First, I want to thank everyone who made suggestions on my post about what anthology series to read. There were a number of good suggestions.
Here’s what I decided:
I’m definitely going to read Swords Against Darkness. I’m referring of course to the series edited by Andrew J. Offutt, not the anthology of the same title that came out last year and was edited by Paula Guran. (I will review that one; I have three or four stories left.)
Alongside that one, I’ll look review at least some of the Lin Carter Year’s Best anthologies that DAW put out. It will be interesting to see what was being published in the 70s. I’ll probably also read some of the Arthur Saha volumes as well. I don’t know if I’ll read all of them. We’ll see.
A couple of people suggested Karl Edward Wagner’s Year’s Best Horror, also from DAW. I don’t have a full set of those. I will, however, dip into the ones I have from time to time. Probably in whatever order catches my fancy.
And speaking of Wagner, someone mentioned the Echoes of Valor series. This is a fantastic series of anthologies, and it contains some outstanding stories. I highly recommend it.
I won’t be reviewing it, however. I’ve looked individually at too many of the stories it contains, such as the two Prince Raynor stories by Henry Kuttner, “Wolves of Darkness” by Jack Williamson, and several tales by Nictzin Dyalhis that is scheduled to appear in a future issue of Skelos. I’ll look at some of the other stories individually, but I don’t think I want to risk repeating myself by reviewing everything in them. If you haven’t read them, you should.
When will this happen? Not for a few weeks. Things are still hectic. My semester has ended, but my son’s hasn’t. He had his spring band concert last night, and the spring orchestra concert was tonight. State Solo and Ensemble Competition is next Monday. I probably won’t get started until after Howard Days, which is the second weekend of June. And I still need to read Darker Than You Think (both magazine and book versions) and try to read all the David Gemmell Morningstar nomiinees. (I already had three of them, so why not?)
That’s how things stand on the anthology front.
Swords Against Darkness is great. I️ have all 5 of themz
“I’m definitely going to read Swords Against Darkness. I’ll look at least some of the Lin Carter Year’s Best anthologies that DAW put out. ”
That’s how I would’ve gone. Between those two is an encapsulation of the S&S/adventure fantasy scene in the late ’70s/early ’80s. Some very strong lineups in most of them. Just SAD II introduced me to Wellman, Keith Taylor, Tanith Lee and Ramsey Campbell. As I said, very strong.
Oh, and the YBF volumes by Saha SUCK. Not impressed. Wollheim (uncharacteristically) dropped the ball when he picked Saha. Couldn’t he have hired Offutt? Or Wagner? Why not Reinhardt and Page, who did HEROIC FANTASY for DAW? Mystifying.
I read one or two of the Saha volumes in either high school or undergrad when they came out. I don’t remember much about them.
Might do a thread necro and perhaps suggest sometime read the Thieves World anthology series. I don’t know if all 12 volumes hold up, but a few in its pretty good and an all-star (almost) cast: including some rare Philip Jose Farmer S&S “Spiders of the Purple Mage”.
I’ve got the first couple of those but haven’t read them yet.