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Swords Against Cthulhu #1
Swords Against Cthulhu
An anthology of sword and sorcery/Cthulhu Mythos. Mighty thewed barbarians battle alien wizardry and cosmic terror in a blind, unreasoning universe where only the strong survive...
156 pages, Paperback
First published June 29, 2015
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January 12, 2025
Swords Against Cthulhu edited by Gavin Chappell is by authors I have never heard of previously. All of the authors write short stories pretty much exclusively, and all of those primarily in the horror and weird genres. Most of the authors are young. Only one was published before 2011: D.J. Tyler published the first of his many short stories in 1999. Tyler is arguably the most (perhaps the only) established author in the anthology.
The sub-genre here is 100% sword-and-sorcery. In fact the full title of the book is Swords Against Cthulhu: An Anthology of Sword and Sorcery Fiction. There have been three Swords Against Cthulhu volumes produced so far, the first in 2015, subsequent volumes in 2017 and 2018. The first one is completely modern and definitely in the weird fiction genre. Many of the stories have strong horror elements to it. No one could mistake it for pure fantasy. At $2.46, the price for the Kindle version of the first volume, I think it a reasonable monetary investment for lovers of sword and sorcery and those who enjoy reading up and comer writers.
In the Gate of the Inner City by Damir Salkovic ★★★
This is a story about a group of warriors being sent by a sultan into the mythical city of Samarkand in order to oppose a khan who wants to take power over the city. Unfortunately for these men, the khan's plot is already well under way and they have a difficult time trying to hold the sultan's rule. In fact, there are a number of traps set for them they have to survive.
This is an exciting story with a lot of action and some good fight scenes. Salkovic does a good job of introducing a lot of characters and getting the reader to care about them. Otherwise the fight scenes would be meaningless.
However, there are a lot of characters to track in this story, thirteen by my count, and sometimes, due to the writing style, an action or characteristic can be challenging to figure out which character it applies to. I get the feeling I'm reading a scene from a longer story or even novel in which the characters have already been established. If so, Salkovic does a good job of introducing the characters and individualizing them.
I also liked the world of Samarkand, a medieval eastern city set in a valley. Most of the characters have Arabic names, all of which are applied correctly, and there are various nouns in good standard Arabic, madinah for city, for example. It's sophisticated immersion and adds to the reality.
I just wish I had time to get to know these characters even better before they get so involved in their various conflicts. We also never find how some have fared by story's end, such as Dawud, a main protagonist at the beginning, Mahmoud, a burly soldier, or Emir, the skillful swordsman. I'd read something longer with these characters if it existed.
The Burning Messenger by Matt Sullivan (pseudonym for Matthew John) ★★★1/2
This story was less character crowded than the previous story and therefore easier to follow, which I appreciated. It starts when Ulfric's son, Brun, returns to the village to announce Ulfric's slaying by a rival chief. The community had good relations with this chief and have no idea what changed. Bronyr, an over-the-hill warrior, proposes to investigate. Hielvun, a young, former slave girl hoping to prove herself as a warrior, volunteers to accompany Bronyr, who is happy to have any help he can get. The two go visit the rival chief and encounter more trouble than they could have ever imagined.
This was an exciting, suspenseful story all the way through that was well told, even if rather straightforward. I would happily read another story by Matt Sullivan and/or Matthew John. In fact, I see his Rogues in the House: Volume 1 is easily accessible.
The Caverns of Khidina by D.J. Tyrer ★★★★
Olbur's love-of-his-life has been seized and is being held for ransom. All Olbur has to do to win her freedom is slay a god. How does one slay a god, especially one after so many others have tried but failed? That's Olbur's dilemma. This was a fascinating tale of god-slaying gone wrong and the consequences.
If you click on Tyrer's linked name above, you can see he has written some interesting looking stuff. I'd return to this author.
Rite of Passage by Carl Fox ★★1/2
This is the first weak story of the anthology. It had promise. There is an interesting protagonist: Laran, a barbarian along the lines of Conan, only heavily tattooed. There is an interesting setting or two. A future setting from which he looks back. And a past setting of a village which has nearby caves with interesting properties. These caves transport one to other worlds where one can stay, or one can return to the village. Going through the caves is an initiation into manhood.
