Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! This is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where a new top ten list hits the web every week!
This week our topic is …
TEN BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SWORD & SORCERY
I’ve been a fan of sword and sorcery for a long time. Several decades in fact. And like so many others, I was introduced to the genre by Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories before branching out to Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion novels, Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber, and so many more. Each and every one of these S & S stories was amazingly entertaining in their own way.
Unfortunately, sword and sorcery began to disappear from the shelves in the mid 1980s. Classic titles like Conan, Amber, Elric of Melnibon, and a few other could still be found, and, yes, you could still get your S & S fix from the pages of the latest Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, and Warhammer offerings, but outside of those game-inspired titles, there were not many brand new sword and sorcery novels out there.
A handful of fantasy titles did exist though, keeping alive the sword and sorcery spirit in the mold of Robert E. Howard and others, using action-packed plots coupled with larger-than-life protagonists to thrill readers. And this list is a few of those “newer” sword and sorcery books which I believe helped carry the flag of the genre into the present day.
10. Morigu by Mark C. Perry
9. Tiger and Del by Jennifer Roberson
8. Gerin the Fox by Harry Turtledove
7. Legends of the Nameless Dwarf by D.P. Prior
6. King of the Bastards by Brian Keene & Steven Shrewsbury
5. Seven Forges by James A. Moore
4. The Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski
3. The Legend of Drizzt by R.A. Salvatore
2. The Drenai Saga by David Gemmell
1. Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook
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bookwraiths.com 
Awesome post!
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Thanks, brother. Trying to give sword and sorcery some love. I don’t feel like enough readers appreciate it.
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S&S is all I want to read anymore. Such a vast collection of great authors and stories! And yes under appreciated!
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Yeah. Sword & sorcery feels like a dying subgenre. And now I know that the wolf symbol I keep seeing is connected to the Witcher. Thanks.
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Sadly I agree with you. Sword and sorcery is slowly disappearing. Grimdark is replacing it to some extent, but most of those titles are too damn grim to capture the fun of old-fashioned s and s. We really need some more fun in our lives these days; sword and sorcery could fill that nitch for many fantasy readers.
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Never heard the term before, but I get it right away. It’s all so gritty and dark. The niche you mention for S&S is something I try to use as a marketing pitch. Escapism is a dying hobby
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Everyone wants their fiction too damn serious these days. Personally, I read to escape our current reality not to rehash it in my entertainment medium.
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Same here. It’s why I have so much trouble reading modern fiction. Hate to say I’ve been driven to manga more.
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Tiger and Del is on my TBR already. Maybe I should move it higher up!
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Good luck with it. It has a nice romantic angle to it that goes well with the action-oriented story. 🙂
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Sounds good!
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Oh, I like this! I am after Sword & Sorcery at the moment. I want badass magicians and fighters being awesome! Started the Witcher Saga and love it! Same with the Black Company. I’ll check out some of the books on your list I haven’t heard of
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Great post! I agree, s&s is fun and we need more of it.
A few on your list I’ve been meaning to try and some I’ve read.
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You had me at Michael Moorcock’s the Eternal Champion!
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