This review originally appeared at Grimdark Magazine on August 15, 2026.

Cormac Mac Art: Isle of Swords

By Matthew John – Titan Books – July 28, 2026

Review by Robin Marx

As Isle of Swords begins, Gaelic reaver Cormac Mac Art awakens on the shore of a corpse-strewn beach, greeted by the sound of his Danish comrade Wulfere (appropriately nicknamed the “Skull-splitter”) braining shipwrecked Saxons with a rock. The two are the only survivors of a raiding crew swept away along with their Saxon foemen by a rogue wave during a bloody boarding action. Upon realizing that they have washed up on their original destination, the Isle of Swords, rumored to house a lost trove of Roman gold guarded by hostile Pictish tribesfolk, the pair elect to press on with the search for the treasure despite the overwhelming odds against them. In addition to brutal Saxons and baleful Picts, before long Cormac and Wulfere encounter menacing sorcery and the uncanny influence of a tribal icon called the Dark Man.

Cormac Mac Art: Isle of Swords is part of Titan Books’ HEROIC LEGENDS line of digital short stories featuring the characters of Weird Tales veteran pulp author and Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard. While Conan himself has inevitably received the lion’s share of attention given his name recognition, HEROIC LEGENDS has also allowed modern authors to revive some of the lesser-known heroes from Howard’s body of work. Cormac Mac Art is one such character, having only appeared in a pair of finished stories and two further incomplete fragments, none of which were published during Howard’s lifetime. Indeed, Cormac Mac Art remains somewhat of a Howard “deep cut” character even today, with only a handful of pastiche fiction and comic appearances. Despite being the 24th installment in the line, Isle of Swords is the first HEROIC LEGENDS story dedicated to Cormac.

While this is (occasional Grimdark Magazine contributor) Matthew John’s first piece involving Cormac Mac Art, he is no stranger to the realms of Robert E. Howard and Sword & Sorcery fantasy in general. In addition to extensive work on Monolith Board Games’ Conan tabletop and roleplaying games, John has penned stories starring the barbarian for The Savage Sword of Conan. Readers familiar with his previous fiction, either through his Conan work or To Walk on Worlds, have a good idea of what to expect from Cormac Mac Art: Isle of Swords: muscular, kinetic prose and bone-crunching violence. John keeps the pace brisk and the bodies dropping. Unlike John’s previous work, however, the supernatural elements of the story are kept low-key; eerie, but with an air of plausible deniability about them. While readers accustomed to Conan and King Kull may miss the lack of fireworks and monsters, this restraint is wholly appropriate for Cormac Mac Art, whose original exploits as related by Howard (barring one) were grounded historical adventures. On the other hand, the true identity of the Dark Man is a fun Easter egg sure to be appreciated by fans of Howard’s more sorcery-infused stories.

Cormac Mac Art: Isle of Swords is a fast-paced and gritty adventure involving one of Robert E. Howard’s more underutilized characters. Readers in the mood for monsters and magical mayhem are better directed to other entries in the HEROIC LEGENDS line, but grimdark fans in particular are likely to appreciate the mud-caked melees and dirty tactics Matthew John delivers.

#ReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #HeroicLegends #CormacMacArt #CormacMacArtIsleOfSwords #MatthewJohn #GrimdarkMagazine #GdM

This review is a Writing Repository original.

Seers in a Broken Season

By Jonathan Olfert – Old Moon Publishing – October 31, 2026 (tentative)

Review by Robin Marx

Ice blankets a once tropical land and Walks-like-a-Rockslide, wooly mammoth warrior of the Blue Ochre People, travels in search of warmer climes and more abundant sources of food. Upon discovering slaughtered whale remains at a small human encampment, he is enraged by the perceived murder of noble cetacean Deep People by vermin-like hominids and immediately rampages through the settlement. Killing the boldest humans with trampling feet and quartz blades attached to his tusks, Walks-like-a-Rockslide scatters the survivors and helps himself to their campfires and clean drinking water. Before long, however, a larger tribe of human whalers advances into the region, bringing with them more threatening weaponry and a sorcerer with uncanny powers. Through magical means, sporadic communication between Walks-like-a-Rockslide and the whalers' sorcerer is established. The mammoth and the humans enter a tentative truce, as both parties want the same thing: food and continued survival. Walks-like-a-Rockslide is abundantly aware that—in the eyes of the humans—he could easily be reclassified from ally to sustenance, but the sorcerer convinces the skeptical mammoth that the humans' more pressing concern is a massive shark lurking just offshore, incessantly harrying their whaling boats. Can their fragile detente survive mutual mistrust, increasing desperation, specters from the past, and dark sorcery?

