People of the Dark

by Robert E. Howard

The third collection of Robert E. Howard's fantasy work, from the legendary pulp magazine Weird Tales and its rival Strange Tales, features more classic fiction and poetry from Howard's prime writing years. Gathered here are stories with such enduring and popular characters as Solomon Kane, Turlogh Dubh and Comac of Connacht. Other highlights include "The Black Stone," considered by many to be Howard's finest excursion into Lovecraftian horror; "The Horror from the Mound," a vampire story set in Texas; and "People of the Dark," a precursor to the Conan stories which ultimately made Howard famous!

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Adventure, Short Stories, Fiction, Sword and Sorcery, Weird Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 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

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert E. Howard erzählt in Volk der Finsternis (People of the Dark, erschienen 1932 im Strange Tales Magazine) die Geschichte von John O´Brien, der den Entschluss gefasst hat, seinen Rivalen Richard Brent zu töten. Sein Motiv ist eines der ältesten überhaupt, es geht um Liebe und Eifersucht. Doch das Schicksal will es (diese Formulierung bitte ernst nehmen), dass die Rivalen und Eleanor Bland, um deren Liebe es geht, am Fuße der Höhle des Dagon aufeinandertreffen, in der seit unvordenklichen Zeiten das Volk der Finsternis haust.
In dieser Höhle geschieht etwas sehr Seltsames: So, wie bei Edgar Rice Burroughs sich John Carter plötzlich auf dem Mars wiederfindet, so findet sich John O´Brien unvermittelt tief in die Vergangenheit zurückversetzt und lädt in seiner anderen Identität als Conan eine Schuld auf sich, die John O´Brien jetzt tilgen könnte (den Begriff des Karmas benutzt REH nicht). In der Tiefe der Höhle lauert allerdings noch eine andere Gefahr, nämlich das titelgebende Volk der Finsternis; Kreaturen, die seit ewigen Zeiten unter der Erde leben in der Gestalt schrecklicher Schlangemennschen und die sich an Menschenopfern ergötzen. Mehr sei nicht verraten; und so wiedergegeben wie hier wird der Plot Lesern, die sich für Sword & Sorcery bislang nicht interessiert haben, vielleicht nur ein müdes Achselzucken abgewinnen. Auch und gerade ihnen würde ich die Geschichte aber empfehlen, denn REHs Stil ist enorm energiegeladen und mitreißend. Der erste Satz lautet:
„Ich war zur Höhle des Dagon gekommen, um Richard Brent zu töten.“
Große Literatur erwartet man nach einem solchen Auftakt vermutlich nicht, und doch zeigt der Satz bereits die Stärke der Erzählung: Schnörkellos und ohne Umstände wirft REH uns in eine Geschichte, die geradezu mythische Dimensionen hat. An die Stelle psychologisch ausgefeilter Charaktere setzt er Archetypen, die sich vor dem Hintergrund ewig währender Konflikte und urzeitlicher Gefahren beweisen müssen.
Volk der Finsternis ist eine Pulp-Story, keine Hochliteratur, aber sie zeigt auch, was in diesem Genre geleistet werden kann. In den stärksten Momenten haben die Stories das, was bis heute auch Sagen und Märchen lesenswert macht; sie handeln von ewigen Konflikten und dem Heldenmut des Einzelnen, der sich heroisch dem Willen der Götter und seinen Feinden entgegenstellt, manchmal aber auch „nur“ das Opfer persönlichen Verzichts leisten muss.

John O´Brien will zu Beginn der Geschichte den Mann töten, der seiner Liebe zu Eleanor im Wege steht. Er erinnert sich in der Höhle unvermittelt, vor vielen Jahrhunderten als Conan den beiden in früheren Inkarnationen schon einmal unter gleichen Umständen begegnet zu sein und erfährt, dass er Schuld auf sich geladen hat. Die Liebe Eleaonors konnte er schon damals als Conan nicht mit einem Verbrechen gewinnen, und in diesem Wissen nimmt O´Brien Abstand von seinem mörderischen Plan und rettet stattdessen die Liebenden. Wollte man psychologisch das deuten, was REH nicht aussprechen will, so wäre das schreckliche Volk der Finsternis, gegen das O´Brien kämpfen muss, vielleicht Sinnbild sein sexuelles Verlangens, das er im Zaum halten muss, um nicht zum Mörder zu werden.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kings of the Night 3/5

The best of the Kull stories that I’ve read. Through the power of strange magic, Kull is summoned from Atlantis and thrown thousands of years into the future where he ends up in the Roman Empire to kick some ass alongside a struggling king. Pretty exciting and full of brutal action. On par with Conan.

***
Children of the Night 1/5

This story is the equivalent of listening to your grandpa go on a long-winded racist tirade about how nasty and evil other races and cultures are. Definitely not Howard’s best material.

***
The Footfalls Within 3/5

Very different from the rest of the series. It relies mostly on superstition and dark religious themes rather than the typical monster/demon confrontation and battle. Reminiscent to The Mummy and Bram Stoker's Jewel of the Seven Stars.

***
The Gods of Bal-Sagoth 3/5

A chaotic battle royale between kings, false gods and crazed worshippers in a dead city haunted by ghosts and other wicked monstrosities. Wild and exciting.

***
The Black Stone 3/5

A village of perverted blasphemers brutally murder women and babies as sacrifices to a black stone that summons a Lovecraftian monstrosity for them to worship. A straightforward cosmic horror story with some pretty nasty imagery.

***
The Dark Man - 3/5

On par with the best of Conan in terms of action, war and excitement, but the characters, lore and villains aren’t nearly as interesting or fleshed out. I still really enjoyed it for just how insanely visceral and satisfying the battle scenes are.

***
The Thing on the Roof - 2/5

It was okay, reads like one of Lovecraft’s more mediocre stories. A guy brings back a mysterious book and jewel from an expedition to a foreign land. The objects have connections to a demon worshipped by an ancient cult. The demon kills the man for the jewel and leaves behind some nasty slime and a cloven hoof. The end.

***
The Horror From the Mound - 3/5

An intriguing vampire tale. If you can’t kill them, the next best thing to do is to seal them up in a mound that they can’t escape from, right? This works out well until some idiotic adventurers uncover the mound in search of buried treasure and let the bloodsucking monstrosity free to terrorize the world as it pleases.

The story relied a bit too much on racist superstitions which bogged down the enjoyability of the narrative but the setup of the twist was clever and I really wasn’t expecting the story to be about a vampire so the surprise reveal was welcome. Not bad.

***
People of the Dark - 3/5

Three people, two men in love with the same woman find themselves trapped in a cave haunted by monsters. While escaping through the various tunnels of the cave to flee from the monsters, they all begin to realize that they’ve experienced this before. They remember their past lives from thousands of years ago when they were cave people fighting against an ancient race of monsters in this very same cave.

The three of them work together to eliminate the ancient monsters, putting an end to the cycle of death and rebirth between those that found themselves caught in the struggle of these wicked beasts. A cool twist to an otherwise generic adventure story. There were also quite a few callbacks to Robert’s older works which was a nice addition for long time readers of his fiction.

***

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[Иван Иванов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Разказите в този трети том са свързани със загубени раси и/или древни чудовища.

