Comments on: The SF Signal Podcast (Episode 110): 2012 Sword and Sorcery Mega Panel, Part 2

By: zornhau

zornhau — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:53:34 +0000

Just to say how much I’m enjoying these podcasts, especially because everybody is so careful to identify the speaker!

By: Aldo Ojeda

Aldo Ojeda — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 01:15:29 +0000

This is my favorite episode so far. Please invite more artists to the podcast.

By: Lars

Lars — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:25:50 +0000

Love the podcast, but one statement (by one of the women, forget which one) that “A Song of Ice and Fire” was:
– “Epic family drama” (TRUE)
– but had “virtually no world building”. (WHAAAA…?)

I can only assume that this comes from a lack of reading the series. (Or just watching the HBO show) As a series of book which has a detailed history stretching back 8000 years, and covering two continents, with lavish descriptions of a multitude of cultures – it has more world building than ANY work I have read, short of Tolkien.

By: Rob B

Rob B — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:05:58 +0000

Just chiming in with another KUDOS to the gang for a terrific podcast.

By: Paul (@princejvstin)

Paul (@princejvstin) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:23:14 +0000

I used to have some collectable art cards!

In the digital age, they seem a bit quaint–if I want to buy art, I want a full print or something like John’s calendar (happily hanging on my wall)

By: Odilius Vlak

Odilius Vlak — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:33:40 +0000

Great talk guys… An epic family drama! uff, that definition got to the bottom of the meaning of the George R. R. Martin’s universe. I’d like to have heard some more thoughts about the earlier pulp’ ilustrations that, for all that we know, set the visual standard for every thing Sword & Sorcery. As for Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, is by far the largest quantum leap the genre has seen from the point of view of its concept.

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:18:03 +0000

Artist discussion and nobody mentioned Roy G. Krenkel? I am disappoint. Although not very disappoint because it was a fascinating discussion. As far as sword & sorcery games, I’d also throw out The Witcher, a computer RPG which is actually based on a series of Polish S&S books — it felt very sword & sorcery to me because the protagonist, Geralt, operates largely alone for most of the game, the stakes aren’t all that high (or at least they don’t appear to be at first) and he’s really a bit of a bastard. With a sword. Well, two actually — a steel one for normals and a silver one for monsters.

By: Lou Anders

Lou Anders — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:25:04 +0000

My ears are indeed burning. Though words attributed to me may be slightly misconstrued. I’d say that I don’t expect gamers who aren’t already readers to convert to readers, but of the huge number of readers (and authors) I know who are also gamers, a significant percentage of them are playing Skyrim, suggesting that the appetite on the part of the existing readership for S&S is larger than some suppose. Moreover, anytime a subgenre achieves mainstream penetration, we see that success leading to emulation and therefore the huge success of Skyrim will doubtless see other S&S properties greenlit across various media, from games, to film, to books. Ergo, Skyrim’s popularity is a net positive for S&S.