Robert E. Howard


Books


The king of Sword and Sorcery is REH. And I just got in the mail Shadow Kingdoms v.1 which is first in a proposed 10 volume set of Howards's published Weird Tales stories and poems. What a great writer he was. He took his life much too early at the age of 30.

D


Agreed. No one could touch him for blending violence, description, imagination and heroism together in a break neck pace in less than fifty pages (as most of his Conan stories were). Imagine if he had lived, how many more stories of Conan we would have from this gifted author.


Paul McCarthy wrote:
Agreed. No one could touch him for blending violence, description, imagination and heroism together in a break neck pace in less than fifty pages (as most of his Conan stories were). Imagine if he had lived, how many more stories of Conan we would have from this gifted author.

If REH had lived he would have probably kept writing more great stories. He had such a large body of work by the age of 30 it would have been wondeful to have seen what he could put together by age 70 or 80.

I see they are going to release a book of all of Howard's Bran Mak Morn stories. I like all the attention his material is getting now a days.

D


Do you have "The Coming of Conan", David? It'a collection of Robert's essays and storys of Conan witten in the order that Howard wrote them. Great stuff. I used to have the whole old collection by Howard, and edited by Lyn Carter and L. Sprague de Camp when I was young. Man, how many times did I reread those things. I then bought the art collection of Frank Frazetta (he did the cover for those)wrapped up in five glossy books. Boy, that man could oil paint. He has a whole bunch of sites on the net if you are into fantasy art.


The only thing I would have to add is that I loved the older Conan, "I'm straight forward while all my enemies are scheming" stories, and the younger "What the hell is that, I guess I should kill it" stories, the the stories set in the "middle" seemed to drag and use the same kind of plot devices over an over again.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
David Gehring wrote:
Paul McCarthy wrote:
Agreed. No one could touch him for blending violence, description, imagination and heroism together in a break neck pace in less than fifty pages (as most of his Conan stories were). Imagine if he had lived, how many more stories of Conan we would have from this gifted author.

If REH had lived he would have probably kept writing more great stories. He had such a large body of work by the age of 30 it would have been wondeful to have seen what he could put together by age 70 or 80.

I see they are going to release a book of all of Howard's Bran Mak Morn stories. I like all the attention his material is getting now a days.

D

The Conan comics that Dark Horse has been putting out has been very good. If you have not read them, I suggest going out and getting the trade book.

Sovereign Court

I myself am more of a Soloman Kane fan than a Conan fan. One question did REH did anything else besides Conan,Kane or Bran
I vaguelly recalled a western or a pirate novel or was it a short story?


Paul McCarthy wrote:
Do you have "The Coming of Conan", David? It'a collection of Robert's essays and storys of Conan witten in the order that Howard wrote them. Great stuff. I used to have the whole old collection by Howard, and edited by Lyn Carter and L. Sprague de Camp when I was young. Man, how many times did I reread those things. I then bought the art collection of Frank Frazetta (he did the cover for those)wrapped up in five glossy books. Boy, that man could oil paint. He has a whole bunch of sites on the net if you are into fantasy art.

I'd have to agree. Conan is hands down the best series of sword and sorcery books out there, with a possible tip of the hat to Tolkien. Conan is not just a brute strength fighter, but a person of high intelligence who speaks multiple languages who out thinks almost as many opponents as he massacres. There is a second book in the collection series which I believe contains all of the rest of the Conan stories as written by REH. I actually live in the small town of Peaster, Texas where REH was born. There is no plaque or public awareness of that honor anywhere in the town (which consists of scattered houses, a small convenience store, schools, and a large church). You would think the school mascot would be the "Barbarians" at the very least instead of the Greyhounds. Howard was raised and died in Cross Plains Texas, but was born to a travelling physician and his wife in a relatives home in Peaster.

Scarab Sages

Cold Steel wrote:

I myself am more of a Soloman Kane fan than a Conan fan. One question did REH did anything else besides Conan,Kane or Bran

I vaguelly recalled a western or a pirate novel or was it a short story?

Chaosium has collected Howard's Chthulhu Mythos fiction in an anthology called "Namless Cults". Available at their web-site (Chaosium.com) It has a load of "Two-Gun Bob's" Mythos contribuetions, most notably the Black Book "Unaussprechlichen Kulten"...which let me just say is just kick-ass to lean in and say with a thick, somber German accent to a group you're running Call of Cthulhu for.