Kings of the Night - последната история за крал Кул, отново малко странна, но като цяло добра. Кул е прехвърлен векове след своето време, за да помогне на последните пикти в борбата им срещу римските легиони. - 4/5
The Children of the Night - неочаквано скучен разказ. Някакви хора си приказват за антропология, а после един е ударен случайно с чук по главата и сънува/преживява битки в далечното минало. - 2/5
The Footfalls Within - и ето го отново Соломон Кейн, този път пленен от търговци на роби, които попадат на загадъчна гробница. - 4/5
The Gods of Bal-Sagoth - това спокойно би могъл да е разказ за Конан, даже мисля, че го има в такъв вариант на комикс. Двама авантюристи - келт и викинг - са захвърлени от буря в загадъчно островно кралство и се намесват във враждата между кралицата и главния жрец. - 5/5
The Black Stone - поредният невпечатляващ хорър. - 3/5
The Dark Man - и пак любимата на Хауърд тема за пиктите. Турлох Дав О'Брайън е по следите на викинги, отвлекли келтско момиче, и се сблъсква с последните останки на тази загадъчна раса и една необикновена статуя. Добре написано, но историята е общо взето банална, а и финалната битка се проточва твърде дълго. - 3,5/5
The Thing on the Roof - още един хорър, този път с малко приключенски елементи. Приключенската част е по-интересната. - 3,5/5
Horror from the Mound - тук Хауърд се опитва да оформи хоръра в свой, по-екшън насочен стил и се е получило добре. Фермер решава да разкопае близката индианска могила, без да се вслушва в предупрежденията на съседа си мексиканец. - 4/5
People of the Dark - нелош, но доста хаотичен разказ. Сякаш Хауърд се е опитал да наблъска на едно място всички идеи, които го вълнуват, и историята се мята ту в една, ту в друга посока. - 3/5

Средно - 4 звезди.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good mix of some of Howard's darker and weirder tales.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a definite improvement over the previous volume in this series of Robert E. Howard's weird fiction. Volume 2 was dominated by the 30,000 word novella "Skull-Face" which I didn't particularly enjoy.

I prefer stories like "The Black Stone" and "Horror From the Mound" over the adventure tales. However, compared with the two previous volumes I'd say the adventure stories here are improved and more mature. But those stories are focused on adventure first, weird horror second. In several cases the latter is really relegated to the edges of the story. They make for exciting reading about battles and swordfights with lots of loosening of guts and brain-smashing, but I'm here for the weird stuff.

The better stories here are "The Black Stone," "Horror From the Mound," and "The People of the Dark." Of the adventure stories I'd say "The Dark Man" was my favorite.

All of the stories here except for the last one appeared in Weird Tales. For several years I've been reading random stories from Weird Tales (issues going back to the 20s are available on Archive.org among other places) and they're usually terribly predictable, but I enjoy them. These stories are far above the average of what was being published in that magazine, at least from my experience. The last story here "People of the Dark" didn't actually appear in Weird Tales, but in the very short-lived (seven issues) pulp magazine Strange Tales

Prepare yourself for quite a few ideas about racial purity, Howard was known to be a racist. Also in several stories here Howard brings in the common theme of a forbidden text, not unlike the Necronomicon -- Von Junzt’s "Nameless Cults."


Kings Of The Night - This is an enjoyable read, full of exciting battle scenes wonderfully described, but if you're looking for something "weird" you're probably better off reading some of the later stories. On the night before a decisive battle with the Romans, king Bran Mak Morn must have the allegiance of the Norsemen, but they refuse to fight without a king of their own. A sorcerer aids by bringing to life someone from the far distant past.

The Song Of The Mad Minstrel - A very evocative poem full of interesting visions.

The Children Of The Night - Howard was known to be a racist, but I think this story with its crazed ranting about racial purity is meant to be seen as something absurd ...right? I still liked this story, even if the premise is pretty unbelievable, it certainly entertains. A man is sent back into time, reliving a past life after he is knocked out by an ancient relic.

The Footfalls Within - This is one of the better stories here I thought. This one is also primarily an adventure tale, but the weird/horror aspect creeps into the story far more. Solomon Kane is captured by a band of slave-driving Arabs in the African jungle, when they come upon a strange, ancient mausoleum all of their lives are put in danger.

The Gods Of Bal–Sagoth - This was one of my favorites here. This one is also an action-packed adventure story, but it's very well-written and has some decent weird elements. Two old rivals, Turlogh the Irishman and Athelstane the Saxon pair up after their ship crashes on an island. There they help a woman reclaim the crown to rule, but an evil sorcerer has other plans.

The Black Stone - This was a re-read for me, and highly worth it. This is far more Lovecraft-influenced than the other sword-battling tales here. I love the setting and mood of investigating dreaded folklore. An amateur antiquarian investigates a dreaded black stone in an isolated Hungarian village where unholy rites were once practiced.

