Spiral Tower Review: Pure, Mundi, and the Suddenly: D.M. Ritzlin’s Against the Demon World



Pure, Mundi, and the Suddenly: D.M. Ritzlin’s Against the Demon World
Book: Against the Demon World (2026)
1365 words

Modern fantasy is suffering from a crisis of the map and the archive. For years, floundering in the wake of the epic, we have become a genre of surveyors and historians, obsessed with the slow-burn arc and the crushing weight of cause-and-effect. We demand to know the tax policy of the kingdom before we are permitted to see naked steel. We need to understand the "magical system" of the universe before we are permitted to see a sorcerer hurling fireballs. In this disenchanted, quasi-bureaucratic landscape, the narrative often feels like a slog through a digital simulation, or an alien planet with 1.5 Earth g's of atmosphere: heavy, flattened, predictable, slow-motion, devoid of the thrilling disorientation and forward momentum that once defined the pulp tradition.

Enter D.M. Ritzlin. In his latest foray, Against the Demon World (2026), Ritzlin performs a kind of narrative exorcism. He eschews the heavy, importunate worldbuilding of his contemporaries and instead leans into a structure that feels ancient, visceral, and, I dare say, sublimely fun.

To understand why Ritzlin’s work feels so charged, we must look backward, past the Inklings of the mid-century, to what literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin called the "adventure-time" of the Ancient Greek Romance. In those Hellenistic novels, time was not a matter of character growth or historical progression; it was a sequence of "suddenlys." A hero is walking; suddenly, pirates appear. He escapes; suddenly, a storm wrecks his ship. Bakhtin called this the "chronotope" of the adventure novel--a world where the characters are static, tested by a catch-and-release cycle of fate and chance.

Ritzlin understands, and leans into, this adventure chronotope better than almost anyone writing in sword and sorcery today. Against the Demon World does not ask us to contemplate the hero’s childhood trauma; it does not ask us to examine the hero's singular identity; it does not ask us to examine our lives. Instead, it asks us to survive the next ten pages. One of my favorite tongue-in-cheek moments is when the main character, Atok, has briefly paused to contemplate the destruction of a succubus, Heltorya, for whom he had complex feelings. He lingers for a heartbeat on the precipice of a modern character arc, a moment where a less confident writer might have surrendered to the bougee responsibility of psychological realism. But Ritzlin’s narrator quickly steers us back to the surface, with the narrative equivalent of a slap to the face and a dash of cold water: "There may have been other reasons, but he did not care to examine his personal feelings more closely." It is almost as if the narrator is letting the boundaries of the genre's chronotope show. Here is the boundary, it says; contemplate it, make your peace with it, before we move on to the next adventure.

Against the Demon World is a narrative of the Bakhtinian hiatus--that glorious gap of unresolved conflict between the beginning and the end where the world is governed by Tyche (Fate). In Ritzlin’s Demon World, space is abstract and alien. It is not a place to be mapped, but a series of thresholds to be crossed. The flight on an alien skyship from a demon moon to terra firma is treated as an ellipsis. From one chapter to the next, we are on earth and then we are dragged through a portal to hell. This is strategic spatial vertigo and distortion. This is the "low" comedy of the Menippean satire: a world of fleshy, grotesque encounters where the hero is a fixed point of grit against a shifting tide of contingency and chaos swirling around. This is catch-and-release, with a diabolical twist. The hero is caught in a nightmare, released into a fever dream, and caught again. There is one scene, subtle but pregnant with meaning, when the imp Scrotar sits in the throne room of the demon lord Nelgastrothos, toying with a soul. It is worth quoting at length:

He knelt beside his master's throne, wholly absorbed in toying with a glass cylinder which was two feet high and half again as wide. Contained within was the image of a long-haired Nilztiria maiden, paling in color yet luminescent. Scrotar tapped the glass with a stubby finger, and the cylinder momentarily filled with blue lightning. The maiden writhed in pain. Though her mouth opened to scream and cry, no sound could be heard beyond the confines of the glass. Scrotar gleefully touched the cylinder again. This time when the lightning vanished, the girl collapsed. The imp laughed like a child delighted by a new toy.

Here a sadistic imp takes pleasure in torturing an innocent soul. By analogy, what else does an author in this tradition do? They create a protagonist, a hero we become emotionally invested in; once our emotional entanglement with the character is established, they process them through the painful crucible of a conflict-rich environment. And in the comfort of our armchair, boards and leaves in hand, we cackle as they struggle for survival. This is a perfect allegory for legitimate adventure narrative shorn of all its superfluities and niceties.

But why is this aesthetic sadism so fun? Because it restores the immediacy of the encounter. By utilizing the sequential logic of the classical Greek novel, Ritzlin avoids the drab blur of triteness that plagues modern high fantasy and haunts contemporary sword and sorcery. His approach is a corrective, harmonizing with what aesthetic theorist Viktor Shklovsky argues is the main function of art: to restore strangeness to the world we have become dangerously habituated to. As Shklovsky famously wrote:

And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged.

