Sword And Sorcery Sword And Planet and Swashbuckling Fiction
Explore thrilling Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, and Swashbuckling fiction with our curated list of action-packed books. Dive into epic adventures, daring heroes, and magical realms today!
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Wood Beyond the World
by William Morris
The Wood Beyond the World is a splendid tale, told in a romantic style and written in a pseudo-archaic English. The plot is full of tension, and the descriptions of the Wood, the characters, and the rustic scenery are all exquisitely painted. Morris was a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, and perhaps the best way to think of this story is as the literary equivalent of a Waterhouse painting--brooding, mysterious, and enchanted. Newly designed and typeset for easy reading by Boomer Books.
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The Gods of Pegana
by Edward John Moreton Dunsany
A rich tapestry of imaginative fantasy, this is one of the landmark collections of short stories from the early 20th century, and a tremendous influence on writers ranging from H.P. Lovecraft to Ursula K. LeGuin.
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Gulliver of Mars
by Edwin L. Arnold
Whisked away to the legendary red planet, the intrepid Lieutenant Gullivar Jones is caught up in the adventure of a lifetime. To win the love of a beautiful princess, he fights his way across a dying and savage planet of desolate cities, lost races, utopian societies, and the haunting and unforgettable River of Death. This classic, influential tale of Mars, written in the utopian tradition of H. G. Wellss The Time Machine, is also considered a possible inspiration for the immortal Barsoom of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Both reflective and imaginative, Gullivar of Mars celebrates the acuity and storytelling power of science fiction writers of the early twentieth century and continues to influence writers and to entertain readers today. This commemorative edition includes the full text of the classic 1905 edition, a new introduction by Richard A. Lupoff, an illustration by Thomas Floyd, and an afterword by Gary Hoppenstand.
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A Princess of Mars
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Civil War veteran John Carter is transported to a dying planet where he must rescue a Martian princess while evading giant green barbarian Mars-men!
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The Book of Wonder
by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett Dunsany, Baron
Lord Dunsany was an Irish poet and dramatist. He spent his life living in the famous Dunsany castle in Ireland. This collection of 19 short fantasy stories is also published under the name The Last Book of Wonder. These stories greatly influenced Tolkein, LeGuin, and other fantasy writers.
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The Sea-Hawk
by Rafael Sabatini
The Sea Hawk is another pirate adventure novel penned by Rafael Sabatini, author of Captain Blood. It was originally published in 1915 and is set in the late 16th century. Sir Oliver Tressilian, a typical English sea-faring gentleman, is villainously betrayed by his jealous half-brother and is accused of murder. Sir Oliver is kidnapped off the Cornish coast, and forced to serve as a slave on a Spanish galley. Eventually Sir Oliver is freed by Barbary pirates. He joins the pirates, gaining the name "Sakr-el-Bahr," the hawk of the sea, and swears vengeance against his half-brother. This story is filled with adventure, religious conflict, melodrama, romance and intrigue, and is perhaps best known for its many film adaptations.
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Wolf of the Steppes
by Harold Lamb
Wolf of the Steppes is the first of a four-volume set that collects, for the first time, the complete Cossack stories of Harold Lamb and presents them in order: every adventure of Khlit the Cossack and those of his friends, allies, and fellow Cossacks, many of which have never before appeared between book covers.
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The Moon Pool
by A. Merritt
First published in 1918, this bestselling classic is the inspiration for the hit ABC television series "Lost." On an uncharted island in the South Pacific, a party of explorers finds incredible marvels and inadvertently unleashes the Dweller, a monstrous entity that stalks all in its path.
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The Worm Ouroboros
by Eric RĂĽcker Eddison
Recounts a protracted war between King Gorice of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland.
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The King of Elfland's Daughter
by Lord Dunsany
“No amount of mere description can convey more than a fraction of Lord Dunsany's pervasive charm.”—H.P. Lovecraft With an introduction by Neil Gaiman The poetic style and sweeping grandeur of The King of Elfland's Daughter has made it one of the most beloved fantasy novels of our time, a masterpiece that influenced some of the greatest contemporary fantasists. The heartbreaking story of a marriage between a mortal man and an elf princess is a masterful tapestry of the fairy tale following the “happily ever after.” Praise for The King of Elfland's Daughter “We find that he has but tranfigured with beauty the common sights of the world.”—William Butler Yeats “I shall indeed be happy if this volume contributes to the rediscovery of one of the greatest writers of this century.”—Arthur C. Clarke “Del Rey is to be thanked for bringing these works back into print. No one can understand modern fantasy without understanding its roots, and Lord Dunsany's work is immediately significant as well as enjoyable even today.”—Katharine Kerr “A fantasy novel in a class with the Tolkien books.”—L. Sprague de Camp
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The Ship of Ishtar
by Abraham Merritt
Pulled through time and space by an ancient artifact, can one man survive the eternal struggle between the gods of love and death?