Marketed as a Stone and Sorcery novella, Seers in a Broken Season is a work of paleofiction set in the early stages of an Ice Age. It's the longest work to date in what author Jonathan Olfert calls the “Broken Season” cycle of stories, an allusion to the collapsing climate. Walks-like-a-Rockslide first debuted in the fifth issue of Old Moon Quarterly, with a subsequent appearance in Issue #8. While Seers in a Broken Season occasionally references events from these earlier short stories (particularly Issue #5's “Together Under the Wing”), but familiarity with them is not essential to enjoy the present novella.

Walks-like-a-Rockslide is a character like no other. While Stone Age stories are not unknown (Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard's first published work was “Spear and Fang,” a Cro-Magnon versus Neanderthal adventure appearing in Weird Tales in 1925), rarely do readers have the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a pachyderm. Walks-like-a-Rockslide's physique and capabilities are far separated from the human realm, and present different challenges. His strength and endurance far exceed those of a human, but even a nimble trunk has limitations when it comes to fine manipulation. His eyesight is poor, a fact exacerbated by the previous loss of one eye. Beyond the physical domain, the differences in mindset between mammoth and human are intriguing. The reader understands that the humans are desperately clinging to life in a rapidly deteriorating world, but to Walks-like-a-Rockslide their lives are barely worthy of notice. Miniscule in both stature and importance. Mammoths and their cousins the whales are People, while humans are irritations unworthy of pronouns beyond “it.” “Who counts as a person?” is a central theme running throughout the novella.

The setting of the Broken Season is likewise fascinating. Readers recognize it as a burgeoning Ice Age, but the inhabitants have no idea what is occurring or if the world will ever recover. The apocalypse is well underway, and desperation and distrust are endemic. The Ice Age presented is also a distinctly haunted epoch. In addition to (largely unexplained) ghostly birds, Walks-like-a-Rockslide is repeatedly visited by spectral mammoths, his grandmother (a powerful sorcerer and former matriarch of the Blue Ochre People) chief among them. The bleak terrain and ever-present memento mori lend a unique atmosphere to the narrative.

The core of the story has an almost Spaghetti Western feel. A stranger comes to town, upsetting the established order. Resources are scarce, alliances are continuously formed and discarded, and violence is sudden. Every stranger is a potential threat to be measured up. But even though they're both constantly squinting, Walks-like-a-Rockslide is far less self-possessed and stoic than Clint Eastwood's various gunslingers. The wooly warrior is moody, tempestuous, and frequently sullen. His stage of life as a mammoth beyond “young” is unclear, but in human terms he reads like a teenage boy; powerful and approaching his prime but not yet as confident and decisive a hero as Conan the Cimmerian.

While there is no shortage of reflective moments, Seers in a Broken Season also delivers a considerable amount of action. Kaiju movie fans will doubtless be thrilled by the titanic mammoth versus Megalodon melee, but all the violence throughout the story is visceral and imbued with palpable weight and momentum. Wounds count. They reopen with further exertion. Walks-like-a-Rockslide can't rely on a friendly healer to apply a nonspecific-but-narratively-convenient herbal poultice or frequently even tend to his own wounds with his trunk. Olfert makes it clear that every encounter carries risks, and accumulated injuries up the ante for every further skirmish.

Seers in a Broken Season benefits from both a fascinating protagonist and an intriguing setting, and it feels like both Walks-like-a-Rockslide and the age of the Broken Season retain a great deal of future storytelling potential. Sorcery and violent action abound, but the narrative doesn't neglect atmosphere and the emotional aspect of Walks-like-a-Rockslide's journey. A new bar has been set for Stone and Sorcery adventure.

