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Beating Hearts & Battle-Axes: Sword. Sorcery. Sizzle.
These blades are thirsty!
Beating Hearts & Battle-Axes infuses the mighty thewed bodies, action-adventure, and supernatural weirdness of Sword & Sorcery blended with elements of spice and sweetness, and an infusion of romantic fantasy.
Featuring six lengthy tales of love and adventure, of dangers to the body and mind, each with a relationship at their core, from acclaimed storytellers SL Huang, Bryn Hammond, David C. Smith, Brent Lambert, T.A. Markitan, and Valerie Valdes.
Beating Hearts & Battle-Axes infuses the mighty thewed bodies, action-adventure, and supernatural weirdness of Sword & Sorcery blended with elements of spice and sweetness, and an infusion of romantic fantasy.
Featuring six lengthy tales of love and adventure, of dangers to the body and mind, each with a relationship at their core, from acclaimed storytellers SL Huang, Bryn Hammond, David C. Smith, Brent Lambert, T.A. Markitan, and Valerie Valdes.
228 pages, Hardcover
Published November 20, 2025
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Jay Wolf
8 books6 followersKatherine & Jay Wolf are parents, artists, communicators, and survivors. After meeting in college, they got married and moved to Los Angeles to pursue law school for Jay and the entertainment industry for Katherine. Their son James was born in 2007 and six months later, Katherine’s life nearly ended with a catastrophic stroke. Miraculously, she survived and continues her recovery to this day. Katherine and Jay have shared their journey of whole-hearted living and hope in Christ in many forums since 2008. Katherine, Jay, and their family currently reside in Los Angeles, CA. www.hopeheals.com
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January 13, 2026
I read this because it feels (to me) that a lot of modern sword & sorcery has gotten more “manly” and eschews any kind of romance. I put “manly” in quotes because I think it’s modern hyper-masculine nonsense. Robert E. Howard often included romance in his stories, and they are definitely masculine fantasy stories. Edgar Rice Burroughs and Louis L’amour almost always put romance into their action adventures. At one point Edgar Rice Burroughs killed off Jane (in Tarzan the Untamed) because he couldn’t introduce romance in the Tarzan stories if Jane was there (ERB’s wife made him resurrect Jane in the next book, Tarzan the Terrible). Heck, Indiana Jones movies always have romance in them. I was disappointed in Scott Oden Presents The Lost Empire of Sol: A Shared World Anthology of Sword & Planet Tales, a sword and planet compilation, because none of the stories had romance in them, an element I feel essential to capturing the essence of sword & planet in the style of ERB. So, yeah, I wanted to back this. It was a mixed bag of great stories, abysmal stories, and okay stories. Let’s look at them.
“Rifts in Nature” by SL Huang
I didn't care for this story at all. There was nothing to hook me. The main character was unlikeable and had no discernable value to the story until the end. The main character, Dorial, just whined and bitched about EVERYTHING. He was a wimp. He was also an actor who didn’t know the trope that lot of theater people are gay. Well, he was an actor who didn’t even know he was gay. So much whining though. I like my sword & sorcery protagonists to be confident in their skills. Almost all the actual adventure was happening off-stage. The romance was okay, I guess, but I just didn't care for Dorial at all as a character. The scene where he realizes he was gay was amusing, though. And Jason, named after Jason and the Argonauts, seemed out of place as a name. I can see why Dorial might fall for Jason (athletic and a barbarian), but I am not so sure I get the reverse. Took me four sittings to get through 39 pages. It was dull, so dull. I’d give this story a D+ or, maybe, a C-.
“A Day in Irighaya or, The Invention of Love” by Bryn Hammond.
