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Post by atomicfear on Mar 3, 2024 20:55:34 GMT
I was raised on Conan and Elric books. But recently I fell in love with Children of the Neon Bamboo which has a Masamune sub-plot, really ignited my renewed interest in swords, leading me here today. What are some of your favorites?
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Post by eastman on Mar 3, 2024 21:15:07 GMT
A lot of good sword references in the Roger Zelazny Amber series.
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Mar 4, 2024 0:56:21 GMT
In my youth: Conan and Moorcock too, Karl Edward Wagner's Kane, Alan Burt Akers'/Kenneth Bulmer's Kregen stories, John Norman's Gor, Prince Valiant, Musketeers, LotR
Later: Cornwell's Saxon stories. Shogun, Game of Thrones, Dark Matter,
l'm always saying: The three pillars of good literature are swords, undead and spaceships.
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Post by joe_meadmaker on Mar 4, 2024 3:16:47 GMT
I'm a fan of the classics, like Lord of the Rings and The Three Musketeers. On more recent stuff, my favorite is the Riyria Revelations, and the other books Michael J. Sullivan has written which take place in the same world. I'd say the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie is also great series, despite being a little disappointed with the ending.
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Post by atomicfear on Mar 5, 2024 5:38:29 GMT
In my youth: Conan and Moorcock too, Karl Edward Wagner's Kane, Alan Burt Akers'/Kenneth Bulmer's Kregen stories, John Norman's Gor, Prince Valiant, Musketeers, LotR Later: Cornwell's Saxon stories. Shogun, Game of Thrones, Dark Matter, l'm always saying: The three pillars of good literature are swords, undead and spaceships. My dad reads a lot of Cornwell; I need to check him out.
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rschuch
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Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go walking, east, south, far away into dark and danger.
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Post by rschuch on Mar 8, 2024 12:29:33 GMT
Yep, Tolkien and Moorcock were the first, then Fritz Leiber.
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Post by Sir Thorfinn on Mar 8, 2024 15:12:35 GMT
Heinlein - Glory Road Gor Series
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Post by miraculix101 on Mar 8, 2024 20:26:27 GMT
Marc Olden..RIP www.marcolden.com/events.htmMany of Olden’s books, such as the eastern-influenced GIRI, DAI-SHO, GAIJIN, ONI, TE, KISAENG and KRAIT, reflect his twin passions for eastern culture and philosophy. "ONI" i get goosebumps reading that name. And of course Eric van Lustbader: The Nicholas Linnear/Ninja Cycle The Ninja (1980) The Miko (1984) White Ninja (1990) The Kaisho (1993) Floating City (1994) Second Skin (1995)
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LeMal
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Post by LeMal on Mar 8, 2024 21:53:00 GMT
The Big Three were what started it all for me: Howard, Wagner, Moorcock. (And the Harryhausen Sinbad films.)
Speaking of which, for lovers of the above, I've long been arguing "sword and sorcery" never went fallow so much as morphed into the weird thriller/action horror realm--much like many lines of "dinosaurs" never so much went extinct as exist now as birds. So, sometimes swords, but not so parochial as to exclude knives, guns, good explosives... ;) If you buy that, F. Paul Wilson's stuff, especially Repairman Jack, is a prime inheritor of the genre, which is no surprise when he gave a nod to REH and Lovecraft at the beginning of The Keep. Anyway, there's a certain semi-therwordly katana that appears in the RJ books, especially (surprise surprise) the one called By the Sword, that I'd love to have a "battle ready" version made of someday.
Besides those, in the past couple decades I've also come to love Perez-Reverte's stuff, and the Alatriste books and The Fencing Master in particular.
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Post by strigoil on Mar 11, 2024 19:11:33 GMT
Besides what has already been mentioned here I have really enjoyed and will recommend the Chivalry series by Christian Cameron
It's a fictional but set in real history non-fantasy medieval series with high accuracy in its descriptions as the author is a historian and reenactor. Fiore is in the books as well and in one of them describes the anatomy of a sword and how to do a boar's guard, it's highly enjoyable for any medieval nerd, the way he describes fights is sublime.
He has other series as well set in other eras but I have not delved into them yet.
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seth
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Just Peachy
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Post by seth on Mar 12, 2024 16:11:29 GMT
I recently read the House of Blades Trilogy by Will Wight. It's a great fantasy series with some giant swords.
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Post by atomicfear on Mar 13, 2024 19:20:17 GMT
Besides what has already been mentioned here I have really enjoyed and will recommend the Chivalry series by Christian Cameron It's a fictional but set in real history non-fantasy medieval series with high accuracy in its descriptions as the author is a historian and reenactor. Fiore is in the books as well and in one of them describes the anatomy of a sword and how to do a boar's guard, it's highly enjoyable for any medieval nerd, the way he describes fights is sublime. He has other series as well set in other eras but I have not delved into them yet. I'll have to check that out!
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Zen_Hydra
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Born with a heart full of neutrality
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Post by Zen_Hydra on Mar 14, 2024 3:53:42 GMT
Many of the classics have already been mentioned, but I would be remiss to not also mention Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series. Swashbuckling planetary romance at its finest.
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Mar 14, 2024 10:17:53 GMT
Burroughs obviously set the pattern for Akers' Dray Prescott/Kregen and Norman's Gor. I've never read it because it wasn't available in those times. A few years ago I reread the Prescott stories I still own. Funny thing, along the stories he used all kinds of swords, perhaps this influenced my taste for different sword types nowadays.
