Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient

by Robert E. Howard, Patrice Louinet (Introduction), Rusty Burke (Editor)

For five centuries of Crusades, European armies of believers, fanatics, and mercenaries warred with the followers of the Prophet for control of Asia Minor and Palestine. From Jerusalem to Vienna, the frontier between West and East saw battle and bloodshed, treachery and butchery on a scale hitherto unknown and unimagined. The pageantry of medieval knighthood, the exoticism of the Orient, the ferocity of the invaders from the steppes, the mysteries of the seraglio, the rise and fall of great dynasties—these provided a real historical backdrop for some of Robert E. Howard’s greatest fiction. This volume contains the complete Oriental stories by the creator of Conan the Barbarian and Solomon Kane. Some were published in Farnsworth Wright’s Oriental Stories between 1930 and 1934; others were left unpublished and are printed here in authoritative texts based on the author’s surviving typescripts; and still others, left unfinished at his death, are presented as suggestive evidence of the work he had yet to do. As this collection attests, no one else writes action stories with Howard’s fast-paced intensity or brooding moral outlook. Here, the fates of empires rest on the swords of exiles, vagabonds, and renegades; whether civilization will be annihilated by religious zealots or by bloodthirsty barbarians, who is to say?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Pulp, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Adventure, Anthologies

463 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Robert Ervin Howard was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. Howard wrote "over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion" and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of "a sombre universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror."

He is well known for having created—in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales—the character Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond.

—Wikipedia

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great adventure book by my favorite writer. This time he takes us to the time of the crusades in the far east. Fast paced action as only Howard can write makes this a great read. Highly recommended

[Bradley]

I realised I've read these stories before when it was released as Sword Woman, except that had more content.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

A highland warrior remains in the Middle East after the Crusades and allies himself with an emir.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Later in his writing career, Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane), apparently became more and more interested in history, and more specifically, in writing historical fiction. He was apparently working more on that sort of writing prior to his untimely demise, and reading this collection just reemphasizes how much the world lost when Howard took his life.

In the stories in this collection, Howard’s focus is on the Crusades. He moves back and forth in that time period, but there is clearly something about the clash of Western Christendom, Islam, and the nomadic tribes of Asia Minor that Howard finds absolutely fascinating. In a sense, Howard is just continuing his fascination with the conflict between civilization and barbarism, but on a more historical scale.

Howard himself acknowledges that these stories are much darker than some of his other works; many of the protagonists are not heroes, but are instead reasonably selfish bastards who, if they end up doing a good deed, do it mostly for selfish reasons. There are a few exceptions, but by and large, these are not stories about nice people. Nor are they all happy stories—tragedy, death, and failure crop up with reasonable regularity. It’s not all sadness and loss, but the stories definitely have a darker tone than some of his earlier works. I really enjoyed them.

Howard does a wonderful job of bringing his characters and the world they inhabit to life in a vivid and exciting fashion. While some of his historical details are probably a bit off, there aren’t any major glaring errors or oddities. The same dark humor and fast-paced action that is found in his Conan stories are still here, though the violence is sometimes even darker and grimmer than in the tales of the barbarian turned king. Some of the earlier stories have a very Conan-eqsue feel to them, including one story with a cult and the old temple of some forgotten god that could have been lifted right out of Hyboria.

If I have a complaint about these stories (and I have very few), it would be that many of the various protagonists in these stories do start to blend together a bit. There are three to five different “grim European knights/warriors exiled from their homeland”, and after a few stories, I started to lose track of who was who. I suppose it would have made little sense to have the same character survive five centuries of crusades, but it did get a bit frustrating, on occasion.

Still, it was a minor quibble in an otherwise wonderful series of stories. Howard continues to impress.

Major reading projects now on hold, as I am moving soon.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I enjoy all of Robert E. Howard's work, my absolute favorite stories of his are his historicals, and particularly the set of stories included in this volume, which includes all those originally collected under the title "Sowers of the Thundar." Not only do we get to see those stories in this excellent collection, but there are all kinds of extra goodies as well, including a number of unfinished drafts of other historical tales. The only sad thing about that is realizing we'll never see how Howard would have continued and ended these tales.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

the stories get a bit repetitive, but worth reading.