As of the time of this posting, Seers in a Broken Season is being crowdfunded via a (currently 200% funded) Backerkit campaign. Digital (ePub and PDF) formats are planned, along with a mass-market paperback edition. For completists, bundles are provided that include Seers in a Broken Season along with Walks-like-a-Rockslide's two Old Moon Quarterly appearances. The novella's release is tentatively scheduled for Q4 2026.

#WritingRepositoryOriginal #BookReview #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #StoneAndSorcery #Paleofiction #OldMoonQuarterly #SeersInABrokenSeason #JonathanOlfert

This review originally appeared in New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine Issue #6, released on December 7, 2025.

Profane Altars: Weird Sword & Sorcery

Edited by Sam Richard – Weirdpunk Books – June 15, 2024

Review by Robin Marx

Profane Altars marks the first Sword & Sorcery anthology released by Minneapolis-based weird horror and splatterpunk specialty press Weirdpunk Books. In his Introduction, editor Sam Richard acknowledges that Sword & Sorcery fiction is a departure from the publisher's usual output, but professes a lifelong love for the genre sparked by '80s barbarian movies. Given Richard's professional network, it is perhaps no surprise that the contributors to this volume are primarily horror writers. Sword & Sorcery has blended horror with fantasy since its earliest days, however, so the admixture here is not particularly jarring. Tanith Lee and Karl Edward Wagner are cited as inspirations in the book's promotional copy, and that distinctive flavor of S&S dominates Profane Altars.

The anthology opens with “Two Mothers” by Emma Alice Johnson. In this story, aging swordswoman Lorai straps on her harness and sword one last time to deal with an infant-snatching menace afflicting her village. While S&S readers tend to expect propulsive action, this moody dark fantasy story adopts a decidedly measured pace. The reader is made to feel the weight of Lorai's age and her sense of weary resignation as she embarks on her final mission. While the atmosphere is exquisite, the story is marred by a confusing editing mistake where the feudal title “baron” is inserted on two occasions when “barren” is intended. Infertility is a crucial plot point, making the error especially regrettable.

Adam Smith's “Maybe Just Us” is a grimdark tale of a well-meaning squire in service to the fanatical Haloed Knights. When Ella intervenes in a desperate battle, a violation of the laws of war, his master must pay a harsh penalty. While packed with vivid detail, the language also has an ugly, off-putting rhythm to it. This story didn't work for me, but fans of Warhammer 40,000-style fanatic knights and hallucinatory prose will find both in abundance.

“Knight Rumors” by Matthew Mitchell is a series of five vignettes, each describing a single knight: the Badger Knight, the Bean Knight, the Bag Knight, the Banquet Knight, and the Bloom Knight. Despite their odd monikers, most of these knights are described in awed, hushed tones by members of the terrified populace subjected to their bloody depredations. The longest of the vignettes, “The Banquet Knight” is also the most narrative chapter. The titular knight is ordered to kidnap a boy and raise him into the ideal consort for a monstrous queen. The Banquet Knight abducts and fosters the youth, but—for reasons that remain obscure until the thundering finale—treacherously denies the boy the training commanded by the queen. While each of the five vignettes has its own appeal, “The Banquet Knight” stands apart from the pack, with a melancholy and weird tone that recalls Tanith Lee.

Sara Century's “Never Threaten a Spider” is one of the book's more traditional Sword & Sorcery entries. Exiled mercenary woman Viy is sent to the forbidding Dead Man's Bog, tasked with retrieving an enchanted jewel from the tomb of a forgotten queen. This entry benefits from a real sense of place, with the swamp presented as a threat to human interlopers but a sanctuary for other forms of life. The title is unfortunate, however, as it spoils the nature of the primary threat Viy faces. It's also inaccurate, as said spider is not threatened at any point in the story! Title gripes aside, Century delivers an entertaining Sword & Sorcery tale.