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Post by atomicfear on Mar 14, 2024 18:09:08 GMT
If you guys want a good swashbuckler: Scarmouche. Set in the French Revolution, the protagonist is a fencing instructor and it gets into philosophy of fencing and sword fighting.
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Post by atomicfear on Mar 20, 2024 6:44:29 GMT
Here is a cool sword excerpt from Children of the Neon Bamboo:
McGuinn is doing a slow sword kata, a physical meditation. You’d think it was some kind of Tai Chi. It was a thing of beauty, pure focus as he slowly turned. On a dusty Arkansas summer evening, a Miami international playboy martial arts instructor is spinning an ancient samurai sword in a slow, perfectly controlled motion. Loo and I sat and watched, mesmerized. No one can ever accuse me of not having seen interesting things. He stops, bows, and starts walking toward the car. “Let’s go, boys.” He pops the trunk. “You two can look at it.” He pulled it out of its beat-up black lacquer saya (Japanese for scabbard). The leather wrapping around the top of the scabbard, Sageo, was purple. “It’s bad manners to look at if it’s not completely unsheathed,” he said as he pulled it out. He pointed toward the base of the sword at a little chip. “This nick here,” he says as he looks at me. I see it and nod, “About 400 years ago, when this sword was 300 years old, it was carried in a famous showdown between two elite samurai: General Honjo Shigenaga and Umanosuke, a swordsman with many high-profile trophy kills on his resume. Umanosuke carried this sword and he hit the general on the head with it several times, damaging the blade and destroying the helmet. The general ended up snatching victory at the last moment, earning the famous blade. But afterward they had to take twenty cm off what was once a longsword.” He made eye contact with us and slowly ran his finger down the blade. Loo was entranced and serious about the lesson, listening and looking closely. “It takes a lifetime to get good at sword evaluation, it’s a deep art and science, but the reason Musamune is considered the greatest is the Jigane, the quality of the material of the blade. The steel is both stronger and more beautiful. Look, there are no impurities.” It was darker, closer to a greyish black than the bright silver you’d expect. People have asked me if it was magical, and even used the words “aura-enshrouded soul.” And the thing is, I don’t know. At the time, with McGuinn talking, I felt like it was the most important item in the world. But, if I go back and objectively think about the sword, in a vacuum with no context, you could have told me it was a fake from a Tennessee junk shop and I would have believed you. But I guess that speaks about my knowledge of swords rather than the sword itself. Some people don’t like “What a Fool Believes” by the Doobie Brothers.
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Post by miraculix101 on Mar 20, 2024 16:52:57 GMT
I would try Marc Olden:
Giri (1982) Dai-sho (1983) Gaijin (1986) Oni (1987) Sword of Vengeance (1990) Kisaeng (1991)
Black Samurai novels
Black Samurai (1974) The Golden Kill (1974) Killer Warrior (1974) The Deadly Pearl (1974) The Inquisition (1974) The Warlock (1975) Sword of Allah (1975) The Katana (1975)
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Post by atomicfear on Mar 22, 2024 6:53:52 GMT
I would try Marc Olden: Giri (1982) Dai-sho (1983) Gaijin (1986) Oni (1987) Sword of Vengeance (1990) Kisaeng (1991) Black Samurai novels Black Samurai (1974) The Golden Kill (1974) Killer Warrior (1974) The Deadly Pearl (1974) The Inquisition (1974) The Warlock (1975) Sword of Allah (1975) The Katana (1975) Hard to say no to some names like that
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steveboy
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Measure twice, cut once.
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Post by steveboy on Apr 1, 2024 5:25:08 GMT
Heinlein - Glory Road Gor Series The duel with Cyrano de Bergerac in Glory Road is one of the best swordfights I've ever read. Heinlein was incredible at depicting action, something I think he hasn't been well credited for. I highly recommend the duel between Sir Richard Francis Burton and de Bergerac (!) in Farmer's The Dark Design, the climax to his Riverworld Trilogy. Wonderfully done, and I think possibly modeled onthe Glory Road scene.
Roger Zelazny wrote fantastic action, and the swordfights in his Amber series were terrific, particularly the one on the cliffside pass between Corwin and pretty much an entire army, who could only face him one at a time (if I recall correctly -- it's been a long time).
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steveboy
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Measure twice, cut once.
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Post by steveboy on Apr 1, 2024 5:26:57 GMT
The Big Three were what started it all for me: Howard, Wagner, Moorcock. (And the Harryhausen Sinbad films.) Speaking of which, for lovers of the above, I've long been arguing "sword and sorcery" never went fallow so much as morphed into the weird thriller/action horror realm--much like many lines of "dinosaurs" never so much went extinct as exist now as birds. So, sometimes swords, but not so parochial as to exclude knives, guns, good explosives... If you buy that, F. Paul Wilson's stuff, especially Repairman Jack, is a prime inheritor of the genre, which is no surprise when he gave a nod to REH and Lovecraft at the beginning of The Keep. Anyway, there's a certain semi-therwordly katana that appears in the RJ books, especially (surprise surprise) the one called By the Sword, that I'd love to have a "battle ready" version made of someday. Besides those, in the past couple decades I've also come to love Perez-Reverte's stuff, and the Alatriste books and The Fencing Master in particular. The writer who massively influenced a great many of more recent fantasy writers was Fritz Leiber. I very much recommend his " Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" stories for their swordplay.
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