This story sucked. It was bad. No likeable characters, no obstacles for the romance to overcome, no hint of sword & sorcery. I guess it’s happening in Uzbekistan, but they have clockwork horses and giant Kaiju-sized gods that walk around fighting each other? There was no plot, just random events happening. It was all happenstance, and the protagonists weren’t trying to foil a plot by a sorcerer, priest, noble, or anything. They were just bystanders. All the discussions about class and the state were pointless, since that wasn’t what the story was about. The discussion on elephant history was pointless. The description of the play was pointless. Those discussions didn’t advance the plot one iota. If the story had been about these characters fighting the state or trying to restore elephants to the world, that would be one thing (maybe with sorcerers as symbolic capitalists), but it wasn’t. The characters deserved to be arrested. They literally did the crime they were arrested for.
The story was ostensibly about Angaj deciding if she was willing to be committed romantically to Qurjaqus, but there were no moments of proof of that growth, no gradual showing of a change of heart from fear of commitment to committing. It just kind of happened while all the other stuff was just kind of happening. Not that there was any fear shown. There were literally no obstacles that Angaj had to overcome to arrive at a decision of commitment/non-commitment. There were no stakes at risk in the outcome. The story was unsatisfying even in the purported point of it all. With no obstacles and no stakes, did it even matter?
Bryn Hammond does not show any discernable story structure here. When you have a point to the story, you put obstacles in the path, because we want to see the heroes overcome the obstacle. There were no obstacles to their romance. There were no mental pros and cons being listed by the one making the choice. They literally woke up, one asked the other for a commitment, had breakfast, got arrested for a murder they committed, used their pants to make weapons to escape, had lunch and sex, the other decided yes to commitment, then they performed in a play, and ran off when giant gods attacked each other. They escaped from their capture not because they felt imperiled, but because Qurjaqus felt ignored and bored. Qurjaqus wasn’t worried about her lover, just that she felt ignored by the guards and bored with being captured. This story is utter failure. It gets an F grade from me.
“The Demon’d Mirror of Rivilis the Damned” by David C. Smith
Oh, the difference between this story and the last is huge; a gulf of immeasurable distance lies between them. We quickly get their characters established, and that they are together as a couple. They are part of a trade convoy, and then they are placed into quick jeopardy, but it’s not just life and limb, their status as a couple is ripped asunder and now Callon will have to find a way to save his love. All of this happens quickly and in a few pages. When Rivilis forces Sensa to his side, I can’t NOT finish this story. I can’t set it aside and do something else. In a few pages, David C. Smith made me care about the characters and their relationship, something neither of the prior authors could pull off. The characters have real obstacles to overcome; obstacles I am not sure they can overcome. Fast. Paced correctly for making continued reading imperative. This story gets an A+ from me, and is the gem of the collection.
“Anchors We Make” by Brent Lambert
The two main characters, married, are summoned back to Solumbuc to help them. I don’t know how they got to be famous, but the dialogue does tell us they trained as soldiers in an army called the Corlus Apts. It turns out that Solumbuc condemns all gay men to be their army. So this city has enough gay men to build an army? Oh, and given that people in armies leave or die over time, this city is also big enough to sustain and replenish a gay army. I do not buy this. That’s a lot of gay people. You’d think the priests would wonder why their city produces enough gay men that they can literally maintain an army of them. Maybe it’s something in the water?
This story was a mixed bag. Let’s start with the things I didn’t like. The focus on the book was sword & sorcery with romance. There was no romantic element. Sure, the main characters were married, but it wasn’t like they need to rekindle their romance, or anything. I felt like things were included in the story without explanation, as though I was assumed to have read about these guys before (I haven’t heard of this author before). I didn’t know what a High Form was. I didn’t know what “the girls” were. It also didn’t feel like sword and sorcery at times, but more like generic fantasy, transforming entire armies into ravenous gravity-defying beasts, using magic to summon acid-spitting animals to ruin a tavern floor, or flight spells that turn eyebrows into feathers. The army of gay dudes was just weird. The extremely homophobic city protected by an army of gay guys took that weirdness to a whole other level. Let’s take the people we hate the most, give them swords and train them to kill, and make them protect us! Please. Also, this author is not good at describing battle, and even worse at describing armies clashing.
