Sword and Planet

by Christopher Ruocchio (Editor, Contribututor), Tim Akers (Contributor), Susan R. Matthews (Contributor)

NEW STORIES IN THE GRAND SPACE FANTASY TRADITION!

SCIENCE FICTION? FANTASY? IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR BOTH?

The distant future—like the distant past—is a place of myths, of legends, and of great heroes. Cyborg knights battle extraterrestrial demons to rescue a peaceful village. A young girl unlocks an ancient power to protect her world from offworld colonists. Here are stories not where magic is science, but with magic and science. Not knights and castles, but knights and starships. Wizards and ray guns. Swords and planets.

In D.J. Butler’s “Power and Prestige,” a pair of two-bit mercenaries are hired to solve a murder in a labyrinth beneath a crumbling city at the end of time. A young knight must face down an alien menace and awaken the power within in R.R. Virdi’s “A Knight Luminary,” and in “Saving the Emperor” Simon R. Green takes us deep into the Imperial City of Virimonde . . . and offers a glimpse at how the Deathstalker clan rose to power and fame. 

Plus tales from Tim Akers, Jessica Cluess, Hinkley Correia, L.J. Hachmeister, Susan R. Matthews, T.C. McCarthy, Jody Lynn Nye, Tom Toner . . plus a new world from Warhammer 40,000 author Peter Fehervari, and a new chapter in the Sun Eater saga from Christopher Ruocchio.

Contributors:
Tim Akers
D.J. Butler
Jessica Cluess
Hinkley Correia
Peter Fehervari
Simon R. Green
L.J. Hachmeister
Susan R. Matthews
T.C. McCarthy
Jody Lynn Nye
Christopher Ruocchio
Tom Toner
R.R. Virdi

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Anthologies, Space Opera

352 pages, Paperback

Published February 8, 2022

About the author

Christopher Ruocchio is the author of The Sun Eater, a space opera fantasy series, as well as the Assistant Editor at Baen Books, where he has co-edited four anthologies. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where he studied English Rhetoric and the Classics. Christopher has been writing since he was eight and sold his first novel, Empire of Silence, at twenty-two. To date, his books have been published in five languages.

Christopher lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, Jenna. He may be found on both Facebook and Twitter with the handle ‘TheRuocchio.’

Reviews

[Jake Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read Queen Amid Ashes, but damm it was good. As good as the main novels IMO, just shorter.

[Scot Glasgow · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be clear, I haven't finished the entire anthology - this is a review simply of Christopher Ruocchio's excellent novella within it entitled Queen Amid Ashes. Ruocchio is one of my absolute favorite working authors, and he hits another homerun here. The character work with Hadrian particularly and the supporting cast is phenomenal for a relatively short book.

Anyone intrigued and terrified by the Cielcin is going to love this book.

[Joel Adamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've just finished reading through Baen's new short story anthology Sword and Planet edited by Christopher Ruocchio, his final project as an assistant editor at Baen Books.  The anthology contains a good collection of short stories and stories by a range of authors.  My personal favorites are "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Nakh-Maru" by Jessica Cluess and Ruocchio's Sun Eater/Sollan Empire novella "Queen Amid Ashes."  This is a story that starts out as a standard new adventure in an established world and takes a bizarre turn that really confronts the characters with an astounding moral dilemma.  I was really surprised, despite knowing that Ruocchio can absolutely pull this off (as he has in every other novel and short story I've read).  Other bright points include Tim Akers' "A Murder of Knights" and Simon R. Green's "Saving the Emperor."

Also included is a witty and pointed introduction by the editor, wherein he points out his interest for the fiction part of science fiction, leaving science by the wayside.  This is just to say that a subtle genre distinction brings us Eric John Stark and John Carter instead of a plot that turns on scientific detail.  The stories in the anthology, that is, are fantasy in space: character-driven, adventurous, and, though not devoid of science, much more interested in honor and courage than in time dilation.

