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The 11th Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK®: E. Hoffmann Price: 18 Classic Fantasy and Horror Stories
Welcome to The 11th Golden Age of Weird Fiction MEGAPACK(R), which features the weird fiction of E. Hoffmann Price. Wildside Press, in association with Mr. Price's heirs, are dedicated to making the extensive body of work of this pulpsmith extraordinaire accessible once again to the public through our line of MEGAPACK(R) collections. Included in this volume are 18 more of Price's classic stories from the pages of Weird Tales and other pulp magazines. Here
SALADIN'S THRONE-RUG
THE GIRL FROM SAMARCAND
THE PEACOCK'S SHADOW
THE LORD OF ILLUSION
PALE HANDS
TARBIS OF THE LAKE
THE GARDEN OF EVIL
THE WALKING DEAD
TOMB DWELLER
KEEPER OF THE GATEWAY
PIT OF MADNESS
SATAN'S DAUGHTER
THE DESTROYING DEMON
SPANISH VAMPIRE
SELENE WALKS BY NIGHT
THE OLD GODS EAT
PRAYER TO SATAN
WEB OF WIZARDRY
If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 300+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!
SALADIN'S THRONE-RUG
THE GIRL FROM SAMARCAND
THE PEACOCK'S SHADOW
THE LORD OF ILLUSION
PALE HANDS
TARBIS OF THE LAKE
THE GARDEN OF EVIL
THE WALKING DEAD
TOMB DWELLER
KEEPER OF THE GATEWAY
PIT OF MADNESS
SATAN'S DAUGHTER
THE DESTROYING DEMON
SPANISH VAMPIRE
SELENE WALKS BY NIGHT
THE OLD GODS EAT
PRAYER TO SATAN
WEB OF WIZARDRY
If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 300+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 15, 2017
99 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
E. Hoffmann Price
208 books19 followersOriginally intending to be a career soldier, Price graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point; he served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, and with the American military in Mexico and the Philippines. He was a champion fencer and boxer, an amateur Orientalist, and a student of the Arabic language; science-fiction author Jack Williamson, in his 1984 autobiography Wonder's Child, called E. Hoffmann Price a "real live soldier of fortune."
In his literary career, Hoffmann Price produced fiction for a wide range of publications, from Argosy to Terror Tales, from Speed Detective to Spicy Mystery Stories. Yet he was most readily identified as a Weird Tales writer, one of the group who wrote regularly for editor Farnsworth Wright, a group that included Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. Price published 24 solo stories in "the Unique Magazine" between 1925 and 1950, plus three collaborations with Otis Adelbert Kline, and his works with Lovecraft.
In his literary career, Hoffmann Price produced fiction for a wide range of publications, from Argosy to Terror Tales, from Speed Detective to Spicy Mystery Stories. Yet he was most readily identified as a Weird Tales writer, one of the group who wrote regularly for editor Farnsworth Wright, a group that included Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. Price published 24 solo stories in "the Unique Magazine" between 1925 and 1950, plus three collaborations with Otis Adelbert Kline, and his works with Lovecraft.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 25, 2020
Edgar Hoffmann Price (July 3, 1898 – June 18, 1988) was a larger than life character, similar to those in his fixpction: A graduate of West Point, he served in World War (followed by military duty in Mexico and the Philippines) and was a champion fencer and boxer, a Buddhist, an amateur Orientalist, and a student of the Arabic language. He befriended, corresponded with, and personally met many authors of the pulp era including being the only person to actually MEET Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft. He wrote hundreds of stories for many pulp magazines in varied genres like horror, detective, adventure, fantasy and science fiction. I only knew him previously for his collaboration with Lovecraft --"Beyond the Gate of the Silver Key" -- and his occult detective stories. The original, Price version of Silver Gate, called "Lord of Illusuons" is in this collection and the final form is probably 80% Lovecraft's words around Price's plot -- and much better for it.
While a few of these stories are really fun, as a whole, the collection gets old -- Price's protagonists are all the same: flamboyant, tough, somewhat amoral, oversexed (like, REALLY oversexed) and American. The casual racism and sexism of the era is in full force, and while not of Lovecraft's decided bigotry, was reallly too much in a few stories, specifically towards blacks in general and American blacks in particular. I am not, by nature, someone wh feels terribky judgy about such things in 90 year old stories -- but if you find Howard, or Hammett or Chandler too much, you won't handle this.
The collection loses a star for the racism and sexism beyond its contemporaries, it loses two more for recycling plot elements; one example -- every other story had dome variant of the mysterious woman who is not what she seems in a Middle-Eastern setting. I love the Yazidis, but they figure into lrobably 1/4 of the stories, almost always in the same way. What is good in here is good and fun, but there isn't enough of it. Price was extremely prolific, but there is a reason he isn'remembered like Howard, Smith, Lovecraft, Mundy, Chandler, etc.
While a few of these stories are really fun, as a whole, the collection gets old -- Price's protagonists are all the same: flamboyant, tough, somewhat amoral, oversexed (like, REALLY oversexed) and American. The casual racism and sexism of the era is in full force, and while not of Lovecraft's decided bigotry, was reallly too much in a few stories, specifically towards blacks in general and American blacks in particular. I am not, by nature, someone wh feels terribky judgy about such things in 90 year old stories -- but if you find Howard, or Hammett or Chandler too much, you won't handle this.
The collection loses a star for the racism and sexism beyond its contemporaries, it loses two more for recycling plot elements; one example -- every other story had dome variant of the mysterious woman who is not what she seems in a Middle-Eastern setting. I love the Yazidis, but they figure into lrobably 1/4 of the stories, almost always in the same way. What is good in here is good and fun, but there isn't enough of it. Price was extremely prolific, but there is a reason he isn'remembered like Howard, Smith, Lovecraft, Mundy, Chandler, etc.
August 14, 2018
What an odd slop-together. Roughly a third of the stories are from the golden age of Weird Tales and show a fine ability to sew together style and plot. The rest are from something called Spicy Mystery Stories – very soft, giggle-worthy porn wrapped in mystery or supernatural blankets.
"The Lord of Illusion," an early draft of a Cthulhu story later rewritten by Lovecraft, becomes almost a philosophical treatise that goes far beyond the usual snot-drooling monsters of that mythos. "Saladin's Throne Rug" follows twists and turns of character to a truly horrific ending.
As so often with the pulpers, the need to churn out words at breakneck speed creates a kind of smelly verbal stew. Price's knowledge of religions and Mideastern artwork (especially rugs!) is staggering, but too often throw away on a shoddy story (the Spicy entries) with plot tossed together on the run. Other Price Megpacks, covering his detective stories, etc., are either out of in the works and sound like better bets.
"The Lord of Illusion," an early draft of a Cthulhu story later rewritten by Lovecraft, becomes almost a philosophical treatise that goes far beyond the usual snot-drooling monsters of that mythos. "Saladin's Throne Rug" follows twists and turns of character to a truly horrific ending.
As so often with the pulpers, the need to churn out words at breakneck speed creates a kind of smelly verbal stew. Price's knowledge of religions and Mideastern artwork (especially rugs!) is staggering, but too often throw away on a shoddy story (the Spicy entries) with plot tossed together on the run. Other Price Megpacks, covering his detective stories, etc., are either out of in the works and sound like better bets.
February 3, 2019
Once you get past the two (2!!) stories with way too many details about carpets, the rest are ok. Not great, but not bad.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews