It's all written in extremely Jacobean prose. Grab a sample and see if it's your thing. High adventure in elevated language. * Okay, Gormenghast is at least its second cousin, but it isn't S&S.
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Sep 15, 2023 06:24
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I forgot to mention The Worm Ouroboros. There is nothing like it in the English language.* Swords, sorcery, great lords doing great things (and bickering). It's kind of hilarious how the author starts out with a point-of-view character from our world astral projecting into the otherworld, and then after a chapter or two just loving forgets about him and never mentions him again.
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Sep 15, 2023 09:21
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Groke posted:It's kind of hilarious how the author starts out with a point-of-view character from our world astral projecting into the otherworld, and then after a chapter or two just loving forgets about him and never mentions him again. It's like The Night Land in that - you get 2 chapters of godawful drivel about this guy's Twu Love and then it's wham into post-solar Earth where the prologue's only important as "proof" the protagonist and his target girl have been psychically linked for aeons. The Night Land isn't S&S though, more... L&E? (Laser pizza-cutter and Eldritch Horrors.) Writers of that era seemed to be generally uncomfortable with the idea of starting in medias res and felt they had to explain how the story got here. Eg John Carter showing up as his honorary nephew's house to give him regular updates on the Barsoomian goss. Runcible Cat fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Sep 15, 2023 |
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Sep 15, 2023 13:26
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MockingQuantum posted:What else would you recommend for S&S comics? I have no real awareness of what's out there and I think I've been missing out, I love the Elric and Fafhrd/Grey Mouser books, and I really enjoyed a lot of the Conan stories, plus I'm reading a bunch of Clark Ashton Smith and the Zothique stuff in particular has a lot of that kind of vibe, I feel. I'd love to see that sort of stuff in comic form. Dan Abnett's Red Sonja comics are quite good. The recent series does a lot with the character.
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Sep 15, 2023 14:17
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Jordan7hm posted:Basically every Conan comic starting with the original Marvel run is good. Some of the highest hit rate of any comics property. Everything from old Marvel to new Marvel, to the Dark Horse run, to public domain based European stories (published by Titan in NA in the last few years). Yeah I've noticed that as well. Conan just seems to be a natural fit for comics and a character who just clicks with their writers.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:09
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That's because Conan owns and should be impossible to gently caress up. The first movie is one of the greatest films of all time.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:27
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Chas McGill posted:I'd say you're going to get more of the same, so if you like Fitz and the world, then that continues. Nighteyes and the Fool are obviously big characters but neither completely overtakes the story for long. This is encouraging. I was worried the books were gonna turn into Fitz, the fool and nighteyes just on their own walking everywhere. Maybe because I'm reading the part in book 3 where it's just Fitz and nighteyes. As far as the depressing-ness of the books so far I didn't feel it was as bad as fans say (and Fitz isn't nearly as dumb so far as I heard) but again I'm only on the 3rd book. I'm aware the series remains melancholy throughout. Is Liveship Traders good? Im looking forward to it as a break I suppose.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:42
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Runcible Cat posted:
Hell, even Tolkien had a whole thing about LOTR *actually* being translated from the Red Book of Westmarch, etc.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:46
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Giggy posted:Is Liveship Traders good? Im looking forward to it as a break I suppose.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:49
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Gaius Marius posted:That's because Conan owns and should be impossible to gently caress up. The first movie is one of the greatest films of all time. I will never pass up an opportunity to post Conan the Musical. (Just in case someone hasn't seen it.)
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Sep 15, 2023 16:12
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Looking for some good occult fiction, everyone recommends "The Devil Rides Out" as a classic of the genre, but it's #6 in a series and you know I like to start at the beginning. So I picked up The Prisoner in the Mask and I've read 300 pages of French political history during the Third Republic at the turn of the century. And I am loving it. No magic or curses yet tho.