He also did Westerns, proto-Indiana Jones style adventures, detective stories, and boxing tales.


Soloman Kane rocks the Casbah! Also, his character El Borak was great. I'm also a bigger fan of Kull than Conan, though.
If you like SK's adventures, you might want to check out Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian Tales.


Byron Grimes wrote:

Soloman Kane rocks the Casbah! Also, his character El Borak was great. I'm also a bigger fan of Kull than Conan, though.

If you like SK's adventures, you might want to check out Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian Tales.

I recently completed my collection of ERB's Martian Tales by hitting the used book stores. It has been many years since I've read them so going threw them again. John Carter was a pretty cool hombre.


I recently saw 2 new paperback books set in the world of Conan at Waldenbooks. Has anyone checked them out?
I'll probably get them.

Scarab Sages

Anything by Robert E. Howard. My personal Favorite: Conan the Barbarian. I have yet to find an author that conpares. My 2 cents.

Thoth-Amon the Atlantian Mindflayerian

Scarab Sages

I haven't checked out the Soloman Kane stories yet, or the Bran Mak Morn stories (although I intend to read both collections). I have been getting the Conan collections, and I've really enjoyed them. Before I got those, however, I found another short story collection of his - The Black Stranger and..something or other (sorry, can't remember). Tha book was what really got me going on his writing.


I pretty much have all of the latest Conan material like _The Coming of Conan_ , _Solomn Kane_, Dark Horse Conan comics, etc...
The comics are really good and right now they have a fantastic adaptation of Howard's _Tower of the Elephant_which I think is one of his finest stories.
I am also glad to see the tpb format being given to the Marvel Conan the Barbarian series. The new coloring is awesome and I hope they continue their run.

D


How bizarre...I was just coming here ot start the same thread.

REH is the best. Undoubtedly, much of modern sword and sorcery, and RPGs, owe to him.

I have All the Conan stuff, Bran Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane. The Science Fiction book club has some nice collections.

There is something about REH that touches that primal, wild side of your mind, that makes you want to wench and adventure and right wrongs and be the last of a great people.

"All fled, all done
So lift me on the pyre.
The feast is over
And the lamps expire."

Sovereign Court

I just brought the Savage Blade?/world? of Solomon Kane and i noticed that several stories such as castle of the devil and hawk of basti were fragments. years ago i last read them they were complete stories! What gives?

Liberty's Edge

Cold Steel wrote:
I just brought the Savage Blade?/world? of Solomon Kane and i noticed that several stories such as castle of the devil and hawk of basti were fragments. years ago i last read them they were complete stories! What gives?

The complete stories were probably the result of Lin Carter, Sprauge de Camp and other writers completing the stories from the fragments. Many of the Conan stories that I grew up on were the result of fragments and notes that Howard left and the work of de Camp and Carter to fill in the blanks. It is likely the Solomon Kane received a simiuliar treatment.


Cold Steel wrote:

I myself am more of a Soloman Kane fan than a Conan fan. One question did REH did anything else besides Conan,Kane or Bran

I vaguelly recalled a western or a pirate novel or was it a short story?

oh yeah, tons of stuff beyond barbarians and puritans. two really less typical stories i recall are "Pigeons from Hell" (odd title, but REALLY creepy haunted house tale) and one about vampires in the old West (can't remember title right now).

Liberty's Edge

voodoo chili wrote:
Cold Steel wrote:

I myself am more of a Soloman Kane fan than a Conan fan. One question did REH did anything else besides Conan,Kane or Bran

I vaguelly recalled a western or a pirate novel or was it a short story?
oh yeah, tons of stuff beyond barbarians and puritans. two really less typical stories i recall are "Pigeons from Hell" (odd title, but REALLY creepy haunted house tale) and one about vampires in the old West (can't remember title right now).

About 10 years ago, nearly all of Howard's non-Conan works were released in paperback in what was called the R.E.H. library. I bought all of them. For the most part, they are great (if not politically correct). I remember the vampire in the old West story was "The Horror from the Mound." My favorite was the something like the "Twilight of the Grey Gods" which was about the battle of Clontarf were the Irish king Brian Barou was slain but not before his warriors crushed the pagan Vikings as Odin himself watches on. Awesome stuff.

