Recent content by James Lecky

Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith. It's the last continent of a dying earth, far, far in the future, filled with necromancers, cannibals, heroes (sometimes) sorcerers of the blackest kind, lost cities, strange islands and a sense of decay and entropy that is almost palpable. The Zothique stories...

I've always had a tremendous affection for the Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus, which I first read many, many years ago, and was recently updated and reissued. Both the original and the reissue are well worth getting (the new version omits some stories and replaces them with newer materail)...

In Irish mythology the god/warrior Lugh carried a spear which, depending on which version of the myths you read, had certain magical properties. It was said to howl for blood and had to be kept hooded when not in use (other versions say that it had to be kept immersed in water) it never missed...

The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs might be worth a try - funny, moving and clever - Elidor by Alan Garner is also something of a classic, or even, although this might be stating the obvious C.S Lewis' Narnia books (personal favourites of mine)

I rather enjoyed Solomon Kane, too, despite a few misgivings. James Purefoy was well cast and there were some good action scenes - it strayed quite a bit from Robert E. Howard's original, but then again, there are things in Howard's work that would be less than acceptable to modern audiences.

There are a few recent(ish) films that fall under the broad definition of fantasy/ sword and sorcery that I enjoyed to varying degrees Season of the Witch, with Nicholas Cage and Ron Perlman - silly but good fun with a proper s&s feel to it. Iron Clad, with James Purefoy, no real fantasy...

Flair? Dunno about that... but I'll do me best.

Just a quick hello from a new member... and a little about me. My name is James Lecky and I am a writer from Derry in Northern Ireland. My short fiction has appeared in a few places both online and in print and I'm looking forward to some lively discussion about the art and craft of fantasy...