This is all fine, but where the story breaks down is 1) There was no need to show the reader the future setting. It was never returned to and meant nothing. 2) No conscious decision to return or stay was made after going through the caves. We never know why so many villagers didn't return. The few who do never talk. Why? We never find out. The story just becomes a series of random adventures getting through the caves and having lustful relations with deceptive monsters. Then we're twenty years later looking at corpses. Laran charges into darkness, sword drawn. The end.
Yeah, it doesn't make much sense to me either.
Modu by Mark Sims ★★
Modu does not know who his father is and lives on an island. One day marauders from a northern island come lay waste to Modu's village killing most of the men and capturing a few, such as Modu's brother. Modu and his mother survive that raid, but not the next. Modu has learned to wield a sword in the meantime, but no matter. He gets captured by Obsidi, Lord of Oom-R'lyeh.
The events that happen to Modu are all chronicled, but the motivations of the antagonists is never made clear, and the stakes of the various conflicts are not either. The story reads as a rather random catalog of events.
Followers of Mogolith by Mark Slade ★★1/2
Yasmine, seventh daughter to the moon concubine to King Rafael, is our protagonist. She lives on an island and is early on captured, raped, and becomes the fourth wife to a fat nobleman who wants to raise a demon-god named Mogolith. Yasmine uses her resources to try to oppose this.
Again, as in the previous story it feels like we just have here a relating of random events. Something is missing from this story to engage the reader to care about outcomes. There must be a story-telling art to that which is hard to teach. It's hard to accurately say what exactly is missing, though something clearly is.
These two stories are followed by two unexceptional poems by David S. Pointer of 15 and 10 lines respectively.
The Voyage of the Clewtunt by Ernesto Canepa and Sergio Palumbo ★★★
This is a flawed story to be sure. But I like it anyway. The protagonist is 6 feet tall, attractive Verserla. She is on board a ship heading for the southern continent in order to sell her services as a mercenary. First she gets into an argument with another female mercenary because of that woman's jealousy of Verserla. They're both interested in the same man. But before that dispute resolves a sea monster attacks their ship.
That's the entire plot. You wouldn't think that plot would be enough to sustain what I think is a novelette. (I didn't count; but it's got to be more than the 7,500 words or less short stories have.) And you'd be right. It isn't enough. The rest of the story consists or world-building, characterization, and length narrative explanations many readers would call data dumping. I get that these flaws are enough to ruin the story for many readers, but I found the world and the characters so interesting, I didn't really mind. Again, this is just a novelette at best. Therefore novel-sized world-building and characterizations aren't at all called for, but it's okay. This was a fun read nevertheless. If I ever find out this world or these characters are in a longer work by these guys, I'm there!
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness by Gavin Chappell ★★★★
This is the anthology editor's story and it was a strong one: well told, well written, completely professional, and very interesting. First of all, a muezzin is the Moslem call to prayer, always done in Arabic. You have heard the chant countless times on TV whenever there is a Middle Eastern scene.
This story was a real surprise. It's the only one so far set in modern times in the here and now of the real world. We're in Ash-Sham, or northeastern Syria most likely, and the protagonist is Rashid Al-Amriki, Rashid the American. He's a convert to ISIS that is leading a group of ISIS fighters under Al-Baghdadi with the mission of clearing a region of apostasy, meaning eradicating heretics.
All is going well for Rashid until he receives orders to clear this certain village no one has ever been able to clear before throughout history. So what's the problem?
I really enjoyed this long short story. It's probably a novelette as well. My only hesitation in liking it further is that in some respects the plot is too simple and the ending too early. I would like to know more about the menace and more about what measures are ultimately used to deal with it. Still, this is in some respects, at least up until the point it stopped, the least typical (in terms of setting) and yet best story so far in the anthology.
The Sword of Lomar by Jason Scott Aiken ★★★
This entire short story is a first-person narration of a sequence of events that happened to seventy-five year old Agnes Lanigan of Arkham. Agnes is transported into the body of a warrior who fights a battle. And that's pretty much it. No bells. No whistles. Just a linear straightforward account of a fictional battle in which nothing remarkable happens.
