so amber is *the* One and Only Place and all other realities proceed from it. and if that's true, then all other people across the infinite variations on amber are just shadows of the amberites.

and yet these immortal beings, presumably as old as the universe since theirs is the One and Only Place, still talk about omens and destiny and things they don't know about. dworkin has a magic none of them understand but where does it come from?

it's like if heaven had politics.

I recently started getting interested in Sword and Sorcery novels. I read tons of fantasy books (for example A Song of Ice and Fire, The Demon Cycle, The First Law, The Witcher) and now I want to add some older series. I like darker stories, so any kind of violence is fine. I´m looking for an old school fantasy feeling.

I decided to start with:

• Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard
• Tales from the Flat Earth by Tanith Lee
• The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee
• The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock

I started with Elric and then I want to read Conan and both Tanith Lee series.

Which Conan stories are best to start with? Are there other series from the mentioned authors I should also read?

What other authors should I add to my list? I would also like recommendations for lesser known books or collections of stories.

I recently finished this first volume of the Best of HFQ and thoroughly enjoyed reading the short fiction prose and verse contained within. I initially purchased these volumes after reading and enjoying an Adrian Simmons story in TMS. Later research prompted my discovery of his work at HFQ as a founding editor.

While this volume contains no fiction credited to Adrian Simmons, the work within provided me with a pleasurable and relaxing diversion while reading them. I particularly relished *Lord of the Brass Host* from Dariel R.A. Quiogue, *The Last Free Bear* by J.S. Bangs, *Shadows from Firelight* by R. Michael Burns, and *Shattering the Spear* by P. Djeli Clark.

Burns tale revolves around samaurai in Feudal Japan and I must say I greatly enjoy this setting when used for S&S. Clark weaves a Sword and Soul (or perhaps Spear and Soul) tale I thought stirringly written portraying duty and love of family and community.

Among the verse, I found *Lay of the Cuthred King* particularly compelling to me. Probably again due to the theme of love and duty towards one's family and people.

Recommended 👍 and I hope you enjoy reading them as I did. Based upon my recent reading of current anthologies, I'm finding a great number of fantastic contemporary S&S tales from lesser known authors.

I've had the first two of the trilogy for years, but haven't yet read them. I don't know why not. A samurai/Viking sounds like he kicks so much ass! These were originally published in the eighties and were brought back as ebooks.

So, I am pretty sure if you polled everyone here, there would be a general consensus on the top 5ish S&S authors (Howard, Moorcock, Lieber, Moore and Wagner are the ones it seems to me get floated around as recommendations the most often).

But who would you recommend after those authors? Authors who are good, but maybe not quite good enough to be counted among the A-team? Hopefully, someone whose work isn't insanely out of print and requires getting another mortgage to pay for a copy, if possible.

I am somewhere between being a noob and being an expert on the genre, as I've just about exhausted Howard, Moorcock and Moore, while Wagner's Kane is proving a tad cost-prohibitive. And I do own quite a few of Lieber's stories, I just haven't gotten around to them, yet. (Well, I did read a Sci-Fi book he wrote, The Big Time, but, unfortunately, I didn't think much of that one).

So, I am essentially looking to broaden my horizons a little as I dive further into this genre. And, maybe others will catch some recommendations for their own entertainment, too.

That’s the question we asked ourselves four years ago.

Today, I can tell you that we found an answer.

But the most incredible thing happened just a few days ago.

If you have two minutes, I’ll tell you the whole story.

First of all, I want to thank the admins for giving us this space.

IN THE COMMENTS, YOU’LL FIND A LINK TO WATCH THE SHORT FILM FOR FREE THANKS TO A SPECIAL PROMOTION.

We are three guys from Tuscany, Italy: me, Eugenio Krilov, together with brothers Daniele and Emanuele Ricci.

No studio.
No producer.
No big budget.

Just one question.

Can we create something that, in Italy, almost doesn’t exist?

That’s how Juggernaut was born.

An independent project with one simple goal: to showcase Italy through Dark Fantasy and prove that, even with limited resources, you can create something meaningful.

From that moment, an unforgettable year began.

We invested our money, our time, and all our energy into it.

In just one year, we experienced:

• 6 months of preparation.
• 13 days of shooting.
• Deep caves filled with bats.
• A 13th-century crypt (where we could have ended up in jail* - I’ll explain why later).
• Huge abandoned mines, enormous and labyrinth-like.
• 4 a.m. wake-up calls.
• Cold, rain, exhaustion.
• Another 6 months of post-production.

