So You Want to Read Sword and Sorcery Fiction: Here’s Where to Start
Genre is a tricky business, with one person’s dark fantasy being another’s grimdark and so forth. Sword and sorcery is no exception. Also known as heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery typically focuses on the action-filled adventures of individual, often morally conflicted heroes in fantastic and often semi-historical settings. Fiction of this sort has been around for nearly a century now, with writers old and new contributing their own takes on the genre. Here are a few of them.
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Add to BookshelfThe Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
by Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard’s tales of adventure epitomize the swashbuckling character of sword and sorcery fiction. Conan, while brave and canny, is no one’s idea of a knight in shining armor. He’s a freebooter, thief, pirate, and eventually, king.
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2
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The Hammer and the Blade
by Paul S. Kemp
Sword and sorcery’s roots lie in the golden age of pulp fiction, but the genre isn’t dead. There are authors still keeping the flame alive today, among them Paul S. Kemp. His Egil and Nixnovels bear some comparisons to Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but it’s a comparison that Kemp claims proudly. If you’re looking to read something a little more modern, then these novels are highly recommended.
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3
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A Discourse in Steel
by Paul S. Kemp
Once the most daring—some would say reckless—grave robbers around, Egil and Nix are now retired, having opened their own tavern with a side business as a brothel. The warrior-priest and the dashing rogue are done with adventuring. But is adventuring done with them? When two beautiful sisters run afoul of the notorious Thieves’ Guild, the semi-respectable entrepreneurs are called upon to defend their honor. And if they find an opportunity to enrich themselves along the way, no one could blame them.
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4
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Throne of the Crescent Moon
by Saladin Ahmed
The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, home to djenn and ghuls, holy warriors and heretics, are at the boiling point of a power struggle between the iron- fisted Khalif and the mysterious master thief known as the Falcon Prince. In the midst of this brewing rebellion a series of brutal supernatural murders strikes at the heart of the Kingdoms. It is up to a handful of heroes to learn the truth behind these killings.
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5
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Bran Mak Morn: The Last King
by Robert E. Howard
In ages past, the Picts ruled all of Europe. But the descendants of those proud conquerors have sunk into barbarism . . . all save one, Bran Mak Morn, whose bloodline remains unbroken. Threatened by the Celts and the Romans, the Pictish tribes rally under his banner to fight for their very survival, while Bran fights to restore the glory of his race.
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