Fantasy isn’t my genre of choice. I’m a Science Fiction fan. Even when it’s mostly a matter of aesthetics, like Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars books, for example. I prefer laser guns and repulsor beams to spells and magic carpets. Yet, there are plenty of exceptions. Robert E. Howard’s Conan is the obvious. I can’t get enough of those stories. And like many lonely, sad teenage boys, I read Michael Moorcock’s Elric with great eagerness (though I preferred Corum). And then there’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. They’re something else.
Contemporary Fantasy literature tends to be descended from two major figures in the genre, J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard. There were others, of course, but those two represent two of the major themes and styles. Tolkien’s side of the spectrum is High Fantasy, with lots of magic, destiny, mysticism, and Medievalism. Howard’s is more Low Fantasy, focusing on Nietzschean individualism, earthiness, and Antediluvianism. Yet, those two ends of the spectrum are not the final words on the genre. There are other voices that have done a great deal to influence writers over the decades. And Fritz Leiber is up there at the top of the list. Reading the Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser stories, you can’t help but feel like you’re entering a familiar world, even though things are very weird. Dungeons & Dragons, deeply rooted in Tolkien though it is, was obviously trying to reach for something from Leiber. In spite of the 30s/40s origin of the characters, the feel the stories elicit is of those wonderful 70s paperback covers. There’s a pulpiness, sure. But there’s also wistful nostalgia, bitterness, and hints of psychedelia, that makes it feel far more modern.
“Swords Against Death” is the second collection of Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser stories. Leiber went back and arranged the stories into chronological order, and fleshed some things out in the 60s. So in this volume, the two heroes (?) are fast friends, well acquainted with each other, and building something of a reputation. Over the course of the stories, they achieve some victories, finally put to rest some ghosts, and gain some weird patrons. They also explore the world enough for you to get a sense that Nehwon is far stranger place than expected. Lankhmar, the city where most of the stories are based, is a kind of fantasy, urban archetype. All the seedy, degenerate, corrupt, and exciting things you’d expect in a medieval or ancient metropolis are present and thriving. But leaving that city, the world around is strange and fractured, wild and weird.
For Fantasy fans, Leiber’s stories are must read classics. For fans of tabletop RPGs, especially games like D&D or Rolemaster, these tales are an absolute must. But for folks who simply enjoy well told tales, these stories are also quite good. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are a great odd couple team. Fritz Leiber is a solid writer, and more ‘Literary’ than a lot of his contemporaries, who manages to inject a good deal of humor along with a lot of sadness in to his adventure stories.
E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith is one of those authors I’ve always been aware of, but never really read. I know his Lensman series is one of the major inspirations for Star Wars, and kinda archetypal Space Opera. With Lord Tedric, he plays with time travel and alternate dimensions, as well as various bits of Science Fiction and Fantasy to tell the story of a man, made god.
Maybe I was just not tuned into this one, but I had a devil of a time paying attention. I never really connected with any of the characters or the plot. I feel like there was something interesting at the core, but the execution is lacking. I think there’s a humorous bent to the writing that I simply wasn’t catching. Like in-jokes you recognize but don’t understand.
One of these days, I’ll finally sit down to the Lensman series. One of these days. But this isn’t going to make that day come any faster.
This story would later be expanded into a novel and follow-up series by Gordon Eklund. It seems like it became much more of a science fiction-y type thing under Eklund. But this original novella drops its kinda crazy opening for a dull Medieval procedural about knights and kings talking in semi-Shakespearean language.
In rediscovering my love of Andre Norton, I got particularly interested in her “Forerunner” series, a set of novels sharing a ‘future history,’ like Alan Dean Foster’s “Humanx Commonwealth,” or Larry Niven’s “N-Space.” However, things get a bit challenging. That I’ve found so far, there is little scholarly work on Norton, and no definitive guide to the Forerunner stories. Ice Crown, the book I’ve just read is not listed on several sites I’ve found as being part of it, yet it is clearly set in the same universe, building on some of the same ideas.
Set on a restricted world where local humans live in a medieval style society, it features Roane, a young woman in the Service who has come to the world to investigate the possibility of Forerunner technology. Instead, she gets tangled up in local power struggles, breaks the Service’s rules about interference, and stumbles upon something from a dark time in Human space exploration, the time of the Psychocrats. This book is the first time I remember hearing references to this era of rule by mind-control masters. I’ll be curious to see if they feature in other stories.