However, there were some things I did like. Once I figured out what a High Form was, I actually liked the concept of how magic worked in this world. I loved the Silent priests and their Words. Excellent concept. In the hands of someone who could write more atmospherically, in a more pulpy manner, they’d be terrifying. I liked the two main characters. They had personalities and ways of speaking that were their own. I liked the overall plot.
I’ll give this story a C+ rating. Lots of good stuff here, but some bad stuff, too.
“Luck is Blind” by T. A. Markitan
The story, “Luck is Blind,” starts off well, naming the character, where the character is going, and what he is hoping for, all in the first paragraph. Immediately, Tris (the protagonist) is put into jeopardy, and we meet the additional characters. I like the characters and their portrayals. No one is whining, either. One thing I hate in a sword & sorcery story is a whining protagonist; sword & sorcery protagonists should be skilled and confident, with a “neither beg nor yield” mentality – and Tris has that. He keeps trying to escape! It’s constantly thwarted but he isn’t giving up. Perfect. The battle scenes were well described and within the bounds of reality, grounded and brutal. I liked the witch and the lore about her and her children. The romance felt right for a story as short as this one. I liked the monster, the snake god, and the villain. I thought it concluded well. I hate that I struggle to articulate how much I like a story. I can write pages upon pages when I dislike a story, but when I like one my responses are short and to the point. It’s easy to point out where stories go wrong, but much more difficult to nail where it goes right. This story was good. This author knows how to craft characters that are likeable and fun to read about. The sorcery was dark and mysterious and not over the top. I’ll give it an A.
“The Cold Curse of Drathe” by Valerie Valdes
Aside from the weird apostrophes in almost all her made-up words, the story was good. I liked the character of Alena. Most of the others were thin characterizations, but good enough for the needs of this short story; Alena was solid enough to carry the story. The romance was told in flashbacks, giving some resonance to the ending. The weird city was appropriate for a sword & sorcery story. The plot was good, and the story was reasonably engaging, but the ending was telegraphed because the characters of the two villain characters were so one-dimensional. I rate this story a B+.
Conclusion
David C. Smith’s story was the absolute highlight of the book. It’s a shame it’s buried in the middle of lesser stories and that all of them were not of that caliber. I appreciate how the editor structured the stories to a pattern: the budding relationship; the established couple; old married couples; the throuple; and the second-chance romance. SL Huang’s story didn’t feel much like sword and sorcery, and the main character was anything but a S&S protagonist, but when the main character realized he was gay, that was memorable. Bryn Hammond’s story was a mess from the get-go and never improved, the “romance” not given any room to grow among improbable events that often made no sense, no obstacles, or anything to do with the plot, and it certainly wasn’t sword and sorcery. It tried badly to give social commentary. David C. Smith’s story, as I said, was fantastic; the romance was deeply imbedded in the plot and essential for the protagonist’s motivation. Brent Lambert’s story was interesting but had a lot of bad attempts at social commentary. I think these kinds of stories are great at social commentary, but when it’s that badly handled, I’d rather them not. Also, the romance had no obstacles. They were firmly established and made no difference to the plot. T.A Markitan’s story was another bright spot, with characters I liked, and an openness to a new form of relationship that mattered to the story. Valeris Valdes’ was good, marred by thin side characters that ultimately presaged the outcome, and a romance that could have been little more than a friendship without changing the outcome much. Still, it was a good read.
My full review, with a lot more details, can be found here: https://spraguedecampfan.wordpress.co...
“Rifts in Nature” by SL Huang
I didn't care for this story at all. There was nothing to hook me. The main character was unlikeable and had no discernable value to the story until the end. The main character, Dorial, just whined and bitched about EVERYTHING. He was a wimp. He was also an actor who didn’t know the trope that lot of theater people are gay. Well, he was an actor who didn’t even know he was gay. So much whining though. I like my sword & sorcery protagonists to be confident in their skills. Almost all the actual adventure was happening off-stage. The romance was okay, I guess, but I just didn't care for Dorial at all as a character. The scene where he realizes he was gay was amusing, though. And Jason, named after Jason and the Argonauts, seemed out of place as a name. I can see why Dorial might fall for Jason (athletic and a barbarian), but I am not so sure I get the reverse. Took me four sittings to get through 39 pages. It was dull, so dull. I’d give this story a D+ or, maybe, a C-.