“Queen of the Fire Arch” by Charles Austin Muir is another solid Sword & Sorcery contribution, one that heavily emphasizes the sorcerous aspect of the genre. The story is related by Danak, a devoted servant of Queen Kavastra. After Danak proves instrumental in treating the magical affliction responsible for nearly killing the queen, she accompanies the queen's warband on their strike against the sorcerer behind the curse. The longest story in the anthology, “Queen of the Fire Arch” packs a novel's worth of adventure into its 38 pages. It boasts epic arcane duels, bizarre magic, unexpected reversals of fortune, and fun monsters. Ral-Bazure, a body-swapping Shadow Demon who becomes Danak's unlikely ally in the story's third act, makes for a compelling supporting character.

Edwin Callihan's impressively titled “The Song of the Nameless Phallus” opens with a scarred and menacing mercenary arriving at a bordello for an evening's entertainment. Initially wary, Olna—the sex worker selected to attend to the stranger—coaxes him into sharing the tale behind his most recent scar. He tells of encountering a village where the women have all disappeared, abandoning their husbands and children. Following footprints into the hills, the warrior discovers the entranced women dancing and fornicating around a singing chromium phallus placed atop an ominous—one could even say profane—altar. The story develops in even stranger directions from there, introducing cosmic horror elements reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith and concluding with an intriguing personal transformation.

As with the opening story, “Light from a Dead Star” by Sam Richard involves an aging warrior woman once again taking up arms. After burying her dead lover, Taura hauls her axe and armor out of storage and embarks on a quest for vengeance. Needing a new handle for her axe, she incorporates an antler taken from the corpse of a dead god. A relic from one of her past adventures, the antler plays a pivotal role when she reaches her destination. The prose is as grim and relentless as Taura's journey.

While some entries fall more on the side of dark fantasy or grimdark rather than conventional Sword & Sorcery, Profane Altars is a worthy contribution to the contemporary S&S scene. Since the release of Profane Altars, Weirdpunk Books has followed up with the release of two zines entitled Profane Sorcery, positioned as a “spiritual companion” to Profane Altars. This is an encouraging sign that Weirdpunk and its stable of writers aren't finished with Sword & Sorcery just yet.

#ReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #ProfaneAltars #SamRichard #NewEdgeSwordAndSorcery #NESS

This review is a Writing Repository original.

Old Gods and Other Tales

By Scott Oden – Independently Published – August 28, 2025

Review by Robin Marx

Old Gods and Other Tales is an independently published collection of eleven short stories by Scott Oden. While he has attracted a following in the Sword & Sorcery scene for fantasy work including the occasional Conan the Barbarian pastiche (i.e., the “Conan the Unconquered” novelette that accompanies Funcom’s video game of the same name; Conan: The Shadow of Vengeance, part of Titan Books’ Heroic Legends line) and his outspoken admiration of Conan’s creator Robert E. Howard, Oden’s first love is the “Heroic Historical.” Some of his creations are straight historical fiction (e.g., Men of Bronze, while others marry Earth’s distant past with the fantastic (e.g., the Viking orc trilogy THE GRIMNIR SAGA). Pulse-pounding action, particularly against overwhelming odds, is a prominent element in Oden’s work and Old Gods and Other Tales offers readers a representative look at the thrills he has to offer.

The collection opens with “The Prince of Cups,” one of the more overtly Sword & Sorcery-oriented stories. Tisias the Crow, a flamboyant gambler/thief/duelist is hired by the playwright Barzentes to steal back a seditious play ill-advisedly given to the elite courtesan Pythonike and seal her lips permanently. Tisias is reluctant to resort to murder, however, and decides to put another one of his specialties to use in assisting Barzentes. Tisias is a rakish and fun character, and the glimpses readers receive of both the magic and Old Stamboul city setting are intriguing.

