A Brief History of Sword & Sorcery
So, What the Heck Did You Think It Was Made Of? This piece is a condensed history dedicated to a sub-genre of fantasy called “Sword Read More
Tag: Fritz Leiber
The Men Who Saved Sword & Sorcery
It’s easy to assume, while perusing through old Lancer paperbacks or any of the dozens of 1970s novels, that Sword & Sorcery was a roaring Read More
The Case of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (1808-1849) is the father of the mystery story, the inventor of psychological horror, and an early writer of science fiction. His works Read More
Classic Interview: Jessica Amanda Salmonson
“I have high expectations of heroic fantasy. I don’t believe it has to be the endless barrage of hastily written imitations whose themes, characters, plots, Read More
Brak the Barbarian: A History
The Barbarian Age was not a remote time after the fall of Rome but the years 1968 to 1981 or so. Beginning with the Lancer Read More
The Werewolves of Weird Tales – 1936-1954
Continuing our list of great werewolf stories from “The Unique Magazine”. As the Pulp moved into the 1940s and the editorship of Dorothy McIlwraith the Read More
Sword & Sorcery versus Sword & Planet
A swordsman, his arms bearing red wounds, limps across a battlefield covered in bodies. His helmet is gone; his shield is broken. The flag of Read More
Lin Carter’s Imaginary Worlds
One of the last books published by the Ballantine Fantasy Series (BFS) was Imaginary Worlds (1973) by Lin Carter. I recently picked up a copy Read More
“Cry Witch!” by Fritz Leiber
Certain themes are explored fully by an author then never touched again. John Wyndham never wrote The Return of the Triffids nor Robert A. Heinlein Read More
Sword & Sorcery: Fossil or Fuel?
In 2006 I wrote a story called “Black God’s Burden” which eventually appeared in Flashing Swords #11 (November 2008). The editorial comments on the piece Read More