“A Day in Irighaya or, The Invention of Love” by Bryn Hammond.
This story sucked. It was bad. No likeable characters, no obstacles for the romance to overcome, no hint of sword & sorcery. I guess it’s happening in Uzbekistan, but they have clockwork horses and giant Kaiju-sized gods that walk around fighting each other? There was no plot, just random events happening. It was all happenstance, and the protagonists weren’t trying to foil a plot by a sorcerer, priest, noble, or anything. They were just bystanders. All the discussions about class and the state were pointless, since that wasn’t what the story was about. The discussion on elephant history was pointless. The description of the play was pointless. Those discussions didn’t advance the plot one iota. If the story had been about these characters fighting the state or trying to restore elephants to the world, that would be one thing (maybe with sorcerers as symbolic capitalists), but it wasn’t. The characters deserved to be arrested. They literally did the crime they were arrested for.
The story was ostensibly about Angaj deciding if she was willing to be committed romantically to Qurjaqus, but there were no moments of proof of that growth, no gradual showing of a change of heart from fear of commitment to committing. It just kind of happened while all the other stuff was just kind of happening. Not that there was any fear shown. There were literally no obstacles that Angaj had to overcome to arrive at a decision of commitment/non-commitment. There were no stakes at risk in the outcome. The story was unsatisfying even in the purported point of it all. With no obstacles and no stakes, did it even matter?
Bryn Hammond does not show any discernable story structure here. When you have a point to the story, you put obstacles in the path, because we want to see the heroes overcome the obstacle. There were no obstacles to their romance. There were no mental pros and cons being listed by the one making the choice. They literally woke up, one asked the other for a commitment, had breakfast, got arrested for a murder they committed, used their pants to make weapons to escape, had lunch and sex, the other decided yes to commitment, then they performed in a play, and ran off when giant gods attacked each other. They escaped from their capture not because they felt imperiled, but because Qurjaqus felt ignored and bored. Qurjaqus wasn’t worried about her lover, just that she felt ignored by the guards and bored with being captured. This story is utter failure. It gets an F grade from me.
“The Demon’d Mirror of Rivilis the Damned” by David C. Smith
Oh, the difference between this story and the last is huge; a gulf of immeasurable distance lies between them. We quickly get their characters established, and that they are together as a couple. They are part of a trade convoy, and then they are placed into quick jeopardy, but it’s not just life and limb, their status as a couple is ripped asunder and now Callon will have to find a way to save his love. All of this happens quickly and in a few pages. When Rivilis forces Sensa to his side, I can’t NOT finish this story. I can’t set it aside and do something else. In a few pages, David C. Smith made me care about the characters and their relationship, something neither of the prior authors could pull off. The characters have real obstacles to overcome; obstacles I am not sure they can overcome. Fast. Paced correctly for making continued reading imperative. This story gets an A+ from me, and is the gem of the collection.
“Anchors We Make” by Brent Lambert
The two main characters, married, are summoned back to Solumbuc to help them. I don’t know how they got to be famous, but the dialogue does tell us they trained as soldiers in an army called the Corlus Apts. It turns out that Solumbuc condemns all gay men to be their army. So this city has enough gay men to build an army? Oh, and given that people in armies leave or die over time, this city is also big enough to sustain and replenish a gay army. I do not buy this. That’s a lot of gay people. You’d think the priests would wonder why their city produces enough gay men that they can literally maintain an army of them. Maybe it’s something in the water?
