Why has S&S publishing fallen off since the 1970s? There could a number of causes. 1) the scores of bad S&S films between 1980-1990, 2) the plethora of shared world collections, 3) many S&S writers are still creating what they used to but the publishers have marketed them as something else, 4) AD&D and other role-playing games filled a portion of the market with game-related fiction, 5) the proliferation of "humorous" fantasy that turned the wheels of fantasy to a new, lighter purpose. But I think the number one reason was the "fad"-style of promotion publishers began around 1967 that left a bad taste in many reader's mouths. Paperback houses cranked out Conan-copies until the short renaissance collapsed in on itself. What might have been a growing and interesting sub-market became a weird relation that nobody wanted visiting anymore.

So why should things be any different in 2004? The Lord of the Rings movie will certainly spark some new interest in fantasy, all kinds of fantasy. The darkness of that film is easily recognizable to an S&S fan. No vanilla unicorn-loving stuff here but dark, bloody images that have been absent for a long time. Readers of my age, now pushing forty, remember the short hey-dey of the 1970s and are coming back to "dark" fantasy. New, younger readers will be discovering what we knew before. This stuff is great fun to read.

Readers of the two previous books will recognize some old friends in this volume. Shin and Skulk are back. David Bain described his "Whorld" as "a fully inhabited planet rife with civilization, yet abundant in unexplored niches, dark corners and ancient mysteries. While the borders of all its continents have indeed been documented by its intrepid explorers, the Whorld (which is much, much larger than our Earth--a scientific improbability, yes, but not a magical one) will most likely never be fully mapped by its inhabitants and certainly not by its author, who values it too much as a place of endless possibility."

Poet and Sirtago return in a long adventure by Jack Mackenzie. Jack describes the relationship between these two as like a ying and yang. "Sirtago, despite his scarred features, is the epitome of the Alpha Male, and prone to doing without thought of consequences. Poet is considerate and thoughtful. Far from being the Alpha Male (he is like those of us taunted in school for reading too many books) Poet nevertheless is able to direct much of the action of the stories by his ability to temper Sirtago's rage."

C. J. Burch's two female powerhouses, Tiana Dumond & Krystyn Hamarskjold bust up the furniture too. I encourage anyone who enjoys these ladies should also check out Burch's novella, "The Lies of the Prophet", also from Cyber-Pulp or other anthologies like Kings of the Night 1 and Amazing Heroes 1.

There are some new faces here too. Some will be familiar to readers of Cyber-Pulp books while others appear for the first, and hopefully not the last, time. So pull up an ale keg and sit down as we serve up the dark brew of swords and sorcery. Don't mind the shadows in the corners or the fellow sitting by the window with fiery red eyes. They're all here to hear the tale too.