I found out over on Aaron's blog first, and it was sad to hear, but one of the swords & sorcery greats, Andrew J. Offutt, passed away on April 30th. You can find the In Memoriam over at the SFWA here. Andrew Offutt was one of the first fantasy authors I encountered, and I really enjoyed his books, having read The Iron Lords series at the same time that I discovered Howard, along with other great novels of his including The Sword of Skelos, Conan and the Sorcerer, and Conan the Mercenary. Over the years he's always been on my "search" list in my frequent used book store hunting, and was able to later grab such greats as The Demon in the Mirror, Cormac Mac Art series, Messenger of Zhouvastou, My Lord Barbian and others.
Sad to hear. He was also a great editor and champion for unknown Swords and Sorcery writers.
ReplyDeleteHis Swords Against Darkness is still on of my favorite anthologies.