The story was enjoyable enough because I like the genre and the plot made sense. But reading the story added nothing new to my life or perspective of anything.
The Duellists by David Busboom ★★★1/2
A sword duel turns weird, really weird. This was a fun story to read, but short. It has nothing more to speak for it than the weird twist added during the duel, but it was enough to make the story worth reading.
The Worms Crawl In by J. Stratton ★★★
This is a story of a thief and loser who is really down on his luck and treated horribly. Nickolaus sees a chance to better his situation by selling a freshly killed corpse to local body butchers. But of course this turns into a disaster. Nickolaus's luck runs true to form.
This story is well told and the characters are well drawn, but the entire situation is so squalid that it's hard to get into the plot. There's no sword and sorcery in it either. The story is straight horror, gross horror at that. I'm not sure really what it's doing in this anthology.
The Thing in the Swamp by Stephen Hernandez ★★★★
This was an exciting story (probably a novelette) about Vidric, a mercenary barbarian warrior of ill temper, hired by Jobe to rid the town of a swamp monster that had recently been killing the village's citizens. The monster turns out to be a pre-historic relative of Cthulhu's who traversed the cosmos to land here on Earth. It is a truly terrifying mission Vidric has agreed to accomplish.
The strength of the story was in its strong characterizations of both the protagonist and the monster, and the methods Vidric uses to learn of the monster and how he then proceeds to fight it. This is a good barbarian action tale Robert E. Howard would have been proud to write.
The Lost Legion by Craig Sawyer ★★★
In a collection that was largely free of copy-editing mistakes I was surprised to see four or five in this story. It may be the longest story in the collection by a slight margin. Perhaps the editor got tired.
This story is basically about Rome versus Scottish Highlanders. As is well known, Rome never bothered to conquer the entire main British island. They stopped about two thirds of the way up, constructed a wall, and left the tribes that remained (Scots and Picts mostly) to the mountains in the upper third. Five Legionnaires of Rome, here called Turrisian rather than Roman, are on the run from a group of blue-faced highlanders, referred to as Barbars in this story. The Legionnaires make it back to their post, a fort, only to find it was overrun by Barbars while they were out on their mission to assassinate a local Barbar chieftan. The rest of the story is basically one of survival for these Legionnaires as they fight their way back to Turris against heavy odds. A complicating factor is their internal strife. They don't like each other much.
It's a promising premise, but the story then meanders and never quite comes together. Even its author seems unable to track or keep account of all the details Maybe he changed things in revising his story, but failed to read through his own tale to make sure there were no inconsistencies. The most glaring one was when one of the Legionnaires named Favus decided to make a run for it and was killed in the process. Yet he appears on the next page as if he had never left the group. Sloppy writing!
Anyhow, three stars for some good characters: I especially liked the Barbar witch they found back at the fort and the complicated relationship that ensues between her and the Legionnaires. I'd be willing to take a chance on reading another Craig Sawyer story sometime.
Where Gods Fear to Tread by Benjamin Sperduto ★★★1/2
This story was so much like the last that the details blur for me. This time we get the story from the perspective of the tribespeople, Arabs mostly in this story, pursuing the five Legionnaires, called apostates here. These tribespeople try to kill the apostates and raid their fortress, but the apostates have hidden resources of the supernatural sort that makes conquering them a real problem.
This story was long too, almost as long as the last story, but it was well written and flowed easily. Even if not particularly memorable, it was an easy enjoyable read. A good story to close this collection out on.
On the whole I really liked this collection. Perhaps too many of the stories were too much like the others for some to stand out. Nevertheless, I really very much liked three of the stories above all the rest: "The Caverns of Khidina" by D.J. Tyrer, "A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness" by Gavin Chappell, and "The Thing in the Swamp" by Stephen Hernandez. I include an honorable mention to Ernesto Canepa and Sergio Palumbo for creating a memorable heroine, Verserla, in their really odd story. If you purchase this collection, make sure you don't put it down before at least reading these four stories.
