so I'm nearing the end of reading all of Robert E Howards work, Conan/kull/all the wierd tales work, next up is the rest of his Breckinridge Elkins Westerns but I was wondering if there's any other good sword and sorcery books/tales that are lovecraft / Robert howard esque which are worth a read, I do know there's a lot of dross out there! Also any good movie suggestions in a similar vein would be welcome, ive started watching a lot of the 80's SandS ones, but again theirs lots of dross (some of which I loved originally) to slog through before you get to the real gems! cheers!
Do you like any of David Gemmell's work? I used to enjoy reading his fantasy genre books as a teenager.
For sword and sorcery heroic fantasy Gemell is where it's at. Some of my favourite books, and I've read most of them 5+ times.
The interesting thing with Gemell's work is it's aged with me. For seemingly simple action fantasy I get different perspectives on them whenever I read them. However I would say that they are fundamentally quite different to Conan, the heroes are much more existential than Howard's, their heroism being as much about their character evolution as their bravery. I also love how there's very much an emphasis on the hero and the coward experiencing the same emotions but reacting differently. His heroes are often very flawed individuals, driven by guilt, fear, rage, regret and grief, and often only become heroes because someone has to.
Michael J Sullivan sort of straddles sword and sorcery and epic fantasy, and certainly has some of the Conan feel. I'm assuming you've watched Solomon Kane?
Gemmel good to brilliant - knights of dark renown a modern classic. But modern. if you want a contemporary of Lovecraft and robert e howard. then Clark Ashton smith is one of the tops - much of his stuff is so old that it is out of copy write - this site has legal free downloads of a lot of his work. http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/ Their is also frizs Lieber, who has a curious 1930 German sense of humor. He is best known for his invention of the city of Ankh Morpork. Aslo L sprague de camp who took over from Howard on the Conan stories.
when i was a teenager, i loved the elric of melnibone series. maybe something might pique your interest here? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melniboné
i'm not familiar with anything else moorcock has done, although i know he's written other stories. anything in particular to read?
Some good suggestions already. Try Karl Edward Wagner's Kane series too Here's a link to a good REH podcast http://thecromcast.blogspot.co.uk/
Really? For me the starting point for Moorcock is the History of the Runestaff, probably his most accessible work with his most relatable protagonist. The three subsequent Hawkmoon novels are good too. Then the Corum quartet is pretty much distilled Moorcock, really weird, really gripping. The second Corum series is also very good although I personally dislike the downbeat ending. The Obsidian City and The Eternal Champion The Warhound and the World's Pain
thinking about another thread I found this quote. "The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, R. E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H. P. Lovecraft, and A. Merritt." Writing in Appendix N, AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (1979), p. 224
The Kane series would be my suggestion also, although it's actually quite different from Conan. I'm going to throw my vote in for David Gemmell too; discovering his novels is actually what got me reading fantasy once again.
How did they manage to leave out Tolkien? A second level ranger was called a "strider.". The type VI demon armed with a flaming sword and whip was a balrog. The even had the burning pinecone spell from the Hobbit.
Thanks for the great suggestions, I shall start on them soon! In related news, the anthology ive just downloaded from the Howard estate has a few mini stories that i've not read yet, and are missing from other collections, such as the Kull stories, and some very HP lovecraft influenced stories that play as conan in space, very cool indeed!
AFIAK there were legal problems with the Tolkien estate, so eventually they had to change all the names that were specific to LOTR ( Hobbits became Halflings, Balrogs became Balor, Ents became Treants, etc) Similar thing wht HPL, the first Deities and Demigods had a full Cthulhu Mythos section that was later removed