“The Lion of Montgisard” is a straight historical fiction tale, recounting the Battle of Montgisard between Saladin’s army and the vastly outnumbered forces of the leper king Baldwin IV. Set in the same historical period and sharing several historical personages, fans of the 2005 Ridley Scott movie Kingdom of Heaven are likely to enjoy this story; it’s even narrated by Balian, who was portrayed by Orlando Bloom in the film. “The Lion of Montgisard” delivers the sort of desperate, against all odds, stirring adventure that is Oden’s forte. While certainly authentic for the period, the frequent “God wills it!” battle cries land a little uncomfortably in 2026, given the attempts of Christian nationalists (notably US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who has a “Deus Vult” tattoo) to revive it as a racist, far right rallying slogan. Oden is obviously not responsible for America’s current debased political climate, however, and what we see of the Crusaders’ opposition feels as humanizing as space and the intense life-or-death circumstances allow.

Three of the included stories in this volume focus on Martin Kestrel, a playwright in a fantasy-tinged Elizabethan London in which the Queen has diplomatic relations with the fey folk. As “A Stage by Any Other Name”—Kestrel’s first appearance—begins, one of Kestrel’s scripts has gotten him into political trouble with Gresham Drake, an influential moneylender and occultist backed by a secret society called the Brotherhood of the Silver Thorn. Drake hopes to eliminate the thorn (no pun intended) in his side by selling off Kestrel’s considerable debt to Lady Ravenna, the cold and intimidating Faerie Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth’s court. Kestrel must use his wits and silver tongue to keep his demanding new patron happy while outmaneuvering his foes. While the premise is interesting, “A Stage by Any Other Name” ends incredibly abruptly, feeling more like a chapter than a complete story. Fortunately, the dangling plot threads are taken up again in the two follow-up stories later in the book, “The Wordsmith’s Gambit” and “The Final Performance.” Across both stories, Kestrel works to foil the Silver Thorn Brotherhood while keeping Lady Ravenna placated.

According to their introduction, the Martin Kestrel stories were born out of Oden’s desire to create a Sword & Sorcery protagonist who is a creative artist by trade. Elizabethan London with a cutthroat occult underground is a fascinating setting, and while Kestrel is an interesting and cerebral hero, the three stories felt like they didn’t quite live up to their full potential. It also seemed like Oden struggled a bit giving trying to end these stories without violent climaxes. “The Wordsmith’s Gambit” ends with Kestrel cleverly talking himself out of a dangerous situation, but the most exciting part of the story—a daring heist—takes place off-screen, handled by his associates. As a reader, that’s the bit I most want to see! While the Kestrel stories aren’t quite up to Oden’s usual standard, they’re an interesting experiment. It also feels significant that he chose to write three stories with this protagonist. Perhaps, rather than as short stories, Kestrel’s exploits would work better expanded into a full-length novel.

“The Bones Remember” starts with a wild, original, and fun premise: essentially “Whatever happened to that skeletal warrior with the octopus-emblazoned shield from Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts?” The story that follows is surprisingly emotional, however, as the skeleton (whose name was Meriones, we learn) reflects upon memories of the past and situations and sensations from his former life as he embarks on a mission of revenge for the theft of the Golden Fleece. I appreciated the artistry on display here, how Oden took a slightly goofy idea and made something unexpectedly moving out of it.

The collection’s title story, “Old Gods,” is another historical fantasy, this time starring a wandering 6th century Vandal named Athalaric. Athalaric violently intervenes when he encounters a beautiful woman being accosted by a mob accusing her of witchcraft. While his initial rescue is successful, the locals return later in greater numbers. Athalaric soon learns that the claims the woman Nikaia possesses preternatural powers are not unfounded, and that she comes from a very unusual bloodline. While the action and romantic elements are satisfying, the dreamy interlude felt like an awkward infodump of exposition that could have been shared more elegantly. Taken as a whole, however, “Old Gods” is still an entertaining example of historically anchored Sword & Sorcery, featuring perhaps the most Conan-like protagonist in the book.

“The Purple Shroud” takes inspiration from a fantastic situation, Conan violently seizing the throne of Aquilonia from King Numedides, and relocates it to the Byzantine Empire, with historical figures in the starring roles. Ioannes Tzimiskes infiltrates the quarters of Emperor Nikephoros Phokas with designs to assassinate him and replace him on the throne. Complicating matters is the fact that the pair were once close friends, and Ioannes is also being pressured to slay the guiltless Empress Theophano or risk losing the support of powerful allies. The meat of the story centers on the duel between Tzimiskes and Phokas, with the two crossing blades while conversing. Tzimiskes attempts to justify his betrayal, and Phokas warns him of the countless burdens of statesmanship while still selling his life dearly. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. “The Purple Shroud” boasts exciting swordplay and court intrigue, all set in a historical period mostly unfamiliar to this reader.

