April UN-official SFF-KIT: Sword and Sorcery

April will highlight sword and sorcery for this Kit so will be moving more toward the fantasy side. So what is sword and socery? I found this blurb onling, "Unlike epic fantasy, sword and sorcery does not concern itself with world-endangering events; the stakes, rather, are far more personal. The danger to the hero is usually immediate rather than long term. Sword & Sorcery has a strong preference for fast-paced action tales rather than sweeping story arcs. That means there is (usually) no band of heroes facing off against dark lords that seek to destroy the world, but rather a lone hero on a personal quest of some sort.

Classic Sword and Sorcery:
Conan the Barbarian This one is on the NPR 100 best SF and Fantasy list.
The number two classic is Elric of Melinbone This one I am unfamiliar with.

Here's a link if you would like to check out other options; http://bestfantasybooks.com/best-sword-and-sorcery-books.html#modern%20sword%20a...

Another list at this site: http://fantasyguide.stormthecastle.com/toptenlists/top_ten_swords_sorcery_books....
Black God's Kiss C. L. Moore

There are so many choices this month, I hope you will find something that will work for you. I was surprised to find I own no books that fit the tag mash Sword and Sorcery. Any suggestions for others? Please post those here. Don't forget to update the wiki.

Planning on Sorcerer to the Crown and A Plague of Swords, the later from one of my favorite series.

As it makes an appearance on the 1,001 Books List, I am going to be reading Legend by David Gemmell.

I may seize the opportunity of this theme to read again the first book of the Fafhrd and Grey mouser series by Fritz Leiber which I _adored_ when a teen (I had a little crush on Fafhrd ;) I guess I won't like it as much now but think it may still be fun.

I do have an unread Conan book, so I will probably go with that.

>3 DeltaQueen50:, I read that a year or two ago and really liked it.

I've got Deadhouse Gates, the second book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson, on my TBR shelf. Another possibility is Before They Are Hanged, the second book in Joe Abercrombie's The First Blade series.

If short stories will work, I've got Flashing Swords! #5: Demons and Daggers which is tagged swords and sorcery.

>8 LisaMorr: I don't see why short stories would not work. I've used them before for other months.

Some possible choices for me
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eggers
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeymi
Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind

>3 DeltaQueen50: My choice as well - same reasons!

Still haven't chosen...so many available, though most I'm contemplating are rereads.

Addendum:

And here it is!


The Heart of What Was Lost: A Novel of Osten Ard by Tad Williams

I have read and reread this author's trilogy Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn at least twice, loved it both times. Some of you may be more familiar with the individual titles:

The Dragonbone Chair
Stone of Farewell
To Green Angel Tower

This is a prequel he wrote for another upcoming trilogy in the same setting. I ordered it as soon as it was published, but I've been hesitating to read it in case it ruins the original story for me...

...but I can't recommend the original trilogy highly enough. It is superb, fantastic, on a par with the best I've read.

I have a copy of The Dragonbone Chair which I never got around to reading so I'll give it a try.

>13 hailelib: great! FYI, it starts slow, do give it a chance.

>12 fuzzi: So did I, and I read it almost immediately. I liked it and it fits well with the original trilogy. The witchwood crown however, I did not like as much. The prince is another whiny brat in a long line of whiny brats by Williams. Simon was never as annoying as this.

>15 MissWatson: thanks for the heads up. I never could get into Williams' Otherland books, though his Child of an Ancient City is also superb.

>16 fuzzi: Same here, Otherland didn't work for me. I'll make a note of the Child of an Ancient City!

>4 chlorine: Thank you for that mention! I ran to my bookshelf and have an old book club edition of The Three of Swords. It contains, you guessed it, the first three in Leiber's six book series. I will do my best to read at least the first one (like you, my tastes have changed over the years).

I'm planning on reading Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey. I read the first in the series, and didn't particularly enjoy it, but I generally love her work--her epic Kusheil's Dart series is among my favorite fantasy series, if not my absolute favorite--so I want to give it a shot.

I have Swords' Masters by Fritz Lieber on my tbr shelf--this is an opportunity to read it and move it off!

Finished the Plague of Swords for this challenge. I love that entire series. One more book to go.

>18 threadnsong: I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about it! :)

Finished Pawn of Prophecy, first in the Belgariad by David Eddings. I will need to read the next as this is first and leaves you kind of hanging. So far its a quest and coming of age book. Gods, sorcery and swords.

I read my SFF-Kit challenge yesterday. My library has Conan the Barbarian {Gnome 1954} by Robert E. Howard. It contains 5 of the original stories written by Howard. Overall I was pleasantly surprised.

