The Many Children of Conan Little did then-obscure Texas writer Robert E. Howard know that with the 1929 publication of “The Shadow Kingdom” in the pulp magazine Weird Tales , he had given birth to a new and vibrant subgenre of fantasy fiction. Sword-and-sorcery went from pulp obscurity to mass-market paperback popularity before suffering a spectacular publishing collapse in the 1980s. But it lives on in the broader culture and today enjoys a second life in popular role-playing games, music, and films, and helped give birth to a new literary subgenre known as grimdark, popularized by the likes of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery provides much-needed definitions and critical rigor to this misunderstood fantasy subgenre. It traces its origins in the likes of historical fiction, to its birth in the pages of Weird Tales , to its flowering in the Frank Frazetta-illustrated Lancer Conan Saga series in the 1960s. It covers its “barbarian bust” beneath a heap of second-rate pastiche, a pack of colorful and wildly entertaining and awful sword-and-sorcery films, and popular culture second life in the likes of Dungeons & Dragons and the bombast of heavy metal music. Winner of the 2021 Atlantean award (best book about the life and works of Robert E. Howard) from the Robert E. Howard Foundation. "Flame and Crimson belongs on your shelf right now. Buy this book ." --David C. Smith, author of Oron and Red Sonja series "I've been searching high and low for this book for years, but of course, no one had written it yet! I'm glad Brian Murphy finally did because he has produced no less a seminal work than Lin Carter's Imaginary Worlds (1973) or Don Herron's The Dark Barbarian (1984)." -- Bill Ward, Tales from the Magician's Skull "This book is excellent. It is the beginning of a long overdue, serious, and honest appraisal of the S&S subgenre." -- Jason Ray Carney, editor of The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard "Brian Murphy did his research and it showed, as this great book is probably the best thing I've ever read on the history of sword and sorcery fantasy, as a whole."-- Talkingpulp.com "If you're a fan of the genre, check out Brian Murphy's Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery . Murphy traces the origins and influences of the subgenre from Robert E. Howard to Michael Moorcock to grimdark, and he will increase your TBR pile by tenfold." -- Strange Horizons If you're a fan of sword-and-sorcery, you've probably asked yourself the same questions as I have.   Where is our Road to Middle-Earth ? Our Hammer of the Gods ? Our The Western Canon ? In short, where are all the critical studies of our favorite genre?   OK, we've got something . We've got a couple chapters in Lin Carter's Imaginary Worlds . The better part of a chapter in Jamie Williamson's The Evolution of Modern Fantasy . Some discussion of its principal authors in L. Sprague de Camp's Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers.  A good essay by Jeff Shanks in Gary Hoppenstand's collection Critical Insights: Pulp Fiction of the 1920s and 1930s ("History, Horror, and Heroic Fantasy: Robert E. Howard and the Creation of the Sword-and-Sorcery Subgenre"). Another helpful essay by Morgan Holmes in The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales ("Gothic to Cosmic: Sword-and-Sorcery Fiction in Weird Tales"). Some reasonably sketched introductions in the prefaces of Flashing Swords #1, Swords & Dark Magic , and The Sword and Sorcery Anthology . Don Herron has done some good work gumshoeing sword-and-sorcery in the likes of the defunct Cimmerian journal, and The Dark Barbarian.   But for a subgenre of fantasy that spanned some 60 years in its heyday--approximately from Robert. E. Howard's "The Shadow Kingdom" (1929) through the end of the 1980s or thereabouts--and upon whose proud ruins was built George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and the grimdark novels that are all the rage today--we have surprisingly little.   Sword-and-sorcery deserves better. The subgenre did not appear out of nowhere and without cause. It offers alternatives to fantasy doorstoppers, those ponderous epic quests to save The Land that I have very little patience for these days. It is an expression of barbarism--the unconquerable, undeniable spirit of it, at least--and an acknowledgement that barbarism is part of what makes humanity, well, humanity. It's a unique expression of our desire for personal freedom, to explore new frontiers, and to resist the mantles of stifling custom and conformity.   And most of all, it's entertaining as hell.   Sword-and-sorcery slipped its pulp and paperback mediums and permeated the popular culture, spawning music, movies, role playing games, comics, and videogames. Directly or indirectly sword-and-sorcery delivered unto long haired metalheads beloved bands like Manilla Road, Manowar, and Blind Guardian. We got Dungeons & Dragons mostly from it, and it