The Dark Man - This is another story featuring Turlogh the Irishman, I liked this as much as "The Gods Of Bal–Sagoth," it's got a great fight scene. The weird elements are mostly marginal here but I really liked the building of suspense, setting and mood here. Turlogh sets out to rescue the daughter of an Irish king from the Vikings, and gets a strange form of supernatural aid.

The Thing On The Roof - This is a fairly standard "cursed tomb" story I suppose, but I liked it. Most effective was how little we see, but how much is effectively implied by other means. A man helps someone locate a copy of the dreaded volume "Nameless Cults", which he uses to unknowingly loose a great evil.

The Last Day - Another poem, seemingly about a dying world.

Horror From The Mound - I read this story many years ago and consider it one of Howard's best, even one of the best stories to appear in Weird Tales. Not only is it a well-written fun read, it's actually scary. A pioneer turned farmer decides to unearth an Indian burial mound, against the warnings of his superstitious neighbor.

People Of The Dark - This is another great story in this volume. It steals a plot device from "The Children Of The Night" where a man relives an adventure from eons in the past, but this story makes much better use of it. There's some pretty creepy moments here too. Conan, seeking to steal a maiden from another man, chases them both into a cave, but the three of them are soon defending themselves against something far worse.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third in the 10-volume set collecting the work of Robert Howard for Weird magazine, covering work from 1931 to 1932, after Howard has cemented his friendship with Lovecraft and even starts writing his own Mythos tales, two obvious ones of which are collected here. One of them, the Black Stone, is quite good. Howard uses the first person narrative to great effect telling only what he wants us to know and being very careful to leave out details whenever he wishes. This allows the horror to build, no pun intended, and gives a good balance of descriptive work versus reader imagination. The second reads more like a traditional ghost story, and does not hold up nearly as well.

It's very obvious that Lovecraft is influencing Howard here, though I'm not entirely sure it's for the better. Howard tries to link all his stories up in some way, referencing them to each other with links to the Picts and other mentions. He even raises King Kull from the dead to lead a desperate stand against the Roman legions. Instead of feeling like world building, it feels a bit forced. Since Howard mostly writes the same type of character, whether it's loner Solomon Kane, outsiders Kull and Conan, or even his Irish outcast, Turlogh, the references tend to trip over each other.

Though his writing style is getting better here--the turns of phrase are craftier, for instance--there is a feeling that he's writing off a template sometimes. Hero finds himself against rediculous odds and gets saved by the supernatural is the theme of almost every story in this book. Read separately, it's less of an issue, but together in a collection, they fall apart just a bit. I thought Howard did a better job of keeping the stories different in the first few published works.

Solomon Kane may be the one who suffers most here. Gone are his conflicts between religion and his actions, replaced by just going out and righting wrongs. It makes him far less interesting as a character, and I hope that if I see him again in book 4, that he's back to looking inward again.

We also get the first Conan story, though it's a first-person reality flashback that's really not about the Conan we know and love. He's more a passive figure fighting blindly, and he's more modern in timeframe as well. Conan is not a good first-person character, and I am glad that changed when he was redone shortly after this.

There are quite a few racial remarks as we go along, which do make me wince. However, it seems this is more Howard trying to distance his rather shaky heroes away from the evil of their foes, because even the white characters he doesn't want you to care about get painted with negative racial traits. Apparently, Howard was an equal-opportunity racial basher, when he needed to be.

Despite all that, this is still fun reading. Howard's playing with reality in several stories, flashing characters back and forth through time, though the first, featuring Kull, is the most engaging. He also is starting to form Conan, though he's not here just yet, in his disdain for organized groups and corrupt officials. (The Gods of Bal-Sagoth, while a Torlogh tale, could easily be set as a Conan story, and I think, were I writing for Dark Horse, I would do so.) I found the mythos references fun, and I think the idea of playing with the unknown Horror, which we see several times, is a nice touch.

