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New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #4
New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine: Issue #4
Nine stories and four non-fiction pieces, paired with B&W illustrations.
80 pages, 8.5×11 in, traditionally printed, perfect bound.
Featuring new, original work by:
Harry Turtledove
Dariel Quiogue
Jeremy Pak Nelson
Kirk Johnson
Jonathan Olfert
June Orchid Parker
Bryn Hammond
Nat Webb
Doris V. Sutherland
Oliver Brackenbury
…and an Elric reprint by Michael Moorcock!
80 pages, 8.5×11 in, traditionally printed, perfect bound.
Featuring new, original work by:
Harry Turtledove
Dariel Quiogue
Jeremy Pak Nelson
Kirk Johnson
Jonathan Olfert
June Orchid Parker
Bryn Hammond
Nat Webb
Doris V. Sutherland
Oliver Brackenbury
…and an Elric reprint by Michael Moorcock!
80 pages, Paperback
Published December 9, 2024
1 person is currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Oliver Brackenbury
12 books57 followersMy name is Oliver Brackenbury. I’m a screenwriter & author. I grew up around the corner from a five story deep cold war bunker, as one does, and can now be found living not far from a popular 1,815.4 ft tower in Toronto.
My first novel, JUNKYARD LEOPARD, was released through the Bad Day Books imprint of Assent Publishing. The book trailer and more can be found at www.junkyardleopard.com
I’m currently working on my third novel, a sword & sorcery short story cycle, and am putting out a podcast about my work on it. You can check that out at www.soimwritinganovel.com or by searching for "So I'm Writing a Novel..." wherever you get your podcasts.
My first novel, JUNKYARD LEOPARD, was released through the Bad Day Books imprint of Assent Publishing. The book trailer and more can be found at www.junkyardleopard.com
I’m currently working on my third novel, a sword & sorcery short story cycle, and am putting out a podcast about my work on it. You can check that out at www.soimwritinganovel.com or by searching for "So I'm Writing a Novel..." wherever you get your podcasts.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2025
At risk of repeating myself, yet another fine assortment of modern sword & sorcery. And if I tell you that for me the standout story was Dariel Quiogue's "Battle of the Nine Waters", then you need to understand that I'm saying so although this issue also includes stories by both Michael Moorcock and Harry Turtledove, amongst others.
And the usual reviews, essays and interviews at the back, including a look at one of my personal favorite authors, Tanith Lee.
And the usual reviews, essays and interviews at the back, including a look at one of my personal favorite authors, Tanith Lee.
March 15, 2025
I initially thought that this issue had fewer stories and articles in it compared to previous ones. Turns out the content was just so good, I was blazing through them at a higher rate than before.
Editor Oliver Brackenbury once again brings together a red-handed band of rogues to spin yarns of daring sword-play and eldritch magic.
Among the returning authors is Jeremy Pak Nelson, with "Gaze Upon the Beating Dark" a tale of two pilgrims getting on in years and seeking ascension upon a holy mountain. Like his previous entry telling of an exploited jinn, here too broken-down bodies take thematic center stage, subverting the genre's expectation of physical exultation.
Next is Jon Olfert's "White in the Eye", a thrilling chase narrative (well, sort of) in which a traveler is enchanted by a cursed palanquin. What worked wonderfully for me here was the way in which Olfert paints the protag's background seemingly just to flesh her out a bit, but rendering the details relevant to the plot in a clever turn of events. I feel bad even saying it! Hadn't read Olfert yet, but I'll gladly read more!
"The Concord of the Outhar" is my second Kirk Johnson story and once again it's about assholes. These ones are charming though; a quick-witted mercenary duo hired to find... soup ingredients? It gets a little harder than that, but I appreciated some overt humor in a story.
"A Portrait in Ivory" - it's Michael fucking Moorcock, man. It's Elric. You need more?
"Hunter" - Brackenbury himself! I felt very represented in this one, as the somewhat awkwardly named Litlosta fights monsters for spurious reasons that I won't reveal here, but it makes for a great punchline.
"The Jesting Jann" - I'd never read anything by the Don of Alt-History Harry Turtledove, but this encounter with a genie (jann) in early middle ages Iraq was great fun.
