This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 5, 2021.

Blood of Elves

By Andrzej Sapkowski, Danusia Stok (Translator) – Hachette Book Group – May 1, 2009

Review by Robin Marx

The first of the Witcher novels, it was released after two volumes of short stories and is set after the most recently published book, Season of Storms (although there is some debate on when is the best time to read Season of Storms). So this is actually the fourth Witcher book I've read.

Although Geralt's fateful encounter with Ciri—an orphaned princess and a Source of powerful magic—is covered in a previous short story, this novel covers her early education. She spends roughly the first half of the book with Geralt, being instructed in the ways of the witcher, and the latter half with Yennefer, receiving magic tutelage. Along the way she learns some more about the world and its delicate political state, with the northern kingdoms trying to fend off the inexorable advance of the expansionist empire of Nilfgaard.

This book is tricky to rate. Like a lot of modern fantasy novels (in which a trilogy is assumed, at the bare minimum), this first book is all about preparing the board and setting up the game pieces. As a self-contained story, it fails miserably. There's not much of a plot, just prelude.

That being said, it was still a thoroughly engaging read, provided that the reader is familiar with the original short stories. The translation is smooth and draws zero attention to itself. The setting is immersive and the characters are great. It is such a pleasure spending time with Geralt, Triss, Ciri, Dandelion, and Yennefer. The interaction between these characters is always amusing, and it's masterful how much of their personalities are revealed through seemingly throwaway lines of dialogue and slight gestures.

Geralt himself is a particularly fun and surprising character. If you hear him described, he sounds like a one-dimensional edgy Mary Sue (and also kind of an Elric ripoff, with all the “White Wolf” stuff). But he's not really like that at all. Despite the two swords and the badass mutant monster hunter trappings, he's kind of a blue collar hero. He tackles monster problems like a plumber unclogging drains. His clients are happy to have him around, but they don't particularly respect him or his vocation. He keeps up a tough, world-weary front, but much like the old hardboiled detectives he reveals a softer, more noble side through his actions.

This book doesn't work very well as a novel, but it was an entertaining read that made me excited about the rest of the series.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 11, 2011.

Solomon Kane Volume 2: Death's Black Riders

By Various – Dark Horse Books – October 19, 2010

Review by Robin Marx

Much like the first, this second volume in Dark Horse's original comic adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane stories was a mixed bag.

The Mario Guevara artwork is strong, and the Mike Mignola cover is eye-catching, but the story side is a little weak. Most of the volume is a much-expanded adaptation of a brief REH story fragment. A comic rendition of “Rattle of Bones” (one of my favorite Solomon Kane stories) is incorporated into the middle of the Death's Black Riders tale, but it felt rushed, making an already concise yarn into a “blink and you'll miss it” affair.

This volume closes with a short called “All the Damned Souls at Sea,” but the ugly caricature-style Guy Davis artwork ruins what could be an otherwise interesting story.

The characterization of Solomon Kane wasn't bad, and his visual portrayal is quite similar to what I envision when reading the original stories, but I would've liked to have seen more of the seething hatred driving Kane in his battle against evil. There are hints of it, which suggests that the writers do understand the character, but I want more.

While I may seem rather critical, this seems like a series still finding its footing, and the comic's crew do more things right than wrong. I look forward to future volumes.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on June 18, 2012.

The Waters of Eternity

By Howard Andrew Jones – Thomas Dunne Books – November 22, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

This ebook collects most of the Dabir and Asim short stories by Howard Andrew Jones. Being a fan of both sword & sorcery (a genre Jones has made a valiant effort through articles at Black Gate, etc., to revive) and the Arabian Nights, I picked up this volume so as to learn about the characters before moving onto his debut novel, The Desert of Souls.

Dabir and Asim make an interesting pair of sword & sorcery heroes, very different from the genre's other notable duos, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and Elric and Moonglum. Dabir is a wise scholar, while expert swordsman Asim acts as the brawn. They're a bit like Holmes and Watson in that respect. Trusted by the caliph, they're called upon by a variety of people in need. In the stories collected, the premise most often involves some supernatural mystery or a threat on an important figure's life.

True to the genre, the stories are fast-paced, with swashbuckling action and strange creatures. The mystery elements are interesting, but Dabir often reaches conclusions with very little evidence, or at least none that's shared with the reader. As a result, these “brilliant deductions” can seem a little contrived. They'd ring a bit more true if Jones took more time placing hints beforehand.

The Arabian Nights atmosphere is a bit low-key, but there's enough flavor to distinguish these stories from standard Western fantasy. It's interesting to note that both Dabir and Asim are good Muslims, so while they encounter a variety of sword & sorcery temptresses, dancing girls, and femme fatales, there's no Conan-style wrenching to be found.

