It’s April, and that means it’s time for another monthly excerpt from The Hammer and the Blade (Amazon, B&N).  As always, the goal here is to give you a sense of the novel’s tone.  Previous excerpts are here, here, here,  here, and here.  Early reviews of the novel are here and here.

Also, I received a quote about the novel from Jim Lowder, a writer and … Read the rest

Rob Bedford (of SFFWorld and Rob’s Blog o’ Stuff) reviews my sword and sorcery novel, The Hammer and the Blade (forthcoming from Angry Robot Books in late June 2012).

You can read the full review here.  It contains no spoilers.  Rob has many nice things to say but this is, by far, my favorite bit from the review:

“To say these characters and this story is a love letter to Fritz Lieber would … Read the rest

The Most Excellent Interplanar Adventure of Bill, Ted, and Erevis Cale (from my Erevis Cale novels) continues this week with Cale facing Kylar Stern, from Brent Weeks’ The Night Angel Trilogy.

As this features an assassin v. an assassin, uh, there will be blood.

As I’ve been doing all along, I wrote this write-up as part of the same, coherent story that’s been slowly unfolding as the cagematch progresses.  Makes it more … Read the rest

The Suvudu Science Fiction and Fantasy Character Cagematch continues.  So far, Cale has faced and eked past Johnny Rico, from Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, and Jean Tannen, from Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora.  Now he runs into the Kim Harrison buzzsaw, facing Rachel Morgan, from the Hollows series.

As you can see from my previous write ups, I’m trying to string these together into a coherent story.  Putting together these … Read the rest

In round two of Suvudu.com’s SFF Character Cagematch, Erevis Cale (of my Erevis Cale novels) squares off against Jean Tannen, from The Lies of Locke Lamora.  You can read my take on it here and then vote (forgive any typos; I’m very bad at spotting them).

I had a lot of fun writing this match up, so I hope you’ll click on over, have a read, and then vote.  Here’s the opening:

_____________________________________… Read the rest

Stefan Fergus (CivilianReader) has provided the first review (the review contains no spoilers) of my forthcoming sword and sorcery novel, The Hammer and the Blade (Amazon, B&N), due in June from Angry Robot Books.  I hope you’ll click on over for the whole review, but the first paragraph is the part that pleases me most:

Before reading this novel, I was only familiar with Kemp’s Star Wars fiction, and so was … Read the rest

The annual Suvudu Science Fiction and Fantasy character cagematch is live and voting is now open.

In round one, our intrepid, semi-divine, shade priest, assassin, and all around bald embodiment of  badassery, Erevis Cale (of my Erevis Cale novels) brings his magic-absorbing sword, Weaveshear, to bear against a worthy adversary.

Juan, “Johnny,” Rico, from Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, is an elite soldier who rose through the ranks of the renowned Mobile Infantry … Read the rest

Recently, I participated in a sword and sorcery podcast panel with John Picacio, Erin Hoffman, and Erik Mona, and hosted by Jaym Gates and Patrick Hester.  The conversation was lively and quite wide-ranging.   We talked about sword and sorcery art, movies, video games, and books.  I had a lot of fun and I think there are some very interesting comments/observations interspersed with the laughter.  🙂

Why not have a listen?

March is a big month for releases in the galaxy far, far away, the realms forgotten, and the clanking, rusty ‘verse of the Angry Robot.  Let’s have some specifics.

First, in the Star Wars line we have Apocalypse, the final title in the Fate of the Jedi series, penned by friend and colleague Troy Denning.  This is going to be great.  From the back matter:

In the stunning finale of the epic Fate of … Read the rest

The Crossing the Streams Contest has concluded.  My thanks to all who entered.  I hope you got to know some new authors and books in the process.   🙂

I’ve chosen two winners at random from all the entrants and the winners are:

Mousyman and Glynneth. 

Congratulations!  If the two of you could shoot me an email at paulsvantekemp at yahoo dot com, you can let me know which book of mine you’d like to … Read the rest