"Battle of the Nine Waters" - in which Dariel Quiogue's Orhan Timur DA SNOW LEOPARD gets his own "Black Colossus" and frankly? Elephants vs worms alone was worth it.
"A Serpent from the Ash" - June Orchid Parker returns with her heroine Astartha, and delivers the darkest metaphor I've seen in all the indie or mainstream S&S I've ever read. That, and she manages to put a Big Snek in!
Non-fiction, you say?
This issue's author profile is of Tanith Lee, and yes, that is another shameful blindspot of me. Thank you, Cora Buhlert for illuminating what she's all about. I believe "Companions of the Road" might be my first foray....
Nathaniel Webb, author and musician, examines S&S' entanglement with heavy metal, bringing to light their shared outsider values and wishes for self-actualization.
The always delightful Bryn Hammond does not contribute fiction this time, rather she is interviewed by Brackenbury. While she admits not all of the classic tenets of S&S are her speed, she does have a particular affinity for the genre's outsider perspective - in particular the ability to convey queer joy in the trope of carving out one's own space in a wild landscape. A wonderful author from what I've read of her, and it's nice as a fellow queer person to see the same things resonate.
And perhaps it is Hammond's assertions (and Brackenbury's enthusiastic digging into them) that convey so well why this magazine gives me so much joy.
Editor Oliver Brackenbury once again brings together a red-handed band of rogues to spin yarns of daring sword-play and eldritch magic.
Among the returning authors is Jeremy Pak Nelson, with "Gaze Upon the Beating Dark" a tale of two pilgrims getting on in years and seeking ascension upon a holy mountain. Like his previous entry telling of an exploited jinn, here too broken-down bodies take thematic center stage, subverting the genre's expectation of physical exultation.
Next is Jon Olfert's "White in the Eye", a thrilling chase narrative (well, sort of) in which a traveler is enchanted by a cursed palanquin. What worked wonderfully for me here was the way in which Olfert paints the protag's background seemingly just to flesh her out a bit, but rendering the details relevant to the plot in a clever turn of events. I feel bad even saying it! Hadn't read Olfert yet, but I'll gladly read more!
"The Concord of the Outhar" is my second Kirk Johnson story and once again it's about assholes. These ones are charming though; a quick-witted mercenary duo hired to find... soup ingredients? It gets a little harder than that, but I appreciated some overt humor in a story.
"A Portrait in Ivory" - it's Michael fucking Moorcock, man. It's Elric. You need more?
"Hunter" - Brackenbury himself! I felt very represented in this one, as the somewhat awkwardly named Litlosta fights monsters for spurious reasons that I won't reveal here, but it makes for a great punchline.
"The Jesting Jann" - I'd never read anything by the Don of Alt-History Harry Turtledove, but this encounter with a genie (jann) in early middle ages Iraq was great fun.
"Battle of the Nine Waters" - in which Dariel Quiogue's Orhan Timur DA SNOW LEOPARD gets his own "Black Colossus" and frankly? Elephants vs worms alone was worth it.
"A Serpent from the Ash" - June Orchid Parker returns with her heroine Astartha, and delivers the darkest metaphor I've seen in all the indie or mainstream S&S I've ever read. That, and she manages to put a Big Snek in!
Non-fiction, you say?
This issue's author profile is of Tanith Lee, and yes, that is another shameful blindspot of me. Thank you, Cora Buhlert for illuminating what she's all about. I believe "Companions of the Road" might be my first foray....
Nathaniel Webb, author and musician, examines S&S' entanglement with heavy metal, bringing to light their shared outsider values and wishes for self-actualization.
The always delightful Bryn Hammond does not contribute fiction this time, rather she is interviewed by Brackenbury. While she admits not all of the classic tenets of S&S are her speed, she does have a particular affinity for the genre's outsider perspective - in particular the ability to convey queer joy in the trope of carving out one's own space in a wild landscape. A wonderful author from what I've read of her, and it's nice as a fellow queer person to see the same things resonate.
And perhaps it is Hammond's assertions (and Brackenbury's enthusiastic digging into them) that convey so well why this magazine gives me so much joy.
