Swords and sorcery is what most people think of when they think of "fantasy:" a medieval or earlier culture, with heroes and monsters and quests and all that goes along with those things. Sometimes the focus is on the swords, sometimes on the sorcery, but they're always both there. Swords and sorcery is about the oldest form of fantasy. It makes up a big chunk of the fantasy market, and most of it is pretty weak. Because it's been around so long, and so many different writers have tried their hands at it, it's become something of a cliche, almost a joke. But on rare occasions, a very talented writer can take this tired old genre and do something new and different and worth reading with it.