Sovereign Court

voodoo chili wrote:
Cold Steel wrote:

I myself am more of a Soloman Kane fan than a Conan fan. One question did REH did anything else besides Conan,Kane or Bran

I vaguelly recalled a western or a pirate novel or was it a short story?
oh yeah, tons of stuff beyond barbarians and puritans. two really less typical stories i recall are "Pigeons from Hell" (odd title, but REALLY creepy haunted house tale) and one about vampires in the old West (can't remember title right now).

something about an indian warrior named stoneheart weilding the axe of Gaur. that's about all i can remember.

Scarab Sages

The website for the National Review has posted an interview with the Editor of the new 2 volume Howard Anthology Rusty Burke.


You know, I kinda wish the Conan frenzy hadn't caught on so much. A number of excellent REH stories set in the real world (e.g., "The Road of the Eagles") got "converted" into second-rate Conan stories by less-talented authors for no apparent reason other than the character's popularity. "Here's a great story set in the Carpathians! Let's rewrite it with Conan in it, and maybe add some monssters to it! That'll be great!" Maybe I'm in a distinct minority here, but if I want to read The Count of Monte Cristo, for example, I'd rather have access to Dumas' original than to some poseur's "improved version" with different characters and an "exciting alternate ending"! And don't even get me started on the "Conan" stories and books written by the legions of hacks after REH's death.

I mean, guess I just figure that if an author is good enough to be worth reading, then he/she is probably good enough to make up their own characters and settings. Given some of the wretched examples of copycat work, like the warehouse of people churning out books by "Robert Ludlum (TM)," or the guy writing "Amber prequels" despite Zelazny's adamant refusal to allow anyone to do so ("Well, guy's dead now, his opinion doesn't count anymore!"), or the "new" Godfather novels... well, I do without them. It's like opening a can of Coke, taking a sip, and finding that they've replaced it with "New Coke" again.

I know that I can just refuse to read the ripoff stuff. And I do. But I kind of feel sorry for the people who come along and think that Conan is the idiot written about by Lin Carter and Bjorn Nyberg, say "well, that was a let-down," and never read any of the real stuff because of it.

Liberty's Edge

I agree to a point. I also think that REH's stories may very well have languished in obscurity without De Camp's and Carter's interest generation.
I agree with the purists that De Camp's "editing" of the works was unnecessary; REH's originals stand under their own two feet.
I enjoyed some of De Camp's other work, so I won't agree with some vociferous people that he's a total hack,...
I just don't want to get into a big Canon war or nothing.

Scarab Sages

Kirth Gersen wrote:

You know, I kinda wish the Conan frenzy hadn't caught on so much. A number of excellent REH stories set in the real world (e.g., "The Road of the Eagles") got "converted" into second-rate Conan stories by less-talented authors for no apparent reason other than the character's popularity. "Here's a great story set in the Carpathians! Let's rewrite it with Conan in it, and maybe add some monssters to it! That'll be great!" Maybe I'm in a distinct minority here, but if I want to read The Count of Monte Cristo, for example, I'd rather have access to Dumas' original than to some poseur's "improved version" with different characters and an "exciting alternate ending"! And don't even get me started on the "Conan" stories and books written by the legions of hacks after REH's death.

I have to say I don't agree, but only because the only Conan stuff I read these days is REH's work. That's why I'm actually glad for the frenzy. They've collected many of his stories over the last couple of years (three Conan books, and one each for Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, and Kull), and I've enjoyed reading through each book. This new two volume set contains many stories I've already got, but I'm re-reading them anyway.

*Note* Full disclosure - I said above that I only read REH's Conan stuff these days. When I was much younger, I fell sick one weekend at my family's vacation home in Mississippi. Since I was stuck in bed, my mother bought a book for me to help pass the time. It was a non-REH Conan novel where he is king, his new queen is kidnapped, and he goes to rescue her. Like I said, I was much younger.


Heathansson wrote:

I enjoyed some of De Camp's other work, so I won't agree with some vociferous people that he's a total hack,...

I just don't want to get into a big Canon war or nothing.

