Search Results for: New Edge Sword

Blazing New Trails: The What Rough Beast? Campaign, and an Interview with Author Bryn Hammond

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Black Gate has been tracking the inception and growth of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, starting with Micheal Harrington’s 2022 interview with Oliver Brackenbury (champion and editor of NESS), through 2023 with NESS’s first two magazine releases (also Greg Mele’s review of #1), and then into 2024 with NESS’s first book “Beating Heart and Battle Axes and its two-novella combo book Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery, and (deep breath)… most recently… NESS‘s publication of a NEW Jirel of Joiry tale! (2025).

Tor Double #17: L. Sprague de Camp’s Divide and Rule and Leigh Brackett’s The Sword of Rhiannon

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The seventeenth Tor Double, includes two stories, L. Sprague de Camp’s Divide and Rule and Leigh Brackett’s The Sword of Rhiannon, which are both fantasy stories masquerading as science fiction. Divide and Rule was originally serialized in Unknown in April to May, 1939. Divide and Rule is the first of two de Camp stories to be published in the Tor Doubles series. It includes de Camp’s first of two stories in the series (both of which will be reviewed this…

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New Adventures for the World’s Favorite Barbarian

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Few things are more ubiquitous than Conan and fantasy. Decades of sword-swinging high adventure has earned the barbarian a following most can only dream of. It’s taken the heavily thewed warrior to the big screen, Marvel Comics, and more. But it’s his latest adventure at Titan Comics that may prove to be the icing on the proverbial Shadizarian cake. “This isn’t my first time writing Conan, but it’s definitely the most expansive opportunity I’ve ever had to chart the direction…

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Two Howards Fathering Sword and Sorcery – Swords Together!

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Left: The memorial booklet for Howard Andrew Jones given to attendees at the February 22nd Celebration of Life. Right: Sean CW Korsgaard gives his eulogy for Howard. Foreground: Christopher Rowe, Cinda Hocking, John C. Hocking. Photo by John O’Neill A Celebration of Life for Howard Andrew Jones (HAJ) was just held in Evansville, IN, Feb 22, 2025.  The event gathered friends, family, and over a dozen author colleagues. Numerous online memorials and tributes had been posted leading up to this….

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New Treasures and Interview: C.S.E. Cooney’s Saint Death’s Herald

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Black Gate’s interview series on “Beauty in Weird Fiction” queries authors/artists about their muses and methods to make ‘repulsive things’ become ‘attractive.’  We’ve hosted C.S. Friedman, Carol Berg, Darrell Schweitzer, Anna Smith Spark, and Janet E Morris (full list of 29 interviews, with Black Gate hosting since 2018). This round features C. S. E. Cooney (CSEC), who is no stranger to Black Gate [link to listings]. She is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: first, for Bone Swans: Stories, and most recently for Saint Death’s Daughter. Previously on Black…

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An Eternal Champion’s Legacy: 64 Years After his Debut, Fantasy’s Original Edgelord Still Reigns Supreme

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Paperback editions of the first six Elric books (DAW Books, 1972 – 1977). Covers by Michael Whelan It may not seem like it, but this winter has given fans of fantasy plenty to celebrate. Less than a month ago, Michael Moorcock turned 84, his most recent Elric novel turned three, and the latest reprint of his vaunted Eternal Champion series hit store shelves in the US. Thanks to a boatload of new collections, there is no better time to be…

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The Fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Part I: Sword and Planet

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For sheer fun and adventure there’s nothing better in my opinion than Sword & Planet fiction (also called Interplanetary Adventure, Interplanetary Romance, or Planetary Romance). But exactly what is Sword & Planet fiction? Well, Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB) created the prototype in 1911 with A Princess of Mars, which featured an Earthman named John Carter who is mysteriously transported to Mars, called Barsoom by its inhabitants. The basic Sword & Planet story involves an earthman (rarely an earthwoman up to…

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The Sword & Planet Fiction of Robert Moore Williams: Zanthar

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Jongor Fights Back (Popular Library, 1970). Cover by Frank Frazetta Robert Moore Williams (1907 – 1977) wrote a lot of books, over 100. I’ve read two of them and that means there’s a 100 or so more books out there I won’t need to read before I die, including the ones he wrote under pseudonyms such as John Browning, H. H. Harmon, E. K. Jarvis, and Russell Storm. He also wrote an autobiography called Love is Forever – We Are for…

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Arthur and Out

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Tristan & Isolde (20th Century Fox, 2006) Greetings, friends, and welcome to the last Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords article, at least for a while. I’ve enjoyed hanging out with you here on the regular, but circumstances have changed for Your Cheerful Editor, and my writing output must adapt to accommodate them. For a good while, I had reached an equilibrium in my writing, balanced between work for the day-job at Larian Studios, making progress on my nine-volume Musketeers Cycle of…

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Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery – Cover Artist Perspectives and Campaign

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Black Gate has been tracking the inception and growth of New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, starting with Micheal Harrington’s 2022 interview with Oliver Brackenbury (author, screenwriter, podcaster, and editor of NESS), through 2023 with NESS first two magazine releases (also Mele’s review of #1), and NESS’s first book “Beating Heart and Battle Axes (July of 2024).  Now, as of Sept 19th, NESS continues this epic trend of presenting contemporary adventure fiction in fun ways with their second crowdfunded book DOUBLE-EDGED…

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