The sub-genre here is 100% sword-and-sorcery. In fact the full title of the book is Swords Against Cthulhu: An Anthology of Sword and Sorcery Fiction. There have been three Swords Against Cthulhu volumes produced so far, the first in 2015, subsequent volumes in 2017 and 2018. The first one is completely modern and definitely in the weird fiction genre. Many of the stories have strong horror elements to it. No one could mistake it for pure fantasy. At $2.46, the price for the Kindle version of the first volume, I think it a reasonable monetary investment for lovers of sword and sorcery and those who enjoy reading up and comer writers.
In the Gate of the Inner City by Damir Salkovic ★★★
This is a story about a group of warriors being sent by a sultan into the mythical city of Samarkand in order to oppose a khan who wants to take power over the city. Unfortunately for these men, the khan's plot is already well under way and they have a difficult time trying to hold the sultan's rule. In fact, there are a number of traps set for them they have to survive.
This is an exciting story with a lot of action and some good fight scenes. Salkovic does a good job of introducing a lot of characters and getting the reader to care about them. Otherwise the fight scenes would be meaningless.
However, there are a lot of characters to track in this story, thirteen by my count, and sometimes, due to the writing style, an action or characteristic can be challenging to figure out which character it applies to. I get the feeling I'm reading a scene from a longer story or even novel in which the characters have already been established. If so, Salkovic does a good job of introducing the characters and individualizing them.
I also liked the world of Samarkand, a medieval eastern city set in a valley. Most of the characters have Arabic names, all of which are applied correctly, and there are various nouns in good standard Arabic, madinah for city, for example. It's sophisticated immersion and adds to the reality.
I just wish I had time to get to know these characters even better before they get so involved in their various conflicts. We also never find how some have fared by story's end, such as Dawud, a main protagonist at the beginning, Mahmoud, a burly soldier, or Emir, the skillful swordsman. I'd read something longer with these characters if it existed.
The Burning Messenger by Matt Sullivan (pseudonym for Matthew John) ★★★1/2
This story was less character crowded than the previous story and therefore easier to follow, which I appreciated. It starts when Ulfric's son, Brun, returns to the village to announce Ulfric's slaying by a rival chief. The community had good relations with this chief and have no idea what changed. Bronyr, an over-the-hill warrior, proposes to investigate. Hielvun, a young, former slave girl hoping to prove herself as a warrior, volunteers to accompany Bronyr, who is happy to have any help he can get. The two go visit the rival chief and encounter more trouble than they could have ever imagined.
This was an exciting, suspenseful story all the way through that was well told, even if rather straightforward. I would happily read another story by Matt Sullivan and/or Matthew John. In fact, I see his Rogues in the House: Volume 1 is easily accessible.
The Caverns of Khidina by D.J. Tyrer ★★★★
Olbur's love-of-his-life has been seized and is being held for ransom. All Olbur has to do to win her freedom is slay a god. How does one slay a god, especially one after so many others have tried but failed? That's Olbur's dilemma. This was a fascinating tale of god-slaying gone wrong and the consequences.
If you click on Tyrer's linked name above, you can see he has written some interesting looking stuff. I'd return to this author.
Rite of Passage by Carl Fox ★★1/2
This is the first weak story of the anthology. It had promise. There is an interesting protagonist: Laran, a barbarian along the lines of Conan, only heavily tattooed. There is an interesting setting or two. A future setting from which he looks back. And a past setting of a village which has nearby caves with interesting properties. These caves transport one to other worlds where one can stay, or one can return to the village. Going through the caves is an initiation into manhood.
This is all fine, but where the story breaks down is 1) There was no need to show the reader the future setting. It was never returned to and meant nothing. 2) No conscious decision to return or stay was made after going through the caves. We never know why so many villagers didn't return. The few who do never talk. Why? We never find out. The story just becomes a series of random adventures getting through the caves and having lustful relations with deceptive monsters. Then we're twenty years later looking at corpses. Laran charges into darkness, sword drawn. The end.
Yeah, it doesn't make much sense to me either.
