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Post by andydecker on Jun 9, 2017 17:19:18 GMT
JoJo, it is a CAS fan board on a prominent "social media" venue whose name includes the word Face. But that is not a message board; it is a service for people who for some reason want to voluntarily put themselves under surveillance.
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Post by andydecker on Jun 9, 2017 17:36:19 GMT
I read Our Lady of Darkness in my upper teens, but didn't particularly like it and remember nothing from it. Perhaps its events were too intangible for me at that age.
I know what you mean. In my 20th I found it boring. I tried to re-read it sometimes, never got through it. A few years ago I read it again and loved it. Subtle, highly original, a kodak of its time.
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Post by severance on Jun 9, 2017 19:45:18 GMT
Eldritch Dark is, as far as I know, the only message board specifically dedicated to Smith. Talking of "Eldritch Dark" - I've tried many times over the years to join that forum but every time I attempt to register, their system calls me a troll and suggests that I have sex with myself (or words to that effect). I guess that I'll have to get my fill of Jojo sarc solely from here.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jun 9, 2017 20:16:50 GMT
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 9, 2017 22:58:19 GMT
But the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales are the only ones I can read now. They're in a class of their own. I agree with you too on preferring the earlier ones - in fact I haven't bothered to keep the later ones. I recently reread them, in those 70s Mayflower editions, and they're still good - agreed about the later stories. You know you're entering middle age when you get nostalgic for the stuff you had as a kid - god help me, at the last charity bookfair I even picked up this Lankhmar board game, though I haven't had much success convincing my son to play it with me.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jun 10, 2017 8:31:16 GMT
Eldritch Dark is, as far as I know, the only message board specifically dedicated to Smith. Talking of "Eldritch Dark" - I've tried many times over the years to join that forum but every time I attempt to register, their system calls me a troll and suggests that I have sex with myself (or words to that effect). Considering that it was a CAS-bot you were dealing with I presume it told you to do this in a protracted spiel of copular verbs and obscure quasi-archaic synonyms.
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Post by Knygathin on Jun 10, 2017 8:59:08 GMT
Apart from the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories, especially the earlier ones, I just can't read sword & sorcery stories at all. Yes, I did go through a phase of reading sword & sorcery stories in my teens and devoured Conan and Elric stories en masse. But the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales are the only ones I can read now. They're in a class of their own. I agree with you too on preferring the earlier ones - in fact I haven't bothered to keep the later ones. The "earlier", ... does that mean the ones in Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, and Swords in the Mist? Less? Or more? I have read Swords Against Death. It was excellent. Beautifully crafted, intelligent imagination, ... although not quite as strong-willed and grounded as those of R. E. Howard.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jun 10, 2017 10:39:22 GMT
I love the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories too, especially (since it was my first encounter with them) "Bazaar of the Bizarre". Clark Ashton Smith and Ambrose Bierce certainly do feature in Our Lady, and Smith is central to the plot. Apart from the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories, especially the earlier ones, I just can't read sword & sorcery stories at all. By the breasts of Babh and the claws of Nergal *, broil my guts but what madness is this? Can't read sword and sorcery stories! By Mitra's golden sword and Woden's league long spear, there is no finer reading pleasure under a cursed allignment of stars in this or any other hemisphere. Boulder biceped barbarians wading through rivers of purple prose, cleaving foes from chin to chine, braving sulphur choked sepulchres to rescue improbably big breasted women from fates worse than death on grume caked altars: Bowels of Nergal, but what's not to like? I enjoy sword and sorcery stories more than any other kind, but as a genre it has always suffered from a peculiar image problem wherein it is, more often than not, defined and characterized by the very worst examples of it rather than the best. Once upon a time this might even have been justified, back when whole estates of bargain basement publishing houses were attempting to clamber aboard the Conan bandwagon. The sheer volume of opportunistic crud they produced during the 1960s and 70s has had a pernicious influence upon the way sword and sorcery is viewed ever since. But sword and sorcery actually experienced a renaissance in the small press of the 1970s when a new generation of fans and writers brought up on reprints of Howard and Moore and the books of Moorcock and Zelazny began to try to evolve the form beyond its outdated standards and conventions. Regrettably much of the very best work of this time remains unreprinted, mouldering away in a succession of short-lived, obscure and disintegrating fanzines. But anyone interested should really check out Andy Offutt's brilliant five volume SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS series for a representative sampling of the small press work of this time. Charles Saunders's brilliant Imaro, Richard Tierney's Simon of Gitta and Adrian Cole's Voidal all began life in the small press of the 1970s and any book featuring these characters are recommended unreservedly. As are the Dirshan the God-Killer books of Gene Lancour, the Kane novels of Karl Edward Wagner, the Monarchies of God quintet by Paul Kearney, the novels of Angus Wells, David Gemmell and any number of others besides. The current resurgence in small magazines and original fantasy anthologies is also now giving a platform for a whole new generation of exciting talent, thereby demonstrating the enduring appeal and fascination of this most vibrant and compelling of genres. Don't be put off by memories of redundant stereotypes. Sword and sorcery more than merits a second look by anyone with a taste for exciting fiction. * All these genuine oaths are copyright Lin Carter 1968. (And he's more than welcome to them). (S&S of the highest quality and not a bbw in sight).