Jess Cluess's story, for example, could be right out of a collection of Leigh Brackett stories, a tale of a shipwrecked soldier dragging an unwilling damsel across a desert, unwittingly caught up in the planet's politics.  He does this for honor, because it's the right thing to do to use his other-worldly strength to protect a strange woman in the desert.

The other thing all these stories have in common is that they're good: even the ones I didn't like all that much were written with the goal of entertaining the reader and weaving an adventurous and exciting tale. Sword and Planet has renewed my faith in science fiction and fantasy short stories. Anthologies like this are the best place to read good short stories.  Most stories in the elite, Hugo-winning markets are boring, intentionally bizarre, blatantly agenda-driven (it's the "blatantly" part that is distracting; see Oscar Wilde). Often they don't qualify as science fiction; sometimes they don't qualify as fiction.  They certainly don't qualify as fun, entertaining, or even interesting.  They don't offer anything new, or anything nostalgic about good science fiction.  Most of them are not even good in literary terms.  I don't know why they get published, honestly, though I feel like the notoriety of particular names in the Readercon-attending community has a lot more to do with publishing than the quality of the stories.

The only downside to relying on anthologies like Sword and Planet for short stories is that all the authors are established, novel-writing authors.  This is just a fact of life in today's publishing world, where you can't make a living writing for magazines.  You can discover new writers in places like L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future 33, which is usually available in the anthology section at Barnes and Noble; but also check the magazine section, where I do regularly see The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov's, and sometimes Analog.  These magazines are better than the other elite markets, but they feature maybe one really good story out of ten.  They seem more interested in winning awards (i.e. serving the Hugo voting community, which is a very specific group of a few hundred people) than in publishing stories that are good by the typical reader's standards.  Lots of people on the internet talk about starting periodicals that will reinvigorate short stories and bring back the "glory days" of Lovecraft, Smith, and Howard, but I have trouble taking any of them seriously.  Most people writing short stories are writing them for other writers, not to appeal to people browsing Barnes and Noble.  I think that's sad, but it's good to know that some editors are putting together anthologies that do appeal to that audience.  Sword and Planet is one such anthology.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Murder of Knights - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Operatrix Triumphans - ⭐
Power & Prestige - ⭐⭐
A Broken Sword Held High - ⭐⭐⭐
The Fruits of Reputation - ⭐⭐⭐
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Nakh-Maru - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Saving the Emperor - ⭐⭐
A Knight Luminary - ⭐⭐⭐
Chronicler of the Titan's Heart - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bleeding from Cold Sleep - ⭐⭐
The Test - ⭐⭐
Queen Amid Ashes - I didn't read this one yet as I'm waiting till I do my full Sun Eater read through

This comes out to about a 2.75/5 average and rounded up to 3 ⭐

[James T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sword and Planet is my favorite genre. I was very excited and surprised to see a big publishing house like BAEN take interest in it again, as it’s generally fallen to the wayside along with many other pulp genres.

Overall I thought this collection was good but I felt a lot of it strayed too far from Sword and Planet. For a lot of the stories it was hard to see the DNA of Burroughs or Brackett. But that being said they were still good stories. Though many felt like warhammer tie in fiction with the serial numbers filed off. Which is still enjoyable in its own right. It’s kind of interesting really, since warhammer was so influenced by pulp, to see warhammer circle back around and influence neo-pulp.

There were a couple really stand out stories for me. I thought “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Nakh-Maru” was marvelous. It both perfectly satirized while lovingly paid tribute to the genre. A story that will make you smile ear to ear. “Saving the Emperor” felt like it was ripped out of the pages of Planet Stories. Also just a great time. “Chronicler of the Titan’s Heart” was a masterpiece. It really towed the line between sword and sorcery and sword and planet. A must read for fans of either genre.

Finally, the novella at the end “Queen Amid Ashes” was fantastic. It’s beautifully written and incredibly powerful. It’s very classic space opera and felt most influenced by Dune, which I wouldn’t associate with S&P but it doesn’t really matter it’s a heck of a story. There’s really deep philosophical and emotional threads here. I think the character might be from a bigger series? If so, I’ll have to check it out.