Even at his less-than-best, Howard's gift for writing shines through the pulpy subjects and occasional need to be stereotypical in his writing. Given how much he had to produce, it's no wonder sometimes he felt the need to use a bit of formulaic work in terms of the plot. I still maintain that Howard may be the best writer of the pulp era, and that there's a lot to read in him that could stand up against the modern fantasy that comes after him. in fact, I think Howard would come off better than a lot of the paperback novels written today, given that he writes in a crisp style that doesn't wander off the point. Take this for example:

"Time and space exist not. There was no past and there shall be no future. NOW is all. All thing that ever were, are, or ever will be, transpire *now*, Man is forever at the center of what we call time and space. I have gone into yesterday and tomorrow and both were as real as today--which is like the dreams of ghosts!"

It's passages such as that, which are frequent in Howard, that keep me coming back. That's great wrtiting, not dime novel drivel, which I tend to think Howard gets shoveled into, simply because of his genre. He, like his heroes, manages to be just a bit better than those around him, and sometimes can be a lot better, given the right inspiration. This is not where to start your Howard experience, but I am glad for the reprinting, and look forward to more. (Library, 12/07)

Trebby's Take: Recommended, but not quite as good as the first volume.

[John Yelverton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have never been a fan of reincarnation stories and this one did nothing to change my opinion on the genre.

[Jim Reddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

People of the Dark is the third volume of a series that collects the fiction and poetry of Robert E. Howard as it originally appeared in Weird Tales magazine. This volume (Kindle edition) has nine short stories and two poems.

In these stories you’ll encounter Bran Mak Morn, King Kull, Solomon Kane, 11th century Irishman Turlogh Dubh O’Brian, forbidden texts, the Cthulhu Mythos, and the reaver Conan, a character Howard wrote about just before creating the one that would become more famous.

In “Kings of the Night,” Kull of Atlantis, the king of Valusia gets pulled from the past to help Bran Mak Morn, king of the Picts fight a battle against Romans. The first two parts set everything up, the third and concluding part is one intense battle. I enjoyed the crossover aspect of this story having read the Kull stories in volume one. The fighting scenes are fast paced and exciting but what I really like about this story is the brooding sense of melancholy that hangs over everything.

“Children of the Night” begins with a group of men, which include Howard’s character Professor John Kirowan, in a discussion. Topics move from anthropology, weird fiction, to secret cults and forbidden texts like the Necronomicon. During the discussion the narrator O’Donnel thinks to himself that one of the men, Ketrick, seems strange because of his features and goes on about racial purity. Later the narrator gets knocked unconscious and finds himself reliving part of a past life in battle against the Children of the Night, a snake-like people. There are some great action scenes but the racial purity aspect which pops up again at the end took me out of the story. This is the one story in this collection that I didn’t enjoy.

“The Footfalls Within” begins with Solomon Kane tracking a group of slavers in Africa. After getting captured trying to rescue a woman, the group discovers an ancient mausoleum in the jungle. Hoping to find treasure the leader of the slavers decides to open it. Chaos ensues. The action and the background we get about the ancient staff Kane received from N’Longa in “Hills of the Dead”(found in volume two) made this a fun read.

“The Gods of Bal-Sagoth” is a sequel to ‘The Dark Man” but was published first. Irish outlaw Turlogh Dubh and his rival, the Saxon Athelstan, wind up shipwrecked together on an island. They encounter a lost civilization and try to help a woman reclaim her crown. The rivalry between Turlogh and Athlestane plus lots of action made this an exciting read.

“The Black Stone'' begins with the narrator reading about a strange stone in the book Nameless Cults (also known as The Black Book) by von Juntz. Nameless Cults is a fictional forbidden book created by Howard and first introduced in his story “The Children of the Night.” Later after conferring with August Derleth, H. P. Lovecraft gave the book a name in German, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and both writers used the book in their stories. In this story the narrator travels to the mountain village in Hungary where the stone is located. He has what he believes is a dream about ritual sacrifices and a toad-like monster. Violent and creepy.

