sword woman and other historical adventures

So far, I’d enjoyed everything I’d read, but I was still hoping for something a bit more special. Are our heroes stupid enough to trust the man who hired them? A scroll has to be delivered to Lord Masor. She and her partner Edrion have taken on a delivery job. Tierney back in the 1980s! ‘Old Moon Over Irukad’ is back in the more classic sword and sorcery vein, albeit Virissa, his female sword-wielder does like women. I remember enjoying the ‘Red Sonja’ novels he co-wrote with Richard L. I really liked the way that this tale both had lots of swordplay and violence and didn’t really have any…I’m not going to tell you any more. She’s also a scribe (author to us) and is invited to tea by an older, more established male scribe, whose intentions may not be entirely honourable. The protagonist, Ymke, is female, and in a same sex relationship. This starts with ‘The Ember Inside’ by Remco van Straten and Angeline B. It allows fans to get comfortable, before they get their horizons expanded. In practice, I regard the decision to open with a fairly generic, albeit enjoyable, sword and sorcery tale as a good one. However, one of the claims editor Oliver Brackenbury makes for the magazine is that they want to encourage diversity in authors, characters and settings of the stories. Not at all a bad choice for an opener, but had all the stories been in the same vein, I’d not be so impressed. Quiogue, while not being ground-breaking, is a solid, well-written tale pretty much in the classic sword & sorcery vein and there’s certainly room for more to come, which would not be unwelcome. This tale, ‘The Curse Of The Horsetail Banner’ by Dariel R.A. There’s enough potential here for someone like Gardner Fox to have stretched it out to a full novel.

Along the way, Orhan has to deal with ferocious wolves, unfriendly bands of fighting men and a powerful if not very wise sorcerer, who thought stealing sacred items of power from a tomb was a good idea. This issue opens with the story of Orhan, deposed khan of the eastern tribes, as he tracks the stag he’s wounded, while desperately trying to avoid being captured and killed by his enemy. The ‘Letter From the Editor’ tells how the magazine came about and of editor Oliver Brackenbury’s hopes and plans for the future. It runs for 80 pages, but the letter (11inch x 8½inch) format, with three columns per page and fairly small font size, means it contains much more material inside than one might think. It’s quite hard to gauge the actual size of this promotional special.

A successful Kickstarter was launched for the first two full-sized issues, which can be found here. It’s that cheap because it’s intended as a promo, so it’s being sold more or less at cost. At the super low price of just £ 3.48 on Amazon for the softcover, I couldn’t not check this out.

Sword woman and other historical adventures