“The Unburied” is an ancient world zombie yarn, involving soldiers from Alexander the Great’s army struggling against the living dead upon returning to their home village. The story is well-executed, but as it boils down to bog-standard traditional zombie tropes paired with one of Oden’s trademark desperate last stands it feels distinctly familiar.

Described in somewhat unconfident terms as a “strange and experimental piece” and as preliminary work for an as-yet embryonic novel on the 12th century siege of Acre, “The Eternal Jest” consists of three linked episodes. The first centers upon Templar Jean de Montluc, one of seven men tasked with defending a gate from an army of 10,000 invaders, buying time until ships can evacuate the falling city of Acre. Ten years later, the second episode introduces us to Raoul de Montjoie, a jocular leper knight who, upon hearing of their plight while visiting a tavern, immediately takes it upon himself to rescue a group of children taken by local brigands to be sold into slavery. As with Jean de Montluc a decade earlier the odds prove insurmountable, but Raoul de Montjoie again demonstrates the amount of good a dying man can accomplish. A decade after Raoul’s death, the final episode returns to a supporting character from the first segment: Jean de Montluc’s squire and bastard son Guillaume. Now a lord in his own right, Guillaume is crippled by survivor’s guilt over his inglorious escape from Acre, bereft over the loss of his wife and sons from plague, and stricken with a chronic wasting disease. Aimless and bitter, he has a chance encounter with Miriam, one of the children freed by Raoul de Montjoie’s suicide mission a decade ago. Hearing her tale inspires Guillaume to similarly dedicate himself in service to others. The overarching core of the three-episode cycle is stated quite openly: “The strong die so the weak might live, and the weak grow strong so that they might die for others in turn.” It’s a powerful theme and one affectingly delivered. In recent years there has been much hand-wringing discussion of “masculinity in crisis,” and so many of the men most vocal about masculinity absolutely should not be listened to. They sell a profoundly insecure, intolerant, and superficial conception of masculinity that diminishes women, promotes pointless aggression, and pushes an infantile zero-sum view of society and interpersonal relations. In contrast, “The Eternal Jest” is a showcase for healthy masculinity. What can be manlier than being a protector? A steadfast bulwark shielding those in dire need? The world isn’t divided up into Alphas and Betas, heroes and zeroes. Guillaume is weak and powerless when we first meet him, but through Jean’s sacrifice (and former victim Miriam’s sage guidance!) Guillaume is allowed to grow into a hero himself. “The Eternal Jest” is the most moving and impactful tale in the book. It should have been the title story.

Have you ever been talking with a friend and, out of the blue, they say something incredibly revealing, vulnerable, and poignant? And then that friend, realizing that they may have gotten a little too real, rushes to defuse the moment with a joke? That’s what readers get with the final story in the book, “Three-Tabbed Doom.” Chad of Poughkeepsie, employed at Mediocre Mutual Insurance, frees his comrades from tyranny by striking down (in Office Space fashion) the evil HP LaserJet 4200 that oppresses them. It’s a silly bit of fluff. Not unentertaining but placing it immediately after “The Eternal Jest” feels like an act of self-sabotage on Oden’s part. Come on, man. You were real with us readers for a moment there, and this is how you’re going to leave us?

Minor quibbles aside, Old Gods and Other Tales is an excellent microcosm of the work of an underacknowledged author. While his Sword & Sorcery stories are entertaining, he seems most confident with the real world as his foundation; historical fantasies and the more grounded Heroic Historicals are where he truly shines. Adrenaline, overwhelming odds, and desperate last stands are his forte. Old Gods and Other Tales was awarded the 2026 Costigan Award for Literary Achievement by the Robert E. Howard Foundation.

Old Gods and Other Tales is available as an ePub directly from the author, and in Kindle and paperback formats from