“The Dark Man” is the first story that Howard wrote about Turlogh Dubh of the Clan na O’Brian. Although now an outlaw he sets out to rescue Moira, a woman from his clan that has been kidnapped by a Viking raider. On the way to the island where the raiders have their camp he discovers a strange dark statue and brings it with him. The statue appears to protect him as he survives a storm. He arrives at the island and sneaks into the raider’s longhouse. Among the Vikings are women and children and a Saxon by the name of Athelstane who has been raiding with the Vikings. An absolutely brutal battle follows. At the end of the story we learn that the dark statue is a statue of a king from centuries in the past. One of my favorite stories in this collection.

“The Thing on the Roof” begins with the history of the book Nameless Cults. Hoping to find gold, the book is used to find a lost tomb, The Temple of the Toad. Something gets released. The story also includes references to the Necronomicon and the Black Stone in Hungary.

In “Horror From the Mound” a former cowboy ignores the warnings of his Mexican neighbor and digs into an Indian burial mound, hoping to find gold. I could see that this wasn’t going to turn out well and I wasn’t surprised when something got released. I was surprised by what was released though. Another example of Howard putting his own spin on a traditional monster. Great story.

In “People of the Dark” the narrator enters Dagon’s Cave with a gun intending to kill a man who is a rival for the woman he loves. After a fall he relives a past life as a reaver named Conan. Not that Conan. Howard will use that name again for a character in upcoming stories. Conan of the reavers has chased a beautiful woman and her protector into the cave, his goal being to kill the protector and capture the woman. He soon realizes that he has entered “the dread Cavern of the Children of the Night.” The three soon discover they are not alone and wind up having to work together. I feel Howard makes much better use of the “reliving a past life” idea here than he did in “Children of the Night.” A dark story with a bittersweet ending.

As in the previous volumes I enjoyed the poetry very much. Dark and atmospheric.

One of the things I’m really enjoying about this series is reading Howard’s stories in the order that they appeared in Weird Tales, being able to see how his stories connected and how his storytelling progressed. It was also interesting to learn that Howard used the name Conan in a story that predates the more famous Conan stories.

Looking forward to reading volume four.

Kings of the Night (Bran Mak Morn/Kull) (4/5)
The Song of the Mad Minstrel (poem)
The Children of the Night (Kirowan/Cthulhu Mythos) (2/5)
The Footfalls Within (Solomon Kane) (4/5)
The Gods of Bal-Sagoth (Turlogh O’Brian) (4/5)
The Black Stone (Cthulhu Mythos) (3/5)
The Dark Man (first Turlogh O’Brian) (5/5)
The Thing on the Roof (Cthulhu Mythos) (3/5)
The Last Day (poem)
Horror From the Mound (4/5)
People of the Dark (from Strange Tales) (Cthulhu Mythos)(5/5)

[John Midgley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Five stories. The Haunter of The Ring was probably the best of them. But still meh.

[Forked Radish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hulk right. Very good story.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sold to 'Strange Tales' in 1932, this is a more refined variant of the themes found in the execrable draft 'The Little People' (almost certainly produced during his Bran Mak Morn period) and the equally bad (barring its possibly ironic aspect) 'Children of the Night' of the previous year.

This has some Howard's basic themes in a more polished pulp potboiler that at least trots along at more of a pace than the other two - a sociopathic Celt, sexual rivalry, the transfer across time of souls, nasty degenerate races, blood lust, tunnels in caverns and unspeakable rites.

The hero O'Brien also has an alter ego who is a barbarian called Conan and the degenerate race in the caverns are, of course, a snake people although there is no apparent direct connection between this story and Howard's most famous creation who first appeared in print later that year.

There is a rough continuity between the three earlier stories (with their link to Bran Mak Morn) and the more famous Conan series so 'scholars' of the weird who know Conan well might like to read them out of interest but none of them are masterpieces even if this one is the best of the bunch.

What is amusing is to see the very fertile mind of Howard, capable like a magpie of taking ideas from almost anything he came into contact with and then mashing them up in sometimes baroque ways, linking, in stages, the little people of Arthur Machen to the sword and sorcery of Conan.

