Echoes of Valor II

by Karl Edward Wagner, Ray Bradbury

Fantasy Short Stories

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Anthologies

274 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Karl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 13 October 1994) was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into Whose Hands". He described his world view as nihilistic, anarchistic and absurdist, and claimed, not entirely seriously, to be related to "an opera composer named Richard". Wagner also admired the cinema of Sam Peckinpah, stating "I worship the film The Wild Bunch".

Reviews

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karl Wagner has a thing for original manuscripts and likes exposing nifty backstories on story’s. In this volume he presents “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”, one of the first Conan yarns written by Bob Howard. TFGD didn’t sell, so REW rewrote it as The Frost King’s Daughter. He changed Conan to Amara and published it in a fanzine called The Fantasy Fan. Both manuscripts are presented.

The book includes a handful of stories by C.L. Moore with introduction essays by himself and others.

There is a story started by Leigh Brackett, but finished by Ray Bradbury. Swords & Planets is not a medium Bradbury wrote too much of making this unique.

He finishes the book with two Hok stories by Manly Wade Wellman. The first one is great. Wellman sets his Hok up as the source of Hercules myths. The second is a short fragment and is the last thing Wellman would ever write as he died shortly afterwards.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wagner takes an interesting tack by selecting four authors and doing a deep-dive into rarer, earlier, and lesser-known material. This approach is new to me, feels tailored to an enthusiast of a certain type, and despite its merits may not be overall successful. The material is not _quite_ a barrel scrape, but is getting there.

Howard's section is two versions of "The Frost-Giant's Daughter", including an early version that originally did not feature Conan. Yet the only perceptible difference is a search-and-replace from the original "Amra". Wagner even makes an unusual statement that casual readers are best skipping to the Conan version.

For C L Moore there is "Quest of the Starstone" which is an intriguing study of the difference between Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry, particularly in how Jirel is concerned with appearing weak and the evil wizard threatens to find someone to 'tame' her.

"Nymph of Darkness" is a collaboration with Forrest J Ackerman, whom I assume is responsible for using the words "thru" and "tho" instead of "through" and "though". This is a thing I simply cannot respect. Ackerman continues his literary violence with two unnecessary articles.

Brackett's "Lorelei of the Red Mist" is proto-Eric John Stark, and she later revisits the idea of the 'sea of buoyant red mist'. Ray Bradbury apparently finished the story at her request, seamlessly matching the style and action after a certain point.

Manly Wade Wellman has a Hok story and fragment, and if you're not into jungle adventure then you are not into his contribution. I was not into his contribution.

[Jason Waltz · Rating 3 out of 5]

And thus I finish my first book of 2020. I enjoyed this closing section of Manly Wade Wellman and Hok. The world lost what sounds like would have been an amazing tale with Wellman's fall.

The book begins and ends marvelously, but lags in the middle, and overall ends up less impressive than expected. Can't do more than three stars, though opening's a 5. I sure hope EOVIII delivers better.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good collection of short heroic fantasy stories edited by Karl Edward Wagner. Includes Robert E. Howard's first Conan story, as well as C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, and Ray Bradbury.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice collection of heroic fantasy featuring Robert E. Howard, Manly Wade Wellman, C.L. Moore, and a collaboration between Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury. How could you go wrong with a line-up like that? The introductions and notes are also interesting and informative. This is a good one.

[T. Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent collection of heroic fantasy edited by Karl Edward Wagner. I think I had read all the fiction before, by Robert E. Howard, C. L. Moore, (with Henry Kuttner and Forest J. Ackerman as coauthors on different stories), Leigh Brackett with Ray Bradbury as coauthor, and Manly Wade Wellman, but I was glad to read them again. KEW's introductions are worth reading, as were the nonfiction giving the stories context.

Anyway, I greatly enjoyed this collection.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best volume of the series, which finishes with an original, wise and optimistic hunting adventure of Hok the Cro-Mag. With that added to hundreds of pages’ worth of tales by Catherine Moore, Leigh Brackett, REH and Ray Bradbury, what’s not to like?

[bluetyson]

Echoes of Valor II by Karl Edward Wagner (1989)