Comments on: Epic Fantasy Vs Sword And Sorcery

By: Jared

Jared — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:11:38 +0000

I … really don’t have any major disagreements. Especially given the scope of this (“thinking out loud”), I really like these divisions. (If you have to have definitions, then these are good ones, etc.)

Maybe something about third wave / deconstruction epic fantasy? Starting with GRRM and running through Abercrombie? Abercrombie’s particularly interesting, as the characters are trying to change the world whilst being self-aware about how useless trying to change the world actually is.

I owe myself a big ol’ argument about Dragonlance at some point, but I think it is surprisingly close to post-revisionist epic fantasy. It is bizarrely philosophically well-constructed, and not in a Tolkienny way.

D&D is extremely epic – the whole premise of, say, 4e was the players are “shining lights in the darkness”. Warhammer, however, is definitely swords & sorcery.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:15:40 +0000

Swords & Dark Magic, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders, is a good place to start for the modern stuff.

By: compydad

compydad — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 03:05:11 +0000

Has there been any Swords & Sorcery since the 70s? Epic fantasy seems well represented, but I want another Leiber (or Howard… maybe minus the ethnography…)

By: sword and socery?

sword and socery? — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 06:43:13 +0000

[...] [...]

By: [GUEST POST] Courtney Schafer on What’s Missing From the Union of Urban and Epic Fantasy - SF Signal – A Speculative Fiction Blog

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:25:34 +0000

[...] or thieves instead of kings and lords, the stakes personal rather than world-endangering. (See Martin Lewis’ article Epic Fantasy Vs. Sword And Sorcery for a good comparison.) Plenty of recent novels fit perfectly into the S&S category, like Doug [...]

By: SF Signal: [GUEST POST] Courtney Schafer on What's Missing From the Union of Urban and Epic Fantasy

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:06:17 +0000

[...] or thieves instead of kings and lords, the stakes personal rather than world-endangering. (See Martin Lewis' article Epic Fantasy Vs. Sword And Sorcery for a good comparison.) Plenty of recent novels fit perfectly into the S&S category, like Doug [...]

By: Third Wave Fantasy « Everything Is Nice

Third Wave Fantasy « Everything Is Nice — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:08:39 +0000

[...] Epic Fantasy Vs Sword And Sorcery [...]

By: Martin Wisse

Martin Wisse — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:47:53 +0000

I would put Conan as part of the first wave of sword and sorcery, with Burroughs’ Mars and Venus stories as the progenitor texts. As part of that first wave then you would’ve had your neglected woman writers, like Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore.

As for epic fantasy, Tanith Lee is another name you would need to fit in somewhere, together with Stephen Donaldson. Both are writers who do not fit easily in your schemata, less commercial than Brooks et all, yet wildly popular all the same, especially Donaldson

By: G. W. Thomas

G. W. Thomas — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:46:53 +0000

The more I explore the Sword & Sorcery subgenre the less I think there is really much difference at all. The only real difference between Tolkien and Howard was the venue they were published in and Tolkien used hobbits to mediate between his heroes and the reader. This is why S&S has a bad rep for being over-blown and silly. Tolkien was smart enough to keep that hyperbole at a distance. Howard wrote for the Pulps so he could not do this.

By: fritz freiheit.com blog » Link dump

fritz freiheit.com blog » Link dump — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:13:02 +0000

[...] Epic Fantasy Vs Sword And Sorcery � Everything Is Nice (Fantasy,Fantasy.Epic,SwordAndSorcery,… [...]