Ritzlin gives our imaginations the widest possible room to swing, prioritizing the thrill of the "suddenly" over the boredom of the map, the dustiness of the archive, and the pedantry of the "magical system." (By the way: a "magical system" is a pernicious paradox, and its growing conceptual ubiquity is a discouraging symptom that our cognition has been shifting down from the heights of imagination to to the depths of mere calculation. For what else is magic but a refutation of the systematic?)

Reading Against the Demon World is a punk gesture--a deliberate act of genre-defiance that many, conditioned by the status-conscious prestige of the relevant and the relatable, will simply fail to grasp. Ritzlin writes in the tradition of Clark Ashton Smith, who famously declared, Neither the ethics nor the aesthetics of the ant-hill have any attraction for me. To read a Ritzlin novel--like reading a Clark Ashton Smith story--is to refuse to be bored, to refuse to navel-gaze, and, most importantly, to refuse to be responsible. This type of story rejects the modern mandate that fantasy must labor to save, mirror, or justify the ordinary world. It is unapologetically puerile (read pure).
 
To demand that sword and sorcery tie itself to the real is to betray the core of the tradition. We read to be boyish, to be girlish--to deviate from the proper and reclaim the unmanageable weirdos within. We seek the spirit that sees a stick as a sword and a windmill as a giant; we seek the parts of ourselves the ordinary world has worked so hard to file away, forget, and finally, to kill. We seek the "suddenly" because it shatters the glass of the archive and the office. Because, in the best sword and sorcery, we are reminded: the ordinary is merely an ordered zone, governed by an order designed to keep you in order--and thus, it is a zone to be avoided, to be escaped, at all costs. Ritzlin doesn't offer a mirror; he offers an exit. And in a (not quite demonic) world obsessed with mundane (read mundi), that exit is the most radical gesture of all.

About the Reviewer: Jason Ray Carney is the Managing Editor of Spiral Tower and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English of Christopher Newport University. CNU Faculty Page

About Spiral Tower Reviews: The authors who maintain the pulp genres of sword and sorcery and cosmic horror merit support. Financial support is key but there are other ways the cash-strapped can show support: engaged reading and thoughtful analysis. Literary movements emerge through the interactions of editors, authors, publishers, and amateur literary journalists. Learn more about contributing your review here. We are happy to work with first time reviewers! No previous writing credits required!

To Walk on Worlds is Cool, Man, reviewed by Jason Ray Carney
Tanith Lee is the Empress of Dreams, review by George Jacobs
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Spiral Tower Review: "Do I look like a slave to you, dog?" Steve Dilks' Bohun: The Complete Savage Adventures and Heroic Tenacity

 

"Do I look like a slave to you?" Steve Dilks' Bohun: The Complete Savage Adventures and Heroic Tenacity
Book: Bohun: The Complete Savage Adventures (2024)
1697 words

One of the key facets of a hero is their agency rather than their response to adversity. Heroes are protagonists; they proceed toward agony and conflict. But not all heroes fit this mold. Some heroes are less defined by their agency and more by their adversities and challenges--by the events that befall them. We recognize their heroic qualities in how they react to their fates. One of the best examples of this is in film history, First Blood (1982), a favorite growing up with me, my older and my younger brother (my parents were very half-hearted censors). Fans of this movie know: John Rambo doesn’t seek trouble. He just wants to find his friend, have a sandwich, and pass through town. Unfortunately, he encounters an overzealous local sheriff, Will Teasle, who mistakes him for a drifter, insults him, incarcerates him, and ultimately abuses him. Rambo reacts to these instigations by blowing up the entire town and maiming numerous public safety and security officers, pure 1980s action movie machismo distilled to a fine spirit. While Rambo shows agency in the end (that suturing scene!), an important narratological distinction needs to be made: in terms of inciting action, Rambo is the victim of a brutal and unfair interference in his difficult life.

Matthew Arnold, the famous Victorian critic and poet, had this to say about the most famous paragon of heroic victimhood, Odysseus (or Ulysses, rather), and the poet who sings him to life, Homer:

"[Homer] he makes Ulysses the great type of the enduring and laborious man, who, through patience, courage, sagacity, and self-control, at last succeeds. The signal characteristic of the Homeric poetry--the simplicity and self-sufficing wholeness of its heroes--is best seen in Odysseus. He is never taken out of himself, never driven out of the limits of his own character, never the prey of introspective broodings or the victim of circumstance, but always the master of himself and of fortune."

Tossed and turned, incarcerated and abused, Odysseus is definitely a heroic victim, but despite his many challenges, he is "never driven out of the limits of his own character, never the prey of introspective broodings or the victim of circumstance, but always the master of himself and of fortune." Odysseus, qua Homer, sounds a lot like the sword and sorcery hero as defined by Jason M Waltz in the introduction to his most recent sword and sorcery anthology, Neither Beg Nor Yield (2024). For Waltz, the sword and sorcery hero is defined by their heroic adversity, their tenacity: "To ardently live, not merely survive, at any cost in the face of all odds, unequal or unnatural. LIVE!-ism."

