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Post by dem on Oct 23, 2008 8:40:17 GMT
From old place, but souped up loads! Robert E. Howard - Pigeons From Hell & Other Weird & Fantastic Tales (Zebra, June 1976)  Jeff Jones
Pigeons From Hell
The Gods Of Bal-Sagoth
People Of The Dark
Children Of The Night
The Dead Remember
The Man On The Ground
The Garden Fear
The Hyena
Dig Me No Grave
The Dream Snake
In The Forest Of Villefere
Old Garfield's Heart
The Voice Of El-Lil All that great imagery in the title story and some bozo decides to go with a terry dactyl and the dinosaurs cover? Selection concerns itself for the most part with his pure horror stories. In Pigeons From Hell, perhaps the ultimate pulp take on the haunted house story, Griswell and his friend Branner are enjoying a walking holiday in New England when they take the dreadful decision to doss down for the night at the dark and foreboding Blassenville Manor. Undead voodoo mama Celia Blassenville - "was that thing a woman once?" - doesn't care for intruders, and her axe is always handy ..... Likewise, The Garden Fear pushes all the right buttons at the same time: Hunwolf elopes with Gudrun, having killed the head of his tribe. As they make their way South, Gudrun is abducted by a winged man, whose home is an ancient stone tower surrounded by blood-drinking flowers. When he gets bored, he feeds them a human victim. This was first published in Marvel Tales magazine, which, by all accounts, was always a little strange. The introduction is mostly taken up with Howard's letter to Weird Tales readers telling them a little about himself. Glenn Lord also edited a magazine, The Howard Collector, and Ace published a paperback containing the best material as The Howard Collector: By And About Robert E. Howard (April 1979). Blurb
FIRST PUBLICATION! A C0LLECT0R'S ITEM
The world of heroic fantasy suffered a tragic loss with the passing of Robert E. Howard. But "REH" left behind a vast body of work displaying a breadth of vision only to be expected from the creator of Conan the Barbarian and his fabled Hyborian Age. Lovingly and painstakingly collected over the years by editor Glenn Lord, these astonishing works were presented to the world in the magazine The Howard Collector.
Now the best of that collection appears here for the first time in book form. Here are the many facets of Howard's glittering worlds:
• Visions, Howard's view of Hell
• Marching Song of Connacht, the battle-cry of a race of heroes
• The Beast from the Abyss, the truth behind the cat
• Solomon Kane's Homecoming, the stirring
return of the Puritan crusader. And more...
Now, you too can become a Howard Collector |
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Post by benedictjjones on Oct 24, 2008 15:01:56 GMT
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Post by fullbreakfast on Oct 24, 2008 22:32:03 GMT
FIRST PUBLICATION! A C0LLECT0R'S ITEM
The world of heroic fantasy suffered a tragic loss with the passing of Robert E. Howard. But "REH" left behind a vast body of work displaying a breadth of vision only to be expected from the creator of Conan the Barbarian and his fabled Hyborian Age. Lovingly and painstakingly collected over the years by editor Glenn Lord, these astonishing works were presented to the world in the magazine The Howard Collector.
Now the best of that collection appears here for the first time in book form. Here are the many facets of Howard's glittering worlds:
• Visions, Howard's view of Hell
• Marching Song of Connacht, the battle-cry of a race of heroes
• The Beast from the Abyss, the truth behind the cat
• Solomon Kane's Homecoming, the stirring
return of the Puritan crusader. And more...