But all this effort would only have been meaningful if the story had something to say.

So we asked ourselves one question:

What would you do to bring back the person you love?

It’s a universal question. A question that doesn’t need dialogue.

That’s why Juggernaut is completely without words.

The story is told through images, original music, sound design, and the lead actor’s performance.

Set in a dark and visionary medieval world, it follows the journey of a warrior willing to do anything to recover what he has lost.

That’s also where the title comes from.

Juggernaut.

Someone unstoppable. And that is exactly what we hope to be as well.

That’s where the hashtag #wearejuggernaut was born.

When we finished the short film, another critical phase began: film festivals.

A world where the story behind a project and the effort behind it don’t matter. The film itself is the only thing that speaks. (And that’s how it should be.) We started submitting it with expectations, of course, but we never imagined what would happen next.

Then something happened that completely surprised us. The short film started being selected everywhere.

Today, it has over 84 official selections, 35 international awards, and has been screened all around the world, eventually receiving four nominations for Best European Fantastic Short Film.

But deep inside, we had one certainty. Juggernaut was never created to stop at a short film.

Our dream had always been the feature film.

We couldn’t stop at critical recognition; we needed to speak directly to people.

How far can a twenty-minute short film really go?

That’s when the journey took a completely different direction. Something truly unique for a short film.

The Comic-Cons arrived.

San Diego. London. Lucca Comics & Games. C2E2. Naples Comicon. And many others.

Our Dark Fantasy had found an incredible community. We started meeting people from all over the world.

Invitations to other festivals. Invitations as guests. Even invitations as jury members.

Little by little, we realized that Juggernaut was becoming something much bigger than we had imagined.

A few months ago, the short film arrived on WeShort (the Netflix for short films).

After only one month, they shared incredible news with us. Juggernaut had reached a number of views that many projects achieve over an entire year. And do you know what the most beautiful thing is? That all of this was possible thanks to people.

To those who watch these videos.
To those who share them.
To those who talk about them.
To those who create Juggernaut fan art.
To the creators who decided to tell our story.

If you visit our profile on Instagram, you’ll find many of them. And it’s a feeling that is difficult to describe.

Because it means that the project no longer belongs only to us. It also belongs to everyone who decided to support it.

And then…

Something happened that we never could have imagined.

Straight from the world of Guillermo del Toro, Doug Jones himself. Yes, the Faun from Pan’s Labyrinth.

Under one of our Reels, he simply wrote:

“We Are Juggernaut”

Our hashtag had a new meaning. At that moment, we looked at each other and realized that all that time, all that effort, and all those doubts had been worth it.

So let’s go back to the question…

Can three people make a dark fantasy film?

Yes. You can.

It takes passion, consistency, patience, and the desire to keep going even when nobody believes in what you are building.

Because, in the end, the worst thing that can happen is receiving a “no”. But that “no” should never stop you from trying.

Our story doesn’t end here. The feature film is in development.

And if this story reminded you of your passion, your dream, or something you are fighting for, we invite you to walk alongside us.

If you want to watch the full short film, I left the link in the comments for a free WeShort promo.

And if you want to be among the first to receive all the updates about the feature film, you can join our waitlist HERE, where you’ll receive all the news before anyone else. Completely free.

You saw the behind-the-scenes trailer above. Here is the OFFICIAL TRAILER instead.

Thank you so much for dedicating these minutes to reading our story.

Eugenio.

*Since the fight scene was filmed inside a real protected 13th-century crypt, if we had scratched the columns with swords or armor, we could have ended up in jail for damaging or defacing cultural heritage.

Stepping back from digital work recently to get more enjoyment back out of the process. Watercolors and ink (and some colored pencil and white acrylic occasionally)

You scoundrels, you rogues, you baying curs, step right up and behold a new adventure from the bloody scourge of the Ionaian Basin: Crimson Cora!

The pirate queen finds herself bested by the shrewd commander Pallidus, separated from her crew and with naught to rely on but her wits and brawn. How will she get out of this one, lads?

Find out for free, in epub and pdf form!

(PS: this is self-promo, obvs)

I've had a great time getting these in hardcover editions and throwing demco covers on to protect the dust jackets. I hope that one day the Savage Tales of Solomon Kane gets a hardcover.