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Post by helrunar on Jun 10, 2017 12:42:25 GMT
That board game looks seriously cool. Never heard of it but that's not surprising given that I seem not to have gotten any form of the "gaming" gene. After I went through puberty I was unable even to manage a simple card game or session of Scrabble.
Hope you can get the kid interested! Thanks for posting the gorgeous photo!
cheers, H.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 10, 2017 12:55:42 GMT
LOL, Cro Magnon Man! Great post!
As a teenager, I loved Sword & Sorcery but I have read very little since then. Those books you cite sound very interesting.
cheers, H.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Jun 10, 2017 13:12:22 GMT
Yes, I did go through a phase of reading sword & sorcery stories in my teens and devoured Conan and Elric stories en masse. But the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales are the only ones I can read now. They're in a class of their own. I agree with you too on preferring the earlier ones - in fact I haven't bothered to keep the later ones. The "earlier", ... does that mean the ones in Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, and Swords in the Mist? Less? Or more? I have read Swords Against Death. It was excellent. Beautifully crafted, intelligent imagination, ... although not quite as strong-willed and grounded as those of R. E. Howard. I knew that I'd started something (again). While I can't be interested in tales of mighty-thewed warriors and hobbits and the like, relatively recently, on the strength of "The Bleak Shore" in The Unknown edited by D.R. Bensen, I bought The First Book of Lankhmar that contains the collections Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, Swords in the Mist and Swords Against Wizardry. I liked most of the stories. However, I thought that the stories in the later collections in The Second Book of Lankhmar were not as good.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jun 10, 2017 17:15:22 GMT
After I went through puberty I was unable even to manage a simple card game or session of Scrabble. This is just a heads-up that I am working on what I hope will be an amusing comment on this.
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Post by andydecker on Jun 10, 2017 17:49:17 GMT
Cromagnon said: The sheer volume of opportunistic crud they produced during the 1960s and 70s has had a pernicious influence upon the way sword and sorcery is viewed ever since
I don't know if this is still the case. S&S is limited as a genre. Of course you could say the same of every other genre out there, just take a look at todays crime thriller. It is always the same formula. But you could argue that S&S is particulary limited. While elements of it are incorporated in the flood of fantasy still published in trilogies, the Conan character alone can't sustain 600 pages. Which has become the norm.
Frankly I miss the times when critical dispute was about the content and the literary merits and not about sexual politics or parroting soundbytes. Praise by your peers is not objective criticism, neither is tv commentary about Games of Thrones. Movies, TV and D&D have done more to cement the views on S&S then any writing could have ever done.
I have also struggled with Leiber's later fantasy tales. I never did finish his saga. I don't need action, but this was even too slow for me. I think I stopped with "Swords and Ice Magic".
Of course there is always the question of taste. I am not a fan of writers like Tierney or Offutt. Especially Offutt's Howard pastiches are terrible dull, and I have read better Red Sonya comic stories then Tierney's series.
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Post by Knygathin on Jun 10, 2017 21:12:49 GMT
Apart from the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories, especially the earlier ones, I just can't read sword & sorcery stories at all. ... I agree with you too on preferring the earlier ones - in fact I haven't bothered to keep the later ones. The "earlier ones", ... and how about the novel The Swords of Lankhmar? Here a Norwegian edition. Judging by the cover, this novel seems to include a daemon plant - one of my favorite subjects.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 10, 2017 22:15:54 GMT
This is the last one I've got - still good, but not as good as the earlier ones: About the whole Swords and Sorcery thing, here's an interesting inscribed paperback from Graeme Flanagan's collection, de Camp's Swords and Sorcery from 1963: Here's another from 1967: These came out in 1969 and 1970:
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