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Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword (2005) (Collected Editions)
Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword, Vol 11: Schools of War
In the mysterious land of Stygia, where the glistening sands hide dark sorcery and serpent gods, the warrior Red Sonja quests for the cursed Horn of Nergal - not for glory or profit, but by the command of the scheming witch Azenathi. To save her friends from certain death at the witch's hands, Sonja must recover the ancient, destructive artifact from fabled Kheshatta, a city of magicians buried beneath the desert dunes. Surrounded by a cabal of zealots, the She-Devil with a Sword must face her greatest adversary yet: a deadly doppelganger who shares her form, mirrors her martial skill, and knows no mercy! Bonus material includes an extensive cover gallery featuring all the variant cover artwork from issues #61-66 of the Red Sonja comic book series.
144 pages, Paperback
First published July 2, 2013
3 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Eric Trautmann
260 books16 followersEric Trautmann is a comic book writer, editor, and graphic designer.
For several years, Eric was a writer and editor for West End Games' acclaimed Star Wars roleplaying game line. After leaving dice-and-paper gaming behind, Eric then moved into videogames, an early recruit into Microsoft Game Studios' nascent entertainment licensing apparatus.
While at Microsoft, Eric wrote and edited in-game dialogue, story bibles, marketing materials, and original fictional content for the web.
Among the titles that Eric helped develop were the smash-hit HALO: Combat Evolved (including editing chores on the first three HALO novels for Ballantine / Del Rey, as well as writing The Art of HALO, also for Del Rey); Crimson Skies (creating a strongly immersive in-universe website for the pulpy, two-fisted adventure setting; editing weekly serialized online pulp novellas; and editing and contributing to Del Rey's mass-market paperback fiction anthology based on the setting); MechWarrior 4; and Perfect Dark Zero, acting as a story consultant to the property and helping to develop a fiction publishing program in support of the game.
In addition, Eric has consulted on videogame properties for EPIC (drafting a story bible for the Gears of War franchise), story development for Radical Entertainment, and delivering talks on the craft of writing in games to various publishers (notably, Blizzard Entertainment).
After leaving Microsoft, Eric wrote a six-issue miniseries for Perfect Dark (titled Perfect Dark: Janus' Tears), published by Prima Games, as well as editing and lettering an original graphic novel prequel to the hyperviolent videogame Army of Two, titled Army of Two: Dirty Money (written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Brandon McKinney).
While developing Perfect Dark Zero's novel program, he edited Perfect Dark: Initial Vector and Perfect Dark: Second Front, scribed by Greg Rucka (and published by TOR). The collaboration proved fruitful, and Eric was later invited to write a fill-in issue of Greg's DC Comics superhero/espionage title, Checkmate (which led to a half-year stint as co-writer on the title, ending his run with issue #25).
Checkmate led to several other DC Comics projects (as both writer or co-writer), including Final Crisis: Resist, JSA Vs. Kobra: Engines of Faith, The Shield, Mighty Crusaders, Adventure Comics and others.
Eric currently writes the continuing adventures of classic sword-and-sorcery heroine, Red Sonja, for Dynamite Entertainment.
In November 2010, Eric's debut issue of a revitalized Vampirella (also published by Dynamite Entertainment) was released to widespread critical praise and excellent sales (Vampirella #1 was the best selling non-premier publisher title for Diamond Comics Distribution in the month of its release).
In addition to writing comics, Eric is a graphic designer and marketing consultant, through his Fedora Monkey Studio, which offers (among other services) logo and branding design, intellectual property development, and viral marketing (such as the infamous "Montoya Journal" to promote the DC Comics' series The Question: The Five Books of Blood).
Eric splits his time between Raymond, Wa (where he resides) and Lacey, WA (where his wife runs the best comic shop ever).
For several years, Eric was a writer and editor for West End Games' acclaimed Star Wars roleplaying game line. After leaving dice-and-paper gaming behind, Eric then moved into videogames, an early recruit into Microsoft Game Studios' nascent entertainment licensing apparatus.
While at Microsoft, Eric wrote and edited in-game dialogue, story bibles, marketing materials, and original fictional content for the web.