The main character of Steve Dilks’ new sword and sorcery collection, Bohun: The Complete Savage Adventures, bears a striking resemblance to the adversity-laden hero described above, epitomizes what Waltz describes as "LIVE!-ism" and what Matthew Arnold articulates as the hero being "master of himself and of fortune": a hero who has horrible things happen to them and whose character is revealed through their reactions. Of the seven stories in this anthology, most begin with Bohun unjustly incarcerated, enslaved, or otherwise placed in circumstances he did not seek out. In the first story, "Festival of the Bull," Bohun arrives in the city-state of Tharyna having escaped from a slave ship, manacles still on his arms. In the second story, "Horror from the Stars," he soon finds himself trapped in a pitfall chamber. In the third story, "By Darkness Enthroned," he fights as a mercenary conscript in the armies of Valentia. In the fourth story, "Intrigue in Aviene," he is quickly thrown into the city jail. The fifth story, "Black Sunset in the Valley of Death," offers an intriguing exception: while Bohun starts out as a prisoner and intended blood sacrifice, he swiftly escapes and, for once, acts rather than reacts, making his own decisions. In the penultimate story, "Red Trail of Vengeance," Bohun is accosted by bandits and thrown into a well. Finally, in "Harvest of the Blood King," he is again in manacles but gains a conditional release to fight in a Valentian military operation. In nearly every case, Bohun’s character is revealed through his reactions to external forces.

This structure is not unique to sword and sorcery; numerous pulp adventure stories rely on a "catch and release" narrative, perhaps best exemplified by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter stories, where the protagonist is repeatedly imprisoned and escapes and is imprisoned again. However, Dilks’ use of this narrative structure is skillful and serves a distinct thematic purpose: it introduces us to a character who, in his heart, does not want to be a sword and sorcery hero. Despite his muscularity, his warrior prowess, Bohun just wants his wife, his domestic peace, his tranquility. He just wants to be left alone.

Over the course of these stories, we learn that Bohun’s people, the Damzullah, were destroyed. In "Festival of the Bull," he recounts his tragic past. A civil war in his homeland weakened the Damzullah, allowing their enemies, the cowardly Razuli, to attack. Later, as Bohun fled with his wife, Dana, she was captured by another group, the Gharubah. Thus, Bohun’s wandering is not fueled by curiosity or boredom, as it is for many sword and sorcery heroes. He is not a restless adventurer, but a man forced into this life through tragedy. His stories is not about the thrill of battle sought out but survival in a brutal world.

Indeed, brutality, both in war and social hierarchies, becomes a theme in the collection. One of its most striking moments of intellectual frisson comes near the end of the collection. After Bohun fights as a mercenary for the Empire of Valentia, his supposed victory leaves him disillusioned. His friend, Tiberius, a Valentian, mockingly tells him:

"'You’re heroes now […]. Freedom and gold are yours now. Let this be an end to war for all of us.'"

Bohun’s response, as he surveys the carnage, is telling:

"'Bohun glanced around at the slain children and the ravaged corpses of young mothers strewn throughout the compound. Through the smoke and burning ashes, he saw King Varak looming on his warhorse and Lucian Flava covered in white ash, looking like a specter of death.

"'As long as there are generals and kings, there will never be an end to war.'"

This is a defining moment for Bohun, an epiphany, a psychological event that brings about a change to his character. Just a few beats later, Bohun admits, "'I was not born for war.'" These words are remarkable for a sword and sorcery hero who has left a pile of bodies in his wake. Many contemporary figures in the genre--such as Willard Black’s Redgar, Matt John’s Maxus, D.M. Ritzlin’s Vran the Chaos-Warped, and Howie K. Bentley’s Eldol--are defined by agency, desire, momentum, their wild-card like ability to actually make things happen in and of themselves. But characters like Howard Andrew Jones’ Hanuvar, David C. Smith’s Hanlin, Chase A. Folmar’s Uralant and Emrasarie, and Bohun are different. They are not always reactive, but they find themselves in adventures due to circumstance rather than choice. If one major theme of sword and sorcery is the path of the self-driven adventurer dropped into an equilibrium to bring about creative disharmony, another is the reluctant warrior--the powerful quasi-martyr who responds to the brutal world's hammer falls of fate, and in ways that reveals their undeniable humanity.

Each of Bohun’s stories merits individual consideration. Without giving too much away, here are some highlights. "Festival of the Bull" features a gladiatorial battle gone awry, rich in the "dark of night" atmosphere characteristic of sword and sorcery. "Horror from the Stars" is one of the creepiest entries in the genre in recent years, featuring a monstrous transformation that lingers in the mind. "By Darkness Enthroned" is the most epic in scope, involving large-scale military conflict and compelling sorcery. "Intrigue in Aviene" is more focused on skullduggery, plotting, and assassination. "Red Trail of Vengeance," possibly my favorite, evokes the classic Western revenge film Unforgiven (1992) in its structure and themes. "Harvest of the Blood-King" feels like a final statement from Dilks on Bohun, leaving me wondering whether he is moving on from the character. But "Black Sunset in the Valley of Death" is the most enigmatic of the collection. Here, Bohun briefly integrates into a community and fights for them. In his moment of peace, the reader encounters a beautiful piece of writing that allegorizes an inherent tension in sword and sorcery: a violent, action-packed, often brutal genre that paradoxically offers relaxation, reflection, and quietude. Consider this passage, in which a wise woman tells the story of her tribe:

"'Ylarrna gave pause, and the listeners sighed, a lament that ripped through the glade. There, under the silvered moon, Bohun squatted before her on the ground. She sat high up between the two trunks of the towering trees that formed a natural throne--a throne of earth. Her stick lay across her knees, and as she looked down on the ring of listeners, her eyes were glazed with the memory of far sight. The pale stars were strewn across the heavens, and the jeweled eye in her brow radiated a soft glow. It seemed as if the listeners were dragged hypnotically into that eye now. Ylarrna’s voice began to intone again. As she did, windows of the past opened, and Bohun gazed on marvels both alien and strange.'"

This is powerful writing, and I cannot help but see it as a symbol of reading sword and sorcery itself: a moment of tranquility amid chaos, where the audience is drawn into a world of alien and strange marvels.

Steve Dilks’ Bohun stories are an impressive contribution to the genre, the collection a true accomplishment, standing alongside recent contemporary masterpieces such as David C. Smith’s Sometimes Lofty Towers (2021), Schuyler Hernstrom’s The Eye of Sounnu (2020) , and Howard Andrew Jones’ Lord of a Shattered Land (2024). In essence, Bohun's tales pay homage to the tradition of sword and sorcery while exploring the reluctant hero archetype whose advertsities reveal their worth and forge them into tempered steel. In other words, heroic power is not about control or dominance of others, the brutal tinsel crowns of status-threatened kings and generals. It's about answering that most pointed of questions posed by fate: Who are you? Bohun: "Do I look like a slave to you, dog? By T'agulla, the last man who thought as much is now holding counsel in hell!"

About the Reviewer: Jason Ray Carney is the Managing Editor of Spiral Tower and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English of Christopher Newport University.

CNU Faculty Page. jrcarney52.bsky.social.

About Spiral Tower Reviews: The authors who maintain the pulp genres of sword and sorcery and cosmic horror merit support. Financial support is key but there are other ways the cash-strapped can show support: engaged reading and thoughtful analysis. Literary movements emerge through the interactions of editors, authors, publishers, and amateur literary journalists. Learn more about contributing your review here. We are happy to work with first time reviewers! No previous writing credits required!

Tanith Lee is the Empress of Dreams, review by George Jacobs
at

TRIAPA Mailing #17


Spiral Tower Press has established an 'Amateur Press Association,' TRIAPA, and its sixteenth mailing is now available. We extend our sincere thanks to our excellent contributors. If you are interested in submitting a zine for TRIAPA #17 please send a 2-page zine (maximum) to spiraltowerpress@gmail.com with the subject of "TriAPA: [zine name]". We invite and encourage all fans of sword and sorcery, cosmic horror, and space opera to submit.

You can read more about TRIAPA HERE.

Download the most recent mailing here: TRIAPA Mailing #17

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Spiral Tower Review: To Talk on Worlds is Cool, Man!

 


To Walk on Worlds is Cool, Man!
Book: To Walk on Worlds by Matthew John (Rogues in the House Presents, 2024)
1578 words

The word “puerile” comes from the Latin puerilis, meaning “boyish” or “childish.” In modern English, however, it has come to imply “immature” or “lacking in sophistication,” and it’s almost always deployed as an insult. Matt John’s new anthology, To Walk on Worlds, is indeed puerile, but I’d like to rescue the word from all its negative baggage.

When I was a kid, I simply found (and still do find) certain things just cool, rad, awesome—like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Super Mario Brothers, or Garbage Pail Kids—and I couldn’t tell you why. The coolness of these things was just a fact of my small universe. Although I would never have put it this way then, I was making an authentic, spontaneous, and “disinterested” aesthetic judgment. “Disinterestedness” in aesthetic judgment is essential, at least if you trust Immanuel Kant: in his Critique of Judgment (1790), he argues it’s a necessary precondition for any valid aesthetic judgment.

What does Kant mean by disinterestedness? Essentially, our judgments of beauty (or “pure judgments of taste”) must be free from personal interest, practical benefit, or moral considerations. If we praise a work solely because our friend made it, that’s personal interest. If we value it because it imparts historical knowledge, that’s a practical benefit. If we celebrate it for its moral lessons, that’s moral utility. None of these, Kant says, are purely aesthetic grounds.

In other words, for Kant, the only explanation you can really give for why something is beautiful or art-worthy is that it’s “cool.” By that logic, a little kid shrugging his shoulders and blurting out “I like it because it’s cool” is making one of the purest aesthetic judgments possible. That thought kept popping into my head while I read To Walk on Worlds. The anthology's key melody, if you will, is precisely this kind of puerile, no-nonsense love for the material.

To Walk on Worlds features a variety of stories that have been published elsewhere. I assume these stories have been revised and polished for this release, but beyond obvious cosmetic changes, they read the same as when I encountered them in their original venues. There are also stories published here for the first time.

On the one hand, the anthology is an eclectic, patchwork mix featuring a wide variety of characters and scenarios; on the other hand, there are recurring characters and themes running through the collection, so it is fair to call it cohesive and unified. In contemporary sword and sorcery, Matt John is a presence. He is one of the hosts of the Rogues in the House podcast, a contributor to Savage Sword of Conan and other official contemporary Conan-related properties (e.g., various versions of the Conan RPG). Matt’s oeuvre extends to organizing a vital Facebook group, the Conan Gaming Group. This isn’t the place to fully rehearse Matt’s nerd credentials: suffice it to say, he is a productive, active, and authentic fan, creator, and even influencer.

Full disclosure: I consider Matt my friend (which is why I am using "Matt" rather than the more formal "Mr. John"), have gamed with him, have been on panels with him at GenCon and Robert E. Howard Days, and have sometimes moonlighted on his podcast as an anxious, stuttering guest. But the credentials and compliments enumerated above aren’t mere flexing and flattery. I believe they are part of the appeal of Matt’s anthology. How so? As stated above, there is a palpable love of the material, the worlds, the characters, and the themes treated in this anthology that saturates every page. I dare say that enthusiasm and joy like Matt’s cannot be faked. It shines through in every story, and, through some Meddler’s dark magic, it is contagious, infects you, compels you onward.

Let me briefly touch on some of the stories.

“To Walk on Worlds” is an interesting tale about Maxus, the world-jumping and body-jumping sorcerer who plots and schemes against a king. Maxus is organizing his worldly affairs before becoming extra-worldly. The character Maxus will return again and again throughout the anthology. He is a fascinating force in the story, an archetypical nasty evil sorcerer who you kind of grow to love and hate: a little Skeletor, a little Mumm-Ra, spiced with the surprising Pinhead vibes. Strangely, Maxus’s sorcerous potency, knowledge, and intractability reminded me of—excuse the analogy—a sword and sorcery version of Rick from Rick and Morty.

“A Simple Errand” introduces Matt’s barbarian warrior, Lachmannon the Kael, who gets wrapped up in the schemes and machinations of Maxus. Lachmannon is the terra firma to Maxus’s cosmicism. The barbarian’s relationship to the sorcerer is intriguing and often hilarious: Maxus needs help with this or that cosmic challenge beyond the ken of the humble Kael, and Lachmannon provides the necessary brawn while observing how bizarre things are, often cursing about the bizarrerie of it all. In this way, Lachmannon is something of an ocular stand-in for the reader, giving us distance from the sorcerous and cosmic doings. He’s the Morty to Maxus’s Rick.

“The Gift of Gallah” is where Matt gets more literary and flexes his prose-style credentials. This is a tragic story about a man searching for the eponymous Gift of Gallah, but getting what he wants isn’t what he expected. There were some compelling and beautiful passages in this story. I would even go so far as to suggest this story treats some of the themes of toxic masculinity, specifically regarding emotional dissociation during the grieving process.

“Cries from a Sleeping City” was quite horrific. It features Lachmannon plumbing the depths of a haunted city as a mercenary. There are elements of cosmic horror, Dungeons & Dragons, and Gothicism. I was even reminded of Karl Edward Wagner’s tales, specifically his masterpiece “Raven’s Eyrie.” There is a lot of worldbuilding in this one, and you get the sense that the world Lachmannon occupies is fully realized—a Bronze Age or early medieval Eurasia haunted (literally and figuratively) by antiquity.

“Man of Xerus” was one of my favorite stories, definitely horror-focused. It reminded me of scenes in Hellraiser 2, where the victims of the Cenobites venture into an Escher-like hellscape. In this story, the protagonist is enthralled by a hideous world and the dark pleasures it offers, and thus is terribly punished for their morbid curiosity. Once again, this story features Maxus, the alien puppet-master sorcerer who serves to remind the reader that all these tales are part of a larger tableau.

“A Final Errand” brings Lachmannon and Maxus together once again. Maxus has dragged Lachmannon out of a quasi-retirement and needs his slaying skills once more. There are a lot of worldbuilding reveals here that I won’t spoil. What sticks with you is how the relationship between Maxus and Lachmannon develops and matures. Matt also lands the ending here. Perhaps I was just in a sentimental mood when reading this, but I discovered tears in my eyes at the surprising conclusion.

“The Meddler” shifts the focus from the cosmic to the local: two ordinary people are pulled into the machinations of a sorcerer (I don’t think this sorcerer is Maxus, but I could be wrong). This story was really intriguing in how it shows the tension between ordinary lives and the dehumanizing effects of a sorcerer’s cosmic enterprises. The sorcerer character comes off as fully anti-human, preying on the ordinary person—a perennial sword and sorcery theme.

“A Fate Worse than Exile” is a great story featuring a Kael similar to Lachmannon and a rogue-rascal who becomes his temporary travel companion. The trope of the sword and sorcery duo, akin to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, is deployed here to interesting effect. There is one monologue by the barbarian Kael, describing his distrust of the “civilized,” that gets at a core theme of the sword and sorcery genre. This story ends on a haunting note.

“A Chance Burden,” originally published in Spiral Tower Press’s amateur zine, Whetstone, follows up on a previous character. It is an interesting meditation on the awkwardness of being a caregiver or parent.

The last entry is more of a vignette—an outré—and it really works: it ends with Maxus in all of his alienness, warning a humble farmer to steer clear of him.

This review is running long, so let me conclude with some comments about technique. John’s prose is very readable and polished. It’s paced wonderfully: full of momentum, balanced action, character building, a dash of introspection, and good plot structure. It would be wrong to say that Matt’s work isn’t artistically ambitious—his seriousness as a prose stylist is on display here—but there is a noir, minimalist quality to his storytelling technique, and that isn’t a bad thing (i.e. a literary touchstone might be Raymond Carver). Perhaps this is the kind of writing that will develop into further complexity in the future, but it doesn't need to, and I could imagine reading along with Matt in a novel-length narrative. Currently, Matt is, without a doubt, one of the best writers of contemporary sword and sorcery. His writing is unpretentious, and the genre is unpretentious, yet the lack of prose ornamentation doesn’t mean a lack of depth or feeling. Quite the opposite,

In my view, these stories deliver some of the perennial themes of the genre—tension between civilization and barbarism, the way extreme intelligence can become alien, the power of familial bonds in the face of danger, and the brutality of the civilized world—all while remaining fun. You can tell, as you read, that Matt is having fun, and you can’t help but be caught up in it. Because of this, I can honestly say, To Walk on Worlds is cool, man!

About the Reviewer: Jason Ray Carney is the Managing Editor of Spiral Tower and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English of Christopher Newport University. CNU Faculty Page. jrcarney52.bsky.social.

About Spiral Tower Reviews: The authors who maintain the pulp genres of sword and sorcery and cosmic horror merit support. Financial support is key but there are other ways the cash-strapped can show support: engaged reading and thoughtful analysis. Literary movements emerge through the interactions of editors, authors, publishers, and amateur literary journalists. Learn more about contributing your review here. We are happy to work with first time reviewers! No previous writing credits required!

Tanith Lee is the Empress of Dreams, review by George Jacobs
at

Spiral Tower Review: The Ambitious and Eclectic Inconsistency of Old Moon Quarterly 7

 


The Ambitious and Eclectic Inconsistency of OMQ7 
Old Moon Quarterly (Issue 7)
1467 words

I supported Old Moon Quarterly for their 7th and 8th issues. I’ve been reading the magazine since Issue 2 (I had a story in that issue). I recently finished Issue 7 and really enjoyed it. I’m reluctant to make generalizations about the issue because the stories are so different, but I think some careful observations can be made. This issue is not generically consistent--and that’s not a fault. I’m not sure what happened between Issues 3 and 6, but the editors now seem more willing to publish works that test the conventions of established genres, specifically highly conventionalized genres like sword and sorcery. There are some stories written in a conventional narrative style, but there are also some decidedly experimental works. I’ll touch on those shortly. In essence, this was an eclectic and artistically ambitious issue. Old Moon Quarterly doesn’t seem interested in merely publishing more of the same.

The introduction, attributed to the Editors, is interesting. It reads like old-school literary history, circa 1940. The prose style is a little overwrought, but it combines aesthetic analysis with social commentary and revs you up for the reading to come. In other words, it’s an effective introduction.

The first story, “The Ember-eyed,” by James Enge, is a phantasmagoric, visual fever dream. The main character, Morlock Ambrosius, has been appearing in S&S magazine pages for years, as well as in his own novels and anthologies. I first encountered Morlock in Swords and Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery (2010), and I’ve been following Enge’s work since. Several of his Morlock stories appear in Tales from the Magician’s Skull. This story is epic in scope, featuring god-like intelligences, major quests, and cosmic struggles. The main character arguably asserts himself against that scale. One aspect of sword and sorcery is that the stakes aren’t usually that high. Here, we see a character on the verge of transforming from a sword and sorcery protagonist into an epic fantasy protagonist--yet he decides not to take up the mythical call. I really enjoyed this story.

The second story, “Stolen by Moonlight, Betrothed by Sun,” by E. Catherine Tobler, is one of the experimental pieces I mentioned. It’s written in the first person from the perspective of an ancient sword that is in love with its bearer. The writing is lyrical, artful, even romantic. The plot structure doesn’t proceed in a conventional way. There is no clear conflict, no resolution--mostly a series of reflections and introspective vignettes that chart the slow but steady trek of the sword back to its beloved wielder. I applaud Tobler, whose talent is on display here, and I applaud the editors, who boldly chose this story. After reading it, I kept thinking about it. I wouldn’t, however, say this was traditionally entertaining. I approached it expecting a fantasy adventure, and that’s not the spirit you should bring to this piece. This is more an artful, experimental work with fantasy-adventure trappings.

The third story, “The Torrent of Souls,” by H.R. Laurence, was my favorite. It’s also the most conventionally plotted adventure fantasy in the issue. There’s a clear protagonist, a clear conflict, forward momentum to the climax and resolution, and a rich cast of atmospheric and interesting characters. Laurence renders a very immersive environment, and there are some gorgeous images. Here’s an example: “The corpse-horse galloped upon nothing. Something huge moved in the clouds beneath, a shimmering black gleam writhing through the gaps in the stratus like a sea serpent, its coils emerging and submerging in roiling, tumultuous mist […].” This is so cool: a flying zombie horse riding across the clouds at night. Some might say this is puerile. They’re partially right. But if they think the puerility of this image is a problem, then they don’t get it.

The next work, “Footnotes on ‘Only Forever,’ the Grey Witch’s Last Poem,” was another experimental piece. As the title suggests, it consists mostly of footnotes, echoing the structure of Nabokov’s Pale Fire. Alas, this one didn’t work for me. It’s lyrical, and there’s clear talent on display, but it felt too delicate and often overwrought. I appreciate the editors taking a chance on this, and I respect Carlie Voorhis for writing outside the box. I’m just one reader, and my tastes run more conventional when it comes to fantasy. Chalk it up to a mismatch between writer, text, and reader. (Side note: I loved Pale Fire, so the experimental form itself wasn’t the issue.)

Next was “The Last Gift,” by Jason Mills. This was a gorgeous, emotional story that actually made me wipe away a tear near the end. Next to Laurence’s, this was my second favorite. Mills’s story, about wanderers pursued by a djinn that assumes various challenging forms, conveys deep humanity and even wisdom. I’m not sure how old Mills is, but this seems written by someone who has thought about life, its brevity, and what it all might mean. I want my nephew to read this and hopefully learn something from it. This is ambitious fantasy, not just in terms of literary art but also in terms of its potential to teach.

Next was “Last Day on the Farm,” perhaps the most skillfully written from a craft perspective, by Matthew John. John is a talented writer. You can tell he understands the pacing of adventure fantasy--the necessary beats—and how to modulate introspection, horror, action, and wonder. This is a roller coaster of a story that grips you from start to finish. Lachmannon, the main character, appears in John’s anthology To Walk on Worlds and elsewhere. Honestly, this read like some of the best Black Library fiction I’ve encountered. It has the grim darkness of the Warhammer Old World and the vividness of a writer like C.L. Werner. I would say that readers with little patience for experimental fiction might want to start with this story and John’s other work.

“Bleed Me in the Water” by Hailey Piper was a strange story about an evil, vindictive witch who plots to kill an entire village by inciting them to attack a sea goddess. I had trouble identifying with the protagonist. It was never clear why she was so hateful or why she wanted to kill everyone in the village. I’m okay with villain-heroes, but I need to sympathize with them on some level. I’m afraid I might have missed something, because the protagonist just came off as a psychopath attacking innocent people. When I finished the story, I didn’t know what to think.

“Of Decadence a Child” by David Costa was entertaining and skillfully written, but it leaned toward style over substance. The main character is a sort of holy crusader disgusted by the fallen world. He goes on a tenacious quest to kill a monster, and he does. I think this piece was more a lyrical study, an attempt to render a richly textured world, rather than to tell an original story.

“In Her Waters, Raging,” by Lora Gray, is a beautiful free verse poem with evocative imagery featuring a sea-hag or selkie--some sort of water spirit that kills the wayward.

“Lessons from Aulis” by Monica Joyce Evans reminded me of John Barth’s postmodernist experimental novel Chimera (1972). I didn’t care for Chimera, and I’m afraid my associations with that novel shaded my understanding of this story. Also, this was the one piece that felt out of place. It’s a postmodernist re-telling of an established Greek myth. With respect to Joyce (who is, once again, clearly talented), genres are contracts between readers and writers. I think it’s a stretch to call this a fantasy.

The issue ends with a literary review essay by Graham Thomas Wilcox, one of the editors. His writing style here was strange--intentionally anachronistic, as if adopting the persona of a Victorian sage. I appreciated the cultural commentary. He seemed to critique contemporary fantasy fiction for being too conventional and praised E.R. Eddison for his anachronism and distinctiveness. Perhaps the style was a meta-commentary, an attempt to harmonize with Eddison.

Overall, this was one of the best reading experiences I’ve had in 2024. Old Moon Quarterly, I understand, emerged from sword and sorcery fandom, and I’m starting to wonder if that genre is holding it back. The magazine clearly shows more interest in experimental fantasy and artful prose--something that’s the opposite of pulp fantasy. I’m looking forward to Issue 8 and future issues. The contributors, editors, and publishers should be proud of their uncompromising vision and artistic authenticity.

About the Reviewer: Jason Ray Carney is the Managing Editor of Spiral Tower and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English of Christopher Newport University. CNU Faculty Page. jrcarney52.bsky.social.

About Spiral Tower Reviews: The authors who maintain the pulp genres of sword and sorcery and cosmic horror merit support. Financial support is key but there are other ways the cash-strapped can show support: engaged reading and thoughtful analysis. Literary movements emerge through the interactions of editors, authors, publishers, and amateur literary journalists. Learn more about contributing your review here. We are happy to work with first time reviewers! No previous writing credits required!

Tanith Lee is the Empress of Dreams, review by George Jacobs


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TriAPA Mailing #16

Spiral Tower Press has established an 'Amateur Press Association,' TRIAPA, and its sixteenth mailing is now available. We extend our sincere thanks to our excellent contributors. If you are interested in submitting a zine for TRIAPA #17 please send a 2-page zine (maximum) to spiraltowerpress@gmail.com with the subject of "TriAPA: [zine name]". We invite and encourage all fans of sword and sorcery, cosmic horror, and space opera to submit.