On the one hand, I like that Norton gets more into character development in this book than in some of her earlier work. On the other, I find Roane to be a bit dull. There is a story reason, perhaps, for her being a bit of a void. I suppose. But considering the book does start to drag, in spite of its barely over 200 page length, I think, perhaps the character development wasn’t so great.
Norton churned out a ton of novels in her day, and maybe not all of them are winners. This one is OK. If they ever turned her Forerunner stories into a TV series, this would probably serve well as the basis of an episode. Beyond that? Eh.
Readers of this blog will know there are only two fiction authors I obsessively consume whatever new books they release, Christa Faust and Philip Reeve. They couldn’t be much different. Goblins is Reeve’s latest (in the States), and this time he’s taken on classic children’s Fantasy. From early on, I was reminded of Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series. But as it’s Reeve, he takes your preconceptions and turns them on their head on more than one occasion.
The basic idea couldn’t be much more typical of the genre. Henwyn, a restless young boy who wants to be a hero, goes on a journey to rescue a princess from the ruined lair of an evil old wizard. But of course, that’s only the surface. Things aren’t nearly as they seem, from the princess to the goblin Skarper, to the boy himself.
Kids just getting into reading, with a fancy for the fanciful, should find this book very readable and lots of fun. It also has some good lessons on expectations, the twists life throws us, and the importance of friendships of all sorts. There’s also a bunch of cheeky potty humor that kids will no doubt find very amusing. The goblins alone provide plenty of fun goofiness, tainted with some dark danger.
Though this isn’t my favorite Philip Reeve book, mostly because its classic (generic sounds harsher than I mean it, but kind of sums it up) Fantasy setting is simply something I’m not especially interested in. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and other Medieval European substitute settings, for example. But I always find his books a pleasure to read.
Goblins Author: Philip Reeve Publisher: Scholastic Press ISBN: 978-0-545-22220-4
I’m still doing a lot of reading and idea jotting for my upcoming Call of Cthulhu game. Reading a lot of stuff about the 20s, and trying to steep myself in some of the better parts of Lovecraft & Friends’ Mythos. Little else, I’m afraid.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit: Getting past the absolutely awful title, this is a perfectly acceptable, if not especially memorable exercise in spy-game shenanigans. Everyone is fine. It looks pretty good. The hand-held only gets annoying a couple of times. The villainous plot isn’t totally idiotic. And the actions of the heroes don’t rely purely on blind luck. I gather it stays pretty true to the Tom Clancy character background, though I feel like the style is a bit too much post-Bourne movie to feel quite right. Not one for the books, but if you enjoy these sorts of films, it doesn’t suck. One thing I noticed more than I have before is Keira Knightley’s messed up teeth, which I found both distracting and somehow very charming.
Top Hat: A comedy of mistaken identity, singing and dancing, and innuendo to beat the band. It’s very charming, with plenty of impressive dance numbers and catchy tunes. The script and the actors are spot on. The whole thing works. I wasn’t as wowed by it as I was with, say Singin’ in the Rain. But that’s not at all a negative. Very much a film to see.
Anastasia: Ingrid Bergman plays a psychologically and emotionally ruined woman who looks a good deal like an adult version of the rumored living Romanov. Is she, or isn’t she? Does it matter? Various people, with various agendas think it does and they’re willing to lie and cheat to make the right people believe it. There are some good performances. Bergman has been better, but Yul Brynner is especially compelling as the conflicted general. It’s not a bad movie, but no classic.
The Lost Weekend: “I’m not a drinker. I’m a drunk.” Ray Milland plays one sad bastard. One sad, drunk bastard. An absolutely hopeless, raging, falling down alcoholic, our hero abuses himself and everyone around him in his quest to deaden his self hatred. Too much of a looser to even properly kill himself, he’s a failure at everything but finding a drink. And he’s not even super successful at that. His all consuming hunger for the burn of booze is heart wrenching and pathetic.
