Link: The Land of Harvey
There is a fantasy realm that was important to my formative years, and it existed in an unusual place. I call it the Land of Read More
Tag: J. R. R. Tolkien
Link: The Desolation of Tolkien: Not a Movie Review
First, a little explanation of the title. I saw that one of the chapters in John C Wright’s book, Transhuman and Subhuman (2014) was “The Read More
Link: Sword & Sorcery Cliche No. 1: The Ming the Merciless Haircut
I am currently re-reading John Jakes’s entire Brak the Barbarian saga, and I was struck by an odd thought. Why do wizards in sword-and-sorcery always Read More
The Sword & Sorcery of Clark Ashton Smith
Sword & Sorcery as an idea never existed back in 1936. I chose that date because it was the year Robert E. Howard killed himself. Read More
Link: The Battle of Five Armies: Of Orcs and Epics
As I sat watching the last of The Hobbit trilogy of films I realized something. We take so much for granted in the 21st Century. Read More
Link: Sword & Sorcery and J. R. R. Tolkien
In September 1937 an English Don named John Ronald Reuel Tolkien published a children’s book called The Hobbit. Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, Read More
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
The Monsters of Grettir the Strong
This piece uses quotes from the Gutenberg version of Grettir the Strong. Available here. Grettir the Strong is a 13th Century heroic saga of the Read More
Thongor of Lemuria
Uninformed critics have written off the Thongor novels as a bad Conan the Barbarian copy. This really isn’t true. Thongor the character is very much Read More
Why I Read & Write Pulp
I’ve been spending a lot of time amongst the Pulps lately. And it begs the question: what is the appeal of these old, flaking, brown Read More