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

This will be the discussion area. Any Conan pastiche welcome.
Keep an eye out for Conan - Blood of the Serpent.

Likely gonna tackle one of JMR’s Conan yarns; I’ve still got at least three to read yet!

Newly anointed moderator, real-life rocker and author, Stephen R. Babb rocked the cover:

The Conan - Blood of the Serpent book by S.M. Stirling is not available for ~6weeks.

Until then.... all pastiche is a good focus!

We had several panels about S&S at GenCon, including one specifically on Pastiche!

I have a portal to them on my blog, but here are three that are on topic
https://www.selindberg.com/2022/08/ho...

(0) Sword & Sorcery Pastiche - Aug 2022
--https://youtu.be/kHnRVY2-oU8
How to adopt someone's writing style, and where to blur the line to the original.
Howard Andrew Jones; Matt John, Jason Ray Carney, S.E. Lindberg (M)

Also...check out...

.... Deuce Richardson's recent blog entries on DMR's website:
(1) What Makes a 'Good' Pastiche, In My Book
https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2022/4...

(2) Pastiches: A Few More Thoughts
https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2022/8...

.... or from Howard Andrew Jones on the Tale from the Magician's Skull blog from January....
(3) The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels
https://goodman-games.com/blog/2022/0...

@Stephen, great job and thank you for helping Seth out by, literally, taking on the banner.

As for me, I will endeavor to find time to seek out a pastiche to read until the new Stirling book drops; I’m thinking I might finish Volume 1 of The Savage Sword of Conan (Omnibus edition). It’s been collecting dust, half read, on my nightstand for far too long.

Clint wrote: "@Stephen, great job and thank you for helping Seth out by, literally, taking on the banner. As for me, I will endeavor to find time to seek out a pastiche to read until the new Stirling book drops..."

Hey Clint! We have you in mind to help with a poll in about a month to steer the Nov-Dec group read, if you are still open to that. I appreciate the community stepping up.

@Seth. I will use my meager skills to figure out how to place a poll on Groupreads

I edited my first post that shares some recent, inspirational links/videos on pastiche: I'll paste it here too:


(0) Aug 2022 Sword & Sorcery Pastiche GenCon Panel
--https://youtu.be/kHnRVY2-oU8
How to adopt someone's writing style, and where to blur the line to the original.
Howard Andrew Jones; Matt John, Jason Ray Carney, S.E. Lindberg (M)

Also...check out...

.... Deuce Richardson's recent blog entries on DMR's website:
(1) What Makes a 'Good' Pastiche, In My Book
https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2022/4...

(2) Pastiches: A Few More Thoughts
https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2022/8...

.... or from Howard Andrew Jones on the Tale from the Magician's Skull blog from January....
(3) The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels
https://goodman-games.com/blog/2022/0...

Lyndon wrote: "Comic book Conan (1972) #1-24 available here:
https://archive.org/details/conan-the..."

Damn, that's an awesome link!

Thanks, I like scouring the internet archives for pulp, lol. Really enjoyed Howard Andrew Jones's take on pastiches and recs.

Nice banner Stephen - you filled some big shoes!
Think I'll finally read my GRIM GREY GOD Conan and the Grim Grey God.

S.E. wrote: "Newly anointed moderator, real-life rocker and author, Stephen R. Babb rocked the cover:

" I'll gladly rock for the cause S.E. :)

Here's a recent post on the topic.
https://darkworldsquarterly.gwthomas....

I enjoyed CONAN & THE GRIM GREY GOD. Thought there were times Conan did a whole lot more talking (info dumping) then he would have, but there is plenty o'action, blood, sorcery, mayhem, intrigue, loot, betrayal, and sensual sensationalism. I think the S&S attitude appropriately presented.

As far as I'm concerned, John Maddox Roberts had a good feel for the character, especially due to the length increase in novel format for Tor. He had the best dialogue, and Conan reacted pretty much as he should. Too many authors tried to formulate their own version of Conan, and it if usually failed. I also like DeCamp and Carter's the Swordsman. The short story format worked well for them. Case in point was DeCamp's novel length Conan and The Spider God, which was all over the place, and didn't work as well. Conan didn't seem like Conan, and the story was average. Poul Anderson's Conan the Rebel was also strange and average at best. I've read many of his works, but Conan certainly not his forte. I enjoyed Offutt's stuff even though there were some possible timeline issues. Also Offutt;s Zamboula writing was out of place, because Howard's Maneaters took place much later in life, and seemed to be Conan's first visit. Jordan was way too formulaic, and Conan wouldn't have put up with half of the stuff Karela said or her henchmen. . Wagner's book was average. Carpenter had some decent stuff, but changed the character way too much. Green had promise, as did Hocking. Moore's stuff was odd. Turtledove's young Conan piece was drivel I wish I could unsee. I enjoyed Roy Thomas for the 70's Marvel writing. I'm probably missing some, but that my brief two cents. John Maddux Roberts stands above.

I too enjoy JMR’s Tornans

Well, Issue 3 of Conan the Barbarian vs the Grim Grey God was a disappointment. Very convoluted storytelling and the artwork wasn't much help. This is the 3rd of three stories now where the noble defender of Conan dies in battle. A bit much already! ;)

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to drop this, and it may in fact have already been noted elsewhere on this board. but Stirling's book has been pushed back to December 6th.

Christopher wrote: "I don't know if this is the appropriate place to drop this, and it may in fact have already been noted elsewhere on this board. but Stirling's book has been pushed back to December 6th."

Yeah, I saw that. I'm a little bummed.

I need to try Maddux, I've always avoided pastiche, but he sounds good enough. Too bad about the Stirling delay bur late and right is better than early and wrong I suppose. Here's hoping that's the case. Got mine preordered!

I've read a lot of the Conan pastiche and Maddux might be my favorite. I read Conan the Bold recently and thought it was pretty good.