Modu by Mark Sims ★★
Modu does not know who his father is and lives on an island. One day marauders from a northern island come lay waste to Modu's village killing most of the men and capturing a few, such as Modu's brother. Modu and his mother survive that raid, but not the next. Modu has learned to wield a sword in the meantime, but no matter. He gets captured by Obsidi, Lord of Oom-R'lyeh.
The events that happen to Modu are all chronicled, but the motivations of the antagonists is never made clear, and the stakes of the various conflicts are not either. The story reads as a rather random catalog of events.
Followers of Mogolith by Mark Slade ★★1/2
Yasmine, seventh daughter to the moon concubine to King Rafael, is our protagonist. She lives on an island and is early on captured, raped, and becomes the fourth wife to a fat nobleman who wants to raise a demon-god named Mogolith. Yasmine uses her resources to try to oppose this.
Again, as in the previous story it feels like we just have here a relating of random events. Something is missing from this story to engage the reader to care about outcomes. There must be a story-telling art to that which is hard to teach. It's hard to accurately say what exactly is missing, though something clearly is.
These two stories are followed by two unexceptional poems by David S. Pointer of 15 and 10 lines respectively.
The Voyage of the Clewtunt by Ernesto Canepa and Sergio Palumbo ★★★
This is a flawed story to be sure. But I like it anyway. The protagonist is 6 feet tall, attractive Verserla. She is on board a ship heading for the southern continent in order to sell her services as a mercenary. First she gets into an argument with another female mercenary because of that woman's jealousy of Verserla. They're both interested in the same man. But before that dispute resolves a sea monster attacks their ship.
That's the entire plot. You wouldn't think that plot would be enough to sustain what I think is a novelette. (I didn't count; but it's got to be more than the 7,500 words or less short stories have.) And you'd be right. It isn't enough. The rest of the story consists or world-building, characterization, and length narrative explanations many readers would call data dumping. I get that these flaws are enough to ruin the story for many readers, but I found the world and the characters so interesting, I didn't really mind. Again, this is just a novelette at best. Therefore novel-sized world-building and characterizations aren't at all called for, but it's okay. This was a fun read nevertheless. If I ever find out this world or these characters are in a longer work by these guys, I'm there!
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness by Gavin Chappell ★★★★
This is the anthology editor's story and it was a strong one: well told, well written, completely professional, and very interesting. First of all, a muezzin is the Moslem call to prayer, always done in Arabic. You have heard the chant countless times on TV whenever there is a Middle Eastern scene.
This story was a real surprise. It's the only one so far set in modern times in the here and now of the real world. We're in Ash-Sham, or northeastern Syria most likely, and the protagonist is Rashid Al-Amriki, Rashid the American. He's a convert to ISIS that is leading a group of ISIS fighters under Al-Baghdadi with the mission of clearing a region of apostasy, meaning eradicating heretics.
All is going well for Rashid until he receives orders to clear this certain village no one has ever been able to clear before throughout history. So what's the problem?
I really enjoyed this long short story. It's probably a novelette as well. My only hesitation in liking it further is that in some respects the plot is too simple and the ending too early. I would like to know more about the menace and more about what measures are ultimately used to deal with it. Still, this is in some respects, at least up until the point it stopped, the least typical (in terms of setting) and yet best story so far in the anthology.
The Sword of Lomar by Jason Scott Aiken ★★★
This entire short story is a first-person narration of a sequence of events that happened to seventy-five year old Agnes Lanigan of Arkham. Agnes is transported into the body of a warrior who fights a battle. And that's pretty much it. No bells. No whistles. Just a linear straightforward account of a fictional battle in which nothing remarkable happens.
The story was enjoyable enough because I like the genre and the plot made sense. But reading the story added nothing new to my life or perspective of anything.
The Duellists by David Busboom ★★★1/2
A sword duel turns weird, really weird. This was a fun story to read, but short. It has nothing more to speak for it than the weird twist added during the duel, but it was enough to make the story worth reading.
The Worms Crawl In by J. Stratton ★★★
This is a story of a thief and loser who is really down on his luck and treated horribly. Nickolaus sees a chance to better his situation by selling a freshly killed corpse to local body butchers. But of course this turns into a disaster. Nickolaus's luck runs true to form.
