Firlefanz
Lady of the Land
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Registered: 05-2003
Location: Germany
Posts: 2514
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Sword and Sorcery
It's a reviving subgenre of Fantasy. I'm pondering another story set in my Andert and Lina universe which seems to be S&S. However, what does it mean to you?
Is it all like Conan? Or is there anything else?
Do you even like it?
And what exactly makes a story Sword and Sorcery?
--- - Firlefanz
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4/6/2008, 8:13 am
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David Meadows
Grand Master
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Registered: 09-2003
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Re: Sword and Sorcery
Well, you've got to have swords...
And you've got to have sorcery...
Yes, I think it's all pretty much like Conan 
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4/6/2008, 8:16 pm
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hadaad
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Registered: 08-2005
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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Re: Sword and Sorcery
I liked Conan when I was a teenager but then I found epic fantasy and kind of fell away from Conan. I'm assuming Michael Moor**** falls into this as well but I've never read any Elric.
I think you could probably do it a little different from Conan, put some different themes in there.
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Reading: Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
Writing: Resurrection edits
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4/7/2008, 6:11 pm
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David Meadows
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Re: Sword and Sorcery
One of the recurring themes in Conan (and I think most of the S&S of that era) was that Swords = good, Magic = bad. The hero of the genre is always a warrior/barbarian/prince, the villain is always a wizard or priest. Conan instinctively distrusts magic as being evil and/or unreliable. Good steel in a strong arm is what a man should rely upon.
With that in mind, Moorcock completely subverts the genre. (He does it knowlngly; he was a fan of the genre before he was a writer.) Elric is a sorceror; more than that, he relies on sorcery to (literally) keep him alive and he can't even swing a sword without magical assistance. Dorian Hawkmoon is a warrior but wins all his battles with magical assistance. Prince Corum wins his battles with an arsenal of magical devices. Etc.
So while Moorcock's (early) work is technically sword and sorcery, I think it really isn't. It uses the plot conventions but it deviates from the moral/thematic conventions.
If you want to write "true", pulp-era sword & sorcery, Conan (or perhaps Kull) is your best model. If you want to subvert the genre in clever ways... well, you have to remember that Moorcock has already done that, and probably done it better 
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4/8/2008, 8:02 am
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hadaad
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Re: Sword and Sorcery
David Drake tried his hand at a sort of "Epic Sword & Sorcery" thing. It wasn't for me but you could check it out. Lord of the Isles, I think it's called.
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Reading: Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
Writing: Resurrection edits
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7/4/2008, 8:03 pm
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QS2
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Re: Sword and Sorcery
For some reason the Lord of the Isles series seemed a bit drawn out or something for me, I'm not really sure what it was, but after reading the first book or two I just never really picked it up again.
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7/7/2008, 2:17 pm
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hadaad
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Re: Sword and Sorcery
I had a hard time getting through the second book. The first one was good. I thought it was going to be something as good as The Wheel of Time, or close to it. Then it just became a bunch of characters going along no particular path, destroying wandering monsters with no goal in mind. I stopped after that one.
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Reading: Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
Writing: Resurrection edits
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7/7/2008, 3:15 pm
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Reythia
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Registered: 11-2005
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Re: Sword and Sorcery
quote:
hadaad wrote:
Then it just became a bunch of characters going along no particular path, destroying wandering monsters with no goal in mind.
Wait... You mean you're NOT describing the Wheel of Time series here?
 I did not like those books. Well, the first one was pretty good. But after that -- BAH. And my problem with them was about what yours was with this other book (which I've never read): it felt like they were just going in circles and not really doing much effective.
Ah well. To each his own! This style of fantasy isn't usually my favorite, anyhow.
---  -- YAR! |
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7/8/2008, 7:15 pm
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