Fantasy Book Sale

 

Did you know that Boxing Week is one of the best weeks of the year to buy books?

Many authors, especially indie authors, put their books on sale between December 26th and January 1st.

It is also the best week to get Freebies (usually short fiction or the first book in a series).

Case in point:

Charles Moffat, the fantasy author, has many of his ebooks on sale currently and many of his short stories are currently free. Just visit the site below to browse which books are free and which ones are on sale. Especially if you love reading heroic fantasy books.

amazon.com/author/moffat

And you can browse other fantasy authors by visiting ArcaneTomes.Org to find indie fantasy authors, many of whom also likely have their books on sale and/or free during Boxing Week.

https://www.arcanetomes.org

List of Books by Fantasy Author Charles Moffat

The Adventures of Wrathgar

The Assassin's Trail

The Blizzard's Daughter

The Coven's Wolves

The Demon's Sacrifice

The Exorcist's Dagger

The Sunken Castle

The Adventures of the Bogatyr

The Bogatyr & the Cursed Inn

Dark Shadows in the Moonlight

The Bogatyr & the Rusalka's Lament

The Bogatyr & the Gentle Giant

A Bag of Silver, A Bag of Bones

The She-Wolf of Eraska

The Midnight Dragon

The Bogatyr & the Cursed Parcel

The Adventures of the Bogatyr: Anthology Collection

The Lilith Bloodstone Series

The Black Rose

Rise of the Red Moon

The Baby & the Village

One to be Reckoned With

The Night of the Dead

On Death's Door

The Emissary of Darkness

The Astral Plane

Out for Blood

The Lilith Bloodstone Omnibus

Wulfric the Wanderer

Portal of Destiny

The Cult of the She-Bear

Born of Blood and Ice

The Scarlet Arena

Shifting Shadows in Iztark

Black Monoliths of Al-Kazar

The Unbreakable Arrow

The Raven's Feast

Chronicles of Korovia

A Hound Named Hunter

The Hab & the Witch

Alt-Earth

A Dark Road in Louisiana

Folly of the Forlorn

Hunting Hitler

The Dragontree of Kaŝe

The Dragonslayers of Kaŝe

The Quorum of Kaŝe

The Girl in the Red Hoodie

Korovia Myths, Legends and Fables

As part of Moffat's world building process for Korovia he created a number of myths, legends and fables set within the fictional kingdom.

The Korovia Creation Myth

The Myth of the Dark Eclipse

The Legend of Dark Maya

The Legend of Nordica

The Fable of Sir Fartsalot

The Fable of the Boring Dwarf

The Fable of the Crow and Raven

The Fable of the Dragon's Bank

The Fable of the Graverobber and the Cursed Cutlass

The Fable of the Ice Mephit

The Fable of the Incubus of Izhamet

The Fables of the Jackalope

The Fable of the Sibilant Snake

The Fable of the Wolfkin

The Imp's Arrow

The Princess and the Foxalope

The Turkey Vulture's Tale

Poetry Books by Charles Moffat

a dream of unfettered roses

Dreaming of Zen Archery

Ancient Stories Dreamt Of

List of Unavailable Books

Some of Moffat's older works are no longer available, due to a variety of reasons, but mostly because he has plans to rewrite them.

Paladin Assassin

Ice War

King Culprit

Rise of the Blade

Brutus & Avianna

The Demon's Pawn

Sword & Sorcery and "Manly Books for Men"

 When it comes to fantasy sub-genres there are certain ones that are more likely to be read by men, and certain ones more likely to be read by women.

For example:

• Romance Fantasy = Mostly women.
  
• Sword and Sorcery = Mostly men.
  

And you can pretty much tell which is which by looking at the book covers.

Below is two book covers from the Sword and Sorcery series "Wulfric the Wanderer" by fantasy author Charles Moffat.