This story is well told and the characters are well drawn, but the entire situation is so squalid that it's hard to get into the plot. There's no sword and sorcery in it either. The story is straight horror, gross horror at that. I'm not sure really what it's doing in this anthology.
The Thing in the Swamp by Stephen Hernandez ★★★★
This was an exciting story (probably a novelette) about Vidric, a mercenary barbarian warrior of ill temper, hired by Jobe to rid the town of a swamp monster that had recently been killing the village's citizens. The monster turns out to be a pre-historic relative of Cthulhu's who traversed the cosmos to land here on Earth. It is a truly terrifying mission Vidric has agreed to accomplish.
The strength of the story was in its strong characterizations of both the protagonist and the monster, and the methods Vidric uses to learn of the monster and how he then proceeds to fight it. This is a good barbarian action tale Robert E. Howard would have been proud to write.
The Lost Legion by Craig Sawyer ★★★
In a collection that was largely free of copy-editing mistakes I was surprised to see four or five in this story. It may be the longest story in the collection by a slight margin. Perhaps the editor got tired.
This story is basically about Rome versus Scottish Highlanders. As is well known, Rome never bothered to conquer the entire main British island. They stopped about two thirds of the way up, constructed a wall, and left the tribes that remained (Scots and Picts mostly) to the mountains in the upper third. Five Legionnaires of Rome, here called Turrisian rather than Roman, are on the run from a group of blue-faced highlanders, referred to as Barbars in this story. The Legionnaires make it back to their post, a fort, only to find it was overrun by Barbars while they were out on their mission to assassinate a local Barbar chieftan. The rest of the story is basically one of survival for these Legionnaires as they fight their way back to Turris against heavy odds. A complicating factor is their internal strife. They don't like each other much.
It's a promising premise, but the story then meanders and never quite comes together. Even its author seems unable to track or keep account of all the details Maybe he changed things in revising his story, but failed to read through his own tale to make sure there were no inconsistencies. The most glaring one was when one of the Legionnaires named Favus decided to make a run for it and was killed in the process. Yet he appears on the next page as if he had never left the group. Sloppy writing!
Anyhow, three stars for some good characters: I especially liked the Barbar witch they found back at the fort and the complicated relationship that ensues between her and the Legionnaires. I'd be willing to take a chance on reading another Craig Sawyer story sometime.
Where Gods Fear to Tread by Benjamin Sperduto ★★★1/2
This story was so much like the last that the details blur for me. This time we get the story from the perspective of the tribespeople, Arabs mostly in this story, pursuing the five Legionnaires, called apostates here. These tribespeople try to kill the apostates and raid their fortress, but the apostates have hidden resources of the supernatural sort that makes conquering them a real problem.
This story was long too, almost as long as the last story, but it was well written and flowed easily. Even if not particularly memorable, it was an easy enjoyable read. A good story to close this collection out on.
On the whole I really liked this collection. Perhaps too many of the stories were too much like the others for some to stand out. Nevertheless, I really very much liked three of the stories above all the rest: "The Caverns of Khidina" by D.J. Tyrer, "A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness" by Gavin Chappell, and "The Thing in the Swamp" by Stephen Hernandez. I include an honorable mention to Ernesto Canepa and Sergio Palumbo for creating a memorable heroine, Verserla, in their really odd story. If you purchase this collection, make sure you don't put it down before at least reading these four stories.
February 4, 2025
This is a fun little compillation of modern sword-and-sorcery weird tales that I read as part of the Weird Fiction reading group's readings.
It includes these stories:
In the Gate of the Inner City by Damir SalkovicDamir Salkovic ★★★
A bunch of warriors are attempting to thwart a coup effort in mythical Samarkand of mythicall past. Lots of fighting! Lots of characters, too. Fun. Totally would read a sequence of stories or longer story set in that world.
The Burning Messenger by Matt Sullivan Matthew John ★★★1/2
Something happened at this villlage! Ulfric the beloved chief got slayed by a rival chief. Warrior Bronyrand and girl warrior Hielvun are going to investigate and oh NO you'll never guess what happened next! Lots of fun to read.