The book concludes with a sizable excerpt from the first Dabir and Asim novel, The Desert of Souls. This seemed superfluous to me, however, as most people likely to pick this book up have either read the novel and want to read Dabir and Asim's previously-published adventures, or those like me, who want to read these stories before moving onto the novel. I'll be buying The Desert of Souls, so I skipped this excerpt entirely.

I look forward to reading more about Dabir and Asim's exploits. While sword & sorcery lends itself well to shorter formats, novel-length might be a better match for Howard's style. Perhaps the extra room will give Howard more time to develop his mystery plots, as well as treat the reader to a bit more Arabian atmosphere.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 5, 2014.

The Hammer and the Blade

By Paul S. Kemp – Angry Robot – January 1, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

I've been slightly dissatisfied with many of the books I've read this year, but The Hammer and the Blade turned out to be a welcome end to this unfortunate streak. It's a fun sword & sorcery novel from beginning to end.

The prologue introduces us to hammer-wielding priest Egil and his crafty rogue companion Nix, right in the middle of a raid on a pseudo-Egyptian tomb. The story very quickly establishes that they're in it for thrills, cash, and personal glory, rather than any more elevated goals. What do they do with their ill-gotten gains? On a whim they purchase their favorite scummy tavern/brothel. These are my kind of heroes: sword & sorcery scoundrels, not farm boys destined for greatness.

The story that follows is fast-paced and fun, as the heroes are coerced into doing the dirty work of an unpleasant sorcerer hoping to use his own sisters as breeding stock in a pact with demons.

As is often the case in swords & sorcery fiction, female characters were mostly relegated to the sidelines as potential romance interests and victims, but there's a moment late in the book where the heroes get a very visceral taste of the abuse the sisters have suffered at the hands of their brother, causing our leering, wenching heroes to reconsider the way they treat the women in their lives. The inclusion of this sudden change in perspective was a pleasant surprise.

My only complaint was that the pacing lulled in a couple sections. It took a little long for Egil and Nix to become involved in the main plot, and the finale likewise seemed a little drawn-out and lacking in tension compared to their final tomb raiding expedition. Everything else, however, was golden. Egil and Nix are great characters in the tradition of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and I look forward to reading their future adventures.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on March 31, 2017.

Thunder on the Battlefield: Sword

Edited by James R. Tuck – Seventh Star Press, LLC – August 20, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

This is the first in a pair of anthologies collecting recent sword & sorcery stories. It contains a dozen stories, all of them with an emphasis on battle and combat.

“The Horde” by G. Jerome Henson The anthology begins with a story about a tribe rising up against the empire that colonized them. The story suffers a bit from being mostly told in flashback form, which is something I tend to think works better in novels than short stories. Not bad, but a bit disjointed.

“Paper Demons” by Jay Requard This story reminded me pleasantly of The Black Company series by Glenn Cook. A squad of colorful mercenaries from various different lands (including an interesting protagonist from fantasy India) find themselves in a China-inspired setting with orders to capture a deceptively cooperative sorceress. The resolution of the story involves both brains and brawn, and the setting and characters appealed.

“The Wolf and the Crow” by D.T. Neal This was another winner, perhaps the best story in the entire book. A wandering swordsman arrives in town just as a witch is to be put to death. Seemingly on a lark, he declares himself the witch's champion, even though it means facing off against a savage, bestial warrior. Nearly the entire story is a blow-by-blow description of their duel, and there's a lot of subtle and effective world-building revealed a bit at a time. This story in particular left me wanting to find out what happened next.

“Forest of Shadows” by John F. Allen An amorous barbarian warrior fights a number of supernatural opponents and encounters some pliant women. Apart from the final one, the action scenes seemed a bit perfunctory and the sex scenes juvenile. As a whole it wasn't bad, per se, but a lesser work of swords & sorcery that doesn't do much to expand upon the usual tropes.

“Emissary” by Marcella Burnard Set in a fantasy Egypt, this story is about a bad-ass warrior priestess and her two lioness companions returning to the city of her birth to avenge the destruction of the temple of her patron goddess, Sekhmet. While I found the minimal amount of resistance she faced on the way to her target—a sorcerer king—a little odd, her climactic battle with a reluctant opponent was well rendered and tinged with a surprising and welcome little bit of romance. “Emissary” was yet another story with a protagonist I would like to see reappear in another story.

“The Dogs of War” by David J. West Set during the Fourth Crusade, this tale is about a Viking and a Belgian mercenary who encounter some surprising supernatural resistance during the invasion of Constantinople. The story felt a little brief, with the threat dispatched a little too handily, but I've really enjoyed how many of these stories are set in the real world. “Historical sword & sorcery” is a subgenre that I would love to see expanded further. This story pleasantly reminded me of Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon. (It's a minor gripe, but while the editing for this anthology has been largely high quality this story in particular suffered from a number of misplaced apostrophes.)

“The Red Hand” by Alexis A. Hunter In this story centaurs and the undead, led by a powerful necromancer, have been at war for decades. The protagonist is a centaur warrior raised by the dead in the hope of finally putting an end to the conflict. I enjoyed the premise and grim atmosphere, but given the ending I was left feeling strongly that this story should not have been written in the first person past tense. It just doesn't work.

“Where the Red Blossoms Weep” by James R. Tuck Taking place on an Assyrian battlefield, this history-flavored tale involves a struggle between the last two survivors of the conflict and some particularly unsavory scavengers. The story was brief and fairly straightforward, but muscularly written.

“Thief of Souls” by Loriane Parker This story focuses on a specter (in this case, an armored skeleton) who, with the help of a human accomplice, seeks revenge on the treacherous former friend who slew both him and his wife. While I'm not clear on the reason why it took twenty years for the specter to put his plan into motion (if it was covered in the text, my eyes skipped past it), the premise was interesting and the execution effective. A solid entry.

“The Gnawed Bone” by W.E. Wertenberger A group of mercenaries' trip to a tavern leads to a horrific hangover among unpleasant company. The story takes a while to get rolling, the monsters seem to have a poor grasp of tactics, and some holes can be poked in the narrative, but overall it ended up being a lot of fun.

“All the Lands, Nowhere a Home” by Steven Zimmer While the adventure in the second half of the story was enjoyable, the first half of the story spends too much time on the Valkyrie-like main character's dealing with boorish men. The story begins with her killing a number of brigands for raping a refugee, then she beats up multiple leering drunks in a tavern for mistreating barmaids and groping her. This would have been fine if the plot that followed had been some sort of meditation about women's plight in a male-dominated world, but the meat of the story has nothing more to say about gender, focusing on a wilderness encounter with a horrific ghoul-like creature. The second half of the story is exciting and well-rendered, but because of the disconnect between the adventure portion and the opening the heroine's characterization suffers. All the seemingly extraneous verbiage spent on her protecting women against the depredations of men ends up making her look like the cliche of a “strong independent woman who don't need no man” when a lighter hand would have made her more effective as a heroine. Her bravery, loyalty, and battle prowess in the second half do more to exhibit her strength and toughness than the wasted paragraphs punching alcoholics for making sexist remarks. The end was exciting, but this story could have been tightened up.

“The Witch of Rymal Pass” by J.S. Veter The contrast between the heroine in this story and the one from the preceding tale could not have been greater. Themis is presented as a vengeful force of nature throughout this bloody revenge tale, with no words wasted on describing her as a strong woman warrior, her every single action demonstrates it. Nasty and gory, this was one of the highlights of the anthology.

Overall this was a strong anthology that I would be happy to recommend to any fan of the sword & sorcery subgenre of fantasy. The stories by Requard, Neal, and Veter in particular stood out from the pack. I look forward to reading the Sorcery-focused sequel.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared at This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 25, 2021.

The Infernal Bargain and Other Stories

Edited by D.M. Ritzlin – DMR Books – January 1, 2019

Review by Robin Marx

Available free to mailing list subscribers, this promotional collection offers a sampling of the works by authors published by DMR Books. Most of the stories fall firmly in the sword & sorcery sub-genre of pulp fantasy. While not all of the stories left a strong impression on me, there were a number of standouts.

The books starts off strong with the title story by publisher D.M. Ritzlin himself. A muscular wanderer named Avok encounters a treacherous sorcerer and, but for his strength and wits, nearly finds himself the prey of a demon. A pretty traditional S&S tale, but an enjoyable one.

“Thannhausefeer's Guest” is another strong story. In this Viking-themed tale, a shipwrecked man finds himself drawn into a gladiatorial competition to entertain a giant cannibal. While a bit on the dour side, the story is vividly written and atmospheric.

“Into the Dawn of Storms” is more of a vignette than a self-contained story, but the situation it presents—an Elizabethan ship captain named Caleb Blackthorne receiving ominous portents from famous occultist Doctor John Dee—is intriguing enough to tempt me to seek out the complete book.

“The Gift of the Ob-Men” by Schuyler Hernstrom is a nicely weird sword & sorcery tale, also serving as the source of the title for Hernstrom's solo collection, The Eye of Sounnu. This story is one of the highlights of both books, seamlessly blending science fiction and fantasy.

