Morgan Holmes' review of the Gardner Dozois edited THE BOOK OF SWORDS (Penguin Random House, 2017) included two mentions of Rogue Blades Entertainment and a fistful of authors RBE has been delighted to publish in the past (and hopes to again in the (near) future!):
About ten years ago, there was a crop of newer writers: Bill Ward, Ty Johnston, Steve Goble, Bruce Durham. They were showing up in the revived Flashing Swords, the Rogue Blades Entertainment anthologies, and other small press publications. These writers were rough at times in writing style but they were sincere. These are the people I want to see in a big hardback. I don’t get the same enthusiastic vibe with The Book of Swords.
Morgan also made a very astute observation about Sword & Sorcery:
If you are going to write sword and sorcery, restraint is not a virtue...The most damning thing that can be said about a sword and sorcery story is that it is boring.
'Boring' -- Bah! We agree. That is a word RBE neither associates with the authors Morgan lauded nor appreciates being attributed to its titles! Now Penguin Random House bills this anthology as 'epic fantasy' rather than Sword & Sorcery, but apparently Dozois discusses S&S during his introduction. I've not read the book, but the intro does seem appealing. I like explorations of past-times in the eras of fantasy writing, reading, selling, and buying. Dozois has been around the industry a long time, and his reminiscence of a fantasy-hungry reading world pre-JRRT sounds fun.
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