Heroic Fantasy Quarterly–Q51

After the alarmingly warm week of Christmas, winter has now descended upon us!  Trapped indoors we’ve dug deep into the creative minds of the world to produce issue #51—we bring three stories and three poems, with artwork aplenty.

 

Fiction Contents

The Great Hunt, by : Francesco Meriano, with artwork by Miguel Santos.  Brother Daervel looks back upon his life as the Magister’s apprentice and the fateful day they answered the call of the cursed Baron Gorey.  A tale that takes Daervel on the first steps to the worlds parallel to ours.

Rakshasa In a Pot , by Prashanth Srivatsa, with artwork by Miguel Santos.  Blademaster Savithri and her charioteer Kala have come to an Agraharam on the edge of the empire on a mission to deal with a Rkshasa, but in addition to the demon itself they find a web of intrigues and the clashing wills of gods, demons, and men.

The Linton Banshee, by Rev. Joe Kelly, with artwork by Karolína Wellartová.  Fierce Irish mercenary Conor Dubh only expected a short stop in Linton, but the shadow of the witch cult is upon the place, and calls to the shadow with Conor Dubh.

 

Poetry Contents

Feast of the Carrion Eaters , by Aidan Redwing.   So many tales and poems of great battles, but who benefits the most from such slaughter?

Dynasty, by Gary Every, with artwork by Simon Walpole.   Two words:  Demon queen!

Gertra of the Grindstone , by Scott T. Hutchison.  Behind every tale and poem of a great battle is an unsung army of weapons makers, and what is their story?  Their story is grim and grisly, as this poem points out.

 

Artwork

Jereme Peabody is back, with a snowbound bit of banner art appropriate for the season.   “The Journey” fits our current mood—neither rain nor snow will keep us from our quest to find great S&S offerings to bring to you.

Jereme is a software engineer in the DC area and is also a freelance concept artist working mostly on video games and books.  He started his artistic career dabbling with sculpting, pencils, and even still-life oil painting.  As tablets became available, he crossed over from traditional art to digital by first digitally painting still-lifes, then through experimentation and practice, transitioned to landscapes and fantasy.

 

Goings On

David Farney:  Gazes deep into the abyss and the abyss blinks.

Adrian Simmons:  For all his work, you’d think Adrian Simmons would have more stories written and/or published!  So many things are in-process, so many things….

James Rowe:  Keeps the fires of editorial review going.

Arien Skiba:  Keeps the censers of editorial review both smoking and swinging.

 

Tales From Around the Fire

Need more S&S fiction?  Allow us to point the way to Swords and Sorceries # 3, and Tales From the Magician’s Skull #6.  HFQ Alum Harry Piper has a new book of short fiction out:  The Great Die Slow, check it out! S&S heavy hitter John Fultz also has a book of short fiction:  Worlds Beyond Words, well worth checking out!

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