The Caverns of Khidina by DJ Tyrer ★★★★
Olbur needs to kill a god to get his beloved back from the clutches of the lusty local king. But how does one slay a god? Well, he really tries.
Rite of Passage by Carl Fox ★★
Laran, an awesome barbarian, needs to get through some caves to prove he's now a man. Some stuff happens for unclear reasons. Not sure what happened, why, or how it ended.
Modu by Mark SimsMark Sims ★★★
Modu lives on an island. Some bad people come from another island, kill most of the men, took Modu's brother. Modu learnns to fight. Still gets captured. Not clear what's going on, but gloomy and fighty enough for fun.
Followers of Mogolith by Mark Slade ★★★
Yasmine, a very different-looking girl strays from her carers, despite the warnings, and - natch! - gets abducted, raped and sold to a fat ugly guy for a fourth wife. He is attempting to raise a demon-god named Mogolith. Yasmine tries opposing this, but in the end is the one who delivers the baby Ctulhu look-alike, in a seriously soft porn scene. Graphic and somewhat, perhaps unintentionally, self-ironic.
Two random poems by David S. Pointer ★
The Voyage of the Clewtunt by Ernesto Canepa and Sergio Palumbo ★
A super manly warrior girl is taking a sea voyage to go a-fighting in a far land. Gets into a fight with another old girl over sleeping with a handsome laddie on board. But -lo! some thing from outer space floats up, snatches up the laddie and eats him. The old gals have no more need for fighting. The story is in itself relatively interesting but is written in such a poor stilted English that is like the old translations of Japanese games, and I could not get past those heavy beaurocratic sentences.
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness by Gavin Chappell Gavin Chapell★★★★★
This is an unexpectedly awesome story, all of a sudden after alll the other ones. It is set in the modern world, in the Middle East, and features some terrorists led by an American convert clearing the area of apostats. In the process they are brutally but realistically murder all they find, including a Western scientist woman, and plough into that shrine thingy that's there - and oh no, looks like they really shouldn't have.
The Sword of Lomar by Jason Scott Aiken Jason Scott Aiken★★★★
As an older woman, I myself totally could relate! So, a 75 year old Agnes Laniggan of Arkham is starinng at the Polaris star and finds herself in the super hale body of a super warrior, leading her toughs into the battle. And battling. And loving it. And then looking back at Polrais and finding herself in an Arkham Sanatorium, a super sprightly old gal totally being feisty annd murderous.
The Duellists by David Busboom David Busboom★★★★★
A sword duel between some posh students turns unexpectedly very weird indeed. FUN.
The Worms Crawl In by J. Stratton ★★★★
This is a total grossfest. Like those Monty Python's peasants crawling in mud, the main protagonist is a horrible loser, and every sentence about him is grosser than the one before. He tries to sell some fresh corpses for money, but EWWWWWWWWWW. If this were made in a movie I would refuse to watch it because I hate it when giant worm thinggs emerge from one body annd eat your tongue annd all that. Stilll - fun, in a very gross sort of way.
The Thing in the Swamp by Stephen Hernandez Stephen Hernandez★★★★★
Now, this is a real swords and sorcery story!!! Vildric, an awesome barbarian, is hired to kill the Thing in the Swamp. Some Ctulhu spawn that flew in on a rock. The fight is real! I think, this is the best S&S story I read so far, not counting R Howard's own tales. The barbarian is awesome, the monster is awesome, the action is awesome, the story is tight.
The Lost Legion by Craig SawyerCraig Sawyer ★★★★
the Romans, man! Here they are fighting some Scottish men who bring with some sort of crazy stuff. Fun. That ending!
Where Gods Fear to Tread by Benjamin Sperduto ★★★★
Again, Romans, but fighting some Arabs. And some crazy supernatural stuff.
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Altogether, it is a fun little compilation and I am glad I read it.
It includes these stories:
In the Gate of the Inner City by Damir SalkovicDamir Salkovic ★★★
A bunch of warriors are attempting to thwart a coup effort in mythical Samarkand of mythicall past. Lots of fighting! Lots of characters, too. Fun. Totally would read a sequence of stories or longer story set in that world.
