Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Swords & Planet

General Writing Discussion
#1

Okay, with RF doing Swords and Sorcery, I was spending some time thinking about a little known (at least these days) subgenre branch from S&S called Swords & Planet. (Also known as Planetary Adventure) The general theme is a human being gets sent by some manner to another planet where he becomes a hero. Think John Carter (the John Carter of Mars Series), or Tarl Cabot (the Gor Series)

(Wiki Link here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_planet)

So, my question is, has anyone read this genre when they were a child, or perhaps recently?

(and on a really weird side note, apparently fans of the Gor series [called Gorians] and furries have a bitter rivalry going. Couldn’t figure out why, but when I stumbled across it I was amused and shocked at the sheer venom the group of furries I was with displayed against Gorians.)

#2

Absolutely. Read The Left Hand of Darkness at once. : )

#3

I’ve also heard of Sword & Alien - basically pulpy sort of things where a fantasy-ish hero fought aliens, Cthulu, etc. Back in the day, there wasn’t much a difference from a damsel needing saving from a cult, a vampire, or some space monster. That was the 30s-40s. Then in the 50s-70s, you had people mixing sci fi and fantasy, so you wound up with Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon, and finally Star Wars.

Say Voice, would Avatar be an example? Complete with alien-natives using bows and alien-mounts vs. the advanced military weaponry (including mechs).

I was not aware Furries had issue with Goreans, but I know the BDSM crowd in general has serious issues with Goriens. Although I remember, back in the day when I RP’d on AOL chatrooms (oh god I am old), the Goreans were really xenophobic - they wouldn’t talk with anything but humans. Vampires? Nope. Elves? Get out of here. I’ve heard they are also just as xenophobic on SL.

#4

Can honestly say I’ve never been exposed to this genre before, but I certainly am intrigued to learn more about it!

#5

Yeah, I read a lot of it a long time ago. “John Carter of Mars”, “Carson of Venus”, and all that stuff. “Big Planet” by Jack Vance was a favorite; that planet was SO BIG that Vance could easily have turned it into an endless series, with a new type of people/species/monster just over the next mountain range. Almost all of them were variations on late 19th-century/early 20th-century adventure fiction, about a White castaway or explorer discovering a new exotic native tribe on an uncharted island, or an undiscovered valley in Africa or Central Australia or the Amazon. I don’t remember any discovery of furries, but there were de Camp’s egg-laying pseudo-humans of the planet Krishna … is de Camp’s “The Hand of Zei” still in print?

#6

Oh wow, I remember some of the cheesiest sci-fi/fantasy series were Swords and Planets X3 I still remember reading the Tarot series by Piers Anthony. I think I even still have some books on my shelf that go along these lines, much to Spirit’s chagrin X3

#7

I believe I have read something in a similar genre. The Human Memoirs, by G. Howell.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0025URULA/

(My review is here http://www.amazon.com/review/R6S9L2UBSH1PJ/)

Although it doesn’t take place on an “alien” planet, the main character is suddenly transported to an alternate Earth where a species of feline is the sentient creature. He learns how to adapt to the customs of their society, helps them win a war, and finds love, all in one book!

It’s actually a pretty good read, although looking back on it, none of that stuff would have happened had the protagonist not just so happened to encounter their queen and save her from certain death, and thus been kept in a position with the nobility. if it were any of us, we’d probably get stuck with a farmer and been kept in a cage as a sideshow.

#8

I wanted to say no about Avatar, but then I thought about it and yeah, I guess it kind of is.

#9

Howell later wrote Light on Shattered Water which is similar in that it involves a human mysteriously transported to an alternate earth populated by felines (despite the similarities with Human Memoirs it’s a separate storyverse). At one point Howell said somehing like that in LoSW he changed/fixed the things that in hindsight he wishes he had done differently in HM. Perhaps one of them was that in LoSW the human protagonist’s initial contact with the feline race is in a random small town, only coming to the attention of nobility quite a few chapters later.

#10

Honestly the only problem I had with HM was Maxine. Kelly’s marriage to Maxine was too rushed, and felt too convenient. The book wanted Kelly to adapt to being the only human in this world, and I think the story should have taken that direction, but that may be my bias, too. I’ll have to check out LoSW at some point.

#11

I’m not sure how well that counts as Swords and Planet (but it has been years since I read it), but certainly Rocannon’s World, another of Le Guin’s Hainish novels, fits the bill.

#12

I’m a big fan of Sword and Planet – a must read in the genre is Leigh Brackett’s Skaith trilogy, which is just plain fun.

I think I would also count Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series as falling in the genre, if you want something with higher literary aspirations.

More in a furry vein, would Al Sarrantonio’s Masters of Mars trilogy count? A native character, not a transported character, but a lot of the S&P tropes are used…

#13

I think the Gandalara Cycle would count as sword & planet. It also features big, rideable, telepathic cats. It was a series of seven books. Here’s the wiki page:

#14

I wonder if, at least in a certain sense, Andre Norton’s Breed to Come might also fit, though again it’s a native adventurer rather than someone brought in from outside…