The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox: I’m sure there’s someone out there who thinks this movie is a hoot. Someone who thinks the jokes are just hi-larious. I’m not that someone. Less than two minutes in, freeze frame on a woman’s be-bloomered butt while the credits rolled and I knew what sort of a movie I’d started. I wasn’t wrong. It’s one of those ‘comedy-westerns’ I can only imagine appealing to old men wearing lots of plaid who don’t like those dark skinned folk. (I’m not saying you’ve got to be racist to like it, Internet. I’m just saying I have an image of the person who laughs at these cornball jokes, and that image is a racist. …I’m not crazy. You are!). The whole thing goes on for far too long, with far too few laughs and far too much mugging. And the two leads have all the charm of a brick. If you’re someone who finds Goldie Hawn attractive, I guess the film has that going for it. I guess.
Imagine this, for 90 minutes...
Closed Circuit: Right out of the gate, this movie feels like a lot of stuff you’ve seen before. Enemy of the State, Vantage Point, The Enemy Within, The Package, the list goes on. Everyone’s in on it. You can’t trust anyone. Everyone’s out to get you. I like the cast. And it’s competently crafted. It’s just not especially interesting. If you like this sort of film, it’s a mid-level entry. Not bad, but not very good, either.
I hold here an ounce of originality...I will now throw it away.
In the mood for some weird and spooky tales, I listened to neo-radio shows by The Colonial Radio Theater. Their Vincent Price Presents series isn’t quite what I was expecting. It’s not Price reading, nor even adaptations of Price films. The four stories contained are adapted from Blue Water Comics (?) comic book shorts. There are four, The Tinglers, Fade Away, Canus, and Road Rage. The Tinglers is probably the best, being a somewhat silly jungle adventure tale with something of a King Kong or Lost World vibe. Fade Away feels like any given episode of Tales from the Crypt. Canus seems like a good idea, but the voice actor for the kid is so danged bad, I couldn’t concentrate on the story. And finally Road Rage is well acted but has an extremely awkward framing story that doesn’t work at all. Overall, it’s a fun listen, but not great. Anyone interested in these new radio show style presentations would be better off with the HPLHS adaptations of Lovecraft stories. But these are still worth a listen. ISBN: 978-1-4558-1291-2.
The Last Boy Scout: Maybe if I’d seen this movie when I was a lad, I’d have fond memories of it now. But I didn’t, and watching it at this late date, I can’t help but notice how it seemed to be a perfect mix of the worst elements of the failing 80s, and what would be the new norm of the 90s. The macho, one-liner spouting leading men were kind of played out. The Last Action Hero, the parody of the genre that had become a parody of itself was only two years away, and Bruce Willis’s excruciatingly awful Die Hard 2 had just come out. Terminator 2, the unofficial end of the creative 80s, and the beginning of the ultra-sanitized, paint-by-numbers 90s was months old when this film hit theaters. The script is just one chincy line after another, delivered by a barely present Bruce Willis and an confused Damon Wayans. Tony Scott color-saturates the crap out of every scene, and lights everyone in the most off-putting way possible. Everything about the movie feels like a half assed Walter Hill movie (or any given Walter Hill movie of the 90s). No, it’s not awful. I mean, it’s awful; but it’s the kind of awful I understand enjoying. However, Tony Scott’s particular brand of filmmaking has never much impressed me. And while better than some of his others, it’s still pretty much the lame movie I expected. Did I bring baggage with me when I watched it? Yup. But there it is. Not going on my list of lost gems.
Vikingdom: The Blood Eclipse: The music started, the first images lit my screen, and I knew I’d made a mistake. “Oh, no.” That’s what I said. My reaction wasn’t wrong. Awful post-300 CG effects, dreadful sets, terrible wigs, and acting that puts them all to shame. I do think a Viking based high fantasy adventure film could be a lot of fun. But the 1994 video game cut scene quality of the effects, the Target bought Halloween costumes, and the terrible writing sink this turkey. I get the feeling that the idea behind the film was to do a Ray Harryhausen-type adventure film. But without any of the resources, skills, or heart, everything fails. 50 million dollars and a couple good actors might have made this pretty good. Alas.
I’ve been watching The White Queen, which is certainly the best thing I’ve seen from Starz so far. Plenty of the expected nudity and scandalous behavior, but without the crassness and dreadful writing one expects from the people who brought us Spartacus. It’s not great. It’s not HBO level of quality. But it’s shockingly better than average. I like much of the cast and the storylines are pretty well handled. A few cast members are kind of annoying, but you’ve got to take the good with the bad on a show like this. One thing that stood out as particularly anachronistic was the sex. No, not that they were having sex, or having sex outside of wedlock. That wasn’t weird. But having the woman on top or...um...from behind... was considered unnatural and ‘morally questionable,’ especially as it was thought to be more likely to cause the woman pleasure, which was obviously not proper. It could be punished with up to three years penance (for the woman, of course…this was still 1400s Europe). The so called 'missionary' position was considered the least sinful way of engaging in sex. You were, of course, still supposed to feel ashamed for doing it, but there was no punishment.
War-Gods of the Deep: Vincent Price did a lot of movies, some less traditionally ‘good’ than others. I really enjoy this one, though it’s hardly a classic. It features dashes of Atlantis myth, a Jules Verne like plot, and the incomparable Price as a megalomaniac trying to save an undersea kingdom. One could argue that the film isn’t especially exciting, but I find it entertaining and atmospheric enough to enjoy.
I was prompted to enjoy a Vincent Price movie because there’s a petition campaign to get him on a US Postage stamp. I think that would be swell. I signed. So should you!
I suffer for my art. I’m not getting too deep into it here, but I made some choices this week that had some repercussions, and even as I write this nearly a week later, I’m still feeling ‘em. This is Chinatown. Anyway, I finished reading a book, got some writing done, and generally had a pretty good week, in spite of some painful sleep deprivation.
Brave: Upon second viewing, I still want this movie to be so much more than it is. Pixar takes on the Medieval fantasy epic and ends up with a mild bit of entertainment. It’s beautiful to look at, and the characters are fun. But there’s not nearly the amount of awe or heart one would expect from Pixar or a movie called Brave, featuring a red haired princess with a bow. I know the production was rather storied, with the original writer/director getting the boot part way through. And the film does feel tonally awkward, like something was lost in translation between directors, maybe. I keep hoping they’ll do a sequel that can get past the issues of the first and tell a more exciting, more heart-felt adventure tale. Merida could be a very good character, and something Disney/Pixar needs, a proactive female hero. But this movie does not live up to its potential.
The Driver: This film has three major problems. Ryan. O. Neal. I don’t know what was in the water in the 70s that made people think O’Neal could be a leading man or anything more than a background extra (assuming scenes called for lifeless hunks of wood to drain energy from the shot). He’s absolutely dreadful. A bowl of gravy is more dynamic and exciting. You can see that this movie (along with Thief) were hugely inspirational to the far superior Drive, but even in that comparison, Ryan Gosling’s dead-eyed Driver is SOOOO much more interesting to watch (and this from a guy who finds Gosling a bit hard to look at). Otherwise, I enjoyed the movie. It had a lot of that pointless dickery between characters that was so common in the 70s, but the look and feel of the film make it worth that slog. Honestly, if Ryan O’Neal were replaced by another actor…or a crash test dummy with a photograph taped on the face for example, the movie might be considered a classic. As it is, it’s worth a watch if you like the era or are a big Drive fan, but there’s no reason to rush right out and see it.
Doctor Strangelove: There are parts of this movie that I love. There are other parts, mostly the last ten minutes or so, that I simply don’t get. Peter Sellers is absolutely fantastic as Mandrake, and as Muffley. But as the titular Dr. Strangelove, while wacky, I didn’t find him especially good. In fact, it seemed more like a Gene Wilder character…and I don’t mean that in a good way. Sterling Hayden and George C. Scott are intensely crazy and wonderful. And the movie is shockingly dark. Maybe not so shocking, considering it’s a comedy about Nuclear War. But it’s grim, man. Some of the dialog is so horribly funny. As a whole, I find the film too uneven to sing the praises of, but at the same time, it should be seen.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension: “Why is there a watermelon there?” As a young lad, I watched a few movies more than a few times. They spoke to some essential part of me in some way. Howard the Duck, Big Trouble in Little China, The Princess Bride, and yes, Buck Banzai. An homage to the adventure heroes of the past (specifically Doc Savage), Buck Banzai was still dripping with the wilder elements of the 80s. An all star cast of that-guy actors turn in heart-felt performances, giving it their all for a movie that probably shouldn’t have worked. Though funny, the film isn’t the joke it might have looked like on paper. There’s some serious (and seriously strange) world building, developing a history for its characters, even tertiary ones. I can not recommend this movie strongly enough. But you’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to embrace the madness. And it’s there, believe me. It’s one of the most powerfully strange films ever made. And at no point does it pull back and give you a moment to readjust. You’ve got to roll with the punches. It’s so worth it, though.
Tales from the Crypt: Yeah, this movie’s dull. A bunch of TV actors and Peter Cushing enact a handful of lifeless horror tales. Anthology films are usually hit and miss. This one is miss and miss by more. The TV show, for all its many faults, is a far more worthy effort.
I finished Hedy’s Folly, a good overview of Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil’s inventive collaboration. Like a good book should, it got me wanting to read more about various elements. And like a lot of these history books I’ve been reading, gave me some story ideas.
You’re Next: Had this film just had a tripod or a steady cam, I’d have enjoyed it a heck of a lot more. The first half is pretty blah, but the second half makes up a lot of ground. It’s funny, intentionally, without being jokey. The gore effects are practical, which is a welcome surprise in this day of crappy looking CG blood. It’s pretty darned violent, without being annoying about it. And as I said, the second half is really good. Once they get the obligatory and not especially surprising twist out of the way, and shift the tone a bit, it improves drastically. But that shaky cam. I simply can’t get past the shaky cam.
Sudden Fear: Hardly one of the best Noir out there, this tale of a petty slight being repaid ten fold is still quite good. Joan Crawford is not an actress I’ve ever found particularly drawing up to this point, but she’s excellent. I may have to refocus a bit on her in the coming months. And the giant skulled visage of young Jack Palance is terrifying and wonderful. Seeing the story play out is at turns heartbreaking and exhilarating. Noir fans should definitely check this one out.
Gojira: As a pretty big Godzilla fan, it’s kind of odd to say this, but the first film is actually not anywhere near my favorite of the series. Going back and watching it, I see it more as a film about the shattered societal mindset of post WWII Japan. Much of what I love about the series is missing here, with the exception of the emphasis on the every day struggles of people in the face of unthinkable horror. As the folks at Criterion said in their Three Reasons trailer, “It’s not just a monster movie.”
The 'Director's Cut' was weeeeird!
The Snow Maiden: A Russian folk tale fantasy film, the production design is beautiful, and the story is interesting. But the pacing is a bit ponderous. There are so many singing numbers, it gets to be a bit much. Still, the look and feel of the movie are very good if you’re in the mood for medieval fairy tale settings. I just wish the story was more interesting and the pace a bit quicker (it was Russian, so I know I'm asking a lot).
The Other: “I’m king of the mountain…Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” Two creepy-ass twins are living on a farm in the 30s in this slow paced supernatural tale. The twins seem to have some kind of psychic ability, being guided by their old Russian grandmother. One kid is a little bastard and one is a whiney snot. I think this could be an interesting story, but it isn’t. It’s just kind of boring. Oh, gosh. And then there’s the twist. Ugh. The twist. I think maybe this is the movie I’ve been mistaking for The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane for years. I remember being freaked out by seeing it on TV at a friend of a friend’s house when I was probably 6 or 7. Both have that weird, uncomfortable 70s horror movie vibe, creepy kids, and a slow pace.
On Saturday, I got the word that a short film script I wrote is ready, and a potential actor is being contacted. That made me very happy. And over the course of the week, I’d finished up doing an outline for another script. So, I spent much of the afternoon and evening working on that. I got about a third of it written. Not bad so far. But there’s a long way to go.