Overall, I think this collection is good but I was a little disappointed by the distance between the stories assembled here and the those traditionally associated with the genre. But what is here is still good and fans of sword and planet will find much to enjoy and a couple stories they’ll likely fall in love with.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just to clarify this rating is for the novella in this collection, Queen Amid Ashes by Christopher Ruocchio. It is a part of his Sun Eater universe, and it is a story that follows our hero Hadrian Marlowe in a rescue mission to break the Cilecin siege on the planet Thagura. Though not a long story, it's a novella after all, it packs a lot in those pages. What we get here is a lot of the character stuff that makes Sun Eater so great. There's a little action of course, but the true heart of the story is what is really going on here on this planet after the siege. All is definitely not what it seems at first. Different kinds of horrors are slowly revealed, and in doing so we learn more about the moral complexity of the Cielcin vs Humanity battle in this world. I also think there are clearly some parallels to be gleaned in here between this and Hadrian's larger story and where it may be going at the end of the series. I loved it, and I can't wait to get my hands on anything else Mr. Ruocchio writes.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good collection containing fantasy stories involving swashbuckling adventures in different places and creatures. Some of the tales were a bit 'meh', which is to be expected in any anthology. But there were good stories. The very good and excellent ones, in my opinion, were~
1. 'A Murder of Knights' by Tim Akers;
2. 'Power & Prestige' by D.J. Butler;
3. 'The Fruits of Reputation' by Jody Lynn Nye;
4. 'A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Nakh-Maru' by Jessica Cluess;
5. 'Saving the Emperor' by Simon R. Green;
6. 'A Knight Luminary' by R.R. Virdi;
7. 'Queen Amid Ashes' by Christopher Ruocchio— the BEST tale in this collection.
Recommended.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popular authors like Tim Akers, Simon R. Green, and more come together to express their passion for the speculative genre by deftly merging the elements of fantasy and science fiction into inspiring short stories. These are tales that nod to the classics, like Frank Herbert’s Dune series and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series, and they encompass the same sense of adventure. Knights slay monsters, grumpy mercenaries solve a murder mystery in an ancient labyrinth, a brave young girl stands up against a dragon on a distant planet, a pacifist nation kidnaps a warrior queen to protect them from encroaching monsters, a suave outcast saves the empire, and much more.

Space battles and sieges, aliens and feral gods, dragons and starships, warriors and underdogs, raiders and radiation—these tales expertly unite the standard tropes to create fun, action-packed, and fast-paced escapades. Fans of Christopher Ruocchio’s excellent epic series, The Sun Eater, will also appreciate the lengthier story that features Hadrian Marlowe. Every story is commendable for its unique intrigues, diverse settings, noteworthy characters, and the inventive use of swords in a sci-fi environment.

(This review was originally written for Library Journal magazine.)

[Sean C.W. Korsgaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS REVIEW RAN IN THE JANUARY/FEBURARY 2022 ISSUE OF ANALOG SF&F

In the early days of speculative fiction, when the line between scifi and fantasy was much more fluid, there was a golden age of what would become known as the sword and planet subgenre. Featuring as much derring-do heroics as they did ray guns and aliens, these stories filled the pages of Amazing Stories, built the careers of authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, and cast a long shadow ranging from Dune to Star Wars.

Edited by Christopher Ruocchio, Baen’s latest anthology features 13 original short stories that manage to go in some wildly different directions, ranging from the fantastic adventure to hardboiled action, and in tone from black as pitch to comedic. What they share are tales of heroes facing down foes – be they alien, robotic or something else entirely – with a blade in their hands, and courage in their hearts.

There are some familiar names among the contributors, Jody Lynn Nye, Tim Akers, T.C. McCarthy, and Susan R. Matthews among them, and Warhammer 40K scribe Peter Fehervari even contributes his first original work, “Bleeding from Cold Sleep.” Despite this, two of my personal highlights from the anthology come from two contributors whose work I’m reading for the first time. In L.J. Hachmeister’s “A Broken Sword Held High,”, Luddite colonists from Earth face dragons and invaders beneath an alien sky, as a young girl chafes against their pacifism. Cybernetic knights do battle to save humanity from an invading alien hivemind in R.R. Virdi’s “A Knight Luminary.” If you’re like me, these stories will soon send you looking for what else they’ve written.

