‘Old Moon Quarterly: Volume V’ – Various (Old Moon Quarterly)

 

Page Count: 134 Pages

I can feel my reading starting to head in a ‘fantasy direction’, more specifically a ‘Sword & Sorcery’ direction. That’s never a bad direction to head in and we’ll see where the road takes us but for now, I thought I’d start off with some short stories from ‘Old Moon Quarterly: Volume V’. Well, all the short stories from ‘Old Moon Quarterly: Volume V’, actually. You know what I mean ;o)

One of the reasons I follow Jim’s blog (and you should too) is that he really knows his ‘Sword & Sorcery’ and has a happy knack for broadening my knowledge of the genre with what he writes about. So when I saw Jim had posted about ‘Old Moon Quarterly: Volume V’, I thought to myself, ‘I’ll have some of that...’

And after I turned off my work laptop last night, that’s exactly what I did :o)

I’ll be honest, I read through the whole volume, in one sitting, but came unstuck with the two poems; ‘The Kings Two Bodies’ (Joe Koch) and ‘A Warning Agaynste Woldes’ (Zachary Bos). Don’t let that put you off though, I’m just particularly awful at reading poetry at the moment. Seriously, even more so than normal. While I enjoyed the atmosphere coming out of the two poems, it’s going to take me a couple more reads before I can tell you what they’re actually saying. That’s on me though, don’t blame the poetry ;o)

The rest of the collection though was great so I’m going to give the poems the benefit of the doubt. What we’ve got here is a collection that’s part ‘Sword & Sorcery’, part ‘Heroic Fantasy’, a little bit dark in places and a lot of fun to read. It was so easy to just keep going until I ran out of pages. And after the day I’d had, that was just what I needed from my evening read. I’ve since purchased Vol. VIII so that should tell you everything you need to know. What? You need a little more than that? Fair enough, let me tell you about those stories…

‘Together Under The Wing’ – Jonathan Olfert

Until last night, I’d never read a collection that opened with the tale of a mammoth warrior (and I should clarify, the warrior is an actual mammoth) on a quest for revenge but here I am and… It’s certainly an eye catching opening and Olfert delivers on that promise with a brutal tale of a relentless march to revenge and a new future opening in front of our hero. I wouldn’t mind reading more of Walks-Like-A-Rockslide’s adventures.

‘Champions Against The Maggot King’ – K.H. Vaughn

Maybe the prose isn’t quite up to the comparison but I still came away thinking that this is the kind of thing Clark Ashton-Smith might have written if he’d fancied trying his hand at military fantasy. The background setting is just lushly drawn here and really gives you an insight into the ‘heroes’ fighting their way through it. Again, I’d be more than happy to read about what happened next.

‘The Origin of Boghounds’ – Amelia Gorman

If you’ve ever wondered just where Boghounds come from (What? You might have…), you need to read Gorman’s tale. It’s a little creepy but slightly humorous, all at the same time, with a side order of action and a neat twist that hides in plain sight the whole way through.

‘Well Met at the Gates of Hell’ – David K. Henrickson

The Gates of Hell are known for being a great place to have a ‘pivotal encounter’ and Henrickson delivers a fine example of such a meeting, albeit not the kind of ‘pivotal’ I was expecting (which just made the whole thing a lot of fun). I loved our nameless hero’s running commentary but also how he was able to back it up very easily. And then, just as you think you know where it’s headed, our ‘hero’ turns out to be an utter bastard with what he does to his third opponent. Damn, that was bleak…

‘The Skulls of Ghosts’ – Charles Gramlich

Not my favourite story in the collection but there is still a lot here to recommend both Krieg and the dark world that he wanders through. Krieg is definitely the kind of guy who could stand next to Kane, at the bar, and not be affected by Imposter Syndrome at all :o)

‘The Headsman’s Melancholy’ – Joseph Andre Thomas

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this one but appreciated Thomas’ introduction of the mystery and then what it turns into by the end. I just wasn’t sure about where our axe man's head was at and how it tied into the ending. Oh well, a re-read will probably set that straight.

A solid read then and it has left me hoping for more of the same when I pick up Volume VIII ;o)