As I’ve been reading over my Prodigal Son posts, thinking about the upcoming push to start a regular roleplaying game, I thought I’d turn again to inspirational movies. One of my favorite games, one that I very much want to run, is the medieval fantasy game (one of the few fantasy settings I like) Ars Magica. Ars Magica, typically, takes place in medieval Europe, often around 1200 or so, but in a version less tied to history than to myth, less how it was and more how people imagined it was, ‘Mythic Europe.’ Forests full of fairies, dragons in the mountains, angels & demons, ghosts, and of course, wizards. The game is about wizards; a secret society of magic users who live throughout Europe, studying, experimenting, and increasing their powers. There are three levels of player characters in the game. Magi (wizards) are primary, Companions are secondary, and Grogs are tertiary. While Magi are the main focus of the game, companions are also fully realized characters with goals and histories. Grogs are medieval equivalents of ‘red-shirts’ from Star Trek, rarely becoming more than background players. Countless movies set in the medieval world have been made, but few that capture the essence of the atmosphere I most connect to the game. What follows is a list of a few of the best Ars Magica films.
10. Brave: Merida, with a few twists, could make an excellent companion. In a world dominated by men, adventurous women can become more profound, more inspiring, and more interesting. While Mythic Europe, especially within the world of magi and the Order of Hermes may not be as misogynist as the middle ages actually were, it’s hardly an enlightened world. There's some good magic and the setting looks amazing. (See also; How to Train Your Dragon).
9. A Field in England: Not even close to the correct era, this film is a perfect representation of the life and times of grogs. Ignorant, earthy, and slightly cracked, these AWOL soldiers go through a strange, mushroom laced adventure in magic and madness. While it might be more extreme in tone than I would go for in a game, I think it captures the right mindset for grogs when they’re not under the watchful eye of a magus. (See also; Marketa Lazarova).
8. Beowulf: A weird visualization of the myth, Beowulf embraces the crazy adventure and magical mayhem that is the undercurrent of Ars Magica’s Mythic Europe. One could imagine this story being told around camp fires, inspiring young, adventurous folk to travel north, to seek their fortunes in strange and haunted lands. (See also; The 13th Warrior).
7. Brothers Grimm: While set many centuries later than Ars Magica, this movie captures the more fanciful and mysterious vision of Mythic Europe I’m inclined to attempt. (See also; Snow White: A Tale of Terror).
6. Ladyhawke: Getting past the absolutely awful music (or at least, absolutely inappropriate), this romantic tale is full of charm and magic. A young thief finds the secret of a beautiful woman and a taciturn knight, and the curse that keeps them apart. Etienne and Isabeau could easily be companions or a companion and an NPC. Phillipe would also make a solid companion character. (See also, The Princess Bride).
5. Kingdom of Heaven (Director’s Cut): A sprawling epic of the Crusades, this film features various political and religious elements, while also taking us from backwoods village to the urban centers of the Holy Land. Characters, plots, histories, and events to inspire abound. (See also; El Cid).
4. Excalibur: The ultimate, high fantasy telling of the story of King Arthur, this wild and operatic film is pure magic. Like Beowulf, it feels like the mythological base for Mythic Europe, a fundamental part of the cultural language of the people who live there. If this isn’t what happened, it’s what people may have imagined happened. (See also; The Fool of the World and his Flying Ship).
3. The Virgin Spring: A simple tale of lost innocence, a horrible crime, revenge, and a wrestling with faith. The stark but somehow charming life of a landed man and his family is depicted in this film. It’s idyllic, until it’s soiled. The look and feel of the film capture Mythic Europe, including the danger posed by strangers in the wood. (See also; The Reckoning).
2. The Seventh Seal: The disillusionment of Crusaders returning from the wars clashes with the consuming shadow of the Black Death in this haunting and surreal tale of life and death. The knight and his squire would make obvious choices for companion character inspirations. But there are plenty of other interesting characters in this film. And the manifestation of Death feels very much like something one might face. (See also; Valhalla Rising).
1. The Name of the Rose: While this film deals with the clergy and the Church, it doesn’t take much to turn the priests and monks into Magi and the monastery into a covenant. William might very well be a Quaesitor, sent to investigate some crime against the Order. Gritty and ugly, it’s also mysterious and oddly beautiful. This film is kind of a must for Ars Magica players. (See also; The Advocate).
There are also several TV series that are worthy of seeing. The 80s version of Robin Hood, Robin of Sherwood, the recent series Vikings, The Storyteller, and the Cadfael mysteries. And there are other movies, perhaps not as good or as spot on, that might do for a watch. Solomon Kane, Erik the Viking, Dragonheart, The Last Legion, Season of the Witch, and others have plenty of fun ideas.