Now, you too can become a Howard Collector[/center][/color][/quote] I had that as a nipper! Fished out of a bargain bin at Woolies for about 30p. I was disappointed at the time as the cover is quite misleading - little or no swords 'n' sorcery action is included. Instead it's a bit of a motley collection of odds and ends including bad poetry and some 'humourous' material as I recall - 'Musings of a Moron'...? Gawd knows what happened to the book, but I certainly don't have it any more. |
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Post by dem on Oct 25, 2008 6:34:41 GMT
it's a bit of a motley collection of odds and ends including bad poetry and some 'humourous' material as I recall - 'Musings of a Moron'...? Yeah, that's the one. I know there's little chance of me reading all of it, but much of the non-fiction content has appeal beyond the Howard completist. His letters - to Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Derleth, R. H. Barlow, Emil Petaja, E. Hoffman-Price and Farnsworth Wright - are fascinating. I think Ade made the point that these guys would probably have been message board fiends if they were around today! |
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Post by fullbreakfast on Oct 25, 2008 10:08:03 GMT
Yeah, that's the one. I know there's little chance of me reading all of it, but much of the non-fiction content has appeal beyond the Howard completist. His letters - to Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Derleth, R. H. Barlow, Emil Petaja, E. Hoffman-Price and Farnsworth Wright - are fascinating. I think Ade made the point that these guys would probably have been message board fiends if they were around today! I'd forgotten about the letters, which were wasted on me at the time, though would be of great interest now! I read the Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith not long ago, very worthwhile if you're a fan of his stuff or the Weird Tales group generally. Favourite quote, from a letter to Donald Wandrei: "Misanthropy is the inevitable end if you have both sense and sensibility. But it's a waste of spiritual energy: people aren't worth despising." Ever the ray of sunshine. |
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Post by jkdunham on Oct 26, 2008 17:53:27 GMT
 The Haunter of the Ring & Other Tales by Robert E. Howard Compiled and introduced by M. J. Elliott (Wordsworth Editions 2008) IntroductionIn The Forest of Villefore Wolfshead The Dream Snake The Hyena Sea Curse Skull-Face The Fearsome Touch of Death The Children of the Night The Black Stone The Thing On the Roof The Horror from the Mound People of the Dark The Cairn on the Headland Black Talons Fangs of Gold Names in the Black Book The Haunter of the Ring Graveyard Rats Black Wind Blowing The Fire of Asshurbanipal Pigeons from Hell Thought it made sense to shift this over from the Wordsworths to a more Howard-centred thread before going on with it. Been struggling with the best way to broach, or maybe breach, this cracking collection - there's just so much here I could rattle on about. Another problem, if that's the word, is M. J. Elliot's introduction (assuming that you're going to buy this book at some point, and you really should) in that, every time I've thought of something to say about a particular story, i.e., 'this would've made a good Conan adventure, blah blah, reincarnation, blah blah, Cthulhu Mythos, blah blah', I look back at the introduction and see that Elliot's already mentioned it. The following quote from Ade helpfully provides me with one way in; I was reading about Howard's relationship with Lovecraft tonight. They corresponded on many subjects though each came from different political sensibilities... However when it came to writing pulp - they absolutely respected each other and in fact Howard used some Cthullu stuff in his works - similarily Lovecraft used Howard's serpent men in one story. I love the idea of these two titans arguing via letter... One thing that seems to come through very strongly in many of these stories, and in the fragments of letters to Lovecraft quoted in the introduction, is that whatever Lovecraft might have thought of Howard, Howard (for a time at least) was in total awe of the gentleman from Providence. I agree that it was a fascinating relationship in many ways but I'm not entirely convinced that the subsequent influence of Lovecraft's fiction on Howard's work really did 'Two-Gun Bob' any great favours. Lovecraft was a writer of rare imagination and produced some marvellously considered works of the macabre but I do find he could sometimes be a little... bloodless. Not an adjective you'd ever use in describing Howard's thundering tales. Howard was most at home (in his head anyway) galloping across open plains, veldts, tundras, and desert wastes. Hewing and hacking and slashing his way through pages fairly dripping with grue. Lovecraft... well, he didn't get out much, did he? Consequently, when Howard tries to incorporate elements of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Whatsit into his writing it... well, it's quite touching in a way but, if anything, it just seems to slow him down. I'll try and expand on this later when (if?) I get round to writing about particular stories. Earlier in this thread, Craig used the word 'thrilling' to describe a particular piece of Howard's writing. Thrilling is exactly the word. Another might be 'exciting'. There's a thread somewhere around here about books you've bought recently which have excited you. To be honest, I don't generally get particularly excited by books these days (even old ones). They might be a lot of fun, I might really enjoy them, but I'm rarely, you know, gripped. Reading some of these stories though, there's no two ways about it - this is exciting stuff. At his best, when Howard had the bit between his teeth and the blood was pumping, there are very few (if any) other writers of pulp fiction who can match him for sheer pulse-racing, page-turning, adventure. Excuse me, I have to go and lie down for a bit. I'll get back to you later... |
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Post by benedictjjones on Oct 26, 2008 21:40:50 GMT
definitely going to get that wordsworth edition.
