What happen to sword and sorcery fantasy books? At a book store, most of the fantasy novels I found look similar to Lord of the Rings, and Dungeon and Dragons. The only S&S books I found are Conan books. Are most authors giving up on that genre and doing epic fantasy follow ups? I also would like to know some other S&S titles that are not Conan books, or written by Robert E. Howard. They have to be recent ones and new releases in the S&S genre. If you don't understand what a Sword and Sorcery fantasy book is, here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_sorcery
Like so many genres, Sword and Sorcery probably will evolve into something else over the years. I just read that link you posted, MilesTro, and came to the conclusion that while some modern authors are using elements of that genre—Joe Abercrombie came immediately to my mind, before I even read his inclusion in this article—nobody much seems to be writing it 'pure' these days. Maybe the place to look is at computer gamers, or books written by computer game writers. I understand some of these games have short novels associated with them, usually written as spin-offs.
Paul Kemp's Egil and Nix books qualify, in my view. Why do they have to be new books? If you have only read Howard, what about Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, Clark Ashton Smith, C.L. Moore?
I am also confused. Are you doing research to see if the genre is dying (or if there is a gap in the market) or do you wish to read examples of the genre? For me David Eddings wrote some good stuff in the 1980's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belgariad). Not sure about now...
Don't forget Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series. It's not recent, but if you're a student of S&S, they are a Must Read. But Miles, you say you are in college. You really should be able to research these questions yourself, especially your recent thread asking what S&S is.
I wouldn't put Edding's in the Sword & Sorcery category, personally. More along the lines of epic fantasy, as I recall them.
I only want to know some new ones to see if writers are still writing them today. There are so many epic fantasy books on the bestselling list now since Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter grew famous. And I believe most authors are only focusing on those type of fantasy genres.
I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say that maybe it's only the published writers that are focusing on high and epic fantasy; it may be that publishers don't (yet) want Sword and Sorcery as it's the LotR-esque books that are selling. But as it always happens, this fad will die down eventually (fingers crossed for a horrible end to vampires and werewolves very soon).
Well I guess I will stick to the old S&S books, until new ones come out. I am also writing a S&S book that takes place in the future. I'll see what the publishers think about it.
What does that matter? If you have an S&S story to tell, write it. If it's any good, the market will open a space for it.
I am coming to this thread really late (story of my life). I share the OPs discontent at the lack of quality sword and sorcery books out there. I got so annoyed by it I started writing my own and in the process ending up answering my (and the OPs) question. In writing a S&S novel, inspired by so many teenage years spend reading Howard novels, I somehow ended up with something that was a hybrid of sword and sorcery and epic fantasy. The main character was firmly within the S&S genre but the secondary characters flooded in from epic fantasy. I guess the footprint of Tolkien and others is difficult to erase and it has bled into our consciousness in a way that is hard to avoid or repress. Best, J.Q. Kaiser
