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Hi I'm I've been recently on a Sword and Sorcery kick and looking for some recommendations. Not too interested in the sorcery parts so if the books are light on magic and heavy on action Ill take that. I've read all of Joe Abercrombies except for Best Served Cold. I'm currently reading Gemmell's Druss books.

I have never read Robert E. Howard should I start there? Any other author or book suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Welp, lessee...

The Night Angel Trilogy, starts with The Way of Shadows.

There's the Malazan Series, starting with Gardens of the Moon.

The Warded Man and it's sequel The Desert Spear are pretty good, too.

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn is a good trilogy. As is basically anything else he's written.

They all have magic in them, but for the most part the magic is usually centered around fighting.

Here are two classic of Sword and Sorcery: Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, which is his version of Conan then Michael Mookcock made his own version with Elric.

/takes notes

Being officially unemployed, I will theoretically have more time to read.

The Fionavar Tapestry, three novels in a continuing story: The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road.

Thank you for the suggestions. I've been thinking of starting the Malazan series for a while but wasn't to sure about it. I might start with The way of shadows and the Demon Cycle series, plus The Wise mans Fear. I definitly want to read some Howard and Leiber as well. The best place to start is at the beginning.

The Wise Man's Fear was supremely disappointing after reading the truly original first novel in Pat Rothfuss's series. Save yourself the time and money and just buy it at a used bookstore when the third novel comes out.

Stan wrote: "The Wise Man's Fear was supremely disappointing after reading the truly original first novel in Pat Rothfuss's series. Save yourself the time and money and just buy it at a used bookstore when the ..."

I think most readers who have read both books would agree with you that The Wise Man's Fear is not as good as The Name of the Wind.

hi Anthony

hope you find lots of good stuff. i say definitely give Robert E Howard a go - as well as the Conan books, i've always had a soft spot for his El Borak books and the Cormac mac Art series (continued by Andrew J Offutt).

i heartily second Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories (Dungeons and Dragons wouldn't exist without them!) along with Jack Vance's Dying Earth books (ditto!)

I can't believe nobody's mentioned George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire! Although if you've been following the group discussions at all i'm sure you're aware of it.

Other authors i'd point you toward:

KJ Parker
Joe Abercrombie
Robin Hobb

and if you're enjoying David Gemmell, there's a lot of other stuff in the mythical/historical fantasy genre you might like; Kenneth C Flint based a series on the Irish myth cycle, Lloyd Alexander's wonderful Chronicles of Prydain based on Welsh myth, Elizabeth H Boyer's series in Iceland, and of course Bernard Cornwell has written a lot in the vein.

Didn't mention GRRM because he already has ASoIaF on his read shelf, as well as all but one Abercrombie.

i never thought to check. d'oh...

Heh, no biggie. I just wanted to make sure to recommend something he hasn't read yet, and that might fit in with what he has read. :)

Anthony wrote: "Hi I'm I've been recently on a Sword and Sorcery kick and looking for some recommendations. Not too interested in the sorcery parts so if the books are light on magic and heavy on action Ill take t..."

Yes, I can recommend Conan. Also try Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Both rely more on action than magic. The F & tGM are also funny.

D'oh! I forgot "The Drawing of the Dark" by Tim Powers. King Arthur and Merlin battle the forces of darkness in 1400's Vienna. One of my favorites.

Ah, it's not been mentioned yet, so here I go!

One of my most favorite S&S authors is Mercedes Lackey. Almost everything she writes fits into this category, although everything in the world of Valdemar applies.

In this, the Vows and Honor bit was written with a definite focus on sword and sorcery: a two woman team, one a budding magician and the other a sword-sworn warrior travel around and get into lots of mischief! But the magician also has a magic sword that fights for her, and the warrior also practices a bit of her tribes sorcerey... so it's all mixed up together!

The whole of Valdemar seems to be built up on the whole S&S idea: everyone learns some weapons skills and some form of magic, it seems! I love it to death (my most favorite fantasy world out there) and if you start reading it I'll be with you every step of the way talking about it if you want!

For magic and good sword fights, we can't forget Drizzt Do'Urden's skills with scimitars: The Dark Elf Trilogy Collector's Edition and The Icewind Dale Trilogy Collector's Edition.

Thank you everyone for the great recommendations. I have read GRRM but I guess I never really considered ASoIaF as S&S because there is very little of both. But of course it’s a great series. Although The Wise Man's Fear doesn't have as many reviewers it has an amazing 4.52 rating. I have heard many people say that it’s not as good as the first but I guess I have to read it for myself. I feel like in order to really appreciate a specific genre you should read the earliest works to see where all the authors received their influences. Lovecraft completely took over my world when I was reading Weird Fiction. I'll have to do the same with Howard and Leiber.

Tacuazin wrote: "For magic and good sword fights, we can't forget Drizzt Do'Urden's skills with scimitars: The Dark Elf Trilogy Collector's Edition and The Icewind Dale Trilogy Collector's Editio..."</i>

These are great novels, at least the first two trilogies and a few of the stand-alones. I lost interest when [book:The Thousand Orcs came out, but the early books are favorites of mine.

I recommend The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, it's a well done book in it's own right and the Robert E. Howard stories are fantastic.

Has anyone read The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan? I'm a huge fan of his Takashi Kovacs novels, but I've heard mixed reactions from his take on fantasy.

The Desert of Souls Howard Andrew Jones is set in 8th Century Baghdad and was inspired by The Arabian Nights tales. I thought it was really good.

If you'd be interested in short stories, there's Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery. I found most of the stories to be pretty average to barely competent, but a few by Abercrombie, Lynch, Parker, and Wolfe are good.

I'd also recommend The Last Wish by polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, about a demon hunter in world much like eastern Europe. It's really a bunch of short stories, but there's an interconnecting narrative that makes it more than just a collection.

The Book of Swords series by Fred Saberhagen.

The titles are in the form: "The First Book of Swords", The Second . . ." and so on.