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Sword & Sorcery
Flashing Swords
Pitch Black Books
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SWORD & SORCERY,
SWORD & PLANET, AND
SWASHBUCKLERS
Multi-Author Anthologies
arranged alphabetically by editor / by title, unless otherwise stated.
Please see our definitions of sword-and-sorcery (s&s), sword-and-planet (s&p)(also called planetary romance), and swashbucklers (swash) towards the middle of the home page. These definitions guided us in determining which stories in the anthologies should be listed as meeting our criteria. Usually not all stories in an anthology meet this criteria.
This anthology listing is a work-in-progress. We will be adding to it as more information becomes available to us. You can help us with this by providing some of the missing information below, such as missing book cover scans, missing table of contents, etc. You can also suggest other anthologies for our consideration.
We would especially like to thank G. W. Thomas for his original anthology listing, which was a source of inspiration and information for us.
Unless otherwise indicated:
Click "(Photo)" to see an editor's photo.
Click "(Story List)" to see a book's list of stories that are of the three genres.
If present, click "(Review)" to see a book's review in SwordAndSorcery.org.
Click "(Book Cover)" to see a book's cover.
Robert Adams (Photo)
Barbarians (Story List) with Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh
(Book Cover)
Barbarians II (Story List) with Martin H. Greenberg and
Pamela C. Adams (Book Cover)
Robert Lynn Asprin (Photo) & Lynn Abbey (Photo)
The Thieves World Series - (14 volumes - by publication date) (1979-2004)
While these books are enjoyable, many sword-and-sorcery readers relay that they think the books never completely distance themselves from the "feel of game night:" they're a little too RPG. That said, they can be enjoyable. After the first three books the quality seems to drop somewhat.
Thieves World (1979) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Tales From the Vulgar Unicorn (1980) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Shadows of Sanctuary (1981) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Storm Season (1982) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Face of Chaos (1983) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Wings of Omen (1984) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Dead of Winter (1985) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Soul of the City (1986) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Blood Ties (1986) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Aftermath (1987) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Uneasy Alliances (1988) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Stealers Sky (1989) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Turning Points (2002) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Enemies of Fortune (2004) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Sanctuary - omnibus (1982) - (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Book Club edition containing: Thieves' World, Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, and Shadows of Sanctuary.
Cross-Currents - omnibus (1984) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Book Club edition containing: Storm Season, The Face of Chaos, and Wings of Omen.
The Shattered Sphere - omnibus (1986) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Book Club edition containing: The Dead of Winter, Soul of the City, and Blood Ties.
The Price of Victory - omnibus (1989) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Book Club edition containing: Aftermath, Uneasy Alliances, and Stealers' Sky.
First Blood - omnibus (2003) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Contains: Thieves' World, Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, and some extras.
Daniel E. Blackston (Photo)
Lords of Swords (Story List) (Book Cover)
Any fan of heroic fiction can find something they like in this thirteen story collection, from blood and thunder and pure mayhem to more softer focused heroic fiction. Recent reviews skew predictably -- some like THIS half of the book, others like THAT half of the book, but all agree that there's some great stuff within.
Sages and Swords (Story List) (Book Cover)
Marion Zimmer Bradley (Photo)
Sword And Sorceress Series - (21 volumes) (1984-2004)
While there are some standout stories in various issues--especially the first few--the multi-run anthology more often fails to deliver true sword-and-sorcery. A telling point is that it is often cited by those who have little appreciation for or knowledge of true sword-and-sorcery as good work in the genre. See Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Amazons series below for a more exciting (and less bombastic) collection of stories featuring female characters or the work of female writers.
L. Sprague de Camp (Photo)
De Camp's sword and sorcery anthologies dependably offer up a selection of classic sword-and-sorcery authors, some of whom are difficult to find elsewhere. Nowadays it's easy to lay hands on a Conan story or even C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry, but Kuttner's heroic fiction is still a rare beast. There are rarer stories still in here, including samplings from lesser-known but quite talented sword-and-sorcery writers, like Roger Zelazny and Ray Capella. If you can find these anthologies they're a great way to sample some good heroic fiction of different, talented flavors. That said, more than half of the contents can be found in other, single author collections.
The Fantastic Swordsmen (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Spell Of Seven (Story List) (Book Cover)
Swords & Sorcery (Story List) (Book Cover)
This is the very first sword-and-sorcery anthology published.
Warlocks And Warriors (Story List) (Review) (Book Cover)
This anthology contains a wide range of 10 authors from the 1900s - 1960s. It provides a sampling of tales and writers some readers may not have read and presents fiction by authors from whom readers may want to read more. Although not every story in this collection is sword and sorcery, most are likely to appeal to fans of the genre.
Lin Carter (Photo)
Flashing Swords - (5 volumes) (1973-1981)
These five volumes feature long stories and novellas by some of the biggest name heroic fiction writers of the late 70s and 80s. You'll find Zelazny, Moorcock, Leiber, and Vance, along with Poul Anderson, Andre Norton, and a few others. Lin Carter's work appears as well, but it's far from his best. De Camp's sword-and-sorcery appears in nearly every volume, but he never quite gets the tone right. The Flashing Swords stories were strong, but many of them have by this time been collected in author-specific volumes.
