The Return of Sword and Sorcery

Heroic Fantasy has never been edgier

My previous post, what happened to Sword and Sorcery, can be found HERE.

Through the 90’s and early 2000’s, we didn’t see much Sword and Sorcery. A few low budget TV shows here and there, each with a devoted fan base. Some of the aesthetic and attitude popped up in video games and metal music. But really, there just wasn’t a lot to go around.

By 2003 the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy had arrived, and with it a renewed interest in fantasy in general. Loads of fantasy movies and books flooded the market, such as Eragon and Mistborn. It was then that American audiences were introduced to the Witcher for the first time, courtesy of video game technology. The books would soon follow.

The Witcher is Sword and Sorcery, or at least neo Sword and Sorcery. The first two books carried all the energy, traits, and blueprints of Sword and Sorcery stories. I am sure when this caught on, a bunch of old school readers thought about Conan and Elric. I picture their mouths salivating, their hearts beating faster.

“Dark Lord? Epic quest? Save the world? That’s great, but… I really want to loot and plunder a cursed tomb and fight the mummified remains of a necromancer, for no reason other than bragging rights.”

These people wanted adventure. They were sick of elves, dwarves, dragons and quests. They wanted to explore haunted castles, witness bizarre and untold horrors, rescue the queen from a demigod and team up with a band of thieves to rob a wizards tower. Maybe some part of them wanted to disband a cult of cannibals after their family became dinner.

And that is my (subjective) segue into the return of Sword and Sorcery.

Slowly and subtly, Sword and Sorcery made its way back into the public consciousness. HBO’s Game of Thrones probably helped this as well, as it offered up a fantasy world that was more deadly, dangerous, and cynical than the likes of Middle Earth (although Game of Thrones is not Sword and Sorcery by any means).

It was in the early 2000’s that Del Rey released Robert E Howards work, unmolested, along with several letters, essays, and testimonies about Howards life. Three full volumes of Conan, a volume for Solomon Kane, one for Kull, as well as his various other pulp characters. They even included first drafts and half written stories in these volumes. Finally, fans of Sword and Sorcery could easily get their hands on Howards work the way Howard wrote it.

In keeping with that, the internet era also made the writings of other Sword and Sorcery authors better known, and these characters have all experienced a bit of a renaissance as well! There is an entire modern pulp movement that encapsulates Sword and Sorcery, and it’s making big waves on the web.

Podcasting also helped revitalize Sword and Sorcery. Rouges in the House is a podcast that discusses all things Heroic Fantasy and I cannot recommend it enough. So I’m Writing a Novel is another podcast that focuses on Sword and Sorcery that I don’t think you should miss.

Following after came a few small magazines. Black Gate magazine, for example arrived in 2000 and switched to digital in 2011. There are too many to list, those which have come and gone, but I will provide a handful here.

• Heroic Fantasy Quarterly

• New Edge Sword and Sorcery Magazine

• Old Moon Publishing

• Rogue Blades

• Savage Realms Monthly

• Spiral Tower Press

• Sword and Sorcery Magazine

• Tales from the Magicians Skull

All of these magazines either appeared in the past ten years or have been around longer than that. The internet has proven to be a friend to Sword and Sorcery, but so has indie publishing.

Multiple authors have released Sword and Sorcery stories thanks to the self publishing boom. Even still, some small presses and better known publishers have adopted Sword and Sorcery for their own. DMR is a shining example of a small press that pushes Sword and Sorcery.

Many great writers are putting out Sword and Sorcery in our modern context.

• Scott Oden has contributed great stuff

• Matthew John, a host on Rogues in the House Podcast, recently released a Sword and Sorcery collection of his own.

• Steve Dilk’s writes excellent stuff.

• Eric Waag has some great material on the market.

• W.S. Wentworth recently released his own book, The Midwinter Witch.

• Michael Moorcock is still alive, and he is still writing Elric stories. How cool is that?

• There are also multiple anthologies available, full of excellent Sword and Sorcery material.

But the person leading the charge is none other than Howard Andrew Jones. Jones was the former editor of both Black Gate and Tales from the Magicians Skull. He was also the author of the Hanuvar Chronicles, his magnum opus. These three books are the absolute best that modern sword and sorcery has to offer. The absolute best, and it’s not even a debate or a discussion.

Sadly, Jones passed away earlier this year after a courageous battle against cancer. His legacy lives on in print, scholarly circles, and among those whom he encouraged, taught, and influenced. It is absolutely devastating that he will not be able to complete the Hanuvar Chronicles.

One of the things that modern Sword and Sorcery writers seem to be doing is redeeming the genres value, but leaving the baggage behind. Women are being treated with more kindness, for the most part, and there is more sensitivity to the way minorities are depicted. People are free to debate whether or not this is merely part of the current zeitgeist or if this is necessary. Let them debate, I say its just good to have Adventure in my fantasy again.

So Sword and Sorcery is experiencing a strong comeback, this time emboldened by the internet. There is truly something for everyone! What are you staring at the screen for, go buy some of this stuff!!!

Stay tuned for my next post, which is really a curated post, where I will discuss the elements of a good Sword and Sorcery yarn and provide some tips on how you can write your own.