Going Old School

I was recently a backer on Kickstarter for Cirsova's Heroic Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine which deals in short stories (there is a novel and poem as well!) of the genre listed. Though I have only read the first story so far, I have to say it was worth the money I backed it for.

Now, I don't have a background in anthology magazines or specialized genre mags like this. Most of my reading was confined to novels or graphic novels so I never really had the experience this offers me, but I have to say it does make me realize how much I've missed out.

People like me are why this had to be kickstarted in the first place. Heroic stories are not in vogue, and magazines which deal in them are even rarer still even though they are the stories which most enjoy partaking in whether on TV or in film. But this is still a neat little treasure that inspires me to know that stuff like this still gets written even amongst all the nihilism and message fiction that floats around in the mainstream. I'm glad I was able to be a part in helping to at least fund it, since I doubt another magazine like this will come around any time soon.

As I stated, I have only read The Gift of the Ob-Men by Schuyler Hernstrom, which instantly took me back to another era. It's the story of an exiled warrior named Sounnu who runs across a group of mushroom men that end up changing his destiny. There's a lot of good stuff in this story from sword fights to a really cool mystical plot device to an ending that really brings everything around. Sounnu is an honorable warrior thrown about in a world gone mad and rotting away, though he soon finds that everything is not as straightforward as he first believed it to be. This truly feels like the kind of story I would have read from a fantasy magazine ages ago, and I really can't wait to read more of what issue one has to offer.

Next week I'll see if I can get a post about more of the stories out. Until then, I've got more to read!

If you like what you've read, check out Cirsova here.