There's Brian McNaughton ("Throne of Bones"). What else is new and good?

There's Fritz Leiber.


TGA

You should PM the evil DM. Hes a big Conan guy. I bet he has a whole slew of suggestions for similar stuff.

Does David Gemmell count as S&S?

Weren't Leiber and Howard contemporaries?

Or do you mean, what S&S is there BEYOND Howard? In which case, I definitely second the Leiber suggestion. Most entertaining S&S stories on my shelf, I think.

For a slight change of pace, pick up Burning Tower by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle since it just came out in paperback. Its set in Niven's Warlock's Wheel universe and its one of those books that you just can't put down.

I realize I was being a tad vague.

I should have said: S&S that's being written by people since 1990 or so. Is there a George R.R. Martin of S&S?

Well there goes my George RR Martin suggestion...

(To actually address the point, I think GRRM has a pretty unique synthesis of Sword and Sorcery and High Fantasy going on which is pretty facinating to me.  I'm generally not a big reader of Fantasy, particularly HF, but his Ice & Fire series has me captivated.  Other than that, I got nothing.)

Quote from: SosthenesDoes David Gemmell count as S&S?

The name keeps coming up in S&S discussions. I've never read anything by him, and there's a ton of books by him out there--which do you think are the best ones? Everything with Druss in the title? (If you could pick one, which?)

I'd also second a GRRM suggestion. The guy rocks and his series of books is realpolitick + generic fantasy setting, which for a guy who grew up in the RPG world with Forgotten Realms and Vampirethe Masquerade is just plain... AWESOME.

Yes yes, I'm a fan too, which means I've read GRRM, and I badly need some new reading material for an upcoming 13+ hour plane trip from hell.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityThe name keeps coming up in S&S discussions. I've never read anything by him, and there's a ton of books by him out there--which do you think are the best ones? Everything with Druss in the title? (If you could pick one, which?)

I'd recommend most of the Drenai saga books, although his faux-historic novels aren't too bad either.

He really seemed to like sieges. Several of his books center around an Alamo-like conflict. A few good people defending against hordes. I'm not really sure whether that counts as Sword & Sorcery. It's certainly no high-fantasy Quest Of The Chosen stuff...

"Legend" is the first book in that setting, and it's really a big siege/battle of a few heroes, both old and new against a mongolian-like horde. Rather grim and realistic, although both sides have larger-than-life characters.

"Druss the Legend" certainly is S&S material. One man wandering around the world, having adventures. "Waylander" is about the other big hero/anti-hero in the Drenai saga. Nice little story. I'd try one of those three books first if you want to get into Gemmell. Note that while there are connections between those books, they're all pretty stand-alone. No effin' trilogies here.

Glen Cooks Black Company might not be S&S directly, but it reads like the exploits of a military company in a S&S world. Ancient empires, evil overlords, dark gods...

I will look into that Druss dude and his exploits... he does sound like a Lawful Good Conan. OK, Neutral Good. But the writing is quite good.

If anyone has read MacNaughton (Cali has, IIRC), I'd love to hear about it. He's supposed to be THE MAN.

I'll second Fritz Leiber, who began not long after Howard but continued writing throughout most of the 20th century. He was also a master, and his Lankhmar stories are some of the best stuff you'll ever read in any genre. The guy's style is one-of-a-kind--at once grim, exciting, grotesque, and hilarious.

Also, don't forget Michael Moorcock, especially the Elric Saga, but also some of his other works. Although written as a diametric opposite of Howard's Conan, Elric is nevertheless classic sword & sorcery and should be considered required reading.

Although mostly unclassifiable, Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories have sword & sorcery elements.

That's pretty much my canon of essential reading. Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock, Leiber, and Vance were some of the only people to survive Hurricane Katrina with me, since I made sure to take them with me when I evacuated. Sadly, the really good stuff isn't always easy to find these days, while the 10,000th Tolkein knock-off takes up umpteen shelves at the local bookstore.

Edit: I just noticed the post-1990 criterion. The only thing that comes to mind is J. Gregory Keyes' Fool Wolf stories, which are probably only available in back-issues of Dragon (a shame, because they've got a good classic feel, and I'd happily buy them collected in book form). Aside from that, I don't think I've read anything that recent, since I've been brushing up on the classics these past few years. Still, if you haven't read any of the above selections, I suggest you do.