KINGS OF THE NIGHT

[che2000]

Should anyone be interested in seeking out some new sword and sorcery fiction, GW Thomas' excellent s&s ezine, Kings of the Night can be found here:

www.gwthomas.org/kingsofthenight.htm

[Calenture]

Dec 5, 2009 0:56:24 GMT @che2000 said:

Should anyone be interested in seeking out some new sword and sorcery fiction, GW Thomas' excellent s&s ezine, Kings of the Night can be found here:

Kings of the Night

I don't know what happened to the reply I made here in the small hours of the morning. Suppose I must have written it but not clicked 'post'.

I remember copying this text from here:

G. W. Thomas is an award-winning author, as well as a critic, editor, poet, cartoonist and illustrator. (Jack of all-trades, master of none...)The title of the newspaper article that went with this picture was "Monster Man", and it is an apt one at that, as GW works in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror genres (with some Mystery and Westerns thrown in). He doesn't think of himself as being a "Horror writer", for instance, but a "monster writer", working in any genre that allows him to create weird creatures and strange landscapes.

Man after my own heart. Making monsters is fun.

I enjoyed his Brief History of Sword and Sorcery, particularly the first half, where he discusses R E Howard's influences.

I'm still toying with his idea that Howard emulated writers because of their success rather than because his obsessions lay in the same direction:

"It is likely Howard picked Rohmer as a model because of his wide popularity. Howard was determined to succeed and chose his models accordingly."

And: "Edgar Rice Burroughs was another such model. Another early REH attempt, Almuric is indebted to ERB. As with Rohmer, Burroughs was selected because of publishing success, not philosophy."

Quite possibly he's right; I've read a fair bit of Howard's writing in the past, but probably have only learned what's common knowledge among S&S readers. I haven't read much about Howard himself.

All the same: "H. P. Lovecraft was the second greatest influence on Howard, a fellow Weird Tales contributor and a correspondent of REH’s."

Not the most successful of writers (except posthumously) I thought. All the same, G W Thomas's enthusiasm for his subject makes his writing interesting, and his site also has some great links.