Session #1 of the Dark Worlds Quarterly Sword & Sorcery Round Table podcast is live!
Scott Oden, John R. Fultz and Jason M. Waltz. discuss our opening topic: “Sword & Sorcery: Fossil or Fuel?” The conversation touches on much more including Robert E. Howard and whether Sword & Sorcery really just Historical Fiction? These three practitioners in the art of heroic fantasy give a lively debate. G. W. Thomas is the moderator.
Thanks for the insights. I think its hard to keep up the intencity of emotion in longer pieces. S&S tales show such a different world and are filled with unique cultures. Howard’s stories generally hit like a baseball bat and left the reader with a series of wonder. Hour of the dragon was still a roller coaster, but I don’t think it hit as hard due to the emotional saturation level.
Great point, Rob; one can only ride a roller coaster so long and so many times before losing one’s head in any myriad of manners 😉
Good discussion, but I’m a bit surprised at the panelists responses to humor in S&S. No one mentioned Fritz Leiber and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Those stories have lots of humor and they’re undoubtedly S&S. In fact, Leiber made me realize that S&S can have a very different tone than Howard’s stories.
I also disagreed with Fultz’s opinion piece in Grimdark Magazine when it came out. My reasoning is more that grimdark fantasy stories tend to have an epic scope, like Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire series, which I really liked btw (I also really enjoy Fultz’s stories, too).
Thanks for the comments, guys! Yes–we should have mentioned that Fritz Leiber was a master of injecting humor into his sword-and-sorcery–he did it well! He’s pretty much the only author who can make me laugh while reading sword-and-sorcery. It was sort of a “buddy comedy” kind of a approach with Fafhrd and the Mouser.
There was humor in the stories but the plots and world were serious enough. My dislike is for humorous Fantasy that jerks me out of the story with stupid jokes. (Xanth being a good example.) I have no problem with humor as a logical part of telling a story though i admit I prefer darker forms of ha ha.
That is a GREAT point, G.W. Having comedy in the story isn’t the same as having comedy BE the story. 🙂
There’s a – at least for me – very fine line there though. Leiber did write great buddy and definitely S&S tales, and I appreciate his humor . . . up to a point in every story. I’ll never list him among my favorite authors to read because I think the humor is overdone in every tale and invariably end each story disgruntled or bored. That’s me though.
QUICK CORRECTION DEPARTMENT: I just wanna state for posterity that I misspoke in the podcast–I referred to SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #38 as my first issue–the one the blew my 9-year-old mind–but it was actually SAVAGE SWORD #28. Not that anyone except SAVAGE SWORD geeks like me will even care, but here’s a link to that immortal and amazing issue with its eye-melting Earl Norem cover: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Savage_Sword_of_Conan_Vol_1_28
We won’t hold it against you, John, even though numbers 39 and 47 are by far the best SSOC covers! 😉
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Savage_Sword_of_Conan_Vol_1_39
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Savage_Sword_of_Conan_Vol_1_47