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Flashing swords and fearsome magicks... high adventure and wondrous wizardry... dread monsters and vast rewards...

Tales of sword and sorcery at their best offer keen wit, ingenious perception, freewheeling imagination, and canny invention. From its swashbuckling beginnings of good versus evil battles to clashes of more nuanced principles set in complex settings to havoc shaped by grittier perspectives, ambiguous morality, deep history, and expansive worldbuilding?readers continue to be thrilled by the exploits of great warriors and mighty mages.

Swords Against Darkness: an epic anthology of short stories and novellas from classic to modern, each tale a memorable vision from masters of mistresses of heroic fantasy past and present!

Contents:

Paula Guran, Introduction: "Knowledge Takes Precedence Over Death"

Forging & Shaping

• Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
• C. L. Moore, "Hellsgarde"
• Clark Ashton Smith, "The Dark Eidolon"
• Jack Vance, "Liane the Wayfarer"
• Leigh Brackett, "Black Amazon of Mars"
• Fritz Leiber, "Ill Met in Lankhmar"
• Michael Moorcock, "While the Gods Laugh"

Normalizing & Annealing

• Tanith Lee, "Hero at the Gates"
• C. J. Cherryh, "A Thief in Korianth"
• Karl Edward Wagner, "Undertow"
• Katherine Kurtz, "Swords Against the Marluk"
• Mercedes Lackey, "Out of the Deep"
• Michael Shea, "Epistle from Lebanoi"
• James Enge, "Payment Deferred"
• John Balestra, "The Swords of Her Heart" (original)

Tempering & Sharpening

• Joanna Russ, "Bluestocking"
• Samuel R. Delany, "The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers"
• Elizabeth Moon, "First Blood"
• Saladin Ahmed, "Where Virtue Lives"
• Scott Lynch, "The Effigy Engine: A Tale of the Red Hats"
• Steven Erikson, "Goats of Glory"
• Elizabeth Bear, "The Ghost Makers"
• Kameron Hurley, "The Plague Givers"

Heroic fantasy in the tradition of Robert E. Howard

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Foreword (Swords Against Darkness) - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 12 - Nekht Semerkeht - novelette by Robert E. Howard and Andrew J. Offutt
• 49 - The Tale of Hauk - novelette by Poul Anderson
• 80 - The Smile of Oisia - [Nalcon] - novelette by Geo. W. Proctor
• 118 - Pride of the Fleet - short story by Bruce Jones
• 135 - Straggler from Atlantis - [Kardios] - novelette by Manly Wade Wellman
• 170 - The Ring of Set - [Simon of Gitta] - novelette by Richard L. Tierney
• 206 - Largarut's Bane - short story by Raul Garcia Capella
• 220 - Dragons' Teeth - (1975) - novelette by David Drake
• 250 - The Sustenance of Hoak - [Ryre] - novelette by Ramsey Campbell

The Anthology of heroic fantasy!

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Call It What You Will - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 13 - Sword of Unbelief - [Witch World Universe] - novelette by Andre Norton
• 59 - The Changer of Names - [Ryre] - novelette by Ramsey Campbell
• 85 - The Dweller in the Temple - [Kardios] - novelette by Manly Wade Wellman
• 117 - The Coming of Age in Zamora - novelette by David M. Harris
• 157 - The Scroll of Thoth - [Simon of Gitta] - novelette by Richard L. Tierney
• 179 - Odds Against the Gods - novelette by Tanith Lee
• 227 - On Skellig Michael - [Bard] - short story by Keith Taylor [as by Dennis More]
• 247 - Last Quest - novelette by Andrew J. Offutt

The Anthology of heroic fantasy!

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Foreword (Swords Against Darkness III) - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 14 - The Pit of Wings - [Ryre] - short story by Ramsey Campbell
• 34 - The Sword of Spartacus - [Simon of Gitta] - novelette by Richard L. Tierney
• 58 - Servitude - (1976) - short story by Wayne Hooks
• 72 - Descales' Skull - (1973) - short story by David C. Smith
• 90 - In the Balance - short story by Tanith Lee
• 97 - Tower of Darkness - (1975) - novelette by David Madison
• 125 - The Mantichore - short story by David Drake
• 143 - Revenant - poem by Kathleen Resch
• 146 - Rite of Kings - short story by Jon DeCles
• 162 - The Mating Web - short story by Robert E. Vardeman
• 182 - The Guest of Dzinganji - [Kardios] - short story by Manly Wade Wellman
• 201 - The Hag - [Julian] - short story by Darrell Schweitzer
• 218 - A Kingdom Won - [Nalcon] - novelette by Geo. W. Proctor
• 256 - Swordslinger - short story by M. A. Wahil
• 270 - On Thud and Blunder - essay by Poul Anderson

The Anthology of heroic fantasy!

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Foreword--In Two Parts - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 12 - Mai-Kulala - [Imaro] - (1977) - short story by Charles R. Saunders
• 31 - At the Sign of the Brass Breast - (1979) - novelette by Jefferson P. Swycaffer [as by Jeff P. Swycaffer]
• 60 - The Reaping - (1979) - short story by Ardath Mayhar
• 73 - The Ballad of Borrell - (1979) - novelette by Gordon Linzner
• 94 - Deux Amours d'une Sorcière - short story by Tanith Lee
• 115 - Of PIGS and MEN - (1972) - essay by Poul Anderson
• 124 - Cryptically Yours... - (1977) - short story by Brian Lumley
• 148 - The Dark Mother - [Shanna of Sharteyn] - (1979) - short story by Diana L. Paxson
• 155 - Dedication - (1979) - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 167 - Wooden Crate of Violent Death - (1979) - short story by Joey Froehlich
• 175 - The Fane of the Grey Rose - [Cerin Songweaver] - (1979) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• 223 - Sandmagic - [Mither Mages] - (1979) - novelette by Orson Scott Card
• 246 - The Edge of the World - [Kardios] - (1979) - novelette by Manly Wade Wellman

The Anthology of heroic fantasy!

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Foreword to the Fifth Volume of Swords Against Darkness - essay by Andrew J. Offutt
• 12 - The Mouths of Light - [Ryre] - short story by Ramsey Campbell
• 31 - Perfidious Amber - [Cyrion] - short story by Tanith Lee
• 48 - Awake, Awake, Ye Northern Winds - novelette by Simon R. Green [as by Simon Green]
• 76 - Rats - short story by Robert Fester
• 88 - The Forging - novelette by Robin Kincaid
• 116 - Hungry Grass - short story by Keith Taylor
• 134 - The Tale of the Cat, the Mouse, the Sorcerer, and the Children - [Myrd Cherf] - novelette by Edward DeGeorge
• 162 - Golden Vanity - short story by James Arthur Anderson [as by James Anderson]
• 175 - The Castle of Kites and Crows - [Julian] - short story by Darrell Schweitzer
• 191 - The Scream of the Rose - novelette by Paul McGuire [as by Paul McGuire, III]
• 222 - Joni - novelette by Gordon Linzner
• 248 - Druin's Heritage - novelette by Richard K. Lyon