The problem with reading Howard is that even his bad stories (and there are quite a few of those) start to become interesting when you see them as part of a whole, the massive output of a very young man (he killed himself at 30) in barely 10 years of professional writing.

A story can fill one with despair and yet it can also show us a young creative mind churning out obsessions and building worlds that may be inconsistent but which would prove fertile for much of later popular culture. Was he a 'genius'? I am not sure. But I know he was important.

After a while, tragically in view of his suicide, you get to immerse yourself in the tormented, violent, sexually repressed fantasies of this young man until you think you are on the edge of knowing him. The stories can be like seeing the successive drafts of a very singular mind.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yet another story where the protagonist gets knocked out only to awaken in the ancient past as a kick ass warrior. The story references the other short stories The Black Stone, about an ancient monolith, and Children of the Night, which references the people of the dark in a tedious racist manner.
In this story there is a love triangle that is replaying itself as it did in ancient times. Disappointing.
Audible edition.

[Todd Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read anything by Robert E. Howard since high school, but I was very pleased to find that it held up quite well. Howard's writing strikes me as a cross between H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs. It's unfortunate he doesn't seem to receive the recognition of either of these contemporaries.

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

First rate pulp from the master of the art. Howard had a way of describing action that is unsurpassed. Most of all, there is a dark sense in his stories. The idea of ancient evil, a savage past waiting to break free, and true loss abounds his work. The writing is sometimes lacking and always rough, but it well suits his violent and brooding heroes.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume continues the year by year printing of Howard's work for Weird Tales magazine. In this book Howard begins his stories inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Excellent read, fantastic action and adventure. These stories are presented unedited as they originally appeared in the magazine. Highly recommended

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic but dated fantasy/ fantasy-horror anthology. I can only read so many short stories about the blond haired hero having to tolerate little brown men while saving the beautiful white woman or slaying the monster no other mortal could harm. The horror and Conan the Barbarian stories were great though.

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps it was a mistake to choose a collection of short stories as my first taste of Robert E Howard. I gave up halfway through the Solomon Kane tale - I just couldn't find anything to connect with in the characters. I'll try some proper Conan next time.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

An itrestng read from the past...

[Stuart Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A continuation of REH's Weird Tales stories in the order in which they were published. Includes some of his best. The great mashup "Kings of the Night" where Bran Mac Morn teams up with Kull of Atlantis to fight the marauding Roman Empire. "Children of the Night" again uses the time travel motif as a British gentleman faces off against his racial enemies the degenerate Picts. Solomon Kane fights Arab slavers and an ancient demon from the days of Solomon the Wise. Black Turlough makes his appearance in "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" and again in the "The Dark Man". REH's best Lovecraftian story "The Black Stone" is represented here, along with another toad-demon in "The Thing on the Roof." REH revisits vampires in "Horror From the Mound", this time in west Texas. We finish with another time travel tale, again against devolved Picts, in "People of the Dark."

This is the best of the series so far, with many of REH's best stories. Sword and sorcery, creepy horror with vile monsters, and Bran Mac Morn, Kull, Black Turlough, the Nameless Cults, and, of course, Picts are all collected here. A really good selection of REH at his height.

On thing; REH, for all his mastery of the English language, really sucks at naming his characters. The same names are used again and again, with no relation to each other. Brills, Allisons, Cormach, and even Conan appear willy-nilly from one story to the next. Not so apparent in this volume by itself, but really striking when you've read any amount of his work.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange, but understandable. Life and love given a second chance.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange!
Dark!
Good story!

[Zainab · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story with a cool plot twist at the end, but not my style.

[Rubin Carpenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange Conan tale that switched back and forth
between ancient times and modern day
A twisted mix of karma and reincarnation in a tale
that seems to work as only Robert E Howard could do

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man falls in a cave and sees a vision/dream where he is Conan

[Nickolas B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

an good mild horror

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

N

[Exanimis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short story but fans of Howard's will enjoy it, I know I sure did.

[Per · Rating 2 out of 5]

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