Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Magazines



Howard Andrew Jones' exciting announcement yesterday of a new magazine, Tales from the Magician's Skull, is great news for swords & sorcery. My fantasy/sci-fi knowledge is pretty broad, but Howard's depth of S&S knowledge is amazing, and way beyond mine. If anyone can give Adrian Simmons and Co. over at HFQ a run for their money, it's Howard.


But then it's not a competition. It's a new berth for stories that don't really have enough editorial support for my tastes. Aside from HFQ and Swords and Sorcery Magazine, there's no magazine or site wholly dedicated to S&S. Cirsova's a smashingly good publication, but its focus is on a wide range of pulp stories, with as much sci-fi as fantasy. Grimdark Magazine's been better than decent, but again, S&S, particularly as inspired by Appendix N is not its focus. Skelos is good but publishes very little heroic fantasy. Beneath Ceaseless Skies, once upon a time, deigned to publish some very good heroic fantasy, but that seems like it was way back in the Year One. A few others - Lackington's, Pulp Literature among them - include a story now and then, but there really aren't many more places to read new S&S.


There's a bunch of magazines that I still keep up as links here at STUFF I LIKE, but I don't ever really look at them. I keep them there just because at this point, why not? Someone passing through here might get a sudden urge to visit Clarkesworld.

When I first started blogging, there seemed to be a real renaissance going on in S&S. Jones' Dabir & Asim, Enge's Morlock Ambrosius, and Fultz's Shaper series  (all Black Gate alumnus you may notice) were fresh and seemed to be getting the proper attention. Milton Davis was publishing. Rogue Blades was still a fully functioning operation.

Now, I'm not so sure the revival I touted five years ago ever really happened.  I swim in S&S weekly (sometimes daily) and I'm not sure I see it as a genre that's growing - in publications or readers. Grimdark has grabbed hold of much of those who would have been S&S's audience in its blood-streaked, grimy hands. I have yet to see a review of any of Davis' books reviewed on any major site except Black Gate. Dabir & Asim are on hiatus and Rogue Blades is silent. Fultz is no longer with Orbit.


It's not all disappointing. HFQ, and now TftMS, will roll out pure S&S on a regular basis. Fultz, Enge, and Jones are all still writing. Davis is a self-publishing juggernaut. The fine folks at Castalia House and Alex at Cirsova are waging a war for Appendix N and pulp goodness, which, while not solely dedicated to S&S, still conjures up some pretty boss stories. Also, their non-fiction goes a long way to keying readers into the history of the genre. Dave Ritzlin has published a trio of solid anthologies.


I'm not sure exactly what I'm getting at here. I guess I'm just examining where S&S is at and where it might be going. To the latter point, I really don't know. If Goodman Games thinks there's enough of a market for a whole new mag, I'll take that as a good sign. Maybe I should just be happy good writers are still weaving good S&S stories. If the genre became "huge" (whatever that would mean in these atomized days) it would probably mean just lots more terrible stuff like Robert Jordan's Conan pastiche. I'm rambling, so I'll call it a day on prognostication. I'd much rather hear what other readers have to say.



10 comments:

  1. I wonder if the reason S&S is hard to come by at times is the length. the novelette/novella length seems to be a good fit for the genre. But despite what some editors will tell aspiring writers in public, they don't buy much at that length. While there are exceptions, especially in some of the venues you mentioned, you almost have to be either a well-known name or in favor with the editor and/or the editor's crowd to get a novella published. I know most of the S&S I've written is in that range. Anyway, those are my off the cuff thoughts.

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    1. I think you're right on, there. S&S thrives best at shorter lengths and that's neither what the editors or the market seems to want. I always remember the post HAJ wrote about two people at a con being disappointed to realize Black Gate featured short stories because they only read big, fat books. There was a conversation on FB about length of books and series and several folks made it clear they loved the worldbuilding in fantasy and if it was good, wanted to be able to revisit it again and again. As to big name writers and novellas, the few big book writers whose work I've read, when they turn their hand to shorter works seem to not get it - Steven Erikson and R.Scott Bakker jump to mind.

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  2. I think you're right about "grim dark" taking a market share. I'm excited about the new mag, too, and its influences. I think the balance of fun, adventure, darkness and grimness has been missing of late.

    I was surprised - pleasantly - upon returning to Paul S. Kemp's Egil & Nix after reading Nifft the Lean. Either there was a direct line - or Nifft had so much influence on D&D it bled through to Kemp that way - I don't know. It felt like the throwback balanced s-&-s I'd been looking for, despite its novel length.

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    1. I'm a big fan of Jeffro and the Castalia Blog, so I'm excited/curious/expecting great things from HAJ doing the Appendix N thing.

      I have the first Egil & Nix. You liking it and comparing it Nifft just moved it up to the top of the TBR (and reviewed) pile.

      I think Shea's influence is actually slight. Any appearance of that I would lay at the feet of Vance's absolute influence on Shea's fantasy.

      I want there to be great S&S novels, but it's hard. Even KEW's novels pale beside his shorts. Moorcock's novels work because they're just so damn short.

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    2. I enjoyed the first novel but I don't know if it was as "Nifft"-esque. I think the second novel reminded me more because they take on the thieves' guild. And it was more about characters - particularly Nix - than tone. Your mileage might vary.

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  3. I think Scott Oden's A Gathering of Ravens is the closest to a full length S&S novel that I've read in recent years. And it ran some 350 pages, not the norm for 'fat fantasy'. I prefer novella length for S&S, but I bet someone out there can write a full length, 500+ page, old-school S&S novel. Maybe someone already has, and it's waiting in the wings to be published. If not, let's make it happen, just to prove it can be done!

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    1. Like Poul Anderson's Broken Sword, Oden's Gathering of Ravens shows exactly how to write novel-length S&S.

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  4. Have you ever seen Worlds Without Master? It has two sword & sorcery tales per issue. http://www.worldswithoutmaster.com/ Or at least it did. The last blog post seems to be about a year ago.

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  5. Howard Jones, the man who put Harold Lamb back on the map!
    If anybody can pull it off it would be him. I'll be buying it without a doubt.

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