The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt
A young man is dispossessed of his family land and sets out to seek his fortune, then gets caught up in a war between a mean king and his overtaxed and unhappy subjects. He's a wizard, sort of, and 'helps' in that way, and then becomes a leader in the war.
Yeah, this one was pretty awful. The characters have absolutely no dimension whatsoever, and the plot of the rebellion and war is set out in absolutely painful dead-horse-beating detail. Just, NOPE.

>1 Kristelh: I missed that list the first time I read this thread.

I am SO glad that the Amber series by Roger Zelazny made the top 5.

I first read the Amber Chronicles when I was about 18, and had joined the SciFi book club...some of you may recall that "Buy 2 get 3 free when you join!" offers. Anyway, I bought the first five books in a 2 volume set which I still own. I loved it then, loved it with rereads...and even 40 years later I gave it another reread and still loved it.

I'm always on the lookout for Zelazny books, but they're harder to come by since he died fairly young.

>26 fuzzi: I also own a SciFi book club omnibus edition of the Amber Chronicles. Mine is 5 in one volume with super tiny print. I've only read the first book so far which I thoroughly enjoyed. I really want to get to the rest of the series, but need to find a different format.

I've finished The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. Not too much sorcery but a heck of a lot of swords in this one.

>26 fuzzi: >27 staci426: first second and third of the Amber series are available as audios' I listened to the first. Sounds like I should continue.

Oh, and in case anyone is in the mood for a good chunkster book in this month's genre I would highly recommend The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. It's the first book in a trilogy (surprise?!) that blew me away when it first was published. I reread the series a number of years ago and was blown away again. While I never warmed up to this author's SciFi works, I rank these fantasies up there with the best.

Note: The Dragonbone Chair does start slowly, but there's a reason for it. Don't give up...once the adventure gets going, it doesn't stop, and you get sucked in for the duration of the read!

I read some early Elric stories in January for the first time, and didn't especially care for them. Then I bought several more from bookshops between January and now. I may read further and see if I like them any better now.

Maybe I just like the old covers. Especially the ones by Michael Whelan.

>31 amaranthe: I love, love, LOVE Michael Whelan's artwork!

I seem to recall reading part of or maybe an entire story about Elric, but I can't recall which one.

I am reading The Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings, second book in the series.

I just finished Legend by David Gemmell and I loved this epic tale.

>34 DeltaQueen50:. I liked it a lot too. I was surprised to find the hidden treasure on the 1001 list.

>35 Kristelh: It doesn't seem like a book that one would find there so I was surprised to find it on the 1,001 List, but I am happy that it is there otherwise I may not have discovered it.

Does The Hobbit fit for Sword and Sorcery?

I finished Swords against Wizardry by Fritz Leiber, fourth in his famous Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series that brought great popularity to sword and sorcery stories in the late 60s. For me, however, that time has come and gone--I'm not sure that these have aged that well, and the genre has far surpassed them in subtlety and complexity (at least, some of them have).

>34 DeltaQueen50: Judy, I have never read Legend, although it is in my tbr pile thanks to its reputation. Your review has advanced it somewhat.

>26 fuzzi: I have that set on my shelves, fuzzi, and have been contemplating a reread one of these days.

>38 ronincats: I'm not sure that these have aged that well, and the genre has far surpassed them in subtlety and complexity

That is about what I thought of the early Elric stories I read. You put it much better. :)

Interestingly, it seems Michael Moorcock is not terribly possessive about his character, and lets a lot of other people write stories about him. Maybe some of those are better. Or even Moorcock's more recent ones. I will have to check them out sometime. Even if they don't have Michael Whelan covers.

>37 majkia: personally, I think The Hobbit does fit, but The Lord of the Rings not so much.

>38 ronincats: I thoroughly enjoyed my most recent reread of The Chronicles of Amber.

May thread posted: https://www.librarything.com/topic/306127

Finished Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier, which I believe fits in this category (but I'm still getting a feel for the category, honestly...)

>38 ronincats: I finished Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber, first in the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series (hard to find a book with a better title for this month's theme BTW! ;)

I did not like it _at all_. Reading through this very short book was a chore and it completely lost the appeal it had for me when I was little. I am disappointed as, even though I did not expect to find it great, I hoped I could still find it kind of fun, but nope.

I read the Chronicles of Amber when I was 11 or 12, which is probably much too young (what was my dad thinking when he lent me this book? ;) This being said, I _loved_ these books and they have left an impression that few other books, if any, have (probably because I was so young). I have read them again several times since and enjoyed them each time (though I think the second 5 books are inferior to the first ones).

>44 chlorine: I'm curious...what do you think was wrong about reading those books at age 11? The smoking? I devoured LOTR at that age.

>43 chlorine: Yeah, the Suck Fairy has visited big-time!