i have the lovecraft 'biography in letters' master of the unseen world which is very good.
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Post by jkdunham on Oct 27, 2008 1:00:15 GMT
...that's better. Now, where were we?
In the Forest of Villefore
One evening de Montour of Normandy finds himself lost in the woods where he encounters a stranger, Carolus le Loup. With a name like that it's no great surprise when le Loup leads our man up the forest path and suddenly breaks into his Dance of the Wolf routine. Luckily for de Montour, he's had the foresight to keep his wits and his dagger about him. However, as he'll soon learn to his cost;
"...if a werewolf is slain while a wolf, then he is slain, but if he is a slain as a man, then his half-soul will haunt his slayer forever."
A short piece which serves as little more than a preamble for the much longer and far better...
Wolfshead
Pierre, a "reckless young cavalier" arrives in Africa to visit his friend, the Portuguese slave trader Dom Vincente. Among the guests gathered in Dom Vincente's castle is a strange, claw-marked man with a haunted look about him; one de Montour, from Normandy.
Soon local woodcutters are turning up dead, savaged by some wild beast and there's talk amongst the natives of bad ju ju in the form of a leopard-man.
Before long, death is also stalking the dimly-lit corridors of the castle as guests are ripped apart or have their dainty night-garments torn to shreds exposing their lovely bodies. What hellish fiend is at work here?
Well, we already know that but just because you're being haunted by the evil spirit of a dead werewolf doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. Sometimes it's difficult to know exactly who you can trust.
There's all sorts going on in "Wolfshead" and it's as much an epic jungle adventure as anything else, with Howard managing to put his own stamp on things with his novel spin on matters lycanthropic.
The native dialogue is rubbish, mind - "Heap claw! ...claw um woman, claw um pick'nin" - but everyone's having so much fun getting torn to pieces and losing their nighties that it hardly seems worth worrying about.
The Hyena
More African shape-shifting shenanigans. It's a bit Rider Haggard (as Elliot points out in his introduction) and arguably proto-Dennis Wheatley (see "The Snake"), but no less an enjoyable pulp romp for all that.
Fresh from Virginia, Steve has a spot of trouble with Senecoza, the fetish-man. Not to mention golden-haired Ellen Farrel, who just can't seem to get it into her pretty, rosy-cheeked little head that "Africa is no place for a woman."
As we join Steve giving his native bearer a good beating for his insolence, it's tempting to bring up that whole issue of Howard's racial attitudes.
But we don't have to because Howard does it for us;
"...race instinct and prejudice were strong in me, and doubtless the feeling of inferiority which Senecoza constantly inspired in me had a great deal to do with my antipathy for him."
I think that shows an extraordinary level of self-awareness. If only he was that perceptive when it comes to women;
"...maddened by the touch of her soft body... I wanted to grovel in the dust at her feet and kiss her dainty shoes. Will women never learn the effect they have on men?"
Oh, I think they have, Bob. I think they have.
The Children of the Night
Enjoying a scholarly chat one evening with Professor Kirowan and friends, John O'Donnel comes over all Aryan following a knock on the head with a pygmy warhammer.
"The Children of the Night" is perhaps the best example I can give of what could be seen as the detrimental effect of Howard's Lovecraft fixation around this time. It almost seems like the first four or five pages are written purely for Lovecraft's benefit. Page after page devoted to heated discussion about 'dolichocephalic peoples', name-dropping The Necronomicon, Yog Sothoth, Tsathoggua, et al, and what a 'master horror-tale' "The Call of Cthulhu" is - it might make for interesting correspondence but it's hardly stirring stuff. Then suddenly we're transported back through the mists of time and Howard comes into his own;
"...I smashed skulls, split heads, splintered bones, scattered blood and brains in one red sacrifice to Il-marinen, god of the Sword People."