The Burning Messenger by Matt Sullivan Matthew John ★★★1/2
Something happened at this villlage! Ulfric the beloved chief got slayed by a rival chief. Warrior Bronyrand and girl warrior Hielvun are going to investigate and oh NO you'll never guess what happened next! Lots of fun to read.
The Caverns of Khidina by DJ Tyrer ★★★★
Olbur needs to kill a god to get his beloved back from the clutches of the lusty local king. But how does one slay a god? Well, he really tries.
Rite of Passage by Carl Fox ★★
Laran, an awesome barbarian, needs to get through some caves to prove he's now a man. Some stuff happens for unclear reasons. Not sure what happened, why, or how it ended.
Modu by Mark SimsMark Sims ★★★
Modu lives on an island. Some bad people come from another island, kill most of the men, took Modu's brother. Modu learnns to fight. Still gets captured. Not clear what's going on, but gloomy and fighty enough for fun.
Followers of Mogolith by Mark Slade ★★★
Yasmine, a very different-looking girl strays from her carers, despite the warnings, and - natch! - gets abducted, raped and sold to a fat ugly guy for a fourth wife. He is attempting to raise a demon-god named Mogolith. Yasmine tries opposing this, but in the end is the one who delivers the baby Ctulhu look-alike, in a seriously soft porn scene. Graphic and somewhat, perhaps unintentionally, self-ironic.
Two random poems by David S. Pointer ★
The Voyage of the Clewtunt by Ernesto Canepa and Sergio Palumbo ★
A super manly warrior girl is taking a sea voyage to go a-fighting in a far land. Gets into a fight with another old girl over sleeping with a handsome laddie on board. But -lo! some thing from outer space floats up, snatches up the laddie and eats him. The old gals have no more need for fighting. The story is in itself relatively interesting but is written in such a poor stilted English that is like the old translations of Japanese games, and I could not get past those heavy beaurocratic sentences.
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness by Gavin Chappell Gavin Chapell★★★★★
This is an unexpectedly awesome story, all of a sudden after alll the other ones. It is set in the modern world, in the Middle East, and features some terrorists led by an American convert clearing the area of apostats. In the process they are brutally but realistically murder all they find, including a Western scientist woman, and plough into that shrine thingy that's there - and oh no, looks like they really shouldn't have.
The Sword of Lomar by Jason Scott Aiken Jason Scott Aiken★★★★
As an older woman, I myself totally could relate! So, a 75 year old Agnes Laniggan of Arkham is starinng at the Polaris star and finds herself in the super hale body of a super warrior, leading her toughs into the battle. And battling. And loving it. And then looking back at Polrais and finding herself in an Arkham Sanatorium, a super sprightly old gal totally being feisty annd murderous.
The Duellists by David Busboom David Busboom★★★★★
A sword duel between some posh students turns unexpectedly very weird indeed. FUN.
The Worms Crawl In by J. Stratton ★★★★
This is a total grossfest. Like those Monty Python's peasants crawling in mud, the main protagonist is a horrible loser, and every sentence about him is grosser than the one before. He tries to sell some fresh corpses for money, but EWWWWWWWWWW. If this were made in a movie I would refuse to watch it because I hate it when giant worm thinggs emerge from one body annd eat your tongue annd all that. Stilll - fun, in a very gross sort of way.
The Thing in the Swamp by Stephen Hernandez Stephen Hernandez★★★★★
Now, this is a real swords and sorcery story!!! Vildric, an awesome barbarian, is hired to kill the Thing in the Swamp. Some Ctulhu spawn that flew in on a rock. The fight is real! I think, this is the best S&S story I read so far, not counting R Howard's own tales. The barbarian is awesome, the monster is awesome, the action is awesome, the story is tight.
The Lost Legion by Craig SawyerCraig Sawyer ★★★★
the Romans, man! Here they are fighting some Scottish men who bring with some sort of crazy stuff. Fun. That ending!
Where Gods Fear to Tread by Benjamin Sperduto ★★★★
Again, Romans, but fighting some Arabs. And some crazy supernatural stuff.
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Altogether, it is a fun little compilation and I am glad I read it.
February 15, 2025
I like that these are short stories. All quick reads. Some are better than others.
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