Death’s Sting – Where Art Thou? A Review

Rogue Blades Entertainment, 2020

Price: $4.01

Buy the Kindle on Amazon

Sword & Sorcery anthologies have made a bit of a comeback lately. I’ve even heard the phrase “The New Sword & Sorcery” bandied around a bit. I can’t comment on that. Seems to me Heroic Fantasy hasn’t changed since Beowulf. What I look for isn’t some new gimmick or angle or social cause. I look for a spirit of adventure, titanic struggles, deep loss and sorrow, and ultimate victory and release. I don’t expect much.

Well, if you like this kind of fiction too, you won’t be disappointed with Rogue Blades Entertainment’s new volume, Death’s Sting – Where Art Thou? Edited by Jason M Waltz, it features fourteen stories about immortal swordsmen and women, and the reality of never being able to die. Like any good anthology, the stories present its theme from many different angles. As Adrian Cole says in the introduction, “Immortality, a Poisoned Chalice?”:

In Death’s Sting the authors have explored this theme in many ingenious ways. Our love/hate relationship with Death is courted or cursed, mocked or praised, in fourteen thought provoking tales. The protagonists herein may be battle-hardened warriors, sell-swords, men of god, even gods themselves, but they all face a unique destiny, one which they may think they can control, but which invariably teaches them the ultimate, unavoidable truth. Death is master here. It may be averted for a time, used as an ally, won over as an apparent equal, but Man—even a superman—has his place in Death’s master plans.

“Red Horse, White Horse” by J.B. Toner is a nice opener to this no-holds-barred collection of action-oriented tales. Told in the first person, it has a visceral violence to it that wakes you up. Kalagor of Sorrowfen is a sad, intriguing death-machine. I want more. Dierk Günther, REH Foundation Award winner wrote: You know you chose the right anthology when the first story of such a collection begins with its crucified main character tearing himself off the device he was nailed to and goes out to get his inevitably bloody revenge.

“Ghosts of the Staked Plains” by Keith West is a surprise and a delight. A Weird Western among what is largely a Sword & Sorcery collection. Think of it as Saddle & Sorcery if you like. Regardless the variation in sub-genre, West’s tale is a well-written battle between an old trickster, Esteban, and a young man named Miguel and the forces of evil. An early favorite.

“The Hungry Castle” by Liam Hogan is an ironic tale that does a good job of poking fun at the classic structure of the Medieval world. Hogan avoids names, calling the characters “the knight” and “the Lady”, adding a stronger fairy tale essence to the story. It’s dark and funny in a 1970s Warren magazine way.

“The Bull and the Djinn” by Logan Whitney is an adventure wrapped in a mystery. I won’t give any spoilers except to say the pay off is worth the journey. Whitney does a good job of using an established setting without giving it all away, teasing so you only figure it out at the end.

“Just Add Holy Water” by Dawn Vogel is the story of a little girl, Emlee, who will go to any length to save her brother from a band of goblins. While the plot is a little light, the characters of Emlee and Radis were endearing. I would gladly read an entire book of stories about the girl and her skeleton warrior. A nice touch of humor in a very dark anthology.

“To Walk on Worlds” by Matthew John is my kind of wizard’s tale. Maxus the meddler has a grand plan, to steal the body of a king. But that’s just for starters. John’s tale reminds me of the best of Clark Ashton Smith’s tales of arcane magicians (without all the fancy adjectives). Maxus is descended from Malygris. John works in a bit of H. P. Lovecraft too and the story is a sardonic treat.

I have to make a confession here. I know D. K. Latta. I have illustrated some of his Zargatha stories for Flashing Swords. (Where a certain Jason Waltz also appeared!) D. K. has appeared on this site with article about Edgar Rice Burroughs. So to say I am biased is a simple fact. Ignoring all that, “The Immortal Contract” is one of the reasons I wanted to review this book. Garanth comes out of retirement as an assassin when a godling named Aar gives him no other choice. His target? The immortal being himself. And what happens when the customer changes his mind? DKL shows off his years of experience in this wonderful story.

“Idol of the Valley” by Daniel Loring Keating is perhaps the grimmest but one of the most poignant pieces of Sword & Sorcery I have read in a while. Not for the faint of heart, it follows Aemilius the immortal as he hunts down and kills the men who brutally raped a farm girl. The trail takes him to an eerie temple below the earth and back to the source of all the pain and suffering.

With “A Thousand Deaths” by Kate Runnels I had hoped for a warrior woman story, this collection being heavy on dudes. I was partly right. When a hired killer collects the bounty on a witch he gets cursed with “a thousand deaths”, but not one man’s death over and over but the deaths of a thousand people. The killer shifts through the body of a fourteen year old to a woman being sacrificed by priests to… eventually he becomes Saskia, a woman warrior who is bodyguard to Tilly, a mage. The two go in search of a cure for the curse. The story ends too soon for my tastes, this probably being the set up of a novel or series. Runnels does a great job of the transitions between characters, keeping the pace up through out.

“The Death Of Sleeping Beauty” by Brandie June is as you would expect, a fractured fairy tale. June begins by putting aside all the magic elements of the old story. No curse, no five hundred years, just a very ordinary young girl who gets a prick in the finger from a spinning wheel. The prince shows up and he gets an undead surprise that makes the whole thing like something H. P. Lovecraft would have written. A nicely turned piece.

“The Soldier” by KT Morley uses the same technique as “A Thousand Deaths” but with another intention entirely. Pater is the central character, a wandering soul from body to body. Morley keeps Pater within one conflict, a war between Lord Stygge and King Mikel. Pater is a pikeman, a dragon-rider, a general, a pirate at sea and others all seeing the fight from both sides and many perspectives. He even inhabits Lord Stygge at the surrender of his army. The author ties a Gordian knot for you to untangle.

“Bhailgeth’s Ransom” by Alfred D. Byrd is another Clark Ashton Smith inspired tale, this time in a world being swallowed up by ice. Tlaquir is the immortal herald of a necromancer named Bhailgeth. He has one job, to convince the people of Vlanseth to accept Bhailgeth’s offer: exchange your dead for magic to hold back the ice. Tlaquir faces off against angry Vlansethians as well as the beautiful Hallequel, but will the cycle ever be broken? Sometimes immortality ain’t what it’s cracked up to be.

“Sand-devil” by Eadwine Brown is a later favorite. Set in the historical Middle East during the Crusades, a blind Franciscan monk and a knight search for a stolen tablet that may have come from ancient Irem. The creature that hunts for the tablet is a worthy denizen of the Cthulhu Mythos. The setting and action sing of Robert E. Howard’s crusader fiction. This is the anchor story of the collection, that one you will remember and makes it all worth it.

If “Sand-devil” is the anchor, then “Shadow’s Crossing” by Tony-Paul de Vissage is the last, sweet farewell, a gentle closer to a volume filled with blood and action. It is also the only story not original to the collection. It first appeared in Beyond: Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine, Issue 10, 1990. As this is a rare semi-prozine, it is a good thing to see this story reprinted. This tale of a ferryman and the shadow of death reminded me a little of Tolkien but only in terms of imagery. A nice finish to a solid collection.

If I have any complaints (they are few) it is I would have liked more female lead characters, and perhaps a few more diverse backgrounds. Sword & Sorcery is traditionally Eurocentric and male-dominated but it doesn’t have to be. Waltz has by no means gathered only white male fiction here, but I would have enjoyed a story or two with an African or Native American feel or about more characters like Emlee or Saskia. (This is a complaint I can direct at my own anthologies!) Despite this, Death’s Sting – Where Art Thou? is a solid Sword & Sorcery read.