January 26, 2025
Sustaining momentum is always the challenge of magazines and journals. So far, NESS is coming out on time, filled with content with exceedingly high production values.
The content itself? This one is a letdown.
Although sporting what I think is the best cover of the five issues (including Zero issue) so far, I confess that this issue left me colder than not. Part of that is momentum, part of that is, alas, I think the constraints editor Brackenbury puts on himself. Both every cover and the mast-page make bold comments about inclusivity (which I favor), but the urge to prove that in every issue can also lead to fiction that is forced.
First the bad or near-misses, so I can wrap up with the good -- because the good IS good.
A number of the stories this issue really want to "say" something deep and significant, and at least one tackles a serious issue faced in the trans community, but it is a sticky wicket to that within any good fiction, more so the requirements of genre fiction, and still fulfill the genre's goal of entertainment.
The lead-off story, GAZE UPON THE BEATING eye involves a pair of pilgrims climbing to a lost monastery where the Prophet of some unnamed faith had his deepest revelation. Their precarious mountain climb is best by rats and flood, and at last they find the mountain's secret and it is...not what they hoped.
Arguably, this is a story about the folly of faith and religion, and how the faithful can just move the target in the face of clear refutation of their beliefs. This is certainly a recurring theme, though not a common one, in fantasy and SF, from Philip Pullman to the Bone-Weaver to the particularly funny, yet thoughtful Towing Jehovah (1995). Here, the writing is crisp, the world-building (within the limited framework) very good but the story doesn't really go anywhere or say much new. It's not a bad story, but I think it is less 'deep' than perhaps the author hoped--Jeremy Pak Nelson's previous story in Issue 2: "A Debt Forgotten, a Debt Unpaid" is stronger.
"White in the Eye" by Jonathon Olfert is a cool idea: abandoned by thieves, a woman is captured by sorcerer in a compulsion spell that makes people carry his palanquin at a run through the desert until they drop dead. Sadly, that's it. There's no real character development, the sorcerer is no much more than a McGuffin and the internal dialogue and struggle to free herself is not terribly engaging, nor is the manner of that freedom particularly clear. This isn't a long story, but I struggled to finish it.
There are two stories by fantasy legends Michael Moorcock and Harry Turtledove, and both writers are far to skilled and experienced for their work not to be solid, but that isn't necessarily the same as "good". Look, I love Elric, but the truth is that when Moorcock returned to the character, he decided to write these dreamy episodes that read more like Dunsanian fantasy turned on its ear, than true S&S. I like that style of writing, but it has made these scattered, and usually shorter, Elric episodes feel jarringly different than the original novelettes that comprise that were made into the six-volume fixups I grew up with. I just can't get excited about them, much as I've tried. YMMV.
Turtledove's "The Jesting Jann" is set in Arabia in the centuries after Christianity but before Mohammed and involves two travelers--a Jew and a Christian--on a desert journey to an unnamed city. The story is OK, and as always with Turtledove, there's some interesting historical tidbits, but the story resolution hinges on a "reveal" of the destination city's identity, and that felt like a gimmick. There's also a weird little aside--an off camera "it was cold, we cuddled, things...happened, but what happens in the desert stays in the desert" only discussed briefly in a morning-after scene. Look, I'm fine with the queer content, but it comes out of nowhere, serves no role in the story, and the story is already fairly short. The entire thing really feels like it was wedged in by an author who didn't want to detail or discuss it, but felt the source magazine really wants queer representation so... It doesn't work; it distracts and NESS has done a far better job of representing gay characters, for example with the stories by David C. Smith.
Finally, "Serpents from the Ash" by June Orchid Parker, is a near miss from me. I really enjoyed Ms. Parker's first story involving a trans-woman warrior Astartha, in her first appearance: "How Many Deaths Til Vengeance" (NESS #2) and this story is far more ambitious. Basically, this is a story of medical gatekeeping. In this pseudo Greco-Roman world, few physicians know how to make the magical herbs or talismans that will allow "galla" to transition, and the one in this city mostly finds ways to deny her customers access to what they need to finish transitioning, so they are reliant on her. One of the galla has killed herself over this and the others decide to get Astartha to help them deal with the doctor. From there, it turns into a phantasmagoric adventure, as the physician turns out to be serving a dark god that thrives on suffering. There's world travel and a strange encounter with the god in what could be an endless bank of *modern* morgue beds, as the god appears as a snake curling up a vast spine...rather like both the kundalini serpent, or the Caduceus of modern medicine.