Just looking at the cover for "Shifting Shadows in Iztark" and you KNOW this is a book aimed at men. And the description hammers that nail into the coffin. Similarly "Black Monoliths of Al-Kazar", while it doesn't have a woman on the cover, makes it pretty clear that this is a manly book.

Same goes with other books in the Wulfric the Wanderer series like "The Cult of the She-Bear" The crouching woman with a roaring bear behind her? The men wearing the heads of bears / bearskin cloaks? Yup, this is a book that is definitely aimed at men.

Nor is this considered a new thing for Sword and Sorcery.  Behold an old "Conan the Freebooter" book, published in 1967.

Not one, but two scantily clad women on the cover of the book by the legendary Robert E. Howard (and L. Sprague de Camp).

Moffat's book covers look comparatively tame. His book covers have a distinctive sketch appearance, but if you look at the book description for "Shifting Shadows" you will note he is also listed as the illustrator, and the other covers are done in the same style so he must be the illustrator for them too. So evidently he's making his own book covers.

But if you want books aimed at men, honestly you cannot really go wrong with Sword and Sorcery books by either Robert E. Howard or Charles Moffat. Enjoy!

Fake Amazon Reviews at Work and why YouTube Reviews make more sense

If you are reading reviews on Amazon and you see certain combinations of words, it usually means the review you are reading is probably fake. Amazon is especially guilty of this. Over 90% of the reviews you see on Amazon are fake. Some products that might be the only reviews even shown. Just 100% fake reviews, with not a single genuine one.

It is a problem that is plaguing the advertising world, as well as shopping/commerce. You can see them on Google, Yelp and other websites too... But Amazon is the biggest culprit.

And for my purposes I am going to use fake book reviews as an example.

If someone writes:

"Wow. I honestly couldn't put this book down!"

That means they didn't actually read the book and don't know what to write.

"This guy is a really good storyteller."

Notice how it doesn't tell you anything about the book? It is just short and completely bogus.

"I just ended up wanting to read more."

or

"Wow. This book should be made into a movie!"

Again. Nothing about the plot or the characters. The person writing doesn't know what to write because they didn't actually read the book.

So what should a real book review look like?

"I really liked the characters and the plot. I didn't care so much for the one character, Mordechai, he was a real jerk, but I suppose he is meant to be. I am not sure if I will buy the next book in the series. I really don't like it when books end on cliffhangers, but I did really enjoy the book so maybe I will after all. Four stars out of five!"

Yep. Notice the difference?

The reader actually complains about the book, even though they still liked it. That is when you know the review is definitely genuine. They also didn't give it a perfect 5 star rating. If it was a 5 star rating and they had no complaints, the chances are much higher that the book review is fake.

"This book caught me off guard at first because the main character is Muslim, but after the fight scene in chapter two it really picked up the pace and I enjoyed myself. I did think that some of the characters were overly complicated, and wishy-washy, but they also have their good points. Kudos to the author for making a superhero book that feels realistic, but without making the superhero rich like Batman. If you like movies like Unbreakable or Red Dawn then you will probably enjoy this book."

Pop culture references, hmm? Complaints about the character being wishy-washy and too complicated, but also praising the book for its realism. That is a good way to spot a real book review. (The book in question is "The Girl in the Red Hoodie" by Charles Moffat.)

Speaking of Charles Moffat, you should check out his YouTube channel where he posts fantasy book reviews.

Which brings us to the next topic...

Why YouTube Reviews Make More Sense

Amazon, Yelp and Google reviews are very often fake. We get that. Capitalism is so rife with fake reviews these days that for every real review there are 9 fake ones. This is because the people selling their products NEED reviews in order to get sales. Even if they're fake, a fake review is better than no reviews when your goal is to make money.

But on YouTube it is a lot harder to fake a product review or a book review.

In the example of books you actually need to READ the book in order to do it. You can't just say:

"Hello! It's Bob here and I want to talk today about Stephen King's book "The Shining". I, uh... Uh, um... I didn't actually read it so I just watched the movie version instead."

