Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" discussion

2021 Nov Dec - Ryre:Ramsey Campbell's Ryre character....
released recently with an eighth tale in Far Away and Never.

I haven't participated in one of these in a while but having Campbell as a monthly read is a good lure as I've committed myself to reading his oeuvre in publication order, the books I can get my hands on that is, and currently up to Obsession (1985).

So far I've just finished the first story, The Sustenance of Hoak, and its opening line is classic S&S,

"If we ever reach the treasure," Ryre said with bitter humour, "we'll have earned it and twice again."

From there it descends into unabashed horror, not surprising as Ramsey Campbell is one of the best at it. Great start.

Just now finished the second story, "The Changer of Names". Once again very much mining horror, these tales so far have a distinct dismal atmosphere hanging over them, no signs of any levity exists in the towns Ryre visits.

Christian, thx for chronicling your adventures thru Tond. We've a quiet group here, so many never chime in as they read along. But having some feedback spurs us along.

For me, your notes remind me to read the missing “A Madness from the Vaults” tale excluded from the previous printing (but included in this one).

BTW, my previous chronicling reading Rye from 2013 is all documented here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

For many of us, it was unknown that Campbell wrote S&S. Turns out he is also known for his Solomon Kane work (he edited/polished off some of REH's tales nicely in the 1995 BAEN edition ...and wrote the movie-tie-in-book for the Solomon Kane film (2009 to 2012 indie film).

S.E. wrote: "Christian, thx for chronicling your adventures thru Tond. We've a quiet group here, so many never chime in as they read along. But having some feedback spurs us along.

For me, your notes remind m..."

Yes, I'm very much guilty of that myself.

Going by your review, I'm very much looking forward to his weirder yarns. I do love me some weird.

I have that SK novel of his ready to go when I get to it, but I think I should read the REH Kane stories first. Shamefully never read them yet. But I did watch the movie when it first released and loved it, thought it was very well done.

Another good story in "The Pit of Wings", I can say this heavily weird/horror infused S&S very much appeals to me.

Flapping down from the pale sky, in a flock which stank of caverns and worse, came wings. Their span was greater than the spread of his arms. They were the blotchy white of decay; between their bony fingers, skin fluttered lethargically as drowned sails. All this was frightful—but there was no body to speak of between each pair of wings, only a whitish rope of flesh thin as a child’s arm. Yet as a pair of wings sailed down near him, Ryre saw a mouth gape along the whole length of the scrawny object. Its lips resembled a split in fungus, and it was crammed with teeth.

Christian wrote: "I haven't participated in one of these in a while but having Campbell as a monthly read is a good lure as I've committed myself to reading his oeuvre in publication order, the books I can get my ha..."

I found that whole concept of taking names as a way of literally appropriating someone's personal history so totally off the wall. Very cool.

Jamie wrote: "I found that whole concept of taking names as a way of literally appropriating someone's personal history so totally off the wall. Very cool."

Yes, that was a fairly original take I've never come across before on the whole true name magickal concept.

I polished this off the other day and can say the highlight were definitely the Ryre tales, I think they stand hands and shoulders above the other stories. Not to say the rest were bad, far from it, but I wish he had written a lot more S&S stuff.

Christian wrote: "I have that SK novel of his ready to go when I get to it, but I think I should read the REH Kane stories first. Shamefully never read them yet. But I did watch the movie when it first released and loved it, thought it was very well done..."

I enjoyed the SK stories. I'm guessing you'd enjoy them too. Not a bad idea to try REH first.