It's bold stuff and the feelings of the author--a transwoman who dealt with this issue--palpable. But it also has to work as fiction, ideally for any audience, including a cis man (me) and there the story is sort of a mess. The opening scene with the physician is hurried, the travel into the god's realm jumbled, and as visually dynamic as the serpent on the spine is, from there the symbolism is far-from-subtle and at times breaks the narrative flow. I wanted to like this, but was mostly left feeling it needed one more draft. Parker can write, however, and I'll certainly read more by her.
Now, the good. Only three of the stories really clicked with me, but they were quite good, and the third is twice as long as the others, so from a page-count POV there's more balance between pro and con than it might at first seem.
"The Concord of the Uthar" by Kirk Johnson kicks things up a notch and was the first story I really liked. Johnson has been steadily developing his own "S&S Africa" and this entry introduces us to an island culture where a highly-coveted berry grows. The islanders are growing rich from it, but there is an undying sorceress, long asleep but recently returned, getting in the way of their trade. Our heroes are sent to deal with her. Fun, an interesting "duo," this is something of a buddy caper filled with shapeshifters, duplicitous traders (but maybe not the ones you suspect), and of course, a witch whose nature is never fully revealed. Johnson's writing continues to improve and I enjoy his world.
"Hunters" is an add-on by editor Oliver Brackenbury, a fairly short, monster-hunt story about a woman pursing a monstrous "lion"...perhaps not for any reason one would guess. The epilogue scene here is also a "reveal" but unlike the Turtledove story, I didn't see it coming and it actually reveals a lot about our heroine. A short little piece, but fun.
In the "Battle of the Nine Waters" Dariel Quiogue returns with another tale of Orhan Timur the Snow Leopard. Orhan is to Jinghiz Khan what Howard Andrew Jones' Hanuvar is to Hannibal: a thinly veiled fantasy analogue living in a "what if" parallel world. Orhan has been on the run from his blood brother Jungar Khan for a long time, and in this story, he gets a chance to perhaps settle scores with the Khagan once and for all. Fleeing into this world's Northern India, he brings word that Jungar Khan's horde is marching through the mountain passes to overwhelm the various city-states. The proud, knightly Rajeen (rajputs) disagree how best to fight the threat, with many displeases to follow the lead of a foreign exile they've fought against before. A plan comes together, but none realize that Jungar Khan has more than human allies.
This story has everything from nigh-unkillable witches to a massive battle complete with war-elephants and...oh, that would be telling! Quiogue has been writing Orhan long-enough now that these stories all just flow and sing convincingly...if anything he is the sword & sorcery descendant of Harold Lamb's Khlit the Cossack written with Robert E. Howard pacing. Orhan will soon have a novella out by Brackenbury press, and I look forward to seeing what 50K worlds lets the author do with this character!
The rest of issue 4 is dedicated to articles. Kora Buhlert has been profiling women in S&S and this issue brings us to one of the greatest writers in that genre and in dark fantasy: Tanith Lee. It's an excellent profile and just in time: a lot of Lee's best work in this area has been rereleased in eBook. "Axes at the End of History" by Nathaniel Webb looks at the relationship between S&S and Heavy Metal and goes in some unexpected directions. Finally, Brackenbury returns with a truly excellent interview with Bryn Hammond. Hammond also focuses on the Mongols, only the ones in OUR world. There is a lot to unpack in this interview: history, hisfic vs. fantasy (is there really a difference?), writing queer characters that fit the story world--indeed writing ANY characters that do so, but can be relatable. Hammond is widely read, thinks deeply and is not your usual S&S author; there's a lot of goodies in her thoughts.