Yeah...

That isn't going to work. Trying to make a fake book review for something you didn't actually read will be pretty obvious within the first minute of making the video and trying to talk about it.

Physically reading the book is important, and video reviews like those you find on YouTube means they cannot be faked. At least not easily. There is a huge measure of authenticity when you watch a video review where the author starts talking about the character, the plot, and while there is the chance for spoilers, they can't really fake it in the normal sense.

Someone would have to go through a lot of effort to fake a book review for something they didn't actually read. Possibly by watching the movie version. But since many books don't have a movie version I suppose someone could also read a synopsis of a book (sometimes available via Wikipedia) and then fake it using that so they at least know something about the characters and the plot.

Plus at the very least the person needs to BUY the physical book so they can show it to the audience. I suppose they could read an ebook version, but when you're making a video you want something physical like the actual book that you can show in your hands.

In Charles Moffat's case he will also often compare different books to one another, so you're not just looking at one book, but also getting an idea of other books which are similar to it. Like in the video below in which he compares the Witcher series by Sapkowski to similar books by Charles Saunders and others.

The point I am trying to get at is that maybe this is what Google, Amazon and Yelp should be doing... Video reviews!

If everyone doing a product review or a book review had to post a video of themselves with the actual product then it would be far more useful to people looking to buy said product or book.

It would be way more honest and Amazon would finally shed their reputation for having so many fake reviews. Video is the perfect way to fix this problem.

And notice also, for privacy reasons, that Charles Moffat doesn't actually show his face in the above videos. Just his hands/arms and the books he is talking about. So if you do it right there is no privacy issues to worry about if people don't want to show their face when making a review.

3 New Wulfric the Wanderer Books by Charles Moffat

Two more Wulfric the Wanderer books by Charles Moffat have come out in the past year, and there is a 3rd book coming out tomorrow on January 1st 2021. If you love Sword & Sorcery books you should definitely check out this series which feels like a blend of Robert E. Howard and Tolkien.

The first book Portal of Destiny came out on May 1st 2020.

The second book The Unbreakable Arrow came out on September 1st 2020.

And the third book The Cult of the She-Bear comes out tomorrow...

Chronologically these are technically the 1st, 5th and 2nd books in the series published thus far (the author is writing and publishing them out of order). There are two other stories that came out years ago but take place at different points in the timeline.

The most recent book from September (The Unbreakable Arrow) feels a bit like a western in my opinion. A western with demons and dragons in it... Definitely my favourite thus far.

Update January 2021:

Collect the whole series! Paperbacks are only $3.99 to $5.99 each from Amazon. You can order all 5 books today from Amazon for just $27.95.

The books are shown below in their chronological order.

Wrathgar is the real assassin in "The Assassin's Trail"

The Adventures of Wrathgar is a series of novels by Canadian fantasy author Charles Moffat featuring the titular character Wrathgar, a barbarian from the Snowfell Mountains who during the first book of the series (The Assassin's Trail) journeys south to find a murderer and bring back his head...

The murderer in question, Muddenklaw, joins the Assassin's Guild, and readers are misled with the idea that Muddenklaw is the assassin... But he isn't.

Wrathgar has been sent to kill Muddenklaw and bring back his head. He is effectively a bounty hunter, but he is also effectively the true assassin in the story. The author is just being sneaky with the title.

Genre or subgenre wise this book is "heroic fantasy", but also has a feeling of being Sword & Sorcery, a touch of grimdark, and also survival fiction (think of books like "Hatchet"). His writing style feels similar to Robert E. Howard, George R. R. Martin, David Eddings and a few others. Very literary, but not to the point of excessive details like GRRM sometimes does.

If you love books with archery in it this is also a book that is chock full of archery too. Definitely a lot of archery in this book. If you are a big fan of fantasy books with lots of archery (historically accurate archery) then this is a book for you.

