Death Dealers & Diabolists

by D.M. Ritzlin (Editor), Geoff Blackwell, Jed J. Del Rosario

Are you ready for adventure? This anthology will take you from fifth-century Constantinople to Dark Age Finland to places beyond imagining. You will encounter a former gladiatrix in the employ of demon summoners, an overly ambitious barbarian chieftain, a doddering pyromancer, and incarnations of holy warriors of India.

Death Dealers & Diabolists contains eight exciting tales of swords and sorcery by an assortment of talented authors, including Buzz Dixon (writer for the Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Thundarr the Barbarian cartoons) and Keith Taylor (author of the Bard series).

Stories included:

“Q’a the Librarian” by Buzz Dixon

“The Man With the Evil Eye” by Keith Taylor

“The Vault of Geigar Verakas” by Kenneth R. Gower

“Lord of the Wood” by Geoff Blackwell

“Ranorax, Son of the Tiger” by Mark Taverna

“Intrigue in the Unassailable City” by Carl Walmsley

“Three Coins of Doom” by Bryan Dyke

“The Age of Crows—The Return of the Swarm” by Jed J. Del Rosario

Genres: Sword and Sorcery, Fantasy, Anthologies

212 pages, Paperback

Published July 23, 2019

About the author

D.M. Ritzlin founded DMR Books in 2015 with the aim of revitalizing sword-and-sorcery literature. DMR’s publications include reprints of classic material by authors such as Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, as well as brand-new collections and anthologies by some of the finest fantasy writers active today.

A collection of his own stories, Necromancy in Nilztiria, was released in October 2020.
Nilztiria is a world of adventure and strangeness, peopled by lusty heroes and callous villains. The thirteen sword-and-sorcery stories presented in Necromancy in Nilztiria place the emphasis on sorcery and mix in a touch of gallows humor.

For more information on all of his projects, visit dmrbooks.com.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death Dealers & Diabolists is another quality sword and sorcery anthology published by DMR books. All of the authors, except Keith Taylor, were new to me.

Q'a the Librarian is first. Buzz Dixon presents a warrior woman named Q'a who takes employment in an occult library. Very intimidating woman. There is only so much evil a person can witness before you have to do something about it. 5/5

The Man with the Evil Eye is second. Keith Taylor is S & S royalty, and he presents a tale of three very different friends who help a courtesan in danger. Catching the evil eye of Harmatius. 5/5

The Vault of Geigar Varakas is third. The thief Kral is propositioned by the beautiful Firien to steal from Geigar Varakas. Geigar Varakas is essentially the Bad, Bad Leroy Brown of this story. Kral has his own personal debt to settle with Varakas. 3/5

Lord of the Wood is fourth. Ville is away when his homestead is ravaged and his family killed. He takes a page from Liam Neeson. "Robbers, slavers, vagrants, could be anyone. They had nearly three days' head start on him at this point. No matter! He would find them and meet them if they were men, beasts, or the gods themselves." 4/5

Ranorax, Son of Tiger is fifth. Spoiled and bored son of a northern chieftain decides to make prophecy fit him, but finds a different fate instead. 3/5

Intrigue in the Unassailable City is sixth. Possibly my favorite. The setting is an up-thrust of rock in the sea, rich on top with the poor on the bottom. Soil is precious, like the film Waterworld. Menias has been a long time gone and has returned for his love Carwynn. Think of the old song Down in the Boondocks. Menias' return home may just be the death of him. 5/5

Three Coins of Doom is seventh. A seedy tavern, magical assassins, a pirate captain, a pyromancer, flammable vegetables. Interesting with an open ending. 3/5

Age of Crows: Return of the Swarm is the last. Decadent present, a hero with a jaded past. Very dismal. Good vs. Evil. Creation vs. entropy. 3/5

[S.E. Lindberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading anthologies enables readers to discover new voices and authors, and since short stories launched the Sword & Sorcery genre in the ~1920's, the Goodread's S&S Group has a 2-month groupread every Jan-Feb for this purpose. This is my first DMR anthology and I am impressed. This bodes well for many others (like Swords of Steel Omnibus, Warlords, Warlocks & Witches, and the The Infernal Bargain and Other Stories). I only knew of Keith Taylor from this set. Three of the four that stick with me are ones that had less forward-momentum than I normally expect, but they ended strong and surprised me. I star my favorites below. The genre may have started in the 1920's, but anthologies like this one demonstrate that it still lives strong.

“Q’a the Librarian” by Buzz Dixon
Many others on Goodreads enjoyed this the most. It is true to the theme of “Death Dealers and Diabolists”. You can root for the anti-heroine Q'a since the other characters are eviler than she. Involves plenty of sacrifice and murdering children, and Q’a could care less. However, her immorality wore off on me, so I wasn't as engaged with any of her antagonists/plight. This opening entry consumes 28% of the book too, which wasn't necessary. Would definitely appeal to Grimdark readers.

“The Man With the Evil Eye” by Keith Taylor
I adore Keith Taylor's work (i.e., Servant of the Jackal God: The Tales of Kamose, Archpriest of Anubis ). This one was ok. Three crusader buddies (Palamides, Chiron, Michael) save an alleged murderer, a runaway woman, from a bunch of thugs hired by an evil magician/collector. Was hooked up to the point when the merry men met Harmatius. The ending battle/climax ended abruptly and with less reader-engagement than expected.

* “The Vault of Geigar Varakas” by Kenneth R. Gower
The tale of the thief Kral Mazan starts slow and meandering, but it ramps up nicely. He's good at cards and doesn't like cheating (stealing is alright though), and a card match with the wealthy, cheating Varakas gets him tossed into a street. There, a conniving woman, Firien, hires him to break into Varakas' treasure trove to retrieve an heirloom item for her--and seek revenge for himself. An eruption of Lovecraftian-like horror explodes on the scene which made the build-up satisfying.

* “Lord of the Wood” by Geoff Blackwell
This tells of the hunter Ville returning to a ravaged home. He tracks the death-dealers of his family considering revenge. Not much sorcery/diabolists in here. Very, very grim. Beautiful wording drew me in:

“Cold azure glitter replaced warm red glow. Skies lay naked, the moon and stars shone like pinpricks in tough fabric. Trails of teal and rich violet whipped across the firmament. He whistled into the shimmering aurora as though to beckon it closer. The sky fox danced tonight. A beautiful night to start Ville’s last hunt.”

“Ranorax, Son of Tiger” by Mark Taverna
Haukan of the Tiger Clan is a real ass and hopes to lead his clan soon. A pesky prophecy from their shaman indicates the leader will instead be a strange boy emerging from the woods. An okay entry. Not sure if Death Dealing or Diabolism motivated it.

* “Intrigue in the Unassailable City” by Carl Walmsley
Menias returns to his island city/home after sailing abroad as a mercenary for over a decade. He has a slim hope of reuniting with Carwynn, a lady of higher class who had a crush on him before he trekked off. But to find her he has to climb up the strata of the island from the poor docks. Having been sailing with a bunch of pirates hasn't helped his network. Old "friends" slow his mission to his love interest. This is the second of three tales that were a slow brew, that delivered in a satisfying way. Nice milieu and characterization.

“Three Coins of Doom” by Bryan Dyke
This has humor in it, which many like. But I am more of a curmudgeon, enjoying the humor only if there is a deeper story. Mau-Keefe is a pirate on a cryptic quest to track down an acquaintance (Naravian), while his compatriot wizard-buddy Lucrutius drinks more than he helps. Levity was nice to include to break up the grimness of the other stories, but the purple pummich's silliness overshadowed any story arc.

* “The Age of Crows—The Return of the Swarm” by Jed J. Del Rosario
A slow start sets up the epic premise of Angel vs Demon warfare. For the first third, I wasn't sure about its direction. Duryodan is the protagonist, but he is driven by a higher power (which chimes in via first-person narrative) and was summoned by a fellow angel, Vidur, to tackle a big job. Another angelic immortal, Nakula, also meddles as they battle a corrupt Emperor. Weird corpse-possessing flies/insects play a dominant role. I’m a sucker for necromancy and angelic battles like this one.

[Gregory Mele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death Dealers & Diabolists is one of many new sword and sorcery anthology published by DMR books and is both a paean to old-school sword & sorcery as it flourished in the '60s & 70s, and in many cases, those same ideas presented in ways that intriguingly new. Like any anthology, it isn't perfect, but it delivers on its promises.

Q'a the Librarian by Buzz Dixon
Dixon wrote many of the adventure cartoons I grew up with (personal favorite, Thundarr the Barbarian) and went on to write a wide variety of things, including a Christian YA series. You'd never guess that here. Q'a is a big, brutal warrior woman, who is a pseudo-African equivalent to Karl Edward Wagner's Kane. The tale she is in is...dark. Imagine a Clark Ashton Smith sort of fantasy -- a city built around a sorcerous library of impossible scope, and demonic contents -- if you then stripped all of the CAS styling out and had Quentin Tarantino write it. It's fast, subversive and dark, and honestly...the story was great, but I am not sure what to make of Q'a. On one hand, the story argues a person can witness only so much evil before they have to act, but on the other, Q'a comfortably works as a slaver, ferries human sacrifices -- men, women, children and infants -- off to their demise, and even when she acts, she thinks nothing of saving her own life during a fight by throwing an innocent bystander in the way of sword-thrust. We're never really left with a clear impression of what the author wants us to think of her, and I am not sure it entirely works here. But the story is original, the writing is well-done, and I certainly turned my digital pages quickly. 4/5

The Man with the Evil Eye by Keith Taylor
If you loved S&S you know Keith Taylor, who was active all through the 80s (his Bard novels are classics) and then disappeared for a time. He returns here with a story set in the early Byzantine period, where three young warriors of very different personalities and backgrounds, rescue a courtesan from a street attack and get more than they bargained for. Very fun, and the setting and characters, plus an unanswered plot point, begs for more stories in this setitng. 5/5

The Vault of Geigar Varakas by Kenneth Gower
This one was less original, a thief Kral is propositioned by a beautiful woman to steal from a notorious gangster, who may be his a sorcerer. Of course, no one is quite as they seem. Nothing bad with this story but nothing really is great, and the ending is lackluster. 3/5

Lord of the Wood by Geoff Blackwell.
A tale set on the borders of medieval Finland and Lappland, this was perhaps my favorite story. Ville the bear-hunter is away when his homestead is ravaged and his family killed by marauders. What begins as a simple revenge story becomes increasingly more mytho-poetic, with some deeply evocative prose, a fantastic ending -- very much feels like a retelling of a traditional folk-myth. 5/5

Ranorax, Son of Tiger by Mark Taverna
In a possibly post-apocalyptic world, a northern tribe dwells among the ruins of some sort of fortress, awaiting the day when a prophesied son of the Tiger Totem will appear to unite their clans and lead them south in conquest. Our anti-hero, the current clan-chief's son, has no interest in being disinherited and decides he can manipulate the prophecy to reveal himself as the chosen one, but his plans go horribly awry. Taverna can write, but his story doesn't live up to its potential, I think for being too brief. 4/5

Intrigue in the Unassailable City by Carl Walmsley.
Another story that was very intriguing, but doesn't quite hit perfection. Menias, who fled his home, and the rich girl he loved, to make a name and fortune for himself as a soldier, returns home after ten years with neither. He wanders into a plot that is straight out of noir fiction, but one of the big twists hinges on a rather weak belief that a gangster would put a hit on someone and then not verify the body he is shown is the right man. The setting is fascinating -- an up-thrust of rock in the sea, with the wealthy living in a city on top, and the poorer folks living in caves mined throughout. 4/5

Three Coins of Doom by Bryan Dyke
A "kitchen soup" fantasy story that hits every trope of the genre, from beginning in a tavern, to pyromantic sorcery and pirates. The prose isn't very smooth, the character uninteresting, and while the gimmick of the three coins was really well-done when it first appears, I struggled to not just flip to the next story. 2/5

Age of Crows: Return of the Swarm by Jed Del Rosario
This story is more high fantasy and the others, but has the gritty quality of S & S that survives into things like modern grimdark fantasy. Rosario is from the Philippines and weaves eastern myth with dashes of western Gnosticism to create a very interesting world and hero. Imagine something like the dual gods of good and evil in Zoroastrianism, and we are late in this era's battle between the two. Things are winding down, and after countless reincarnations, the "good" god's servitors are weary. This short story could easily have expanded into a novella and is full of good characters, interesting magic and world that deserves another visit. There is a gimmick wherein we have the omniscient narrator as a character (I won't say more) and it's neat, but I am not sure entirely necessary, and might have worked even better with the ambiguity that would have arisen without the extra narration. 5/5

[Jim Kuenzli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another really good collection of short sword and sorcery stories by DMR. Ritzlin put together a good group of authors for this one. All 8 stories were strong. Several tinged with macabre. Really enjoyable.

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an anthology, this was surprisingly even throughout. Many of the stories were decent sword & sorcery tales, featuring evil cults, otherworldly monsters, swordplay, magical items, depravity, and folks trying to do the right thing in worlds where wickedness is the norm.

Easily my favorite story was "The Man with the Evil Eye," a tale of classical mythology butting against the Byzantine era where the heroes were a group of youths jumping into a situation more dangerous than they expected. I liked the tone, the pace, the language. It was good stuff. I was happy to see the story's author has written novels in the past, though his old paperbacks might be hard to come across where I live. Hopefully he composes a book available on Kindle soon.

Another good one was "Lord of the Wood" which takes place in Finland. It's a revenge tale of a man seeking out those who destroyed his village. The supernatural elements were kept to a minimum, but the emotional and setting descriptions felt quite real.

I won't go into the rest of the tales in much detail. So many other reviewers here have done so. You can check out what they said about each story. In my opinion, the remainder of the collection fell somewhere between okay and good. Some stories felt novel, others felt like a Frankensteining of cliches and tropes into a new beast. These being sword and sorcery tales, one expects a certain amount of blood to be spilled during the adventuring, but occasionally the stories got so violently dark, they just turned my stomach. The first story, "Q'a the Librarian" especially so, as it featured multiple child sacrifices and, as the father of two, that sort of thing turns me off. If you like dark, rejoice: the collection also features flesh burrowing flies and a death cult that senselessly slaughters tavern customers. I suppose the saber-toothed tigers and combustable beets help balance it out.

Oddly enough, there was a bit of sameness throughout, and as a result, reading became tiresome after the fifth story or so. By the time I finally got to the last tale, I had had more than enough. (Ironically, the last story featured a weary protagonist who had also had more than enough.) I'd like to explore more books from this company—despite my criticisms, I really enjoyed reading this!—but I think I might space out the reading so I'm not just inhaling it all at once.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthologies are always tricky to review as by their very nature there is a variety that must then be averaged by the reviewer. However, as, found below, there is already a review of this anthology which lists out each of the stories within it with a bit of a description for each one, that is unnecessary. Accordingly, this reviewer can give his five stars and then focus his review on the standout story in Death Dealers & Diabolists, "Q'a the Librarian".

Buzz Dixon's "Q'a the Librarian", the first story in Death Dealers & Diabolists, is an astounding novella and is worth the price of the whole anthology alone. It tells a thorough, complete story that both establishes the lead character and sets up a fantasy world without devolving into an atlas of the author's imagination. According to an interview of Dixon by editor Dave Ritzlin, Dixon is already working on more Q'a stories. This is great news and this reader truly hopes that all Dixon's Q'a stories will be collected and released as a future DMR release. And he hopes this will occur sooner rather than later as, again, while only a novella, Dixon sets up Q'a with the same aplomb that Howard set up Conan and Saunders set up Imaro.

While Dixon's "Q'a the Librarian" was clearly the favorite of this reviewer, the other seven tales --some more history-based while others set more in fantasy worlds-- found within Death Dealers & Diabolists were also quite entertaining and this reviewer hopes he will see more of each author's work in future DMR releases.

So, pick up Death Dealers & Diabolists for the first story and then enjoy the seven others too.

[James T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read all of the DMR sword and sorcery collections. This is probably the best in terms of overall quality and where I’d recommend starting. If you like it get the others.

The two stand outs to me in this volume are Q’a the Librarian & Intrigue in the Unassailable City.

Q’a is really fantastic. The store in itself is fantasy but in many ways captures the essence of boredom in a job. It’s a dark comedy, a little too dark at times for me, but I couldn’t put it down. It’s a real treat. Both from the perspective of a surely fun adventure story and also the deeper metaphor for working for an immoral corporation and having enough.

Intrigue in the Unassailable City has a really fantastic setting and a great sense of swashbuckle. Maybe it’s a bit predictable and the action seems can be a bit blurry but overall it just gets that “days of high adventure” feeling down just right.

The rest are decent to good range. I think the last story “Age of Crows - Return of The Swarm” is a great idea, but it felt like it needed more time in the oven and an editor?

Overall I think this is a treat for S&S fans and the best of DMRs releases written by contemporary authors. Keep them coming!

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing anthology of new Sword and Sorcery tales, every author but one unknown to me until now.

And that last story, “The Age of Crows—The Return of the Swarm” by Jed J. Del Rosario is an epic, ancient history, myth, and fantasy melded into S&S, something I was looking for but didn't know it.

Highest recommendations.

[WhitePillMedia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another nice anthology from DMR. These stories were mostly dark and grim but there was some levity in there with a few entries. My favorites were Q'a the Librarian, which is now one of my favorite stories by DMR. I liked Man with the evil eye and Lord of the Wood for the interesting mythology they incorporated and I liked Ranorax, son of the Tiger as well. Very pleased with the anthologies I've read from DMR.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a S & S anthology (for the most part) that deals with cults (also for the most part). The stories are mostly of good quality and it’s a fairly fast read.

“Q’a the Librarian” is delightfully shocking. I don’t know if the creator started with the old Yankovich comedy satire of “Conan the Librarian” and expanded on it-either way this is a fairly intense story that expands to worlds beyond that satire. It is inherently dark while being grimly comedic at times, channeling the same sort of dark intensity that made “the Hunger Games” shockingly entertaining and then taking that concept and giving it super steroids. I’m not sure how much more one can write about this story other than that it is by far the most shocking piece in this collection with a nice play on expectations that goes back around again.

“The Man with the Evil Eye” was a sort of musketeers in either late eastern Rome or Byzantium. It is fairly fast moving and was the sort of dashing, action adventure piece fans of this subgenre ought to enjoy.

“The Vault of Geiger Verakas” was probably the best written piece I have read in a while in terms of its creators raw ability to use language-a worthy lexicon is used with an uncanny ability to knot together new phrases that made the prose truly wonderful. The actual story was alright, though the prose is what blew me away here.

“Lord of the Wood” was a fine primordial adventure, twisting the sympathies to the side of the arguable “cultists” here in the face of atrocities committed by death dealers. A fine story with strong emotional appeal.

“Renorax, Son of Tiger” was another fun piece-here the protagonist is not the hero. Indeed, I don’t even know if he qualifies as an anti-hero, which means our villian here is rather unique, as readers will see.

“Intrigue in the Unassailable City” was probably the most emotionally moving work in this collection of often emotionally moving pieces. While not everyone will identify with the veteran soldier coming home motif, the coming home aspect and seeking lost dreams surely most everyone ought to feel something for.

“Three Coins of Doom” was intended to be a comedic, bitter sweet piece. Some of the jokes fell a bit flat for me and there wasn’t enough story beyond the jokes despite a strong setting and interesting characters. While I have liked other writing by this author (assuming I don’t have my authors confused) this one sadly just didn’t do it for me-I sort of felt like this story might have been okay for a first chapter, but for a stand alone story there were to many dropped intrigants that were left unresolved.

“The Age of Crows” read to me as a Christian Sword & Sorcery story. I rather liked the narrative device this story used and how it melded perfectly with the story itself.

Overall, if your looking for a dark, macabre good read full of adventure this is a good anthology for you.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid collection of sword & sorcery tales covering several types of heroic fantasy within. The best tale, in my opinion, was Buzz Dixon's "Q'a the Librarian". But the remaining tales were not bad at all.
Recommended.