Among the titles that Eric helped develop were the smash-hit HALO: Combat Evolved (including editing chores on the first three HALO novels for Ballantine / Del Rey, as well as writing The Art of HALO, also for Del Rey); Crimson Skies (creating a strongly immersive in-universe website for the pulpy, two-fisted adventure setting; editing weekly serialized online pulp novellas; and editing and contributing to Del Rey's mass-market paperback fiction anthology based on the setting); MechWarrior 4; and Perfect Dark Zero, acting as a story consultant to the property and helping to develop a fiction publishing program in support of the game.
In addition, Eric has consulted on videogame properties for EPIC (drafting a story bible for the Gears of War franchise), story development for Radical Entertainment, and delivering talks on the craft of writing in games to various publishers (notably, Blizzard Entertainment).
After leaving Microsoft, Eric wrote a six-issue miniseries for Perfect Dark (titled Perfect Dark: Janus' Tears), published by Prima Games, as well as editing and lettering an original graphic novel prequel to the hyperviolent videogame Army of Two, titled Army of Two: Dirty Money (written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Brandon McKinney).
While developing Perfect Dark Zero's novel program, he edited Perfect Dark: Initial Vector and Perfect Dark: Second Front, scribed by Greg Rucka (and published by TOR). The collaboration proved fruitful, and Eric was later invited to write a fill-in issue of Greg's DC Comics superhero/espionage title, Checkmate (which led to a half-year stint as co-writer on the title, ending his run with issue #25).
Checkmate led to several other DC Comics projects (as both writer or co-writer), including Final Crisis: Resist, JSA Vs. Kobra: Engines of Faith, The Shield, Mighty Crusaders, Adventure Comics and others.
Eric currently writes the continuing adventures of classic sword-and-sorcery heroine, Red Sonja, for Dynamite Entertainment.
In November 2010, Eric's debut issue of a revitalized Vampirella (also published by Dynamite Entertainment) was released to widespread critical praise and excellent sales (Vampirella #1 was the best selling non-premier publisher title for Diamond Comics Distribution in the month of its release).
In addition to writing comics, Eric is a graphic designer and marketing consultant, through his Fedora Monkey Studio, which offers (among other services) logo and branding design, intellectual property development, and viral marketing (such as the infamous "Montoya Journal" to promote the DC Comics' series The Question: The Five Books of Blood).
Eric splits his time between Raymond, Wa (where he resides) and Lacey, WA (where his wife runs the best comic shop ever).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 14, 2018
Sonja is again surrounded by trustworthy mercenaries in the employ of Osric, a merchant travelling to Luxur, the Stygian capital. After a bit of a misunderstanding with the city guards, she is set free to visit Azenathi, a servant of Bast. The latter offers Sonja the chance to redeem herself by saving Yazmina and retrieving the Horn of Nergal from Kheshatta, the mysterious city of magicians. Sonja starts her quest for the Horn and is joined by Osric, Johndro and Barranes, though she tries to change their minds thinking of the fate of her previous companions.
February 19, 2024
Sonja deals with the fallout of poor choices she made in Shem, whose fault honestly couldn't be laid at her feet. Unless the moral here is "never trust a Stygian" which would be very poor form for a moral (however true to Howard it may be).
Starts dipping a little too much into the "fight many nameless goons" well, but at least the summoned monsters are still truly insurmountable foes.
Bizarro Sonja is a fun concept, but the mechanics of how she is defeated and the princess liberated were a bit murky to me. Not saying "your magic should make logical sense!!!" but I couldn't even tell what happened in a woozle-wazzle type of way. She got pushed in the crystal which pushed the princess out? Sure!
Starts dipping a little too much into the "fight many nameless goons" well, but at least the summoned monsters are still truly insurmountable foes.
Bizarro Sonja is a fun concept, but the mechanics of how she is defeated and the princess liberated were a bit murky to me. Not saying "your magic should make logical sense!!!" but I couldn't even tell what happened in a woozle-wazzle type of way. She got pushed in the crystal which pushed the princess out? Sure!
November 28, 2017
Man they had white teeth during Sonja's time.
Nice art, good action, but the story was more than enough in Meh-category. Too much talking and guilt. And talking about guilt.
Nice art, good action, but the story was more than enough in Meh-category. Too much talking and guilt. And talking about guilt.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews