Title: Savage Realms Monthly (January and February 2021)
Publisher: Literary Rebel
Authors: Willard Black, B Harlan Crawford, Steve Dilks, Alexander S Karcher, Kell Myers, and David Sims
Price: $9.99 / $2.99

Sword and sorcery has been a long-time favorite, but, I admit, it’s fallen by the wayside as I devoted more of my reading time to urban fantasy and paranormal mysteries. I just didn’t have the brain power to tackle massive epics featuring muscular swordsmen, mad Gods, and buxom princesses in distress. Happily, when I backed a recent kickstarter campaign, one of the stretch goals was three free digital issues of Savage Realms Monthly.

This was exactly what I needed. Each issue contains three to four original stories, all self-contained, ranging from classic man-and-his-sword adventures to raids on cursed temples to a Spec-Ops captain fighting an ancient demon in post-collapse Florida to a stranded woman discovering the horrors of a drowned city. Most stories were short enough to read during my lunch break or right before bed.

And these stories were perfect for taking me out of the real world, at least for a little while. I quickly lost myself in the adventures of Redgar and Natali (courtesy of Willard Black), Bohun of Damzullah (Steve Dilks), Tarmesh the hillman (David Sims), Captain Kara Black (Kell Myers), Seanai of Ibak (B Harlan Crawford), and Thedwyr the mad (Alexander S Karcher). Each author clearly loves sword and sorcery, and each crafted a story that was entirely their own while also respectfully playing with the tropes of the genre. Black’s stories featuring Redgar and Natali could have easily turned into parodies of Conan, but they did not; instead, I was treated to exciting tales of an out-of-place “barbarian” and the young woman he has been hired to protect — despite the terrible prophecy that surrounds her. Tarmesh is as hard as the hills where he was raised, utterly unsentimental, and loyal only to his own survival — though he doesn’t kill unnecessarily and he stands by those who are stand by him. Captain Kara Black is a Tennessee girl, sworn to protect what remains of the United States in the wake of the cataclysmic return of magic and the collapse of the Tech Age — even if that means taking on reptilian invaders and a gigantic snake demon all by herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two issues of Savage Realms. To date, twenty-seven issues have been released, and I look forward to reading every one of them.

Recommended to fans of classic sword and sorcery tales and films, as well as The Stalker Chronicles by Erik Buchanan, The Last Ranger by JDL Rosell, The Emperor’s Edge series by Lindsay Buroker, Between Princesses and Other Jobs by DJ Butler, Traveler From the West by Blaze Ward, Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard, Old Moon Quarterly, and New Edge Sword and Sorcery.

[Reviewed by Rebecca Buchanan.]