John O'Donnel relives his previous life as Aryara, whose hunting party are ambushed by the evil, reptilian Children of the Night sending him off on a bezerk killing spree. It's rattling good stuff.
Despite suffering slightly from what might be described as the Curse of Cthulhu, "The Children of the Night" is - at its heart - a good yarn (provided you keep all the mad Aryan stuff in perspective). If only Howard had, literally, cut to the chase a bit sooner and given us less of the brachycephalicism and more...
"...I hacked off my victim's hideous head, and carrying it in my left hand, went up the serpent-path...
as I strode swiftly along the path... blood splashed beside my feet at every step from the severed jugular of my foe..."
The Fire of Asshurbanipal
Our hero; a wanderer, a soldier of fortune, a seeker of treasure, searches for a fabled, flaming gem said to rest in the skeletal hand of a long-dead king, still seated on his throne in the halls of an ancient, cursed city of black stone. Yep, this is classic, pure-bred, vintage REH. And passing references to The Necronomicon and the appearance of a tentacled toad-thing from the abyss do nothing to change that - Howard's tentacled toad-thing isn't just some nameless lurking horror, it's coming up from the depths and it's ripping off heads. For me this is far and away REH's most successful brush with things Lovecraftian because it's the Cthulhu Mythos done, erm... Howard's way.
One minute we're up to our ankles in djinn-haunted desert sands, the next we're up to our knees in blood and guts (and I'm talking actual entrails). Screaming tribesman, split skulls, and brains-to-the-wall swashbuckling action. My only quibble with this is that the story's main protagonist is one of what M. J. Elliot dubs Howard's "heroic Steve" contingent.
Steves were rife in the heroic world of Robert E. Howard, which is fine if we're dealing with a cowboy, a two-fisted prizefighter, a not-so-great white hunter, or a tough Chinatown cop, but stuck here in "The Fire of Asshurbanipal", despite its contemporary setting, he just sounds wrong somehow. You know, there's a good reason why Howard isn't remembered as the creator of Steve The Barbarian - it's because sometimes Steve's a bloody silly name.
The Black Stone
"...in the chapters of the Black Book, which range from startling clarity of exposition to murky ambiguity, there are statements and hints to freeze the blood of a thinking man."
No, it's not another review of the latest from Mortbury Press, the Black Book in question here is Howard's own contribution to Cthulhu-lit, namely (or should that be namelessly?) 'Unaussprechlichen Kulten' (Dusseldorf, 1839) by the mad German Von Junzt.
His interest piqued by a bit of Von Junzt's murky ambiguity, our anonymous narrator (let's call him Steve) heads off to the village of Stregoicavar in Hungary to do some research on the mysterious Black Stone, which has stood - shrouded in secrecy and fir trees - since time immaterial, i.e., for ages. Those foolish enough to fall asleep too close to the stone on Midsummer Night are said to become raving lunatics or die horribly. Possibly both. Naturally, come Midsummer Night, 'Steve' decides The Black Stone sounds like the ideal place for a little nap.
I first read "The Black Stone" tucked up in bed with Christopher Lee's 'X' Certificate and even now I still vividly remember the bit with the baby's head. Oddly though, I'd completely forgotten about the naked woman being flagellated into a state of ecstatic frenzy with a bunch of fir twigs. Clearly I was too young to appreciate it back then. Still, it was a nice surprise this time round. In fact, I may read that bit again just to make up for missing it the first time.
The Thing on the Roof
Tussmann journeys to Central America in search of the treasure of the Temple of the Toad. On returning home he finds he's brought back rather more in the way of treasure than he'd bargained for. If only he'd read Von Junzt's Black Book a bit more carefully. If you can't stand the monstrous wallowing toad-god, stay out of the Temple of the Toad - that'd be my advice to Tussman, and to you.