Flashing Swords! #1 (Story List) (Book Cover)
Flashing Swords! #2 (Story List) (Book Cover)
Flashing Swords! #3 - Warriors And Wizards
(Story List) (Book Cover)
Flashing Swords! #4 - Barbarians and Black Magicians (Story List) (Book Cover)
Flashing Swords! #5 - Demons and Daggers (Story List) (Book Cover)
Kingdoms of Sorcery (Story List) (Book Cover)
New Worlds For Old (Story List) (Book Cover)
Together with The Young Magicians these two anthologies form a fine sampling of heroic fiction from the days of myth into the late 60s, when these anthologies saw print, bracketed by entertaining and informative introductions from Lin Carter. New Worlds For Old and The Young Magicians are among the finest of the Ballantine short story collections, which is saying a lot, and offer information on genre history as well as samplings from fantasy masters. As to strictly defined sword-and-sorcery, this particular volume has a brilliant Robert E. Howard rarity, a less frequently anthologized tale of C.L. Moore's Jirel, a piece by the mysterious Clifford Ball (his stories are even harder to find than Kuttner's), and one of Lin Carter's very finest heroic fiction pieces, "Zingazar".
Realms Of Wizardry (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Magic Of Atlantis (Story List) (Book Cover)
Not exclusively sword-and-sorcery, this old collection still boasts one rarity of interest, one of Kuttner's tales of Elak, which have never been collected in mass market. The Kull tale, of course, is now easily come by, though that wasn't the case at time of publication. The other stories may be of interest to the general fantasy reader.
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories (#1-6) - (6 volumes) (1975-1980)
When helmed by Lin Carter each volume could be depended upon to feature two to five tales of sword-and-sorcery. There are some Saunders rarities in here, some pieces by Wagner, as well as some of Carter's own best short s-and-s, immodestly selected by himself, and some other goodies as well.
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2 (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3 (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 4 (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 5 (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 6 (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Young Magicians (Story List) (Book Cover)
This is one of Carter's famed Ballantine Adult Fantasy books, which means that it's full of interesting essays on the history of fantasy and numerous rare goodies of interest to lovers of fantasy in general. The sword-and-sorcery in the volume has two good rarities; one of Robert E. Howard's best non-Conan sword-and-sorcery tales and a hard-to-find short tale from Henry Kuttner.
Marc Gascoigne (Photo) & Christian Dunn (Photo)
Swords of the Empire (Story List) (Warhammer Series) (Review)
(Book Cover)
Peter Haining (editing as Sean Richards) (Photo)
The Barbarian Swordsmen (Story List) (No Book Cover)
Robert Hoskins (No Photo)
Swords Against Tomorrow (Story List) (Book Cover)
Andrew Offutt (Photo)
Swords Against Darkness - (5 volumes) (1977-1979)
These five volumes were packed with sword-and-sorcery goodness and are well worth tracking down. While quality varies from story to story, you'd be hard pressed to find a more consistent source for the genre than you'll find here. It's a shame the series had to end.
Swords Against Darkness (Story List) (Review) (Book Cover)
Swords Against Darkness II (Story List) (Review) (Book Cover)
Swords Against Darkness III (Story List) (Review) (Book Cover)
Swords Against Darkness IV (Story List) (Book Cover)
Swords Against Darkness V (1979) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Gerald W. Page (No Photo) & Hank Reinhardt (Photo)
Heroic Fantasy (Story List) (No Book Cover)
Michel Parry (editing as Eric Pendragon) (Photo)
Savage Heroes (Story List) (Book Cover)
Arthur W. Saha (No Photo)
Years Best Fantasy Series (#7-14) - (8 volumes) (1981-1988)
Each volume has 1-2 sword-and-sorcery tales.
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 7 (1981) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 8 (1982) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 9 (1983) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 10 (1984) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 11 (1985) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 12 (1986) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 13 (1987) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 14 (1988) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Jessica Amanda Salmonson (Photo)
Amazons Series - (2 volumes) (1979-1982)
Amazons! (Story List) (Review) (Book Cover)
Amazons II (1982) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Heroic Visions Series - (2 volumes) (1983-1986)
Heroic Visions (1983) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Heroic Visions II (1986) (No Story List)
(Book Cover)
Hans Stefan Santesson (No Photo)
The Mighty Barbarians (Story List) (Book Cover)
The Mighty Swordsmen (Story List) (Book Cover)
Karl Edward Wagner (Photo)
Echoes of Valor Series - (3 volumes) (1987-1991)
Another fine series, this one reprinted masterpieces that should never have been forgotten. Still one of the only places to find Henry Kuttner sword-and-sorcery, as well as rarities from Leigh Brackett and other talented writers like Manly Wade Wellman.
Echoes of Valor (Story List) (Review) (Book Cover)
Echoes of Valor II (Story List) (Review) (Book Cover)
Echoes of Valor III (Story List) (Book Cover)
Donald A. Wollheim (Photo)
Swordsmen In The Sky (Story List) (Book Cover)
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