I have to admit that deCamp's "Compleat Enchanter" stories (with Fletcher Pratt) were some of my all-time favorites... although "Fallible Fiend" and the "Unbeheaded King" series (without Pratt) I didn't find as enjoyable. And "Lest Darkness Fall"--in my opinion, anyway--was a pretty lame attempt at a Connecticut Yankee ripoff.

Don't much care about "canon," either, so for sure you'll get no wars from me on that account. I just found that I like Howard's stories, and really don't enjoy the other peoples', and find it kind of jarring when I'm reading a Howard story and all the sudden someone else's voice very clearly takes over, like losing a radio station in the car and having another one come in.

Liberty's Edge

No, that's cool. I just put my canon disclaimer out there in contemplation of somebody jumping my butt out of left field. It wasn't meant for anybody specific.


well I just read on the Conan MMORPH site that the Conan online game is going to let players have sex with each other and that it will grant them a buff of some kind as that is what Howard had in his material; will not have an M rating; interesting eh?


Valegrim wrote:
well I just read on the Conan MMORPH site that the Conan online game is going to let players have sex with each other and that it will grant them a buff of some kind as that is what Howard had in his material; will not have an M rating; interesting eh?

Cue hilarious misinterpretation of the word "buff".

The Solomon Kane stories were exceptionally creepy and evocative of the whole Puritan world, and I look forward to the upcoming game in that setting. There is definitely something primeval about Howard's writing that no other writer has been able to match, and for that I'm glad. The original Conan stories are a feast of primal energy and adventure that should be a part of every D&D campaign.

Scarab Sages

Krypter wrote:
The Solomon Kane stories were exceptionally creepy and evocative of the whole Puritan world, and I look forward to the upcoming game in that setting.

I just read on the Sci-fi channel website that Solomon Kane was going to be made into a movie staring someone named James Purefoy. The compnay making the movie is Davis Films. According to the (very) short plot description, Kane will be a "damned 16th-century soldier who seeks redemption by fighting a dark power."

Maybe this is just me, but I've read the Solomon Kane stories, and I don't recall any mention of him being damned. He was a puritan-type character who was a dedicated foe of what he saw as evil - kind of like the classic "stick-up-his-ass" paladin.

Hopefully, they won't screw it up too badly.


yeah, the damned part is quite alarming; that has been done so many times; I would rather he be an intolerant blessed guy that cannot die until he finished his quest or do somethings; at least that storyline is now worn to the threads. I would just say do the story as it was written, but for some reason those pinheads just cannot do that; sheesh, if it works; dont fix it.


Aberzombie wrote:
Krypter wrote:
The Solomon Kane stories were exceptionally creepy and evocative of the whole Puritan world, and I look forward to the upcoming game in that setting.

I just read on the Sci-fi channel website that Solomon Kane was going to be made into a movie staring someone named James Purefoy. The compnay making the movie is Davis Films. According to the (very) short plot description, Kane will be a "damned 16th-century soldier who seeks redemption by fighting a dark power."

Maybe this is just me, but I've read the Solomon Kane stories, and I don't recall any mention of him being damned. He was a puritan-type character who was a dedicated foe of what he saw as evil - kind of like the classic "stick-up-his-ass" paladin.

Hopefully, they won't screw it up too badly.

James Purefoy is actually a very good actor. He played Marc Antony in HBO's awesome Rome series.

Dark Archive

David Gehring wrote:

The king of Sword and Sorcery is REH. And I just got in the mail Shadow Kingdoms v.1 which is first in a proposed 10 volume set of Howards's published Weird Tales stories and poems. What a great writer he was. He took his life much too early at the age of 30.

D

Amen. Howard is the Sword and Sorcery writer that entertains me the most. Is writing is strong, dynamic, darn effective, to the point and yet very subtle in semantics. He's absolutely at the top of my Pantheon of Fantasy writers.

Most recently I've been reading Solomon Kane and starting Kull of Atlantis stories. These are really, really good.


Oddly enough the one modern author who reminds me a little of Howard is not a pastiche writer--it's David Gemmell. A few of his books "Legend" "Quest for Lost Heroes" "Dark Moon" "Winter Warriors" which are probably among my favourites remind me a lot of his writing.

Some of my favourite Conan stories were the ones that had a rough border war theme to them, like "Beyond the Black River" one of my absolute favourites. I think my favourites over all apart from that one are:
Shadows in Zamboula
People of the Black Circle
Hawks over Shem

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