6 Comments

On the indie S&S scene, Dariel Quiogue has done some well received sword & planet, most recently with "Swarm Time in Maruzar" for Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Issue #54: https://www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com/?p=3774

Anecdotally, I did a presentation on sword & sorcery for a Comicon last month, and in a crowd of mainly twentysomethings, I was surprised the first question I had done was someone asking about sword & planet that they had heard about.

I don't know if there's a resurgence around the corner, but it's possible from your interest and others that seeds are being planted for a later revival, possibly as a side effect of the sword & sorcery resurgence.

Expand full comment

I'll have to check it out for sure. I backed New Edge S&S, so I'm always up for more new/indie material. Sometimes it's hard to keep up, but that's the nature of the modern marketplace and why I do the Weekly Geekly.

Expand full comment

Maybe there could be a resuscitation of this sub genre by way of romance that crossed into Faerie as a way of doing other worlds without the sf aspect of it? And would time travel romance touch close enough to be considered of parallel bent to this?

PS Your post made me blow the dust off my Blu-Ray of John Carter (of Mars) and watch it in full with my son. Thanks for that!

Expand full comment

Any time I get someone to watch the underrated John Carter (of Mars) is a good time.

I think you might be onto something with the shifting into a "crossing into Faerie" possibility of moving forward. Some of my favorite books ranging from Dunsany's King of Elfland's Daughter to Kuttner's The Dark World, not to mention Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, are about this very thing. While related to Sword & Planet/Planetary Romance in themes, I would still miss the Radium guns and Heat Pistols. There is something about the imaginatively impossible science that I love and would like to see. Maybe, building on Jonathan Strange, we can have alternate history versions.

Food for thought.

Expand full comment

Oooh, a steampunk crossworld romance would be a blast to write and read. Just would have to be careful I didn’t stray too close to Space 1889

Expand full comment

Excellent article, Christian - I found it really interesting!

Expand full comment