Just The Axe, Ma'am #1
A curated list of Modern Sword & Sorcery links for August 2023.
Book Release
On August 1, Baen Books released Lord of a Shattered Land by Howard Andrew Jones. Arguably the most important Sword & Sorcery book release in years. If not decades.
Jones has been a lifelong champion of Sword & Sorcery all his life and debuts the first volume of The Chronicles of Hanuvar, a series that is his magnum opus.
It has attracted several interviews and reviews over August. Here are a few of our favourites:
+ Paul Semel runs down a great interview that serves as an introduction to who Jones is and where he’s coming from as he writes these stories for Hanuvar.
+ Jones discusses his writing process in the craft-heavy discussion on the podcast So I’m Writing a Novel
+ Over at the Cromcast, Jones sat down with the hosts to discuss the novel, as well as the episode having a discussion/re-examination of Robert E. Howard’s “The Devil in Iron”
+ A chapter of the book, previously released as the short story “The Second Death of Hanuvar” that appeared in Tales From The Magician’s Skull #3, was analyzed and dissected by New Edge Sword & Sorcery editor Oliver Brackenbury, with guests Graham Wilcox of Old Moon Quarterly and editor Jay Wolf. You can listen to the discussion on the New Edge Sword & Sorcery YouTube channel here.
Reviews
+ Jason Ray Carney gives a long-form study that contextualizes the book within the larger sword & sorcery tradition at Black Gate.
+ Brian Murphy, author of Flame & Crimson: A History of Sword & Sorcery, looks at it and compares its similarities and differences to his definition of Sword & Sorcery on his blog The Silver Key.
+ Over at Grimdark Magazine, Robin Marx reviews it in consideration of sword & sorcery’s relationship with the grimdark school of fantasy.
+ Matt Holder gives an in-depth analysis of themes and structure of the book at Spiral Tower Reviews.
This Month in Sword & Sorcery Magazines
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly - HFQ just finished a new submission call from August 2-31. Good luck to all who submitted!
As well they released online Issue Q57; the contents are as follows:
Duel, by Raja Gulaya.
Dragon Tears, by Caleb Williams.
The Curse of Bloodbone Island, by Adrian Cole
Plus three poems and page 6 of Gary McClusky’s interpretation of Robert E. Howard’s first published story, “Spear and Fang.”
New Edge Sword & Sorcery - NESS gave an art preview of “How Many Deaths Till Vengeance?” a bonus story that will be included at no extra charge in New Edge Sword & Sorcery #2, due to be released along with Issue 1 in the fall.
Old Moon Quarterly - OMQ Volume V has just been released! The cover was painted and constructed by Derek Moore. The following stories and poems are:
"Together Under the Wing" by Jonathan Olfert
"Champions Against the Maggot King" by K.H. Vaughn
"The King's Two Bodies" by Joe Koch
"The Origin of Boghounds" by Amelia Gorman
"Well Met at the Gates of Hell" by David K. Henrickson
"The Skulls of Ghosts" by Charles Gramlich
"A Warning Agaynste Woldes" by Zachary Bos
"The Headsman's Melancholy" by Joseph Andre Thomas
Swords & Sorcery - The long-running webzine released three stories online for August! The stories you can read for free are
“Fleas in the Wind”, by P. J. Atwater
“The Greentown Operation”, by Gustavo Bondoni
“Eliza Sky and the Gallows Tree”, by Neil Willcox
Tales From The Magician’s Skull - Issue #11 came out! Featuring another painted cover by the legendary Sanjulian, and with editor Howard Andrew Jones at the helm, this magazine is at the forefront of the Sword & Sorcery revival.
The Stories featured in this issue are:
”Test of the Runeweavers” by H. T. Grossen
”Lady of the Frost” by C. L. Werner
”The Eyes of Rath Kanon” by Bill Pearce
”Ghostwise” by Caias Ward
”Melkart and the Whore of Babylon” by Mark Mellon
”Kick in the Door and Improvise” by Dawn Vogel
”The Lens of Being” by Daniel Amatiello
”Bound in Brass and Iron” by Matthew X. Gomez
Whetstone - The Amateur Magazine of Pulp Sword & Sorcery is open for submissions till September 17! Read their Submission Guidelines here.
Scattered Stories of Note:
At Beneath Ceaseless Skies, there is “Steady and the Mountain.” Zachary Olsen’s Dark Souls-esque Sword & Sorcery tale. You can read it here.
L D Whitney, co-host of The Rogues in the House podcast, released “Red Rendezvous” on the Rogues in the House Presents blog. Read it here.
Christopher Rowe has “The Dogman” a flash fiction sword & sorcery tale up on the Whetstone blog.
Open Calls
As listed above, Whetstone Magazine is open till September 17.
Hexagon SF Magazine specifies that they accept sword & sorcery submissions among other subgenres. They open on September 1! Check out their submission guidelines here.
Their sister magazine Myriad, which specializes in microfiction, has submission calls for the themes of “Duel” and “Necropolis.” Find out more here.
Crab Tales Magazine is open till September 24, seeking 250-word microfiction of any genre as long as it features crabs. We would not note this, except it has created a certain swell of excitement among authors at the NESS Discord, suggesting a large number of stories featuring anti-crustacean violence perpetrated by sword-wielding protagonists will be submitted. Will any of these crab-featured sword & sorcery stories be accepted for publication? Or rejected, will they scuttle into other microfiction submission calls?
TO BE CONTINUED
About The Substack
Just The Axe, Ma’am is a monthly newsletter curating a list of new & notable news for the growing sword & sorcery scene.
Great first issue, Kevin! ⚔