Sword & Mythos edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles
This disappointing anthology welds together sword and sorcery pulp fiction and the Cthulhu mythos in a cultural dead end.
The Iron Hunt
A badly written tale of a sub-par Conan type being sanguine about horrors. Prurient.
Best Line:
“They were words of a tongue long-dead and not quite human.”
Jon Carver Of Barzoon, You Misunderstood
I think this was a ‘John Carter’ parody and oddly impeccable it was too.
Sun Sorrow
A truly convoluted tale of multiple antagonists and is a meandering, frustrating incoherent tenuous mess.
The Wood Of Ephraim
Trees attack in this waning tale.
Best Line:
“Where are the stars tonight?”
Truth Is Order and Order Is Truth
An exiled princess realises profoundly held truths. Okay.
Spirit Forms Of The Sea
A girl finds her spirit guide in this diffident tale.
The Bones Of Heroes
A different look at a wicked witch always traduced in these stories. This was an interesting and enjoyable permutation.
Light
Archaeologists look for a lost colony in Greenland. Okay.
Best Lines:
“Has anyone ever told you that you read too many fantasy novels?”
“Many things sleep beneath the ice.”
The Serpents of Albion
The real fate of Arthur Pendragon. Iniquitous.
The Call of The Dreaming Moon
A woman goes on a dream quest and is disabused of certain obligations. This was imbued with nothing of interest.
Black Caesar: The Stone Ship Rises
An abjectly awful pirate story.
And After The Fire, A Still Small Voice
A tale of transmogrification, or something. This was crap.
No Sleep For The Just
A succinctly dull tale of Dagon.
In Xochitl In Cuicatl in Shub-Niggurath
A descriptive tale of nothing of interest.
The Sorrow of Quinfeng
A scrupulously boring and unenlightening tale.
Conan And The Cthulhu Mythos/Sword of Cthulhu/What’s So Great About Sword and Planet?/Spanish Conan: Manos, Gurrero Indomito/Mexican Belit: Conan Goes Viking
Boring essays
Best Lines:
“He knew somehow that mortal feet had not traversed the corridor for centuries.”
“Not even in legend is this city mentioned.”