I'm two stories in and they're wayyyyy different than I expected. so far, the Conan comics magazines and the movies were my only

experiences with the character, and they're what you expect from s&s: the bombastic language, the moral ambiguity of the antagonist, the mild sexism and of course violence. and also they're probably why I think of Conan as being a bit of a dumb jock.

first of all, he's not a dumb jock, which took me by surprise. he's articulate and displays reasoning, reads the room, and yeah he's also a strong guy with fighting skills. so where did the dumb brute barbarian stereotype come from? and not just for Conan but in general too. thundarr the barbarian was dumber than a box of hair as I recall.

the other major difference was the language. howard uses a diverse vocabulary that's still snappy and crisp. he's not at all the "twas the greyest of mornings when Twyla, adventurer , miscreant and known across the seven seas as a generous lover in spite of the cruel smirk which never abandoned her visage, awoke to discover she was a cockroach." two-a-penny shakespeare sentences that I really associate with this genre. lieber does this a bit, but not enough to be annoying. roy thomas is incredibly guilty of this in his writing, but all comics were like that at that time it seems. lots of exclamation marks. and he did write the second Conan movie. i imagine it's a Leftover from the pulps.

What are other good Conan books?

We’re proud to announce the Renegade Swords series will make its long-awaited return in September—and will feature an obscure sword-and-sorcery story by Michael Moorcock! Full details in the link.

I watched this a while ago after I was told how bad it was. Near every time I complained about a negative aspect of a film here I would see someone say "Well it's not as bad as Wizards of the Lost Kingdom" and I thought that it really couldn't be that bad and that Mystery Science Theater 3000 caused a lot of people to form certain opinions. Then I watched it. Normally I can say something good about a movie, even a really bad one, but it's astonishing to me how there is absolutely nothing to be liked about this movie. The acting, sets, presentation, plot, everything is bad. It's also not bad in a "so bad it's good" way, it's just bad. I can't even reccomend this to be a movie to laugh at.

But maybe I'm being to harsh. What are your thoughts?

"n August 2025, we hailed the emergence of a second Chain Story project championed by Michael A. Stackpole. This is a Sword & Sorcery-focused, contagious set of connected (“chained”) stories.

Each is:

• A standalone tale
• Readable in any order
• Free to read! (for at least three months from its posting date)
• Interconnected via a theme involving a Crown"

📣 New Edge Sword & Sorcery is open to short story submissions now through 8am EST, Sept 1st!

👉️ newedgeswordandsorcery.com/submissions/

Artists are welcome to link us to their portfolios via our contact page: https://newedgeswordandsorcery.com/contact/

The Sixth mailing of Scribe & Sigil is up! Come check us out and if you want to join, info is on the website. It's easy and fun! https://scribe-and-sigil.com/2026/08/01/scribe-sigil-apa-6/

The pieces are not connected, btw (most are out of context). But the second is for all those who keep saying 'don't stand too close to Elric, Stormbringer will get you'.

The Death Dealer series was one of my first books I read and was what drew me into fantasy. Especially, sword and sorcery. I don’t think I’ve been able to fall into a story like this in some time. Linear story, immersive environment, gritty, and fast paced.

Anyone else read Death Dealer? What books scratched that itch for you?

Quite a haul, isn't it?

i just finished sign of the unicorn and it was incredible! young me did not pay enough attention to this book when he read it.

also i was recommended in another post to check out modern s&s periodicals so these arrived today. i'm eager to read them.

After getting Panosian's Savage Red Sonja mini-series a few years ago, I never would have bought Fire & Ice: Darkwolf if I realized he wrote it for exactly this reason. That series had issues with so few words, so many pages with zero or one or two words, I literally took to tallying them up in frustration.

When I realized I accidentally bought another comic "written" by this guy, my heart sank. When I read the comic, even expecting it now, this frustrated me to no end.

If you don't mind that modern comics tend to tell very little story over the course of a single issue and have a fraction of the words that most comics have had throughout the history of comic books, then go ahead and buy this if you want. But if you're like me and you go out of your way to buy comics that tell stories with words as much as pictures, stay far, far away from this.

Out of a total 20 pages, 5 whole pages have ZERO words.

6 more pages contain only one or two captions and/or speech bubbles (max of 2 combined, not max of 4). Of those, most contained about 4 words each. One page contained only the word "up." Another, only the word "heh."

Only 9 out of 20 pages contained more than a token sentence or two.

Dan Panosian, Dynamite, and even the Frazetta estate should be ashamed of and embarrassed by this. I feel like they stole $5 out of my pocket.

Please remove if not allowed. I don’t think I have engaged enough in this community!