This story was a mixed bag. Let’s start with the things I didn’t like. The focus on the book was sword & sorcery with romance. There was no romantic element. Sure, the main characters were married, but it wasn’t like they need to rekindle their romance, or anything. I felt like things were included in the story without explanation, as though I was assumed to have read about these guys before (I haven’t heard of this author before). I didn’t know what a High Form was. I didn’t know what “the girls” were. It also didn’t feel like sword and sorcery at times, but more like generic fantasy, transforming entire armies into ravenous gravity-defying beasts, using magic to summon acid-spitting animals to ruin a tavern floor, or flight spells that turn eyebrows into feathers. The army of gay dudes was just weird. The extremely homophobic city protected by an army of gay guys took that weirdness to a whole other level. Let’s take the people we hate the most, give them swords and train them to kill, and make them protect us! Please. Also, this author is not good at describing battle, and even worse at describing armies clashing.
However, there were some things I did like. Once I figured out what a High Form was, I actually liked the concept of how magic worked in this world. I loved the Silent priests and their Words. Excellent concept. In the hands of someone who could write more atmospherically, in a more pulpy manner, they’d be terrifying. I liked the two main characters. They had personalities and ways of speaking that were their own. I liked the overall plot.
I’ll give this story a C+ rating. Lots of good stuff here, but some bad stuff, too.
“Luck is Blind” by T. A. Markitan
The story, “Luck is Blind,” starts off well, naming the character, where the character is going, and what he is hoping for, all in the first paragraph. Immediately, Tris (the protagonist) is put into jeopardy, and we meet the additional characters. I like the characters and their portrayals. No one is whining, either. One thing I hate in a sword & sorcery story is a whining protagonist; sword & sorcery protagonists should be skilled and confident, with a “neither beg nor yield” mentality – and Tris has that. He keeps trying to escape! It’s constantly thwarted but he isn’t giving up. Perfect. The battle scenes were well described and within the bounds of reality, grounded and brutal. I liked the witch and the lore about her and her children. The romance felt right for a story as short as this one. I liked the monster, the snake god, and the villain. I thought it concluded well. I hate that I struggle to articulate how much I like a story. I can write pages upon pages when I dislike a story, but when I like one my responses are short and to the point. It’s easy to point out where stories go wrong, but much more difficult to nail where it goes right. This story was good. This author knows how to craft characters that are likeable and fun to read about. The sorcery was dark and mysterious and not over the top. I’ll give it an A.
“The Cold Curse of Drathe” by Valerie Valdes
Aside from the weird apostrophes in almost all her made-up words, the story was good. I liked the character of Alena. Most of the others were thin characterizations, but good enough for the needs of this short story; Alena was solid enough to carry the story. The romance was told in flashbacks, giving some resonance to the ending. The weird city was appropriate for a sword & sorcery story. The plot was good, and the story was reasonably engaging, but the ending was telegraphed because the characters of the two villain characters were so one-dimensional. I rate this story a B+.
Conclusion
David C. Smith’s story was the absolute highlight of the book. It’s a shame it’s buried in the middle of lesser stories and that all of them were not of that caliber. I appreciate how the editor structured the stories to a pattern: the budding relationship; the established couple; old married couples; the throuple; and the second-chance romance. SL Huang’s story didn’t feel much like sword and sorcery, and the main character was anything but a S&S protagonist, but when the main character realized he was gay, that was memorable. Bryn Hammond’s story was a mess from the get-go and never improved, the “romance” not given any room to grow among improbable events that often made no sense, no obstacles, or anything to do with the plot, and it certainly wasn’t sword and sorcery. It tried badly to give social commentary. David C. Smith’s story, as I said, was fantastic; the romance was deeply imbedded in the plot and essential for the protagonist’s motivation. Brent Lambert’s story was interesting but had a lot of bad attempts at social commentary. I think these kinds of stories are great at social commentary, but when it’s that badly handled, I’d rather them not. Also, the romance had no obstacles. They were firmly established and made no difference to the plot. T.A Markitan’s story was another bright spot, with characters I liked, and an openness to a new form of relationship that mattered to the story. Valeris Valdes’ was good, marred by thin side characters that ultimately presaged the outcome, and a romance that could have been little more than a friendship without changing the outcome much. Still, it was a good read.
My full review, with a lot more details, can be found here: https://spraguedecampfan.wordpress.co...
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