In addition to the entirely original works, a few of the authors have penned new stories in their existing universes. Simon R. Green revisits the fan favorite Deathstalker series with “Saving the Emperor,” a short story offering a look into how the Deathstalker clan first rose to power and glory. D.J. Butler follows up his recent sword-and-planet novel In the Palace Of Shadow And Joy with another tale of the mercenaries Indrajit and Kish, as they attempt to solve a murder mystery in “Power and Prestige.” Ruocchio himself contributes a story set in his Sun Eater saga with “Queen Amid Ashes,” with a newly knighted Hadrian Marlowe and his legionaries sent on a rescue mission to a war-torn world.

The wide mix of stories, and the surprising places and directions they go make this anthology a particular joy from start to finish. Sword & Planet offers a glimpse into everything that has made stories like these a popular standby since the pulp era, with enough creativity, variety and talent showcased to prove that there’s still plenty of life left in the century-old genre. I recommend it heartily – maybe you’ll come away with some new favorites too, and perhaps a new look at a genre that’s enchanted readers since John Carter first set foot on Barsoom.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This enjoyable anthology of new fiction is based on, as you might expect given the title, the "sword and planet" sub-genre of science fiction. Or, to be more specific, adventure fantasy set in space or on other planets. Think Burrough's John Carter of Mars or Brackett's Eric John Stark.

The two standouts to me were:

"Queen Amid Ashes" (by editor Christopher Ruocchio) - I think is some of Ruocchio's best writing in the entire Sun Eater series. The plot is very simple, yet it leaves its mark on you long afterwards. It's both a great introduction to the main themes of the series to newcomers (plus, as it's told from Hadrian's POV, it reads like a main series novel) and also a deepening of them for returning readers, knowing what comes later in the series.

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Nakh-Maru" (Jessica Cluess) - I think this story, of all the others in the anthology, best captured the adventurous feel of sword and planet: non-stop action, larger than life characters, and cool set pieces. It was a blast to read.

Other highlights:

"A Murder of Knights" (Tim Akers)
"Power and Prestige" (D.J. Butler)
"Saving the Emperor" (Simon R. Green)
"Chronicler of the Titan's Heart" (Anthony Martezi)
"A Knight Luminary" (R.R. Virdi)
"The Test" (T.C. McCarthy)

[Steve Power · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sword & Planet is an old genre, represented best by the early classic sci-fi of Edgar Rice Burrough’s ‘Barsoom’ books (best known as the John Carter of Mars stories). The genre is all Rocket ships, ray guns, strange worlds and stranger still residents - all married to pulp adventure, sword fights, honourable rogues, and many of the trappings of sword & sorcery.

Any anthology is always a risk, particularly when you’re spotlighting so specific a genre with a diverse pool of authors, and it’s here where my reservations with Baen’s “SWORD & PLANET” lie.

The stories, while imaginative, more often than not miss the mark in nailing such a specific genre. They flail about, dipping toes into multiple pools, crossing through more well trod traditional sci-fi territory, feeling more akin to the grim dark sci-fi of the Warhammer 40k universe, or even more militaristic Sci-fi along the lines of Heinlein.

“But Steve,” you say, “you gave this anthology a five star review?”

Indeed I did, because while calling some of these stories ‘Sword and Planet’ is a bit of a stretch, these tales were still presented with beautiful prose, wonderfully weaved, and entertaining throughout. And those stories that did fully embrace the genre, embraced it with a skill and quality that made them endlessly entertaining. Outside of a few outliers (of which I will not speak, as I don’t see the need of picking on individual efforts) every tale included here was a breath of wonderful fresh air; surprising, imaginative, smile inducing, and better having been told. Any fan of science fiction would do well to track this one down.