I feel Howard could've made more of the titular Thing on the Roof, but taken together with "The Black Stone", this still makes a satisfyingly disquieting read.
And still loads more stuff in this...
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Post by dem on Oct 31, 2008 8:33:36 GMT
While X is devouring the remainder of The Haunter Of The Ring, some more non-Conan's, mostly to be found in Skull Face.
Here's a quick burst of Solomon Kane in two incredibly violent African adventures.
Wings In The Night (Weird Tales, July 1932). Sadistic Bat people fly down from the mountains to prey upon the villagers. The natives placate them for a time by regularly sacrificing one of their number, binding he or she to a stake and leaving them to be slowly torn to pieces. Kane, having survived an encounter with these winged nightmares, is hailed by the villagers as their savior. When they withhold the next scheduled sacrifice, the Bat people descend and massacre them in their homes. Kane, tortured by frustration and guilt that he could not save them, takes a terrible revenge while temporarily insane, luring the creatures into a hut and burning them alive.
Hills Of The Dead: Kane has to surrender top-billing to his unlikely blood brother, charismatic medicine man N' Longa in this one, which maybe accounts for his being in an even less cheerful mood than ever. The pair join forces to wage war versus the city of vampires and the situation is so serious that the Puritan turns to black magic to destroy these "suckers of souls!". Kane so nearly gets killed in this one - as it is, his body is cruelly torn and he's all but blinded by the teeth and talons of the enemy. But: "Over the skyline they came, hordes on endless hordes - vultures, vultures, vultures! - come to the feast so long denied them. They blackened the sky with their numbers, blotting out the sun ...."
A Man-Eating Jeopard: A Western no less, and a bloody funny one at that, but unmistakenly Howard: "There wasn't no horses tied at the hitching rack. Everything was awful quiet except for the flies buzzing around the blood puddles on the floor. The old bartender was lying across the bar with a gun still in his hand. He'd stopped plenty lead. His Mexican boy was slumped down near the door with his head split open - looked like he'd been hit with an ax. A stranger I'd never seen was stretched out in the dust before the porch, with a bullet hole in his skull." Nick Cave should've recited this to a suitably bump 'n grind accompaniment and stuck it on Murder Ballads between Stagger Lee and O'Malley's Bar!
Black Hound Of Death: Egypt. The psychotic Tope Braxton breaks jail, killing two men in the process. Kirby Garfield, the narrator, goes to warn the reclusive Richard Brent of the escape. Passing through the woods he meets a dying negro, hideously mutilated, who looks as though a pack of dogs have torn him apart, although he insists with his last breath that a white man he was guiding to Brent's hideout performed these abominations.
Garfield is soon attacked himself, but escapes to alert Brent, who obviously knows more than he's letting on about the murder and comes on all terrified at mention of the word "hounds". It transpires that, some years earlier, Brent had left his friend Adam Grimm to be tortured by the Devil Monks of Mongolia while he made a run for it, and these fiends had transformed Grimm into a werewolf. Sworn to vengeance, he has teamed up with Braxton and together they cut a bloody swathe through the land as they hone in on their target. They've also lured Brent's niece, Gloria, from New York for the purpose of skinning her alive.
The 'bloke who gets tortured in the jungle and goes all surly about it' theme is also used to good effect in Seabury Quinn's classic De Grandin, Suicide Chapel.
The Horror From The Mound: Luckless Texan farmer Steve Brill inadvertently releases the undead De Valdez when he disturbs an Indian burial mound. De Valdez celebrates his freedom by killing old Lopez who has written a history of his exploits these past two centuries. While Brill, the typical musclebound Howard hero, is reading through the papers a face appears at the window ....
The Skulls In The Stars: As he travels across the mist-shrouded, swampy fens, Kane is beset by a terrifying, red eyed figure with a terrible laugh. This spectre has already been responsible for the deaths of several men, and Kane is all but shredded by the thing’s claws, which seems to happen to him an awful lot. When the Puritan learns of the reason for the haunting, he dispenses his usual impartial but brutal justice to the miscreant responsible.