So, all in all two good stories, one excellent one and one of the better issues for its non-fiction. NESS #4 is more uneven than its predecessors, but that comes with building a consistent release schedule, a stable of authors and trying new things.
The content itself? This one is a letdown.
Although sporting what I think is the best cover of the five issues (including Zero issue) so far, I confess that this issue left me colder than not. Part of that is momentum, part of that is, alas, I think the constraints editor Brackenbury puts on himself. Both every cover and the mast-page make bold comments about inclusivity (which I favor), but the urge to prove that in every issue can also lead to fiction that is forced.
First the bad or near-misses, so I can wrap up with the good -- because the good IS good.
A number of the stories this issue really want to "say" something deep and significant, and at least one tackles a serious issue faced in the trans community, but it is a sticky wicket to that within any good fiction, more so the requirements of genre fiction, and still fulfill the genre's goal of entertainment.
The lead-off story, GAZE UPON THE BEATING eye involves a pair of pilgrims climbing to a lost monastery where the Prophet of some unnamed faith had his deepest revelation. Their precarious mountain climb is best by rats and flood, and at last they find the mountain's secret and it is...not what they hoped.
Arguably, this is a story about the folly of faith and religion, and how the faithful can just move the target in the face of clear refutation of their beliefs. This is certainly a recurring theme, though not a common one, in fantasy and SF, from Philip Pullman to the Bone-Weaver to the particularly funny, yet thoughtful Towing Jehovah (1995). Here, the writing is crisp, the world-building (within the limited framework) very good but the story doesn't really go anywhere or say much new. It's not a bad story, but I think it is less 'deep' than perhaps the author hoped--Jeremy Pak Nelson's previous story in Issue 2: "A Debt Forgotten, a Debt Unpaid" is stronger.
"White in the Eye" by Jonathon Olfert is a cool idea: abandoned by thieves, a woman is captured by sorcerer in a compulsion spell that makes people carry his palanquin at a run through the desert until they drop dead. Sadly, that's it. There's no real character development, the sorcerer is no much more than a McGuffin and the internal dialogue and struggle to free herself is not terribly engaging, nor is the manner of that freedom particularly clear. This isn't a long story, but I struggled to finish it.
There are two stories by fantasy legends Michael Moorcock and Harry Turtledove, and both writers are far to skilled and experienced for their work not to be solid, but that isn't necessarily the same as "good". Look, I love Elric, but the truth is that when Moorcock returned to the character, he decided to write these dreamy episodes that read more like Dunsanian fantasy turned on its ear, than true S&S. I like that style of writing, but it has made these scattered, and usually shorter, Elric episodes feel jarringly different than the original novelettes that comprise that were made into the six-volume fixups I grew up with. I just can't get excited about them, much as I've tried. YMMV.
Turtledove's "The Jesting Jann" is set in Arabia in the centuries after Christianity but before Mohammed and involves two travelers--a Jew and a Christian--on a desert journey to an unnamed city. The story is OK, and as always with Turtledove, there's some interesting historical tidbits, but the story resolution hinges on a "reveal" of the destination city's identity, and that felt like a gimmick. There's also a weird little aside--an off camera "it was cold, we cuddled, things...happened, but what happens in the desert stays in the desert" only discussed briefly in a morning-after scene. Look, I'm fine with the queer content, but it comes out of nowhere, serves no role in the story, and the story is already fairly short. The entire thing really feels like it was wedged in by an author who didn't want to detail or discuss it, but felt the source magazine really wants queer representation so... It doesn't work; it distracts and NESS has done a far better job of representing gay characters, for example with the stories by David C. Smith.
Finally, "Serpents from the Ash" by June Orchid Parker, is a near miss from me. I really enjoyed Ms. Parker's first story involving a trans-woman warrior Astartha, in her first appearance: "How Many Deaths Til Vengeance" (NESS #2) and this story is far more ambitious. Basically, this is a story of medical gatekeeping. In this pseudo Greco-Roman world, few physicians know how to make the magical herbs or talismans that will allow "galla" to transition, and the one in this city mostly finds ways to deny her customers access to what they need to finish transitioning, so they are reliant on her. One of the galla has killed herself over this and the others decide to get Astartha to help them deal with the doctor. From there, it turns into a phantasmagoric adventure, as the physician turns out to be serving a dark god that thrives on suffering. There's world travel and a strange encounter with the god in what could be an endless bank of *modern* morgue beds, as the god appears as a snake curling up a vast spine...rather like both the kundalini serpent, or the Caduceus of modern medicine.
It's bold stuff and the feelings of the author--a transwoman who dealt with this issue--palpable. But it also has to work as fiction, ideally for any audience, including a cis man (me) and there the story is sort of a mess. The opening scene with the physician is hurried, the travel into the god's realm jumbled, and as visually dynamic as the serpent on the spine is, from there the symbolism is far-from-subtle and at times breaks the narrative flow. I wanted to like this, but was mostly left feeling it needed one more draft. Parker can write, however, and I'll certainly read more by her.
Now, the good. Only three of the stories really clicked with me, but they were quite good, and the third is twice as long as the others, so from a page-count POV there's more balance between pro and con than it might at first seem.
"The Concord of the Uthar" by Kirk Johnson kicks things up a notch and was the first story I really liked. Johnson has been steadily developing his own "S&S Africa" and this entry introduces us to an island culture where a highly-coveted berry grows. The islanders are growing rich from it, but there is an undying sorceress, long asleep but recently returned, getting in the way of their trade. Our heroes are sent to deal with her. Fun, an interesting "duo," this is something of a buddy caper filled with shapeshifters, duplicitous traders (but maybe not the ones you suspect), and of course, a witch whose nature is never fully revealed. Johnson's writing continues to improve and I enjoy his world.
"Hunters" is an add-on by editor Oliver Brackenbury, a fairly short, monster-hunt story about a woman pursing a monstrous "lion"...perhaps not for any reason one would guess. The epilogue scene here is also a "reveal" but unlike the Turtledove story, I didn't see it coming and it actually reveals a lot about our heroine. A short little piece, but fun.
In the "Battle of the Nine Waters" Dariel Quiogue returns with another tale of Orhan Timur the Snow Leopard. Orhan is to Jinghiz Khan what Howard Andrew Jones' Hanuvar is to Hannibal: a thinly veiled fantasy analogue living in a "what if" parallel world. Orhan has been on the run from his blood brother Jungar Khan for a long time, and in this story, he gets a chance to perhaps settle scores with the Khagan once and for all. Fleeing into this world's Northern India, he brings word that Jungar Khan's horde is marching through the mountain passes to overwhelm the various city-states. The proud, knightly Rajeen (rajputs) disagree how best to fight the threat, with many displeases to follow the lead of a foreign exile they've fought against before. A plan comes together, but none realize that Jungar Khan has more than human allies.
This story has everything from nigh-unkillable witches to a massive battle complete with war-elephants and...oh, that would be telling! Quiogue has been writing Orhan long-enough now that these stories all just flow and sing convincingly...if anything he is the sword & sorcery descendant of Harold Lamb's Khlit the Cossack written with Robert E. Howard pacing. Orhan will soon have a novella out by Brackenbury press, and I look forward to seeing what 50K worlds lets the author do with this character!
The rest of issue 4 is dedicated to articles. Kora Buhlert has been profiling women in S&S and this issue brings us to one of the greatest writers in that genre and in dark fantasy: Tanith Lee. It's an excellent profile and just in time: a lot of Lee's best work in this area has been rereleased in eBook. "Axes at the End of History" by Nathaniel Webb looks at the relationship between S&S and Heavy Metal and goes in some unexpected directions. Finally, Brackenbury returns with a truly excellent interview with Bryn Hammond. Hammond also focuses on the Mongols, only the ones in OUR world. There is a lot to unpack in this interview: history, hisfic vs. fantasy (is there really a difference?), writing queer characters that fit the story world--indeed writing ANY characters that do so, but can be relatable. Hammond is widely read, thinks deeply and is not your usual S&S author; there's a lot of goodies in her thoughts.
So, all in all two good stories, one excellent one and one of the better issues for its non-fiction. NESS #4 is more uneven than its predecessors, but that comes with building a consistent release schedule, a stable of authors and trying new things.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews