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Posted By : gardnersteve - 12/9/2005 7:52 AM

Which of the S&S anthologies would you consider the best? I'm deciding which ones to buy. Are Wagner's Echoes of Valor and Lin Carter's Flashing Sword anthologies the best? Any other anthologies recommended? (Don't worry I'm going to get the Lord of Swords anthology!)

Thanks

Posted By : jonesha - 12/9/2005 8:06 AM

Wow--Hey Steve, that's another thing we've been working on behind the scenes and almost have ready to roll. We just need to add a few words about each series. Andy has been working really hard at coding it, based on some fabulous initial work from G.W. Thomas. Hang in there and hopefully in just a few more weeks we'll have a big thumbnail overview for folks to peruse.

best,
Howard

Editor-in-Chief
www.swordandsorcery.org
Flashing Swords E-Zine

Posted By : Red Viper - 12/9/2005 8:29 AM

Steve: I'm not one to label stories or anthologies as "best," because such superlatives are highly subjective anyway, but I'm always glad to wade into the fray and tell people what I like and what I don't like. So ...

Echoes of Valor and Flashing Swords both are good series and I recommend them highly. The sword-and-sorcery anthology I've enjoyed most, though, is the "Swords Against Darkness" series edited by Andrew J. Offutt. I'm working my way through a series of reviews on this series -- the first two already are posted at SwordAndSorcery.org if you are
interested. There are reviews of a couple of the Echoes of Valor volumes there as well (written by Paul McNamee). Those reviews will give you a good oversight into those particular anthologies. Enjoy the reading!

Red Viper, aka Steve Goble

Current and upcoming stories: "The Redemption of Calthus," in Flashing Swords now; "Gram's Gift," in Amazing Journeys Magazine #9, out now; "The Grey Mother" and "The Bloated Curse," upcoming in Flashing Swords; "The Hungry Bottle," upcoming in Sword's Edge

Posted By : Daniel - 12/9/2005 10:26 AM

Hey Steve,

If you (or anyone else) are looking for a great deal on LoS -- Amazon has it running with a Conan special right now:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097588400X/ref=pd_rhf_p_2/002-9631629-2831242?n=283155&no=%2A&s=books&v=glance

Or you can still buy Lords of Swords and Black Gate together at the Cynosure Store:

http://pitchblackbooks.netfirms.com/Cynosure/nfoscomm/catalog/index.php

Daniel

www.pitchblackbooks.com

Posted By : gardnersteve - 1/21/2007 1:47 AM

Does anybody else have feedback on their favorite S&S anthologies?

Posted By : Dan Nelson - 1/21/2007 4:39 PM

The Early Lin Carter collections like "Young Magicians", "New Worlds for Old", "Golden Cities Far", and "Dragons, Elves and Heroes" are great. I have to confess I do not have the books in front of me, so I do not remember which of these are the mythology stories and which have S&S. But they all have the same flavor and thrill.

I think the Flashing Swords series is the best overall.

Posted By : TRtheJ - 1/21/2007 4:40 PM

I can only comment on two Sword and Sorcery anthologies, Echoes of Valor and Flashing Swords. It's been years since I read them, but by my memory, the former is an excellent trilogy of Sword and Sorcery stories. The latter, which I read even longer ago, was a great set of five books. Plus, in Lin Carter's series you can see by the fifth book the changes occurring in Fantasy that led to the fading of Sword and Sorcery. Nevertheless, it's well worth it.

Posted By : Dan Nelson - 1/21/2007 4:41 PM

Swords Against Darkness is what I meant with Flashing Swords a close second.

Posted By : AndyBow - 1/21/2007 7:11 PM

I and some of the other staff at SwordAndSorcery.org put together a listing of anthos, each containing multiple authors. Of the ones recently mentioned above, the ones we felt contained some s&s stories are listed.

Hope it's helpful, and enjoyable, to you all.

http://www.swordandsorcery.org/multiauthors-anthos.htm

Andy Beau
Assistant Managing Editor and
Columnist of Forgotten Stories of Fantastic Sword-fighters
@ http://www.swordandsorcery.org/

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