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Post by severance on Oct 31, 2008 16:43:25 GMT
Currently going through The Haunter of the Ring collection now, and considering I've got nearly 50 collections by REH, never read The Fearsome Touch of Death before now - and although it's only 5 pages or so, it's a little cracker. While Falred is 'sitting up with the dead' in the house of recently-deceased recluse Old Adam Farrel, he begins to think about man's inherent fear of death and the attributes that the living cloak the dead with because of this fear. Which leads to his sudden belief that Farrel isn't really dead... a lot more subtle than his usual writings, and the ending made me laugh.
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Post by severance on Dec 17, 2008 2:15:44 GMT
I've no intention of hawking a book site I work on, though Dem and Cal know about it, but here are some excuses for Haunter of the Ring synopses I've had to work up:
In the Forest of Villefère (1925) [Short Story]
While de Montour is traversing the forest of Villefère he encounters le Loup, a man wearing a mask...
Wolfshead (1926) [Novelette]
On the coast of Africa, Portuguese adventurer Dom Vincente de Lustro has carved out his own small estate, to which he invites a handful of friends every year. After a guest is brutally murdered, the hunt is on for the killer. But what are they looking for? A leopard? A local member of the leopard-man cult? Or something far more terrifying?
Dream Snake, the (1928) [Short Story]
The narrator tells his companions of a recurring dream he's had since childhood, in which he's pursued through the African savannah by a huge serpent - and recently it's been getting closer...
Hyena, the (1928) [Short Story]
At an East-African trading-post ranch, the narrator comes into conflict with a native, Senecoza. But is Senecoza merely a fetish-man - or something far more deadly...?
Sea Curse (1928) [Short Story]
In the little fishing village of Faring Town an old crone places a curse on the village's two most notorious sailors.
Skull-Face (1929) [Novella]
When the hashish-addicted American, Stephen Costigan - shell-shocked from the Great War - is initiated into the criminal organisation of the mysterious 'Master', Kathulos, his world is irrevocably changed. Who and what is Kathulos? An Egyptian mesmerist? Or something far, far older... and deadlier?
Fearsome Touch of Death, the (1930) [Short Story]
While Falred is 'sitting up with the dead' in the house of recently-deceased recluse Old Adam Farrel, he begins to think about man's inherent fear of death and the attributes that the living cloak the dead with because of this fear.
Children of the Night, the (1931) [Short Story]
Whilst in the company of learned colleagues, John O'Donnel receives a blow to the head from a curious, tiny flint mallet. When he wakes, he is Aryara, a youth of the Sword People, on a disastrous hunting trip to kill the loathsome 'Children of the Night'...
Black Stone, the (1931) [Short Story]
After reading of the existence of an ancient black monolithic structure deep in the mountains of Hungary, the unnamed narrator finally locates it just outside the village of Stregoicavar. While resting near the stone, at Midsummer Night, he experiences a dream - or nightmare - of the terrible rites that were enacted in times past...
Thing on the Roof, the (1932) [Short Story]
The un-named narrator succeeds in acquiring a copy of Von Junzt's Nameless Cults for a rival, Tussmann, who needs it to cross-reference information about an ancient temple in the Honduran jungle. The expedition is not a success, however, and the "treasure" is not what Tussmann had hoped for...
Horror from the Mound, the (1932) [Short Story]
When Steve Brill notices his neighbour going out of his way to avoid an old mound at the edge of his Texas property, he convinces himself that it contains Spanish gold - despite his neighbours' insistence that the mound is far older - and is cursed...
People of the Dark (1932) [Short Story]
John O'Brien goes to Dagon's Cave, supposed last stronghold of 'The Children of the Dark' to kill Richard Brent. A fall means he wakes as Conan, an Irish reaver from the Dark Ages, and the object of his desire, Tamera, flees... into Dagon's Cave.