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Tros of Samothrace
by Talbot Mundy
Complete in one volume, Talbot Mundy's legendary account of the Druid Warrior Tros and his unwilling service to the Roman Empire. First serialized in Adventure, the book chronicles Tros' attempts to keep Julius Caesar from conquering the Britons, and of the young man's efforts to free his father. Stunning for its time, this work of action that shatters anything R.E. Howard could dream up also makes the case that Celtic peoples were far more sophisticated than the wicker-burning freaks they'd been painted as, and goes deeply into the mind of Caesar, depicting the supposed Worthy as a proto-fascist and demon fully capable of massacring comparatively defenseless barbarians on a whim. No mere hack and slash work, Mundy's Tros grows as the narrative presses along, and survives, ironically, in the service of Rome. This book is the author's finest work, though one that, sadly, ended his relationship with a publisher (who'd been expecting something shorter, and about Cleopatra.)
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The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith Volume 1: The End Of The Story
by Clark Ashton Smith
The first of five volumes collecting the complete stories of renowned “weird fiction” author Clark Ashton Smith. “None strikes the note of cosmic horror as well as Clark Ashton Smith. In sheer daemonic strangeness and fertility of conception, Smith is perhaps unexcelled by any other writer.” —H. P. Lovecraft Clark Ashton Smith, considered one of the greatest contributors to seminal pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, helped define and shape “weird fiction” in the early twentieth century, alongside contemporaries H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, drawing upon his background in poetry to convey an unparalleled richness of imagination and expression in his stories of the bizarre and fantastical. The Collected Fantasies series presents all of Smith’s fiction chronologically. Authorized by the author’s estate and endorsed by Arkham House, the stories in this series are accompanied by detailed background notes from editors Scott Connors and Ron Hilger, who in preparation for this collection meticulously compared original manuscripts, various typescripts, published editions, and Smith’s own notes and letters. Their efforts have resulted in the most definitive and complete collection of the author’s work to date. The End of the Story is the first of five volumes collecting all of Clark Ashton Smith’s tales of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. It includes all of his stories from “The Abominations of Yondo” (1925) to “A Voyage to Sfanomoë” (1930) and an introduction by Ramsey Campbell.
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Shadow Kingdoms
by Robert E. Howard
Meticulously restored text by renowned Howard scholar Paul Herman, this is the first in a 10-book definitive chronological collection of Robert E. Howard's stories that appeared in pulp magazines like the revered Weird Tales. Howard is considered the Godfather of Sword and Sorcery, and the creator of the international icon, Conan the Cimmerian.
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Kull
by Robert E. Howard
In a meteoric career that spanned a mere twelve years, Robert E. Howard single-handedly invented the genre that came to be called sword and sorcery. From his fertile imagination sprang some of fiction’s most enduring heroes. Yet while Conan is indisputably Howard’s greatest creation, it was in his earlier sequence of tales featuring Kull, a fearless warrior with the brooding intellect of a philosopher, that Howard began to develop the distinctive themes, and the richly evocative blend of history and mythology, that would distinguish his later tales of the Hyborian Age. Much more than simply the prototype for Conan, Kull is a fascinating character in his own right: an exile from fabled Atlantis who wins the crown of Valusia, only to find it as much a burden as a prize. This groundbreaking collection, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Justin Sweet, gathers together all Howard’s stories featuring Kull, from Kull’ s first published appearance, in “The Shadow Kingdom,” to “Kings of the Night,” Howard’ s last tale featuring the cerebral swordsman. The stories are presented just as Howard wrote them, with all subsequent editorial emendations removed. Also included are previously unpublished stories, drafts, and fragments, plus extensive notes on the texts, an introduction by Howard authority Steve Tompkins, and an essay by noted editor Patrice Louinet. Praise for Kull “Robert E. Howard had a gritty, vibrant style–broadsword writing that cut its way to the heart, with heroes who are truly larger than life.”—David Gemmell “Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks.”—Stephen King “Howard was a true storyteller–one of the first, and certainly among the best, you’ll find in heroic fantasy. If you’ve never read him before, you’ re in for a real treat.”—Charles de Lint “For stark, living fear . . . what other writer is even in the running with Robert E. Howard?”—H. P. Lovecraft
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The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
by Robert E. Howard
Conan is one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created– a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, facing powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and ruthless armies of thieves and reavers. “Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities . . . there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. . . . Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand . . . to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.” In a meteoric career that spanned a mere twelve years before his tragic suicide, Robert E. Howard single-handedly invented the genre that came to be called sword and sorcery. Collected in this volume, profusely illustrated by artist Mark Schultz, are Howard’s first thirteen Conan stories, appearing in their original versions–in some cases for the first time in more than seventy years–and in the order Howard wrote them. Along with classics of dark fantasy like “The Tower of the Elephant” and swashbuckling adventure like “Queen of the Black Coast,” The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian contains a wealth of material never before published in the United States, including the first submitted draft of Conan’s debut, “Phoenix on the Sword,” Howard’s synopses for “The Scarlet Citadel” and “Black Colossus,” and a map of Conan’s world drawn by the author himself. Here are timeless tales featuring Conan the raw and dangerous youth, Conan the daring thief, Conan the swashbuckling pirate, and Conan the commander of armies. Here, too, is an unparalleled glimpse into the mind of a genius whose bold storytelling style has been imitated by many, yet equaled by none.