UPDATE March 2021

Charles Moffat keeps adding more books to the series. See also:

The Blizzard's Daughter

The Coven's Wolves

The Demon's Sacrifice

The main character gets older during each book (obviously he won't be getting younger) but what is interesting is that the author is writing the books in alphabetical order. So will there be 26 books in the series, all the way from A to Z? Taking the character from a teenager to an old man???

If so this could end up being one of the biggest book series of all time.

Eg. Wheel of Time is 15 books long and 4.4 million words.

Moffat's first two books clock in at 50 to 60k (pulp fiction length novels), but books 3 and 4 are 120k and 110k. So if book 5 is 100+k and the trend continues after that we are looking at a series of 24 books with 100k or more per book, with the first two books of the series being pulp fiction length...

24 x 100k... + 50k + 60k... = 2,510,000+ words

Okay, so maybe not as long as Wheel of Time. But this assumes the author continues to write novels in the 110 to 120k range. What if they end up being in the 150 to 200k range? That changes the math dramatically. Or what if he goes full GRRM and starts writing books that are 300k or more???

Could you imagine a series of books that are all 300k and there are 26 books in the series??? 7.8 million words!!! Or more!!!

Seriously, maybe it is a good thing he is keeping the books smaller. More bite sized.

Robert Jordan died before he could complete the Wheel of Time series. That is how big it was. The publishers had to hire a ghostwriter to finish writing the series. And GRRM is still writing A Song of Ice and Fire (aka "Game of Thrones"). Who knows if or when he will ever finish it.

When you start reading a book series you kind of hope the author keeps it relatively short and actually lives to finish writing it. Moffat is in his early 40s and is currently publishing 1 or 2 novels per year, and has stated on social media that his goal is to release a new Wrathgar novel every 8 to 12 months.

At that rate he should be finished writing the series sometime in the 2030s, so he should still be in his 50s and alive.

All in all, "The Adventures of Wrathgar" promises to be a huge epic series worth reading. If you've already read all of the Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time books maybe this one is worth checking out.

Why Women Don't Read Sword & Sorcery

 Think of a Sword & Sorcery film or book. You're probably thinking of one already thanks to the picture below.

Conan the Barbarian (aka Conan the Cimmerian, Conan the Conqueror, etc) is one of the best known Sword & Sorcery characters of all time, which was created by Robert E. Howard. It revolved around a strong and stoic male lead, Conan, and the often strong and willful women who Conan frequently met. Eg. Belit and Valeria.

It basically defined the genre.

But it is not the only Sword & Sorcery character of its type. There are many other characters to speak of like Elric of Melniboné (created by Michael Moorcock), who was the main character in a large series of books from the 1960s onwards.

Now you may have noticed a trend already. Sword & Sorcery characters tend be the strong masculine types... Which explain why it is a very male dominated subgenre of fantasy literature.

But there are exceptions.

Marion Zimmer Bradley also wrote a number of Sword & Sorcery type books, including "Warrior Woman".

The book in question didn't really have any magic or sorcery in it, but it featured a strong female protagonist who had a thing for other women in her life (Marion Zimmer Bradley's books tended towards a lot of lesbianism), which made her more popular with the LGBTQ community.

Unfortunately... Marion Zimmer Bradley's career was later marred when it was revealed that she was sexually abusing her daughter and that her husband was a confessed pedophile and ... wow. Her career went down the tubes in a hurry.

There are other examples of female Sword & Sorcery authors (you can find a list of them on the wiki page for Sword and Sorcery), and male authors who still appeal to women.

Unfortunately to find stories like that you have to fast forward to the 2010s when Charles Moffat arrived on the scene with a series of short stories about a character called "Wulfric the Wanderer" and titles like:

Shifting Shadows in Iztark

and

Black Monoliths of Al-Kazar

The books feature an older male protagonist, Wulfric, who is middle aged but still quite capable in a fight as he journeys around the world in search of adventure and riches.

