Die By the Sword is the newest anthology from DMR Books.
“From the hells beneath the hells comes a brand-new anthology of sword and sorcery adventure! DMR Books presents yet another tome of fantastic tales by some of the most exciting authors in the field today. These scribes of blood and thunder maintain the legacy of classic sword and sorcery while expanding it into uncharted terrain.”
Format is trade paperback (9 x 6 inches), 264 pages, hardcover (same size), and digital.
Contents:
“Ardax in Antillia” Dariel R.A. Quiogue
“The Tears of Blood” M. Stern
“Rites of the Black Goddess” Paul D. Batteiger
“The Sorcerer’s Scion” Chase A. Folmar
“The Hound of the Cherusci” Glenn Rahman
“The Heart of Vengeance” Gregory D. Mele
“Secrets Only Dragons Know” Howie K. Bentley
“The Key to the Blood Pyramid” Matthew Knight
“Snow Fox and Ice Witch” Rose Strickman
“The Abartachs’ Hostage” Ethan Sabatella
“The Sacrifice” Elias Varsity
Some comments:
“Ardax in Antillia” is the first work of fiction I have read by Dariel Quiogue. I have heard good things about him. This has an historical setting of 3rd Century B.C. after the 2nd Punic War with a Lusitanian Celt and Numidian sidekicks. The story has element that could have been in Weird Tales in the 1930s. It reminded me of Henry Kuttner’s Elak stories.
M.Stern’s “The Tears of Blood” has a Clark Ashton Smith/Lord Dunsany/Tanith Lee feel about it.
Paul Batteiger’s “Rites of the Black Goddess” has Saxons returning to England from the First Crusade. A Norman lord has taken over Morcar’s hold.
“Hound of the Cherusci” by Glenn Rahman is a Simon of Gitta story. Simon escapes treachery in Germany when the Romans ambush a tribal leader he is with. An interdimensional menace complicates things.
Greg Mele’s “The Heart of Vengeance” is in his Azatlan sequence. I have read one other story with the same setting. I assume it is set in a version of Meso-America. I did see some zoological mistakes: lions are mentioned. No lions unless they are Panthera atrox, the American lion of the Pleistocene. Horses are in the story, again no horses unless they are extinct Equus scotti.
Howie Bentley and Matthew Knight are both in the band Cauldron Born and have appeared in other DMR publications. They write at the wild end of the spectrum. If you like Michael Moorcock, you should like both Bentley and Knight.
“Snow Fox and Ice Witch” by Rose Strickman is a rape revenge story in a fantasy Japan. Strickman has had stories in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress anthologies and this story reads like one.
Ethan Sabatella was in Samhain Sorceries and the same pair of adventurers are in “The Abertach’s Hostage.”
“The Sacrifice” by Elias Varsity has an ancient Greek setting and an ironic tale of just desserts.
There is talk of the new sword & sorcery. DMR Books has been at it longer than the rest. DMR also adhere’s closest to the orginal version of the genre. It is a safe bet to buy any of the anthologies if you want something like a modern version of Swords Against Darkness. You can order directly from the website.
” I assume it is set in a version of Meso-America. I did see some zoological mistakes: lions are mentioned. No lions unless they are Panthera atrox, the American lion of the Pleistocene. Horses are in the story, again no horses unless they are extinct Equus scotti.”
No zoological mistakes, you will note that the name Helomon is not Mesoamerican either, nor the term “Naakal”, nor do modern horses have striped legs, nor did any culture in Mesoamerica have bronze swords.
Without giving away the game, completely…you correctly identified the animals in question, contemporary with the camelops, which is also extinct…