[kcf]

I finally got my review for Swords & Dark Magic written. It's a pretty good anthology, not spectacular, but solid enough. Entertainment is the name of the game.

On the blog I address each story, but here is an excerpt from the review:

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Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders collects original stories from authors who were there near the beginning of sword and sorcery and from the new guys and gals, some of whom have earned reputations as the latest and greatest. As a whole the anthology succeeds with its goal: showcase Sword and Sorcery. These stories are fun and entertaining adventures often full of dark humor. They are not, nor should they be, powerful short stories that punch you in the gut and haunt your dreams – well, OK, some of these stories will punch you in the gut and then kick you in the face, spit on your back and maniacally laugh between guzzles of some horrendous, potent beverage, but I think the point comes across that this is much more of collection of entertainment than deeply symbolic stories on the human condition.

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"Goats of Glory" - Steven Erikson

This story embraces the idea of Sword and Sorcery a bit more fully than many of the other stories in this anthology. A small group of mysterious soldiers are ambushed by a nest of nasty demons – I’ve said before that Erikson excels in the short form and this is a pretty good example of it. And nobody names characters better.

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Swords & Dark Magic succeeds as an anthology, though perhaps not as a great collection of stories. No single story stands out as great, and there are a couple of real duds. However, the stories in Swords & Dark Magic are hugely fun and entertaining and showcase the pulp-ish genre of Sword and Sorcery.

Full Review