In Shifting Shadows in Iztark he allies himself with a woman in a harem so he can assassinate the wizard who owns the harem, but her character is depicted as being a survivor eager to escape with a level of wokeness we expect to see in the era of MeToo and Black Lives Matter.

Plus the writing style is very similar to Robert E. Howard, which veteran Sword & Sorcery lovers will appreciate. Robert E. Howard has been dead since 1936 so it isn't like he is writing any new books.

In Black Monoliths of Al-Kazar the character is depicted as mourning his dead wife when he is captured and magically enslaved. This is a surprisingly realistic set of circumstances and it is rare to see an author depicting a character like this in a state of mourning.

Race relations figures heavily in these stories as the title character is from a land far to the north, Korovia, and Wulfric is wandering the land of Al-Kazar, which has a 1001 Arabian Nights feel to it. Still you won't find any racist depictions however, and it is indicated that Wulfric's wife Tahira (an Arabic name meaning virginal or pure) is Al-Kazarian.

So he is wandering in a foreign land, mourning his Al-Kazarian wife, when he is enslaved by sorcerers. Yep, sounds like a great premise for a realistic Sword & Sorcery story.

That realism blends into the combat too. Realistic depictions of swordsmanship, archery, etc.

And check out the architecture in the background of Shifting Shadows in Iztark... That is serious use of vaginal openings in the artwork. Clearly the author/artist is not afraid to use vagina symbolism in the book cover. If anything it is pretty deliberate. When you see anything like that in a Disney film the makers will deny doing it on purpose and then censor the scene from the film.

UPDATE 2021

Moffat has been adding more stories to the Wulfric the Wanderer series, including:

• Portal of Destiny
• The Cult of the She-Bear
• The Unbreakable Arrow

The 1st and 2nd entries explore Wulfric's life when he was younger, before he met his wife Tahira, and the third entry when he time travels to Korovia's Dark Ages.

Oh did I fail to mention that earlier? Wulfric the Wanderer is a time traveler. He wanders around Korovia and other kingdoms, but he also wanders from era to era via time portals depicted in the first story.

For the reader this means they get to enjoy a broad spectrum in the type of Sword & Sorcery books you can read in the story, with respect to culture, eras, geography, etc.

You can also browse Moffat's other books that are available, which includes a James Bond-esque spy thriller called Hunting Hitler, a heroic fantasy series about a character called Wrathgar (who is revealed to be the son of Wulfric and Tahira), and other books by the author.

Check out the book cover for Hunting Hitler below. Who doesn't want to kill Hitler???

Fantasy Authors at Work

ENTERTAINMENT - Is fantasy just something for men?

No, evidently not. Not when you consider fantasy authors like Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. Le Guin and J.K. Rowling, just for starters. There is also Marion Zimmer Bradley, Margaret Weis and many more.

As male fantasy authors go there is Robert E. Howard, George R.R. Martin, Tolkien, Guy Gabriel Kay, Troy Denning, Tracy Hickman, David Eddings, Dave Duncan and many others.

The major difference between male and female fantasy authors however seems to be the number of films / TV shows based off their work. Male authors have way more movies and TV shows... Conan, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and so forth.

For female fantasy authors its a very short list... Harry Potter.

And I don't think it is any lack of quality of the imagination of the authors. ie. Anne McCaffrey's "Dragon Riders of Pern" would make a great film if given an opportunity. Same goes with the Dragonlance Trilogy, co-written by both Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

When it comes to being a fantasy author you really have to measure success by whether its made into a film.

Which begs the question, would it be beneficial for female fantasy authors to publish their works under a male pseudonym just so they're taken more seriously?

Maybe. But I think personal charisma and the likeability of characters makes a huge difference. Harry Potter, Conan and characters like Frodo / Gandalf deserve to be recognized in film... but again you may have noticed many of them are male characters.

Could we assume this is because more men read fantasy in the first place? Maybe. Its difficult to say the exact reason.