Yes, the crowdfund ends on Sept 26th at 12pm EST. Between the crowdfund exclusives, the shipping discount, and how you won't pay shipping until approximately mid-March 2027, there simply is no better time to seize this set of Sword & Sorcery novellas!
But what's the story behind them? Why do we make these novellas, and make them the way we do?
MADE WITH LOVE FOR THE CLASSICS...
It should come as no surprise that we here at Brackenbury Books are big fans of classic second-wave Sword & Sorcery paperbacks from the mid-to-late 20th Century. We love their brisk, episodic storytelling wrapped in dynamic, compelling painted covers...
...and we hope it shows!
These are "dummies", with blank interiors & matte covers. The final products will be glossy and filled with adventure!
Notice how each novella has the subtitle "A Tale of...."?
This is because we feel strongly that Sword & Sorcery is character-driven first and foremost, and no matter the cover art or the title we want fans of any character we publish to have an easy time knowing they've found a story starring their favorite.
Or...favorites?
MAKE MINE A DOUBLE
The idea came to us in 2023, but our quest truly began in 2024 with Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery, a love-letter to a classic line of Scif & Fantasy two-in-one books called "Ace Doubles"...and a way for a very new, tiny publisher to afford to put out two novellas instead of just one!
One book, two novellas!
What you see above is two copies of the same book, flipped over to show each side. You read through one novella, flip the book around hey hey a second novella to enjoy! Keeping this format in mind we chose to pair two different takes on Mongol-inspired S&S; one locked into a city under siege, the other taking its characters on a long desert journey.
Simon Underwood's Orhan on the left, Linne Sterte's Goatskin and Sister Chaos on the right.
From the beginning we knew a nice full page piece of interior art placed right before the first page of the story (called a "frontispiece") was vital. We carried this practice forward into the next year, when we expanded to crowdfund a full set of four novellas!
Our 2025 novellas, available as a set and individually as add-ons.
That time, thanks to our mighty supporters we unlocked a new art feature: FANTASY CARTOGRAPHY.
HERE THERE BE SWORD & SORCERY
Sword & Sorcery is a sub-genre of Fantasy, so of course we want to do everything we can to help you feel like you're being taken Somewhere Else...
These four maps are from our 2025 novellas, all illustrated by Caster Jones.
We decided we couldn't risk living without Caster Jones' varied and wonderful maps, so with our next set of novellas we didn't make them a stretch goal; they now come standard. Speaking of those novellas, that brings us to...
NEW EDGE SWORD SORCERY NOVELLAS 2026
In the interest of variety, we didn't bring back all four of the same creative teams this year but...
...at this point you may have noticed some recurring author names and cover artists. Does that mean there's detailed series continuity you need to learn? Can you enjoy the 2026 novellas if you haven't read everything that's come before?
STAND ALONE, FIT TOGETHER
It's important to us that no matter which book you start with, you can have a great time. So, starting with Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery, we've worked with our authors to make sure that while you'll feel rewarded for collecting the full runs of any given character...
The Goatskin series (so far!).
The Orhan Timur the Snow Leopard series so far.
...you can start with any book on its own, with no knowledge of the character or setting, and have a great time!
It's our hope that eventually other characters than Goatskin & Orhan will develop their own novella series...
...AND BOUNDARY-PUSHING, INCLUSIVE STORYTELLING!
We love that we're getting to build these series that exemplify what we first set out to do with our magazine, bringing forward everything that makes Sword & Sorcery special while broadening its majestic vistas!
Thank you for making this possible. So, what's next?
WE CAN'T TELL THE FUTURE; YOU CAN HELP US SHAPE IT
As you can see, we're always looking to build upon the Sword & Sorcery we've published before. We also want to keep trying new things; right now we hope to make posters featuring our gorgeous cover art available - check out the poll attached to this post - and make retro style risograph 'zines a regular thing - check out that stretch goal attached to this post! But first and foremost there's the less tangible, never-ending quest to keep finding authors & artists who can take us Somewhere Else...
If you haven't already, please consider backing and sharing this crowdfund, lending your mighty thews to ours as we stride forward into the future of Sword & Sorcery!
All backers will receive a free 'zine featuring approx 17,000 words zine authored by Luana Saitta! PDF for digital backers, a risograph-printed 44 page stapled 'zine for physical backers.