Cairn on the Headland, the (1933) [Short Story]
James O'Brien is inextricably drawn to an ancient cairn, shunned and feared by the local populace, on Grimmin's Head outside Dublin. His blackmailer, Ortali, wants to open the cairn, to the horror of Meve MacDonnal. But she died 300 years ago!
Black Talons (1933) [Short Story]
When Joe Brill phones the residence of an associate, Jim Reynolds, he is surprised to learn that he supposedly called an hour ago, requesting to meet Reynolds at his lake-side lodge. Upon driving out there, with a detective friend, they find Reynolds' dead body - his throat ripped out!
Fangs of Gold (1934) [Novelette]
Detective Steve Harrison has been pursuing Woon Shang across the American continent. Hearing that a Chinaman entered impenetrable swamp country, he goes in after him - only to find death, betrayal and voodoo.
Names in the Black Book (1934) [Novelette]
Detective Steve Harrison learns that the diabolical crimelord, Erlik Khan, has seemingly returned from the dead with vengeance on his mind, after a friend receives a page from Khan's 'Black Book'...
Haunter of the Ring, the (1934) [Short Story]
When John Kirowan learns that a friends new bride has made repeated attempts to kill him, while remaining oblivious then and now, he suspects that a wedding gift from an old suitor is not the peace-offering it purports to be...
Graveyard Rats (1936) [Novelette]
Fear pervades the Wilkinson household that detective Steve Harrison is called to. The eldest brother, John, was shot down four days ago, and the appearance of his severed head on the mantelpiece during the night sends another brother mad. Is it all the work of Josh Middleton, who's been feuding with the Wilkinson's for years... or is there something to the old story of a Tonkawa chief exacting revenge from beyond the grave?
Black Wind Blowing (1936) [Novelette]
Emmett Glanton receives an urgent plea from a neighbour, John Bruckman, only to find that Bruckman wants him to immediately marry his young niece and ward. Why is Bruckman so anxious to sever all responsibility to the girl? Is it something to do with Joshua, the lumbering halfwit who works for him... or has some misdemeanour from his past finally caught up with him?
Fire of Asshurbanipal, the (1936) [Novelette]
Steve Clarney and his Afghan companion are seeking an ancient City of Evil in the deserts of Arabia, said to contain the accursed jewel 'The Fire of Asshurbanipal'. But they're not the only adventurers after the gem, which turns out to have a demonical protector of its own...
Pigeons from Hell (1938) [Novelette]
Two travellers, Griswell and Branner, stay the night at the old deserted Blassenville house, ignorant of its history and reputation. When Branner is horribly killed, and the fresh corpse tries to kill him, Griswell teams with Buckner, the local sheriff, to uncover the dark secrets of the Blassenvilles...
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Post by dem on Dec 17, 2008 6:29:44 GMT
I've no intention of hawking a book site I work on ..... .... then I'll do it for you 'cause it's just about the worthiest internet project i can think of. I hope you don't mind me quoting your own comment (from the Gruesome Cargoes board, R.I.P.), but it tells the story far better than I could. " Iblist is a project I'm involved with that is trying to create a database of all English language fiction, no matter what genre. A huge task, but we're all committed (or should be committed) and as its purely an amateur labour-of-love project the accuracy of some of our info can't always be 100% guaranteed but we do the best we can. You must realize doing this board that trying to get info on some of these books and authors is almost impossible and involves spending hours trawling the internet to get the tiniest scraps of information verified. " |
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Post by dem on Nov 25, 2011 18:48:48 GMT
Robert E. Howard - The Valley Of The Worm & Others: Skull-face Omnibus Vol 2 (Panther, 1976)  Cover illustration by Chris Achilleos
Robert E. Howard – Which Will Be Scarcely Understood (verse)
H P Lovecraft – Robert Ervin Howard: A Memoriam
The Fire Of Asshurbanipal
A Man-Eating Jeopard
Worms Of The Earth
Kings Of The Night
The Valley Of The Worm
Skulls In The Stars
Rattle Of Bones
The Hills Of The Dead
Wings In The NightBlurb; Robert E. Howard - creator of some of the greatest worlds of heroic fantasy and nightmare horror ever conceived by the mind of man,]
H. P. Lovecraft described Howard as a master of `description of vast megalithic cities of the elder world, around whose dark towers and labyrinthine nether vaults lingers an aura of pre-human fear and necromancy which no other writer could duplicate.'