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SpiralCon 3 GOH Interview: C.L. Werner

On Saturday, July 27th, Spiral Tower Press held it's 3rd Annual SpiralCon. C.L. Werner was the guest of honor. He was interviewed by Sean CW Korsgaard.



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2024 Trigon Awardees

Spiral Tower Press has established the Trigon Awards to show appreciation for those who champion the past, present, and future of the pulp genres of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror. Trigon awardees demonstrate artistic, intellectual, and passionate commitment to the values celebrated by the sorcerer's mysterious trigon: chronopolitanism, compassion, and hope.

The Trigon Awards will consist of three categories: literary achievement, scholarly achievement, and special achievement.

Trigon Awards are determined by a rotating and anonymous standing committee, "The Trigon Committee," who nominate and select the awardees with the optional voting and nominating aid of previous awardees. Although there will be no formal nominating process, advice and suggestions are welcomed by the committee. Nominees will be secret and will not be announced or discussed by the Trigon Committee in public or outside of official internal award-focused discussions. The award carries no financial remunerations. Awardees will receive a certificate.

Congratulations to the 2024 Trigon Awardees

Literary Achievement: Howard Andrew Jones

Scholarly Achievement: Jeffrey Shanks

Special Achievement: Oliver Brackenbury

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Spiral Con 3 Show Notes

In order to help you continue your mind expanding journey that is Spiral Con 3, below are links for the panelists and moderators.
(Page will be updated as further info is beamed into the cosmic consciousnes.)
Panel #1: NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD: THE SWORD AND SORCERY ATTITUDE.
Panelists
C.L. Werner: Black Library Authors
Adrian Cole: Adrian Cole ISFDB
Eadwine Brown: Eadeine Brown Good Reads
Lawrence A. Weinstein: Author Website
Moderator
Jason M. Waltz: Rogue Blade Entertainment

Panel #2: Guest of Honor: C.L. Werner
C.L. Werner: Black Library Authors

Presentation/Panel #3: Battleborn and the Appeal of Contemporary Sword and Sorcery.
Panelists
Cora Buhlert: Author Website
Matt Holder: Twitter bluesky
J. Cal Baldari
Moderator
Sean CW Korsgaard: BattleBorn Magazine Anvil Magazine

Presentation/Panel #4: Barbarians at the Gates
Panelists Brian Collins (he/him): Science Fiction and Fantasy Remembrances
Paul Weimer (he/him): bluesky Patreon
Kris Vyas-Myall (they/them): bluesky
Moderator
Cora Buhlert: Author Website

Panel #5: Clark Ashton Smith and the Literature of Cosmicism
Read all of Smith's work for free at Eldtritch Dark
Panelists
Robert Poyton: Innsmouth Gold
Jason Ray Carney: Spiral Tower Press
Moderator
Nils Hedglin (he/him): Clark Ashton Smithery blog
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SpiralCon 3 Guide for Attendees and Moderators

For Panel Attendees

No registration is required.

Muting Your Microphone: Upon joining the panel, please ensure your microphone is muted to avoid overwhelming background noise.

View Settings: You may prefer to modify your Google Meet display settings to either "Tiled" or "Spotlight":
    • Spotlight: Highlights the current speaker.
    • Tiled: Allows you to see all the speakers simultaneously. This setting provides a broader view of participants.
Asking Questions: Do not use your microphone to ask questions. Instead, type your questions in the chat box. The moderator and the moderator's aide will monitor the chat closely.
    • If attendance is low, we may allow questions to be asked directly via microphone, but please use the chat initially for organizational purposes.
Technical Issues: If you experience difficulties, such as connecting to the chat, consider logging out and logging back in. This action often resolves technical problems. The meeting links are persistent, so you can rejoin as long as the panel session is active.

For Moderators

Introductions:
  • Encourage panelists to introduce themselves unless you have prepared introductions.
  • Managing the Panel:
    • Have at least three open-ended questions ready to engage the panelists and stimulate discussion.
    • It's essential to direct attention to your panelists and manage the flow of the conversation.
Time Management:
  • Each panel session lasts for 50 minutes. The Google Meet will automatically end at the 60-minute mark.
  • Aim to begin wrapping up the discussion 40 minutes after starting to allow time for final remarks and to discuss ongoing projects.
Handling Audience Questions:
  • A moderator’s aide (typically JRC, but occasionally others) will monitor the chat for questions from the audience.
Additional Support:

For any further questions, feel free to direct message (DM) JRC. JRC is available on both the SpiralCon Discord and the Whetstone Discord channels.

Here are the links to join the panels

All panels are on Saturday, July 27th, 2024. The time zone is US Eastern Standard Time.

8:30a-8:50p (US EST): Pre-con Gathering and Trigon Awards: https://meet.google.com/qxi-rmxo-ohb

9:00a-9:50a (US EST): Panel #1: https://meet.google.com/hzz-gnqc-rqw

10:00a-10:50a (US EST): Panel #2: https://meet.google.com/vut-xdqt-fso

11:00a-11:50a (US EST): Panel #3: https://meet.google.com/vqz-nymy-jug

1:30p-2:20p (US EST): Panel #4: https://meet.google.com/dth-pfah-tnm

2:30p-3:20p (US EST): Panel #5: https://meet.google.com/wun-dqgy-zox
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