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Sep 15, 2023 16:29
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Runcible Cat posted:It's like The Night Land in that - you get 2 chapters of godawful drivel about this guy's Twu Love and then it's wham into post-solar Earth where the prologue's only important as "proof" the protagonist and his target girl have been psychically linked for aeons. Don't worry, it goes back to twu love (and domestic abuse) once he finds her again
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Sep 15, 2023 16:47
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Groke posted:Hell, even Tolkien had a whole thing about LOTR *actually* being translated from the Red Book of Westmarch, etc.
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Sep 15, 2023 17:14
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Groke posted:Hell, even Tolkien had a whole thing about LOTR *actually* being translated from the Red Book of Westmarch, etc. His early drafts of the Silmarillion even had it as stories Elves were telling a shipwrecked mariner...
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Sep 15, 2023 17:18
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Shipwrecked mariner like "I don't understand what is going on. So all Calquendi are Noldor, but not all Noldor are Calquendi. "
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Sep 15, 2023 19:39
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Robert Bevan’s kindle direct account was reinstated, if anyone is interested in vulgar and juvenile isekai/LitRPG stories like I am.
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Sep 15, 2023 20:01
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Phanatic posted:I just finished American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett and loved it, that mix of otherwordly sci-fi and existential horror is definitely my jam. Similarly I've dug what I've read by qntm (although he could seriously use an editor). Any recommendations for stuff that'll scratch the same itch? Also check out The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher.
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Sep 15, 2023 20:08
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Groke posted:It's kind of hilarious how the author starts out with a point-of-view character from our world astral projecting into the otherworld, and then after a chapter or two just loving forgets about him and never mentions him again. Gaius Marius posted:That's because Conan owns and should be impossible to gently caress up. The first movie is one of the greatest films of all time. Nghi Lo's latest, Mammoths at the Gates, came out, and although I don't like it quite as much as the first three, there's still a lot to admire, and Vo's prose continues amazing. I think it's because I don't find the central mystery as compelling. If you haven't read Vo, the central characters of these novels are Chih, a cleric of the Singing Hills, an order that collects stories, and their companion Almost Brilliant, another member of the order who has an eidetic memory and is a neixin, something like* a bird. In each of the books, Chih tells and is told stories, and in the process reveals a hidden truth. In The Empress of Salt and Fortune, the title empress has just died, and Chih goes to visit Thriving Fortune, an old house that has just been declassified because of her death. It turns out to have been the Empress's summer house, and the caretaker asks Chih's help in doing the final inventory. Chih does help, and listens to the stories the caretaker tells about the objects they find. In the process, they learn about the caretaker, and about the Empress, and about hidden secrets. Here's a passage from Into The Riverlands, the second book. quote:They called her Wild Pig Yi because she grew up wrestling wild pigs for fun. When she was a baby, her father quarreled with her mother, and to hurt her, he took Yi and abandoned her in the forest, assuming she'd be little more than a mouthful for some passing pig. Vo is Vietnamese-American, and the world of the Empress of Salt and Fortune novellas is a fantasy pre-industrial Vietnam. It's a great deal of fun for somebody who grew up immersed in European fantasy to see something new. * it's way more complicated than that.
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Sep 15, 2023 20:10
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Runcible Cat posted:It's like The Night Land in that - you get 2 chapters of godawful drivel about this guy's Twu Love and then it's wham into post-solar Earth where the prologue's only important as "proof" the protagonist and his target girl have been psychically linked for aeons. Maybe it's because I read the 'modernized' version of The Night Land by James Stoddard, but I really loved prologue and framing device. Post-solar humanity is resigned to just sit around waiting for the magical light nobody understands to finally wink out and for them to all die. Even the greatest of scientists have forgotten their own history and now spend their days measuring the precise angle of an eldritch horror's nose and how it changes over the centuries the problems faced by the protagonist in the prologue are so small and silly compared to the literal end of the world, but that deep, personal and human pain - and the shred of a hope for a 2nd chance - is precisely what drives him to shake up the status quo and go off on his insane adventure
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Sep 15, 2023 20:59
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Trampus posted:Also check out The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher.
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