Little did then-obscure Texas writer Robert E. Howard know that with the 1929 publication of "The Shadow Kingdom" in the pulp magazine , he had given birth to a new and vibrant subgenre of fantasy fiction. Sword-and-sorcery went from pulp obscurity to mass-market paperback popularity before suffering a spectacular publishing collapse in the 1980s. But it lives on in the broader culture and today enjoys a second life in popular role-playing games, music, and films, and helped give birth to a new literary subgenre known as grimdark, popularized by the likes of George R.R. Martin's fantasy series. provides much-needed definitions and critical rigor to this misunderstood fantasy subgenre. It traces its origins in the likes of historical fiction, to its birth in the pages of , to its flowering in the Frank Frazetta-illustrated Lancer Conan Saga series in the 1960s. It covers its "barbarian bust" beneath a heap of second-rate pastiche, a pack of colorful and wildly entertaining and awful sword-and-sorcery films, and popular culture second life in the likes of and the bombast of heavy metal music.