[Honza Prchal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun that introduced me to some authors I am glad I met.
I got here looking for Jim Butcher's works that I've missed. The title and description intrigued me, and I am glad they did. There's lots of grim-dark, humorous grim-dark, alienated heroes sticking to it, and sweeping space opera. All good stuff, all thoughtful.
In reading this, I've also realized just how often I tend to really like lesbian authors (who mostly don't write about that proclivity, C.J. Cherryh and Andre Norton in particular) and, given their vastly disproportionate inclusion in this compilation, that I am not alone. Their writing, on that evidence and their prevalence here, seems to appeal to guys, and as a U. Chicago continuing education series of lectures showed (they had research to back it up), that when compilations "showcase" women authors, women tend to be under-represented - note how Andre Norton got dumped down the memory hole by feminists and preachers of "inclusion", the same way feminists of her day loathed Agatha Christie, who fortunately is the third most popular writer ever (after God, with his Bible, and William Shakespeare).

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Baen for the review copy of SWORD & PLANET. I have no connection to anyone at Baen or anyone involved in this anthology.

Like any anthology, not everything works for any one reader, but there are more hits than misses. Tim Akers' gloopy horror science-fantasy, 'A Murder of Knights,' is worth the price of admission all by itself. D.J. Butler's 'Power and Prestige' was also very fun; that and Jody Lynn Nye's piece (which felt a bit like Galaxy Quest, Douglas Adams, and Dr. Seuss), were probably the best of the stories that leaned into the camp of the premise.

My favorite piece by a significant margin was Anthony Martezi's sprawling, meandering, gutsy 'Chronicler of the Titan's Heart.' I don't know how Martezi gets away with some of this, but it works. Think a cosmic fantasy mashup of Doctor Who and Count of Monte Cristo with a little Le Guin somewhere in its family tree.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about a lot of this collection. Short stories are a really difficult medium in general, so if a story doesn't have a lot to say outside of presenting its particular collection of genre elements, it can be a rough read. Probably serves me right, though, for asking for more than a collection of genre elements in a collection named after a niche subgenre.

There were a couple of stand-outs that stuck with me, though. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Nahk-Maru by Jessica Cluess had a fun tone with a welcome ribbing of some classic John Carter beats. The novella that anchors the collection, Queen Amid Ashes by Christopher Ruocchio, was my favorite. I am always loath to embark on a multi-thousand-page series, but reading this story put his Sun Eater series on my list to get to eventually.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories told in the old 'thud and blunder' interplanetary fantasy style of the older pulps. In most of them the science was a bit hokey, and wasn't really necessary, and of course no matter how badass your guns are, swords always settle the matter. Some were decent, but several felt like I had read them in the distant past, i.e. good copies of older material I liked when I was much younger. A few displayed some of the bad characteristics of the genre, like the default Anglo Saxon characters, but that might because of Warhammer 40K background.

I feel if you want to read interplanetary romances, you'd be better served by digging up Howard, Brackett, Moore, DeCamp, etc. but if you stumble across this collection, you could give it a try.

[Ronald Spitzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for old style space opera and this is as close and it will come in today's world. The historical effects of World War II, Vietnam War, the environmental movement, Civil Rights movements, etc. are here in the background and the innocent space opera world view from before the world wars is long over. Do not take this as criticism, but actually it makes authors write these stories better more realistic characterization and situations. Still, this is space opera fun at its modern best. Recommended.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are stories of, ultimately, hope. They harken back to the early days of sf, when sc and fantasy were entertwined.

Christopher Ruocchio’s novella is the standout in the volume. His use of language to create pictures is just..wow. That’s not to say the rest are bad. R.R. Virdi, Tim Akers, Jody Lynn Nye (whose names are a touch of humor), and Jessica Cluess contribute memorable tales.

I recommend it.

[Robert Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not all of the stories are terrible.

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been rereading this recently and while I’m not usually an anthology guy, I absolutely love this work. All these stories have varying concepts and ideas, but they all have that bright mix of sci-fi and fantasy. My favorite had to be “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Nakh-Maru.” It had the right style of pulp and adventure. I’d read an entire series around it.