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The Hobbit
by J. R. R. Tolkien
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.
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Lankhmar
by Fritz Leiber
In the World of Newhon, Fafhrd, the warrior, and the wizard, Gray Mouser, adventure from the caves of the inner earth to the waves of the Outer Sea and travel through the alleys and catacombs of Lankhmar, greatest of Newhon's cities.
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Tales of the Dying Earth
by Jack Vance
All four books in "The Dying Earth" science fiction series are now available in single volume.
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The Sword of Rhiannon
by Leigh Brackett
Archaeologist-turned-looter Matthew Carse is flung back in Mars' history by the sword of a fallen god, where he allies with the Sea Kings and their psychic allies against the tyrannical people of the Serpent.
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The Broken Sword
by Poul Anderson
Thor has broken the sword Tyrfing so that it cannot strike at the roots of Yggdrasil, the tree that binds together earth, heaven and hell. But now the mighty sword is needed again to save the elves in their war against the trolls, and only Scafloc, a human child kidnapped and raised by the elves, can hope to persuade Bolverk the ice-giant to make Tyrfing whole again. But Scafloc must also confront his shadow self, Valgard the changeling who has taken his place in the world of men.
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The Lord of the Rings
by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
Presents the epic depicting the Great War of the Ring, a struggle between good and evil in Middle-earth, following the odyssey of Frodo the hobbit and his companions on a quest to destroy the Ring of Power, in a special anniversary volume containing the corrected text of all three volumes of the seminal fantasy trilogy, complemented by maps and cover art by acclaimed artist Alan Lee. Simultaneous.
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Elric The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone)
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No summary available.
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The Blue Star
by Fletcher Pratt
Lalette Asterhax could not escape her destiny. She was a hereditary witch in a world where witchcraft was banned by ecclesiastical and temporal powers. And any man who possessed her would then gain possession of her precious Blue Star and all the powers it could bestow. Rodvard Bergelin was a reluctant revolutionary ... a rogue who had a date with destiny. Although he lusted after a rich baron's daughter, Rodvard was ordered to seduce the saucy witch-maiden. Then all the magical powers of that strange blue jewel would be his ... for as long as he remained faithful to Lalette "A magnificent job of writing ... a gem-perfect example of a branch of pure fantasy so rare nowadays." --Damon Knight"
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The Essential Conan the Barbarian: Conan the Barbarian #1-25
by Roy Thomas
No summary available.
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Eaters of the Dead
by Michael Crichton
The year is A.D. 922. A refined Arab courtier, representative of the powerful Caliph of Baghdad, encounters a party of Viking warriors who are journeying to the barbaric North. He is appalled by their Viking customs—the wanton sexuality of their pale, angular women, their disregard for cleanliness . . . their cold-blooded human sacrifices. But it is not until they reach the depths of the Northland that the courtier learns the horrifying and inescapable truth: He has been enlisted by these savage, inscrutable warriors to help combat a terror that plagues them—a monstrosity that emerges under cover of night to slaughter the Vikings and devour their flesh . . .
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Nifft the Lean
by Michael Shea
Nifft, a master thief, journeys to the Place of the Raging Dead, a virtual hell, in search of the Wizard's Key