Much like “The Infernal Bargain,” “Adventure in Lemuria” is another fairly traditional sword & sorcery adventure, this time complete with a strange cult, human sacrifice, and an evil temptress. The protagonist is ostensibly from Crete, but historical and cultural details are fairly light, seemingly more for spice than to ground the story in our world.

The book concludes with “The Heaviest Sword,” a horror story set in feudal Japan. This story is quite brief and vaguely sketched, but the Japanese flavor set it apart from the many Eurocentric stories in the book. I'd happily read more Japan-themed stories by Geoff Blackwell, but so far his output seems rather sparse and his Internet presence minimal.

Overall, this book offers a solid look at the kind of stories offered by DMR Books. It has encouraged me to research some of the authors further, but the anthology itself is harmed a bit by the presence of a couple novel excerpts that don't work particularly well independently. Most of the stories are by modern writers, so the inclusion of “The Sapphire Goddess” (1934) and “The Thief of Forthe” (1937) from the pages of Weird Tales also strike a bit of an odd note. That being said, this collection succeeds as a free sampler of DMR Books' output and is worth a read for sword & sorcery fans.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 29, 2017.

The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz

By Dan Simmons – Subterranean Press – June 30, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

With the death of archmagician Ulfant Banderoz, the Dying Earth seems closer to destruction than ever. Shrue the diabolist decides to make the dangerous journey to Banderoz’s Ultimate Library and Final Compendium of Thaumaturgical Lore and acquire the mystic knowledge housed within.

This charming novella evokes the color and vibrancy of Jack Vance’s classic Dying Earth cycle without attempting the fool’s errand of parroting the style of Vance himself. The end result is a story that feels at home in the setting (pelgranes, deodands, and the Excellent Prismatic Spray are all present and accounted for), but with a milder dose of Vance’s world-weary cynicism. There’s even some optimism mixed in here. That seems like a strange choice for a Dying Earth story, but somehow it works. An absolute gem of a story.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 14, 2012.

Wizardry and Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy

By Michael Moorcock – UNKNO – March 16, 2004

Review by Robin Marx

This is an interesting and erudite overview of epic fantasy by one of the genre's living masters. The breadth of Moorcock's knowledge is impressive, particularly when it comes to pre-Tolkien fantasy and it's roots in gothic literature. It's also incredibly opinionated; there's something in here to irritate any serious fantasy fan. I delighted in his notorious portrayal of Lord of the Rings as safe and bland “Epic Pooh,” but I thought he gave Robert E. Howard short shrift in places, especially since he appeared to be working from one of the inferior products resulting from L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter's tampering. For the most part everything is well-argued, however. This is a worthwhile read for serious fantasy fans.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 9, 2015.

Eight Skilled Gentlemen

By Barry Hughart – Foundation/Doubleday – January 1, 1991

Review by Robin Marx

While still a pleasure to read, Eight Skilled Gentlemen hews disappointingly close to The Story of the Stone's formula. As with the last book, there's a barrage of digressions, false starts, betrayals, and red herrings. While individual scenes are invariably entertaining—one where Number Ten Ox and Master Li have to dispose of a corpse was stomach-churningly hilarious—I felt they didn't quite come together to form a single cohesive book.

That being said, Master Li and Number Ten Ox have earned a place in my heart as two of my favorite characters, and it seems a great loss that there won't be any more adventures starring them.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 9, 2015.

The Story of the Stone

By Barry Hughart – Spectra – October 1, 1989

Review by Robin Marx

It was great to read more about Master Li and Number Ten Ox's exploits, but I can't help feeling like it didn't quite live up to its predecessor.

While Bridge of Birds is more of a traditional fantasy adventure, The Story of the Stone ends up more like a murder mystery. While investigating an apparent forgery, the protagonists come upon the scene of a killing, along with hints that the killer may be the Laughing Prince, a long since deceased despot.

The premise is interesting, but the story that follows has even more meanderings, red herrings, and side treks that Bridge of Birds. The adventures described are always entertaining—the heroes' visit to a number of the Chinese hells stands out in particular—but with so much misdirection and dead ends I found myself losing the plot at times. It turns out there's a reason for all this, revealed (in true mystery novel fashion) as a climactic twist.

Master Li and Number Ten Ox continue to entertain, but Master Li's idiosyncrasies in particular seemed somewhat muted in this novel compared to the first one. Perhaps it was due to the spotlight time given to newly-introduced characters Moonboy and Grief-of-Dawn.

The Story of the Stone didn't wow me as much as Bridge of Birds, but then again very few books do. This is still an interesting novel and very much worth a read.

★★★★☆

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