In the three volumes of Skull-Face Omnibus published by Panther Books you will find a nerve-tautening gallery of tales of superhuman savagery and supernatural evil. Journey back into long-lost eons of time and across the frontiers of the occult with one of the greatest fantasy masters of the century, Robert E. Howard.
A classic collection of tales from the Golden Age of fantasy and horror.The Neville Spearman Skull Face Omnibus hard-cover does the job, but it has its downsides, namely a useless cover and a microscopic print job that is absolute murder on the eyeballs. fortunately, these faults are remedied in the three volume Panther paperback editions, and this is a particularly strong selection.
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Nov 26, 2011 20:03:12 GMT
From old place, but souped up loads! Glenn Lord also edited a magazine, The Howard Collector, and Ace published a paperback containing the best material as The Howard Collector: By And About Robert E. Howard (April 1979). Blurb
FIRST PUBLICATION! A C0LLECT0R'S ITEM
The world of heroic fantasy suffered a tragic loss with the passing of Robert E. Howard. But "REH" left behind a vast body of work displaying a breadth of vision only to be expected from the creator of Conan the Barbarian and his fabled Hyborian Age. Lovingly and painstakingly collected over the years by editor Glenn Lord, these astonishing works were presented to the world in the magazine The Howard Collector.
Now the best of that collection appears here for the first time in book form. Here are the many facets of Howard's glittering worlds:
• Visions, Howard's view of Hell
• Marching Song of Connacht, the battle-cry of a race of heroes
• The Beast from the Abyss, the truth behind the cat
• Solomon Kane's Homecoming, the stirring
return of the Puritan crusader. And more...
Now, you too can become a Howard CollectorI still have this, here's the full Contents: Preface - Glenn Lord I Two Against Tyre Sea Curse The Curse Of The Golden Skull Death's Black Riders Untitled Fragment Spanish Gold On Devil Horse The Heathen The Thessalians Ye College Days Cupid Vs. Pollux Musings Of A Moron Sunday Is A Small Town West Is West Knife, Bullet & Noose Sentiment Midnight Kelly The Conjure-Man With A Set Of Rattlesnake Rattles The Beast From The Abyss Hope Empty Of Meaning Life Soloman Kane's Homecoming (Variant Version) Visions Harvest On With The Play Roads The Bar By The Side Of The Road Marching Song Of Connacht The Legacy Of Tubal-Cain Letters II Robert Ervin Howard - E. Hoffman Price Burkett News - Mrs. T.A. Burns Perhaps For Howard - W. Fraser Sandercombe Letter: E. Hoffman Price to H.P. Lovecraft Letter: Dr. I.M. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft Around The Supper Table - James C. White Letter: Dr. I.M. Howard to E. Hoffman Price The Warrior - Emil Petaja R.E.H. - R.H. Barlow Letter - E. Hoffman Price to Francis T. Laney I speak Of Shattered Spring - Dale Harding Exum Letter: E. Hoffman Price to The AcolyteTo Robert Ervin Howard - Wade Wellman Letter: Harold Preece to Lenore Preece Letter: Harold Preece to Glenn Lord III Acheron - A Revisionary Theory - Robert Yaple Arenjun - Ed Lesko, Jr. Howard's Cannibalising - Fred Blosser Dust - Bryce D. Thompson Conan's Parents - Fred Blosser Nameless Cults: A History - Charles O. Gray After "Recompense" - Wade Wellman |
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Nov 26, 2011 20:49:19 GMT
Gods Of Bal-Sagoth (thought it fitted in more here, than a separate thread) ContentsThe Gods Of Bal-Sagoth Casonetto's Last Song King Of the Forgotten People Usurp The Night The Curse Of The Golden Skull The Shadow Of The Beast Nekht Semerkeht Restless Waters The Isle Of The Eons
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