>45 fuzzi: Good question! I think the Amber books are overall quite dark, with characters that are morally ambiguous and full or morally gray areas, and I think it may be disconcerting / disturbing for very young people.
LOTR IMO is completely different, with characters that are clearly good and characters that are clearly villains. I do regret though that the races of people in LOTR are described as so distinct because some lineages are noble and some are vile: there are many comments about how you can see that this person (not using the name to avoid spoilers ;) has the blood of Kings in his veins, or how you can see just by looking at them that the men from the West are noble. Though I also read LOTR when very young (less than 10?) and loved it, I wouldn't actively recommend it to a child (though I would not interfere if a child wanted to read it).

>46 ronincats: aha, very well said! :)
I'm glad we read two different books in the series as I was wondering while reading if this was so bad because it was the first in the series. You have removed the tentation of trying to read the sequel to see if it is better, thank you for that!

>47 chlorine: thanks. Except for something obviously inappropriate for young readers (50 Shades of Gray for instance) I also would not dissuade any adolescent from reading more mature books. I devoured White Fang at 9, not understanding much of it, but loving the wilderness and animal aspects. It was quite grim in places, too, and some of the people within are morally reprehensible.

>49 fuzzi: Ha you're making me very interested in white fang! I think I read an abridged version for kids, but I'm not sure: I owned two abridged versions of books with similar themes: Kazan and White Fang. One of them left me a strong impression but I'm not sure which. I think it was Kazan. I guess I should try to read both.

>50 chlorine: I loved both Kazan and White Fang, discovering the former a year later, in 5th grade. The book was in my homeroom teacher's bookcase. It was missing the spine but the covers were still hanging on. She let me keep the book. Thanks, Mrs. Cole!

There's a sequel, too, Baree, Son of Kazan. And the author James Oliver Curwood wrote lots and lots of books, too.

>26 fuzzi:, >27 staci426:, >44 chlorine: So nice to see all the love for the Chronicles of Amber. I also have the 5-novel omnibus, which I read way back when; I have three more on the shelves, and I'll have to elevate that series, re-read the first 5 and then finish the rest.

I'm reading a short story collection for this month which contains a short story (they call it a novella - is 55-pages really a novella?) by Zelazny, Tower of Ice, which includes his character Dilvish the Damned.

>12 fuzzi: all of the library's ebook copies of The Dragonbone Chair were checked out so I read The Heart of What Was Lost instead. I don't know if it would ruin the original trilogy for anyone, since I haven't read that yet, but it is really good and makes me want to read the new one!

For this challenge, however, I think Crimson Spell by Ayano Yamane fits the sword and sorcery definition better. It's about a prince with a cursed sword and a sorcerer who is supposed to remove the curse. It's also an explicit yaoi manga, but format wasn't specified, just plot elements. :)

>53 amaranthe: well...it might spoil a little bit of the original trilogy. I'm SO glad you are enjoying it.

I didn't get to The Heart of What Was Lost in April as planned: between my father visiting with us and having workmen (and woman) banging on the house, I've been a tad (haha!) distracted, and behind on my reading challenges.

>54 fuzzi: fortunately I don't mind knowing the ending, it's only a problem if the spoiler also changes the ending. Which has only happened once!

I finished up Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. Late but it does fit for Sword and Sorcery. This is a quest story. I liked it and i did not like it. It was too long. There is a lot of violence and romance in it. I think it is considered YA. author states she wrote it in response to young black lives being shot down by police.

>51 fuzzi: I didn't know there was a sequel to Kazan, thanks for pointing it out! (though I'm afraid I'm getting off topic ;)

>43 chlorine: Like you, chlorine, I finished Swords and Deviltry and it was, um, a chore? to stay awake past a few pages. I did start it in my mid-20's strongly feminist phase (still strong, still ardent, but able to step back a bit to read things rather than throw them across the room) and as you can well imagine, the first part with Fafhrd and the women's country he lived in left me unwilling to do more than put it back on the shelves. It's still bad and all I can say is, I read it, chalked it up, and now I can move on to other books. How tastes and writing about women have changed over the decades!

I finished a short story collection, Flashing Swords #5: Demons and Daggers, and few days late. Five short stories by Roger Zelazny, C. J. Cherryh, Diane Duane, Craig Shaw Gardner and Tanith Lee. All good,

>58 threadnsong: I imagine how the book must have made you angry back then! :) Yes it's nice to see how writing about women has changed.
And now we can both move on to better things books!

>60 chlorine: Indeed we can! I hope you enjoy the May challenge. I'm contemplating what my book will be for this month.

I started Deadhouse Gates from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, but I didn't get too far. I'm enjoying it so far, though, and intend to keep reading even if I didn't manage to finish it for this challenge.