Product Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook collection contains eleven horror stories by famed pulp writer Robert Ervin Howard, the creator of CONAN.Originally published in a variety of 1930s pulps, these stories form a portion of Howard's work which includes genres as diverse as Sword-and-Sorcery, Westerns, Boxing stories, Detective, horror, science fiction, and historical adventure.Includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.


Contents:

People of the Dark
Black Canaan
Moon of Zambebwei
Black Talons
Black Vulmea’s Revenge
The Cairn on the Headland
The Fearsome Touch of Death
The Haunter of the Ring
The Hyena
The Fire of Asshurbanipal
Pigeons from Hell
... Read more

Product Description
Robert E. Howard is the world-renowned author of the Conan series and the stories that were the basisof the recent Kull movie. He also was one of H.P. Lovecraft's frequent correspondents, and an author of many pivotal Mythos tales. This book collects together all of Howard's Mythos tales, including the tales that originated Gol-Goroth, Unausspreclichen Kulten, and Friedrich Von Junzt.

Included in this collections are several fragments left behind by Robert E. Howard which have been completed by a variety of authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The "other" Robert E. Howard
Most readers are aware of Robert E. Howard as the creator of Conan The Cimmerian
and possibly even Solomon Kane or King Kull, but this collection features some really amazing rarely collected weird fantasy all in the fairly thin veneer of "Cthulhu Mythos stories" the most likely genuine one in the collection being "The Black Stone" from which the collections tittle is derived. Don't get me wrong These are all Howard at his best, But there's no way you're going to tell me "Skull Face' is a "Mythos" story!
Still Lovecraftian or not this is probably the single best REH collection on the market for sheer variety and value. Highly recommened.

Skull Face and Others
Horror was clearly not a strong point with Robert E. Howard.Proper horror requires a certain frailty of hero, someone who is confronted with something far beyond their powers, beyond their ability to come to terms with.Howard's heroes, however, are all rough-and-tumble fighters, quick to swing and axe or fire a pistol, and never giving into such weak emotions as fear or terror.Not exactly a viable protagonist for a horror story.

However, in "Nameless Cults," Howard showed himself a capable blender of Lovecraft's otherworldly Mythos and his own brand of barbarian triumph.Much of the mythos connections are quite dubious, being only a word or two. A man shouting "yog sothoth" as he dies is enough to add it to the collection.

Stories such as "Worms of the Earth," with Howard's Pictish king Bran Mak Morn,"The Shadow Kingdom" with Kull,and "The Gods of Bal-Soggoth" featuring the Irish adventurer Turlogh Dubh O'Brien, showcase the best of Howard's style, pitting his rugged sluggers against achievable and defeatable cosmic horrors. These stories work very well, and they are clearly Howard stories, not an attempt to mimic a Lovecraft story.

Other stories, such as "Dig Me No Grave," "The Black Bear Bites" and "The Fire of Asshurbanipal," are rousing adventure stories with a supernatural flair, in tune with an Indian Jones movie.This is true pulp fiction.The bayou-set "Skull Face," is on of the best Howard stories I have read, and it is a shame that it gets bogged down in it's own racism, detailing the attempt of a black men to join together and overthrow white men in a global insurrection.

Less successful are Howard's attempts at Lovecraftian-style fiction.He doesn't have what it takes totell a viable story of book-learned fellows sitting around the fire.Stories like "The Thing on the Roof" and "The Hoofed Thing" are less successful, mediocre works at best.

Worth noting, the cover is terrible, and I am not sure why they picked this image.It has nothing to do with the contents, not even in tone.I put off buying "Nameless Cults" for sometime, based on this silly screaming mouth.I am glad to know that it is the cover that is bad, not the book.

While not on par with his Conan stories, where Howard was an inspired writer, "Nameless Cults" is still an excellent book with enough good stories in it to outweigh the bad.While the Bran Mak Morn and Kull stories are available elsewhere, the book is worth getting for "Skull Face" alone, if you can stomach the racism.

IMHO, best Chaosium book yet
Robert Howard has a distinctly different worldview than Lovecraft, and his stories show it.Courage, purity, and strength are sufficient to overcome evil in most of Howard's tales.Very pulpy, but some stories I will read over again.

The best:
"The Shadow Kingdom": this is one of the best fantasy tales ever written, in my opinion.The mythic historicity, the barbarian strength and honor, the horror of the serpent people, the opposing magic, it all just came together and clicked for me.You will probably find this in other Howard or Weird tales anthologies, but I cannot recommend this highly enough.

"Worms of the Earth": opens with the leader of an oppressed people watching the torture and execution of one of his subjects.He then goes on to seek his revenge through truly awful methods.I found this story to be written in a very original style.

"Dig Me No Grave": a genuinely Lovecraftian tale.More Mythos!
Well written, very creepy.

"The Fire of Ashurbanipal" and "Skull-face" both deal with a typical Howardian protagonist confronting an evil from prehistoric times.Both are well-written and differ from most of the stories that Chaosium issues (no moldy towns, 17th century houses, or bizarre tomes).

I didn't care for the finished fragments; the quality clearly dropped off where Howard ended and another author began (these were "The Abbey", "The Door to the World", "The House in the Oaks", "Black Eons", and "The Challenge From Beyond".To my amusement, by the time I had finished Nameless Cults, I knew EXACTLY where Howard did the writing in "Challenge").

Overall, a good collection.It is worth picking up for "The Shadow Kingdom" alone, or if you like the Howardian protagonist.

Buy This Book.Even My Wife Likes It!
Finally, non-Conan tales of Robert E. Howard are in print in a modestly priced paperback format; part of an ongoing series of Mythos fiction. With this volume Chaosium just may generate a new breed of Howard fans.Take my wife, for example.No matter how much I talked up Conan or REH she refused to read "a stupid Conan book" or anything by "that Conan guy".But when she just happened to come across my copy of Nameless Cults and read the excerpt from "The Black Stone" on the back cover - suddenly my wife had laid down her Ellis Peters novel and was thoroughly engrossed in a Robert E. Howard book!

This is a great book!I highly recommend it, even if you already own the Baen edition of Howard's Cthulhu Mythos tales.Unlike the Baen book, this collection contains tremendous introduction material by Mythos expert Robert M. Price.Price's introductions to each story are invaluable, and often shed new light on many aspects of these tales.Price's introductions avoid the psycho babble that David Drake's intro to the Baen book peddled, and focus directly on the tales themselves.For the serious Howard enthusiast, the book is worth the price for Price's comments alone.

As for the stories themselves - they are tremendous.All of Howard's Lovecraftian tales are included: "The Black Stone", "The Thing on the Roof", "The Fire of Asshurbanipal", "Dig Me No Grave" and "The Hoofed Thing".The rarely published "Little People" (a story not included in the Baen book) is also included; as well as tales which touch on Mythos or Lovecraftian themes:Tales such as "The Worms of the Earth" (considered to be one of Howard's best), "The Children of the Night" (one of my personal favorites), "The Shadow Kingdom" (a Kull Tale), and others.A rather pleasing highlight is the inclusion of "The Challenge From Beyond", a round-robin tale with portions written by C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Frank Belknap Long, as well as Howard.

Purists will probably scoff at the inclusion of a number of Howard fragments which have been completed by other writers.I too find this practice rather revolting, and originally would have preferred the publishers to have presented the fragments as just that - uncompleted fragments.As I had anticipated, two of the tales created from Howard's fragments are pretty dull and forgettable: "The Abbey" completed by C.J. Henderson and "The Door to the World" completed by Joseph S. Pulver.However, I must admit that I found two of the four quite enjoyable - even excellent."The House in the Oaks" completed by August Derleth is an intriguing tale in a Lovecraftian vain.Faithful to the practice of Howard, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith, Derleth brings into the tale such dark tomes as the Necronomicon and Nameless Cults.He even uses The Shadow Kingdom as the title of an occultist book.One of the greatest highlights of Derleth's part of the story is his inclusion of snippets of Howard's poetry throughout."Black Eons" completed by Robert M. Price is an excellent tale.I would have to say that Price has done the best job of emulating Howard's style.Price's portion of the tale is fast paced and filled with scenes of gory combat.One of the highlights here is Howard's attempt to bring the Hyborian age into the present via an archaeologist's discovery."Black Eons" is a page turner and I highly recommend it.

Over-all this book is a must.It is well worth the cover price to have all of these fantastic Howard tales in one place.And as I said before, even if you already have these stories in your library Price's introductory comments are well worth it.If you have never read any of Howard's Mythos tales - buy this book!You won't be disappointed - I promise.Even my wife has enjoyed it!

worth a read, but disappointing
this is a good collection, consisting of many of howard's stories (some don't belong here). howard is always great at combat descriptions and describing man's instinct. the stories here are mostly inspired by things Howard has read. howard can't manage to create the stories as well as usually, also being very uninventive and unoriginal at times. some of the stories were only vaguely interesting. beyond the borders was a better collection ... Read more

Product Description
In a jungle empire ruled by the vampire queen of the undead, Solomon Kane, a justice-seeking knight, is compelled by forces he cannot understand to defeat the evil powers of the city he protects at any cost. Amazon.com Review
Although posthumously famous for the bloody barbarians Kull and Conan,many critics feel that Howard's most memorable hero was this dour Puritanadventurer. Solomon Kane was in fact one of the first series characterscreated by the prolific pulp writer, who virtuallysingle-handedly created the subgenre of heroic fantasy. Set in the1600s, these tales are a striking combination of horror and fantasticadventure that remain among Howard's most intense. A lone swordsman on amission to rid the world of evil, Kane wanders across Europe and Africa,endlessly fighting mad villains, winged vampires, and black magic.Originally published in the legendary pulp magazine "Weird Tales," the stories havebeen collected in several variant editions.More recent editions havestriven to publish the tales as the author originally composed them--utterlymerciless and without any hint of light reaching into Howard's uniquevision of darkness. --Stanley Wiater ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

3 star rating is for this edition
Solomon Kane is one of Robert E. Howard's many enduring characters from his pulp-career, but not one that has caught on as much as Conan has, or even Kull. In a lot of ways Solomon Kane is more interesting as a character, as he is a Puritan adventurer. This gives Kane many interesting inner-conflicts. Right away, as a Puritan, he has experienced religious persecution, or seen/known others of his denomination persecuted, for their version of faith in God, which was counter to the dominant version of faith in God at that time in history. That could almost be enough, but you also have this aspect of his character which strives to reconcile how to put his faith to practice: he is not about lip-service, or hypocrisy. Can an injustice be allowed to continue, or go unanswered for? No. This is why when a rape-victim dies in his arms the man travels part of Europe, and sails as far as Africa intending to avenge her (as seen in "Red Shadows"). If there is no one, to help those who need it, to deal justice to those beyond the law of the land, to put wrongs to right, then "by God" Solomon Kane will!

The original stories, as done by Howard are classic and they hold up well today. One should keep in mind when Howard was writing about the past, his narritive voice slipped back in time as well. He approximates how people really thought back then.Also, consider that this was long before political correctness, and there was no such thing as "African-American" as a term. Howard tended to use the expression "black" which was thankfully better than a lot of writers and pulp-writers of that day. There are times when the character of Kane comes off as patriarchal, though well intentioned, but this is not to be seen as a reflection of Howard's own views towards women (which was actually very good, some say even advanced, considering his relative isolation and the era he lived), or other races of people, as much as a fairly accurate portrayal of how a lot of people would have behaved/thought at a given point in history portrayed in a story. Popular arm-chair sycophant literary criticism would have everyone believe that the character is the direct extension of the author, but really all that accompishes is to ruin stories that are fiction -- fiction -- and unfairly characterize writers who may be far from anything like the characters they create.

This edition is not bad. But, it could certainly have been better. If you can't find a better edition of Solomon Kane stories this one may do, but there have been better, and there is a hardcover collection being made available very soon.

Van Helsing IS Solomon Kane...
...or so he certainly _seems_ to be, if you're at all familiar with, arguably, Robert E. Howard's most fascinating and complex of characters.Very hard to find volumes of Howard's work dedicated solely to Solomon Kane but well worth the find, in my opinion.
Several years back, Marvel Comics produced a fine limited series on the character, called The Sword Of Solomon Kane.Still, it will be nice to see Van Helsing, as I've never known of any work as such to feature the pugnacious Puritan.And if Van Helsing _is_ in fact a "steal" on Kane, let's look at it as flattering and be mindful also of the steals concerning Dracula, Frankenstein and the WolfMan.Simply sit back and enjoy the show...if only for the hypnotic Kate Beckinsale, of course.

The Real Van Helsing
I think the new and upcoming Val Helsing movie is really Solomon Kane indisguise.That's not a bad thing, just read this book then go see the movie and tell me you don't agree.Robert E. Howard is fabulous and created some of the greatest heroic pulp fiction ever.

solemn kane
howard's descriptions of the puritan with a sword and a pistol, makes Solomon Kane his most interesting creation. the concept in these stories are great too, and varying. some include magic, there are pirats and vampires. as always howard is unmatched in his combat descriptions. true greatness. one sad thing, though: the "completion" of some stories by Ramsey Campbell. awful. the guy hasn't got a clue. Solomon Kane sudenly tolerates corruption, one story has an incredibly stupid ending. Campbell was definitely the wrong choice. make up for it, get someone else.

A strange sort of Puritan fanatic....
"Naught but a wanderer, a landless man, but a friend to all in need."

It is a mistake to write off the character of Solomon Kane as simply being a Puritan fanatic. It is inaccurate and an injustice. It is a strange sort of fanatic that hates the inquisition and the witch hunters, as much as, he does necromancers and murderers. Kane is in the ancient British and Irish tradition of a man who goes forth to wander the world after he receives the call- guided solely by his deep inner trust in his God. That is why he can walk the dark and wild places of the earth unscathed. That is why monsters and devils hold no terror for him. He simply trusts in the Lord to guide him to where he can do the most good.Kane is a Puritan in the original sense of the word, a single individual that has no tolerance for corruption whether it exists in the World- or the Church. He doesn't preach, for he doesn't need to- his actions, and his sword, speak for him.He needs no priest to mediate between himself and his Creator. Kane has gone beyond faith, for his is the sure and implacable knowledge that God exists. This is what makes him such a dangerous foe- you can't scare him and you can't make a deal with him. He obeys only the inner voice that guides him. I can see why the weak and corrupt would paint such a man as a fanatic.

Solomon Kane was Howard's first creation. In my opinion, he was also his best. There is an element present here that is missing from the later characters- something higher. ... Read more

Product Description
Forgetting the arts of war after one thousand years of peace, the members of the Nameless Tribe are driven from their home by Celt invaders, and their only hope lies in the brave Pict champion and king Bran Mak Morn. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Super Reader
The Baen version of a book called Bran Mak Morn. It carries an excellent introduction by David Weber, as well as a poem.

As well as the stories featuring Bran Mak Morn, it ends with two Turlough Dubh O'Brien stories, as a bonus.

One handy little collection, this.


Bran Mak Morn Baen : The Lost Race - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : Men of the Shadows - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : Kings of the Night - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : Worms of the Earth - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : Untitled A Gray Sky Arched - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : The Dark Man - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : The Gods of Bal-Sagoth - Robert E. Howard

There are still some strange old Picts around, it appears.

2.5 out of 5


A band of Roman soldiers is slain until only a large warrior of Norse extraction remains, and he falls to Bran Mak Morn. There ensues a discussion about Pictish history with a wizard.

3.5 out of 5


Bran Mak Morn has leadership problems. Wulfhere's Northerners will not follow him, or Cormac, prince of Erin, they demand a King. Consulting with Gonar, who talks to his ancestor in Kull's time, and summons Kull, King of Valusia! Kull likes Bran, as he reminds him of Brule, and agrees to lead the Northerners. Wulfhere challenges him to combat. Big mistake for Wulfhere.

With Kull's help, Bran manages to hold the Romans for now, at some significant cost.

4 out of 5


One of Bran Mak Morn's subjects is being crucified while he is visiting some Roman commanders. This does not sit well with him or his aide, as he feels the punishment does not fit the crime, and the Romans are making a joke of doing what they will with the barbarians.

Bran has a plan for revenge on the Roman who gave the order, but Gonar cautions him against using mystic means. Bran ignores here, and seeks the Black Stone with the help of a were-woman. What he unleashes is a lot more than he bargained for.

4 out of 5


A messenger from Bran Mak Morn to Thorvald the Smiter gets drawn into a wrestling match with a feisty local woman.

3 out of 5


Swords in the storm, serpent ships, swimming with sharks, and a sheila scheming with religion.

3.5 out of 5


Turlogh Dubh O'Brien gets some inspiration from Bran Mak Morn in beach side battle.

3.5 out of 5

what have the romans done for us?
how can one man fight the roman empire? standing alongside are untrustworthy people, but good fighters. Bran must cling to leadership, outsmart the romans, gather allies, and lead his men in battle. people die like flies. there are no telling how far bran must go in his plotting to destroy the roman hold in and outside of battle.

Excellent stuff!
REH rules still and these tales prove it. WORMS OF THE EARTH is still one fo the best barbarian tales ever done.

Excellent fantasy, and possibly something more....
Robert E. Howard's tales of Bran Mak Morn, last king of the Picts, have long been recognised as some of the first, and best, heroic fantasy ever written. That's certainly how I reguarded them, fantasy. Then I began to notice some curious parallels between current research into the the lost Atlantian civilization and Howard's stories.

First of all, there does indeed seem to have been a high stone age seafaring culture in the area we now call the Carribean approx. 10,000 years ago. This culture also seems to have had regular contact with both North and South America, as well as, the Mediterranian region. Now the ancestors of the Picts are thought to have come from the Mediterranian region during the high stone age. This small, dark race is thought to have spread over all of the British isles, as well as, a good part of Europe. They were only displaced by the coming of the Celts. Some experts believe that the Basques may be the only modern recognisable remnant of this people.

Now, the contact between the Carribean and Mediterranian, seems to have been suddenly disrupted a little over 8,000 years ago by a collossal comet shower over North America and the Carribean. It is documented that there was an abrupt climactic change and flooding at this time. There would almost certainly have been tidal waves in the Carribean region before this. In fact, it was only recently recognised that the "serpent" imagery found in much high stone age art probably represents "cosmic serpents"- or comets.

Now, Howard has his Bran Mak Morn making claims that his ancestors: 1.) were connected with Atlantis, 2.) knew of North and South America, 3.) ruled most of Europe, 4.) were driven out by the Celts, and 5.) have a strong religious connection with a destructive serpent cult. Not only that, but the physically degenerate stature of his Picts are what would be expected of a cut-off remnant of a race that was surrounded by nothing but enemies. Interbreeding, and lack of a sufficient gene-pool, would produce just the abnormalities and degeneracy that Howard attributes to his Picts.

To verify all this for yourselves, try reading _Gateway to Atlantis_ by Andrew Collins. You'll never see the fiction of Robert E. Howard in the same light again....

Another Howardian Gem
You gotta love these Robert E. Howard books! The grandfather of testosterone drenched fantasy stories hits another homerun with this cycle of Bran Mak Morn tales offered in one volume. It is really too bad the other Baen volumes of Howard's works are out of print because this is excellent entertainment.

Like Howard's other superhuman heroes, Conan and Kull, Bran Mak Morn is tough as nails and doesn't take you-know-what from anybody. The stories are set in the distant past (although not as distant as Conan or some of Howard's other tales), in the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. Bran is the last pure blood king of the Picts, an ancient people overwhelmed by numerous invasions during the ages. Howard takes liberal license with the real history, creating a mystical people with links to Atlantis and Lemuria. Bran is fighting for the survival of his people in a world populated by Lovecraftian monsters, sorcerers, Roman soldiers, enemy tribes, Vikings, and other assorted evils.

In "The Lost Race," a wandering Briton stumbles on a bandit leader and his evil minions. After fleeing from the thieves, he stumbles into a cave containing the remnants of the Pictish tribes, presided over by Bran Mak Morn. It is here we are introduced to Morn and discover how his tribe fell into misfortune.

"Men of the Shadows" is narrated by a Roman soldier lost in enemy territory after his fellow soldiers died in combat. His eventual meeting with Bran Mak Morn is no surprise, but serves to fill in details about the travels of the Picts through the ancient world. Some freaky sorcery and the usual Howardian sense of doom run throughout this tale.

"Kings of the Night" is a combat tale that reminds me of Howard's story on the Battle of Clontarf in "Eons of the Night." The Picts are assembling for a battle to prevent an invasion by the Roman army. Bran Mak Morn has some trouble persuading some Vikings to fight for him until a king comes to lead the Vikings into battle. Where this king comes from and how he gets there is enormous fun, as is the gory battle with the Roman invaders.

"Worms of the Earth" absolutely reeks of Lovecraft. In this story, Bran Mak Morn swears revenge on a sadistic Roman governor. In order to carry out his oath, Morn seeks the help of the worms of the earth, a race of humans pushed underground eons ago by the Picts. Something happened to these humans during their years underground, a sickening transformation that makes them a fearsome presence.

"The Dark Man" is the story of Turlogh Dubh, a survivor of Clontarf whose exile from his clan leads him on endless journeys through forbidding lands. When a gang of Vikings kidnaps a beautiful Irish princess, Dubh hunts them down with the help of a strange icon found in the hands of a dead Pict. After a bloody battle with the Vikings, Dubh meets the Picts and learns about the fate of Bran Mak Morn.

The final story, "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth," is a further adventure of Turlogh Dubh. Dubh is captured by Viking pirates, one of who is Athelstane, a survivor of the battle in "The Dark Man." After the Viking ship crashes, Athelstane and Dubh join forces to topple the king of Bal-Sagoth. This king is a puppet of a sorcerer who spends his free time creating weird hybrids in an underground cave. Predictably, everything quickly degenerates into an epic battle where bodies topple by the boatload.

Robert Howard is a hard act to follow. It really is a pity he committed suicide at a young age, thereby robbing the genre of countless tales that would have elevated his reputation even higher than it is today. Somebody really out to reprint the other volumes in this series. Selling them would be a piece of cake. ... Read more

Product Description
Under a sentence of death for his part in the winning the war for Aquilonia, Conan escapes from the jealous king intent on killing him and plots his revenge. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Super Reader
There are four stories in this book. The Black Stranger, Wolves Beyond the Border, The Phoenix on the Sword and the Scarlet Citadel.

A tale of three brigands, that starts slow, and then rip-roars along. With multiple pirates, you know there has to be a treasure map. This time, to the Treasure of Tranicos.

Add in a mystical demon warrior, a bunch of raiding Picts, a couple of sieges, three pirates that can't trust each other, a beautiful woman, and Conan, and all hell will break loose.

4 out of 5

This is pretty much a Conanless Conan story. Conan is away fighting in Aquilonian and we follow a man in the Westmerck near the Picts as he encounters shapeshifting and beast magic.

2.5 out of 5


King Conan is bored. Politics and statecraft and maps, and all that stuff.

In a dream, a man magically enhances his sword, and that certainly comes in handy later when the odd traitor and demon relieves the tedium of the ruling class.

3.5 out of 5


King Conan's army of Aquilonians has been smashed by a far superior force, led by a wizard. Conan refuses to sign over his kingdom, and the wizard throws him in a dungeon.

He escapes an assassin and a monster, and rescues a wizardly rival that Tsotha had imprisoned. This wizard, please, summons a flying steed to bear Conan back to his kingdom, to take revenge.

4.5 out of 5

The Best of the "Original" Lancer Books Conan Series
When Lancer Books reissued the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard, they enlisted the aid of L. Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter to polish Howard's grammar, soften his more "politically incorrect"statements, and fill out the saga with pastiches.DeCamp and Carter wroteseveral stories out of whole cloth, but they also reworked a number ofHoward stories starring other heroes into Conan stories.There was moreDeCamp than Howard in this particular volume, and I am convinced thatDeCamp could write Conan better than Howard could.

Conan finds the accursed Treasure of Tranicos
Conan finds the accursed Treasure of Tranicos, the legendary treasure of the Pirate King Trani- cos, who stole it with his crew from a pyramid in Khemi, Stygia, and meets Tina and Belosa. Exiles with their lord, from Zingara, Valbroso's visited by a rival pirate and then another rival buccaneer shows up. The two rivals want Conan to lead them to the Treasure of Tranicos but Conan refuses. He tells them that it's cursed and he won't lead them to it. When they want him to do it anyway, he takes them on. He escapes to lead the rebellion against the tyrannical king of Aquilonia. Blair Colquhoun @cybertours.com ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Nothing to do with Lovecraft's Cthulhu
Nothing to do with Lovecraft's Cthulhu, but great reading anyway. Neccessary reading for any Howard fan.

Excellent intro to Howard's non Heroic Fantasy tales
This is a misleadingly named but excellent introduction to Robert E. Howard's non-heroic fantasy tales (no Conan, Kull or Solomon Kane stories here).Edited by David Drake and bargain priced, it includes some of Howard's most compelling stories, especially "Pigeons from Hell" and "Worms of the Earth" (I'd rank them both among the best of Howard's stories). Most of these yarns have very little indeed to do with the made-up term "Cthulhu Mythos," probably used here to lure the unsuspecting fan of Lovecraftian role playing games.Only about half the 13 items in the book have anything even remotely to do with this H.P. Lovecraft-inspired sub-genre, usually just a couple of names or passing reference.Howard's main contribution to the "Mythos" was Von Junzt's 1839 "Nameless Cults" which first apperared in the enjoyable but hardly special "The Black Stone," published in "Weird Tales" in 1931.For me this book's greatest value is as a graphic illustration of what a born talented storyteller Howard was.I first read them a quarter century ago and I still relish re-reading them.I can't say the same about most of the contents of the NYT "bestsellers list" of 25 years ago or of today.

Great if you like Robert E. Howard
Although the book claims to be about the Cthulhu Mythos, it is really a collection of stories by Robert E. Howard, one of Lovecraft's peers and the creator of Conan. These stories are excellent once you realize that with the exception of a little name dropping, the Great Old Ones are not to be found. Consider it the Howard Mythos. ... Read more

Product Description
Prepared by renowned Howard scholar Paul Herman with the assistance of Glenn Lord, this is the first new bibliography of Robert E. Howard since 1976. This massive volume contains more than twice as much information as the preceding biblio, The Last Celt. Robert E. Howard is considered the Godfather of Sword and Sorcery, and the creator of the international icon, Conan the Cimmerian, yet wrote successfully in numerous genres. The Neverending Hunt lists every story, poem, letter and publication in which a Howard work has appeared. It's more than you might think... ... Read more

Product Description
Daring to venture beyond the borders of the known world for knowledge and adventure, a group of heroes confronts the inhuman forces that have left many others broken and deranged. Amazon.com Review
Beyond the Borders is a collection of horror, adventure, and fantasystories by one of the greatest pulp writers in history. Robert E. Howardwill of course always be best known as the creator of Conan the Cimmerian.But just as Edgar Rice Burroughs created dozens of memorable charactersbesides Tarzan of the Apes, so too did Howard write about more than giantbarbarians. The seventh (and apparently final) volume in the publisher'sRobert E. Howard Library, this collection showcases several stories thatwere not published until decades after the author's tragic death. Whetherclassic fantasy ("The Voice of El-Lil"), modern horror ("The Haunter of theRing"), or mystical adventure ("King of the Forgotten People"), they allcontain the dark, vivid poetry that makes Howard stand out as a memorable pulp writer. The publishers are to beespecially commended for their efforts to restore the original--albeitoften racially and sexually "politically incorrect"--texts throughout theRobert E. Howard Library. The author was undeniably a man of his time; weshould be thankful so much of his work is timeless. --Stanley Wiater ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

ignore the illustration!
this is a great collection of horror stories. perhaps not particularly well invented or original, but excellently written, good descriptions of the primal fear in man, great descriptions, and the suspence never lacking.

Yep, Indiana Jones-style adventure
Most of the tales in this volume are in 1st-person; however, the reader would do well to remember that sometimes stories may chronicle a *deceased* narrator. For one thing, the style I refer to as "flashback/present" involves a present-day narrator who, in the midst of the present-day story, recalls a dramatic story of a past life, which (while complete in itself, as a story) fills in background for the present story. Some stories end in tragedy, some in triumph - and others in both.

Please take time to appreciate sly Lovecraft references, e.g. "the Necronomicon in the original Greek translation" (as opposed to the Latin translation). Lovecraft and Howard are described in GURPS Who's Who 1 & 2 (respectively), including their long-distance friendship, if you're interested.

"The Voice of El-Lil" - The narrator meets a man who once found the lost city of Eridu - founded by refugees from the fall of Old Eridu in Sumeria, 4000 years ago. He still can't bear the sound of gongs, which bring back the memory of the temple of El-Lil.

"The Cairn on the Headland" - Style: 1st-person flashback/present, where the flashback is one of Howard's takes on Clontarf, the battle that ended the Dark Ages by breaking the back of the sea-rovers. Why was a great cairn raised on the battle-plain, when the rovers couldn't stay to bury their dead? And why, ever after, was it worth a man's life to carry holly within a mile of Grimmin's Headland?

"Casonetto's Last Song" - Casonetto, the great tenor, ordered the destruction of all his recordings before his execution - save one, which he arranged to have mailed to the narrator, who exposed his murderous cult to the authorities. What song has he sent to the man responsible for his death?

"The Cobra in the Dream", "The Dream Snake" - These stories, while different, each have at their core a poor devil tormented by a recurring nightmare, in which a snake comes closer and closer to killing him with each repetition of the dream. In the end, the victim fears that his next dream will bring his death - so that he at last confides in the narrator (a different person in each story).

"Dig Me No Grave" - "...I shall need none." Such were the final words of the will of John Grimlan, which he handed to Conrad, his executor, with instructions for Conrad to carry out even if Grimlan later weakened and tried to countermand his orders. Now Conrad has asked Kirowan (in his first appearance, and who is narrating) to accompany him as he carries out Grimlan's request.

"The Haunter of the Ring" - Evelyn Gordon's ex-suitor finally sent a belated wedding present - and now she's tried 3 times to kill her husband, with no memory of doing so. Not that there could be any connection...

"Dermod's Bane" - Kirowan, the narrator, was advised to seek out Galway, in the hope that the salt sea or Ireland itself might ease his grief at his sister's death. To this day, the great tree known as Dermod's Bane marks the spot where his ancestor killed his great enemy...

"King of the Forgotten People" - The forgotten people in this instance are human, for once - a pleasure city built for Genghis Khan, rediscovered by a scientist seeking a place to conduct research without pesky restrictions about safety, live subjects, and the like. Unfortunately, Barlow didn't reckon with his wife; despite their bad marriage, she felt duty-bound to send Brill on an expedition to discover Barlow's fate. (The story centers around Brill, although it's one of the few in this volume written in 3rd person.)

"The Children of the Night" - Style: 1st-person flashback/present. Kirowan appears in passing; the narrator is also that of 'Haunter of the Ring'. If you like this one, check out "The Shadow Kingdom" (a Kull story) with its debased snake-people.

"The Hyena" - The narrator, a tenderfoot in Africa, isn't very bright - he can't quite reason from A to B to C, as Tey would have put it. A) A local chief quarreled with a widely respected fetish-man, B) the chief was killed by a hyena, and C) everyone is now terrified of the fetish-man...

"People of the Black Coast" - Style: narrated by a man whose fiancee was flying him from Manila to Guam - only to crash on an unknown island of steep cliffs and echoing silence. Deserted? You wish...

"The Fire of Asshurbanipal" - If you're going to go looking for treasure in lost cities, take my advice: don't pick one that got a special mention in the Necronomicon.

Exciting adventure ! ! !
If you like the Indiana Jones films - as most people in the planet did - this is a book for you.

I'm inclined to believe that Robert E. Howard, along with other pulp writers, are the inspiration for many films of decades later, up to this day... This book is a collection of such influences: adventure in the wilderness; quests for old tombs in eerie places; ancient horrors reborn; and tough guys - plenty of them, ready to punch, smite and shoot their ways through hordes of mean enemies.

On a side note, when you pick this book, try ignoring the fact that it's filled with racist undertones. If you leave that aside, I believe you'll have great fun. For this book has the essence of adventure.

Howard's short stories still enthrall the modern reader.
This collection of short stories by the late Robert E. Howard contains much of his lesser known efforts. While most Howard tales do feature a hero cast from a standard mold, these stories do not really contain the sword and sorcery "Conan" figures, as has been advertised elsewhere. The heroes in these tales are much more akin to "Indiana Jones" than to Conan of Cimmeria. The tales appear to be set in the 1920's and 30's (modern time for Howard) and star wandering adventurers of the archaeologist type. There are a couple run of the mill tales, but by and large most every story has the "Weird Tales" essence of action and bizarreness as well as the magical Howard prose. Highly enjoyable. I wish fiction like this was still being written and published today. ... Read more

Product Description
"The Man Who Returned" (1934) by Edmond Hamilton; "Spider Mansion" (1942) by Fritz Leiber; "A Question of Etiquette" (1942) by Robert Bloch; "The Sea Witch" (1937) by Nictzin Dyalhis; "The Strange High House in the Mist" (1931) by H. P. Lovecraft; "The Drifting Snow" (1939) by August Derleth; "The Body-Masters" (1935) by Frank Belknap Long; "Pigeons from Hell" (1938) by Robert E. Howard. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Old Fashioned and Uneven
Pyramid Books published three paperback anthologies of stories from _Weird Tales_ in the early 1960s: _The Unexpected_ (1961), _Weird Tales_ (1964), and _Worlds of Weird_ (1965). All three credit Leo Margulies as the editor. But according to _The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction_ (1995), Sam Moskowitz ghost edited the last two. This seems likely. The first book consists of more modern-- and generally better-- stories. The latter two books are more old fashioned and uneven in quality. But perhaps they come a bit closer to giving the reader the flavor of the magazine during its golden years.

_Weird Tales_ (1964) consists of eight stories published between 1931 and 1942. The stories are: Edmond Hamilton's "The Man Who Returned," Fritz Leiber's "Spider Mansion," Robert Bloch's "A Question of Etiquette," Nictzin Dyalhis's "The Sea Witch," H.P. Lovecraft's "The Strange High House in the Mist," August W. Derleth's "The Drifting Snow," Frank Belknap Long's "The Body Masters," and Robert E. Howard's "Pigeons From Hell". Only the Leiber and the Bloch were not purchased by Farnsworth Wright, the greatest editor of _Weird Tales_.

Let us dispense with several stories straightaway. The Howard is absolutely awful-- from its ridiculous title to its silly plot to its purple prose to its blatant racism. The Derleth is less offensive, but it is little more than a stock variation of a vampire story. The Long is a heavy-handed science fiction satire of the sort that became obsolete after the thirties. The Bloch is mildly amusing but trite and fairly predictable. The other four stories, however, deserve a bit more attention.

Nictzin Dyalhis was a chemist and short story writer who sold a small handful of stories to _Weird Tales_ over the years. I believe that he has been somewhat overrated as an author, but "The Sea Witch" is still a good story-- a pleasant romance with well-rounded characters.

I am not a keen admirer of H.P. Lovecraft, especially his dream stories. But "The Strange High House in the Mist" is one of his better yarns; and the sights that you will see through the leaded bulls-eye windows will stay with you, even if they slip away from the mind of the hero. It is a sort of companion piece to "The Terrible Old Man".

The plot of the Hamilton story is outlandish and unbelieveable if you stop to think about it. But it is still a nicely done character study. It begins where a lot of Edgar Alan Poe stories end. A man returns from the grave. But he then discovers that his life was not what he thought it to be.

"Spider Mansion," like "Pigeons From Hell," is an Old Dark House story. Most ODH tales are patently ridiculous, and so it is here. But this dish is served up with panache and style and a poker face. Leiber actually gets away with his nonsense. This is the most entertaining story in the anthology.

How much you will enjoy this book will depend on how much affection you have for what was billed as "the unique magazine". If you have a weakness for ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night, for cemeteries and haunted houses, for slavering batrachian monsters in shuttered rooms, and for eldrich horrors waiting in jungle temples for luckless travelers... Well then, you may find that this book will provide you with a pleasant hour or two. ... Read more

Product Description
Robert E. Howard came into the fiction magazine scene virtually on Dashell Hammett's heels. By that time Howard was a full-fledged professional writer; he was willing to try any marketplace to make a living. Despite an aversion to the detective formula, he wrote the tales in Graveyard Rats during the same years he chronicled the adventures of Conan. This collection features a new introduction by scholar Don Herron, editor of "The Dark Barbarian," the definitive look at the life and work of Robert E. Howard. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Graveyard Rats and others
Howard sold these stories to the detective pulps, but there isnt much detectin' going on. With some minor changes the heros could be any of Howard's big beefy characters.All of the stories have some supernatural elements, african ju-ju men,or evil orential Fu Manchu types."The Tombs Secret" is pretty good,as not too many stories revolve around dental work. "Graveyard Rats is fairly creepy, but the biggest mystery is what the title "Fangs of Gold" has to do with that story. The other four stories are pretty standard pulp fare. Howard's detective stories are hard to come by, so if you are a fan its worth it, even if its kind of pricey.If you are just getting interested in R.E.H., start elsewhere.

Not Free SF Reader
Generally some detective types dealing with weird stuff.

Graveyard Rats and Others : BLACK TALONS - Robert E. Howard
Graveyard Rats and Others : FANGS OF GOLD - Robert E. Howard
Graveyard Rats and Others : THE TOMB'S SECRET - Robert E. Howard
Graveyard Rats and Others : NAMES IN THE BLACK BOOK - Robert E. Howard
Graveyard Rats and Others : GRAVEYARD RATS - Robert E. Howard
Graveyard Rats and Others : BLACK WIND BLOWING - Robert E. Howard


Brill's execution murder postponed by leopard man.

3 out of 5


Swamp Cat more voodoo than tiger Steve Harrison finds, knife work here.

3 out of 5


Murdered men, murdered Mongol murderers, and more. What else could it be but a secret Oriental formula plot? Or so Brock Rollins discovers, among other strange things.

3 out of 5


Harrison has a few problems on river street. There are bad Khans around. Ok, how many stories are the Khans the good guys? No, female drummers don't count, sorry. The odd scary publication and object to go along with it.

3.5 out of 5


Rodents start at the head, not the knees, as far as human bodies go, as scared men have Harrison on the trail of a murderer.

3.5 out of 5


Devil cult's family reduction attempt.

3.5 out of 5

A great read
Certainly incomplete, but a great thumping read for fans and folks unfamiliar with Robert E. Howard. Black talons and others are terrific tales of the era. A tad pricey, but a durable volume of tales.

Detectives in the Pines
This is an incomplete collection of Howard's detective and weird menace stories.The contents are

Black Talons / Fangs of Gold / The Tomb's Secret / Names in the Black Book / Graveyard Rats / Black Wind Blowing

About half of these have appeared in other, mass-market books; the others have been hard to come by, so the collection is welcome for that reason.

However, the price is pretty steep for 6 stories, and lesser Howard ones at that.Can the rights to these stories have been that expensive?Baen managed to publish 7 mass-market paperback Howard collections, each of which has about twice as many stories as this, for about $6-7 per book.Wandering Star also publishes expensive Howard collections, but those are of the widely known characters, in deluxe editions with illustrations.No illustrations here, aside from the generic, apparently public-domain cover illo.

There's also an introduction by Howard scholar Don Herron, but it doesn't add much, if any, value.

If you're a Howard fan, you'll want this book.Even lesser Howard is better than some other people.But I can't see the general public wanting to spend this much money for so little. ... Read more

Product Description
Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, King Kull, and others that defined heroic fantasy, lived and died in the small town of Cross Plains, Texas. While his books remain in print, Howard himself has fallen into obscurity, his life mired in speculation and half-truth. This engaging biography traces the roots of his writings, correcting long-standing misconceptions, and offers a tour of Howard's world as he saw it: through his own incomparable imagination. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Entertaining and interesting picture of REH's life & work
Read this book in a single sitting, it does have a few noticable editing snafus but the overall quality of the editing and writing were excellent. Giving the background of oil boom and depression era texas and delving into his personal relationships was more entertaining and informative than I'd imagined. The only true complaint I have about it is the brevity of the conan and kull discussions but also enjoyed the wider view of his body of work in chronological order the legal battles and rewrites of conan in the last chapter was a little dry but very interesting as well.
Overall a very good read I recommend it wholeheartedly!

Just Getting Started.
I was thrilled to finally read this book.I live in Brownwood, Tx and Cross Plains is only 30 miles away.Before I read this book, I was given a tour of Robert E. Howard's home and I found it fascinating.R.E.H. is someone I had always been interested in so when I came across Blood and Thunder, I was more than eager to read it.

Mark Finn done a great job writing this.Everything from the history of Cross Plains and Brownwood (so you get the overall mood of a growing Texas town) to the facts of Robert's youth into adulthood.I just fell into that time period and soaked everything in.The letters to H.P. Lovecraft that were mixed in seemed to me as an added bonus.All in all, it has inspired me to seek out more information and other books.I have since bought the Del Rey Book, The Horror Stories of R.E.H. and have dived into that.

I would strongly recommend anyone interested in Robert E. Howard in reading this.And honestly any writers (Texan or otherwise) that think they'll never be recognized or succeed with their work.This book really showed that if you're wiling enough to work at it and never give up doing what you love, then you can overcome everything and accomplish what you want.

The Story Teller's Story Teller
Mark Finn's biography of Robert E. Howard is an interesting read & well worth the time for any fan of REH's work. Mr. Finn's examination of Howard by referencing his Texas roots has been mentioned by other reviewers & I'll not echo that here. Let me just say that I believe this treatment allows for a very unique & convincing testament that a writer's environment can & does influence his work.
What I enjoyed the most about this book, though, is Mr. Finn's documenting that REH was first & foremost a story teller. I firmly believe that this was the reason the man wrote in so many different genres. He wanted to tell a great story & sought an eager audience for his work. Yes, a great deal of his prose can certainly stand alone on its literary merit. I don't think, however, that this was as important to REH as the tale itself. As far as I'm concerned, on this he had no equal. I challenge anyone seeking a great tale of action/adventure to spend some time with Mr. Howard's work. You'll be glad that you did.
The last point I'd like to make concerns Mr. Finn's portrayal of REH as a relatively normal, though somewhat fragile, human being given his circumstances & environment. It's funny to think of such a giant of a physical speciman who enjoyed engaging in fistfights as fragile, but I believe Mr. Finn proves this assertion. Why is it that so many creative geniuses seem to be tormented by demons who eventually consume them? I can quickly name Howard, Van Gough, & Cobain in different disciplines. A lengthy list could easily be compiled in a short time. I appreciate that he doesn't seek to sensationalize REH's story as other's have done. Mr. Finn draws upon all of the material he had presented on his subject to explain the suicide. He doesn't attempt to make an apology or rationalize the act. He makes the case that, to REH, suicide was the final confirmation that he alone held control over his existence. Mr. Finn asserts & I agree that REH saw it as an act of bravery rather than of cowardice. No, this isn't Society's view, but it was Howard's.
All of these things & an examination of the Howard mythology makes for a fascinating book. A great & worthy read & congratulations to the author!

A worthy Biography, and innovative in form
Early into this superb biography on the Late, Great Robert E. Howard, Mark Finn discusses the difficulty of getting to the facts in Mr. Howards' life.Many of his own accounts of himself are exaggerated when told to friends through mail correspondence.His parents were both prone to trumping up their ancestors' feats and accomplishments as well, thus feeding Howards tendency of spinning autobiographical yarns.By extension, it is only natural that such a gifted embellisher would end up with a flair for pulp writing.

Mark Finn has found a way to make this an asset for understanding Howard's life and times, and how his environment shaped his fiction.Picture this: A booming center of humanity.Imperialistic men wanting to consolidate power, with corrupt officials only too eager to help. The rich land attracting all types of freebooters, and all the vice dealers who tail behind them to take their wages.Does this sound like it could be Boomtown Texas? Does it also sound equally like a Stygian outpost of Conan's Hyborian Age?Finn's connections are startling and illuminating.

If you are thinking after I say this that perhaps Finn has failed to capture the facts on Howard's life, rest assured.Finn is well researched, and has an obvious fondness for Howard and desire to see the record set straight about this man's prolific but tragically short life.He also desires, like many readers and authors who come after him, to acknowledge Howard as a gifted and influential writer, not just in pulp, but in popular literature. PERIOD.The real joy, however, is seeing how Finn weaves this all together with gifted storytelling in his own right to make an incredibly entertaining and simultaneously informative page turner.It is seriously one of the most accomplished works of non-fiction I have come across in terms of creativity.

Ultimately, even without the clever and entertaining structure, this would still remain the best Bio on Howard to date.No new info is likely to surface at this point that Finn hasn't covered, and there will not be many people left who remember Robert first-hand much longer, making this the Definitive Biography.

A must for R.E. Howard fans, and a definite reccomendation to anyone who appreciates the art of the Biography.

Excellent
This book explores the life and times of one of the most famous writers ever to come out of the state of Texas. During his brief writing career in the 1920s and 1930s, Robert E. Howard did a lot more for imaginative literature than simply create the character of Conan the Cimmerian.

In the early 1900s, Texas was experiencing an oil boom. Practically overnight, a town would spring up around oil wells, bringing all sorts of people, from roughnecks to work the wells, to barkeepers to prostitutes. They would stay until the oil ran out, then move on to the next boom town. Howard grew up in one boom town after another; Isaac, his father, was a frontier doctor, so they also followed the oil. Howard got to see, up close and personal, the dark underside of civilization, and it disgusted him. Finally settling in Cross Plains, he was a voracious reader who hated the regimentation of school. He lived on pulp magazines, like Weird Tales, available at the local general store. Howard was the shy, quiet kid in town with no interest in joining the oil boom.

A major influence on Howard's development as a writer was the Texas tradition of telling tall tales. Isaac was an expert spinner of tales, and in her own way, Hester, his mother and an Irish immigrant, was pretty good at it, too. Hester had tuberculosis for most of Robert's life, which forced him to stay home and help take care of her, because Isaac was frequently gone for days on his "rounds." After he became a published author, Howard was one of the mainstays at Weird Tales. He sent them all sorts of stories, usually set in the distant past, showing civilizations that had already degraded into barbarism (like Texas of the early 20th Century). In those days, pulp magazines usually paid half a cent to one cent per word, payment was usually on publication, which could be several months after acceptance, and even then, payment was sporadic. Howard spent hours a day at his typewriter, writing boxing stories (a huge interest of his), poetry and westerns, along with tales of Conan, his most famous creation.

Anyone who has ever picked up a pulp magazine, or who knows REH as more than just the creator of Conan, will love this book, as I did. While Howard's books are still in print, Howard's life has fallen into obscurity. This book does a really good job of remedying that situation.

... Read more

Product Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook contains twenty-one western stories by Robert E. Howard, the creator of the sword-and-sorcery hero 'Conan.'This collection contains an active table of contents for easy navigation.


Contents:

Breckinridge Elkins Stories

Breckinridge Elkins
A Gent from Bear Creek (novella)
Cupid from Bear Creek
Evil Deeds at Red Cougar
Guns of the Mountains
High Horse Rampage
No Cowherders Wanted
Pilgrims to the Pecos
Pistol Politics
Sharp’s Gun Serenade
Texas John Alden
The Apache Mountain War
The Conquerin’ Hero of the Humbolts
The Feud Buster
The Haunted Mountain
The Riot at Cougar Paw
The Road to Bear Creek
The Scalp Hunter
War on Bear Creek

Other Works

The Vultures of Whapeton
While Smoke Rolled
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nice collectible for serious fans.
Glenn Lord compiles this limited edition hardcover of Robert E. Howard's horror and supernatural poems.They were originally published in Weird Tales and other publications of the time.Howard is most famous for his Conan stories.If you read any of them, you would find the same sort of power firing up your imagination in these poems.REH's range of great characters goes beyond Conan.The pen and ink illustrations by Keiko Nelson are nicely detailed complementing the dark, archaic nature of the poems.I only wish for more. Always Comes Evening: Poetry by Robert E. Howard ... Read more