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Fists of Iron: Round 4 (The Collected Boxing Fiction of Robert E. Howard, #4)

Robert E. Howard,

Mark Finn (Introduction)

Discussion: Boxing Stories

Discussion leader: Vincent Darlage

Why we're reading this: This is the newest book from the REH Foundation, featuring the last of REH's boxing stories. This volume …more
[close] This is the newest book from the REH Foundation, featuring the last of REH's boxing stories. This volume features Kid Allison, among others.

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Showing 2 of 2 topics — 78 comments total

Boxing Stories

Fists of Iron - Round 4
By Vincent · 36 posts · 21 views

last updated Jun 01, 2021 07:21AM

Sailor Steve Costigan
By Vincent · 17 posts · 34 views

last updated Nov 22, 2014 10:22AM

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What Members Thought

Feb 12, 2015 Vincent Darlage rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adventure, robert-e-howard-2015, reh-foundation

While not as good as the first three volumes, REH remains in great form describing the fistic battles of Kid Allison and others.

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Mar 31, 2015 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sports-fiction, humor, pulp, short-stories, reh-challenge, robert-e-howard

Robert E Howard's stuff is almost always a great read. It's fun and satisfying. Sometimes I read other authors and love the ideas presented but the delivery is not always as satisfying as Howard's prose. It's easy to understand and pulls no punches. There are no hidden meanings or social commentaries, just pure clean escapism and I find I don't ever have to reread paragraphs because I couldn't understand them the first time. Not to say that harder to read books are not good literature. I love "M Robert E Howard's stuff is almost always a great read. It's fun and satisfying. Sometimes I read other authors and love the ideas presented but the delivery is not always as satisfying as Howard's prose. It's easy to understand and pulls no punches. There are no hidden meanings or social commentaries, just pure clean escapism and I find I don't ever have to reread paragraphs because I couldn't understand them the first time. Not to say that harder to read books are not good literature. I love "Moby Dick" which can be a chore for most people to get through. Much of the time I just like to be entertained and Howard's stuff is entertaining. It touches the child in me. It's visceral and graphic and sometimes as in many of his boxing stories they are laugh out loud humorous.
Boxing and other sports had a huge place in Bob Howard's life. He was an amateur boxer himself and followed the sport keenly. He lived in the era of Jack Dempsey, Jim Jeffries, Jack Johnson, and Gentleman Jim Corbett.
His stories are somewhat formulaic and as he himself maintained there are only so many dramatic stories that can be written about the sport but he seems to make them fresh. His characters are usually none too bright and are often "unreliable narrators". His character remind one of old movies with actors like Victor McLaglen or Wallace Beery. With four full volumes of his boxing stories available from the Robert E Howard Foundation It's unfortunate as Mark Finn states in the Foreword that when googling best "boxing stories", no stories of his show up. You see Jack London, Joyce Carol Oates, and Damon Runyon but I would venture that some of Howard's stories are ever bit as good as many of those and he's written way more of them! Of course most of his fiction is overshadowed by his most iconic creation, Conan of Cimmeria known to most as Conan the Barbarian but he wrote so many other stories besides the Conan stories that I believe they are worthy of being elevated to higher status if only more people knew. ...more

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Jan 01, 2018 Rubén Lorenzo rated it really liked it

Cuarto volumen que recoge las historias de boxeo de Howard. Queda claro que el autor sabe cómo narrar un combate y hacer un relato interesante con una temática tan limitada. Me ha gustado, aunque se me ha hecho un poco largo, puede que por saturación del género.

No hay aquí relatos humorísticos, lo que hace la lectura un poco más densa. Es un volumen muy interesante para fans de Howard y del boxeo en general, pero que queda detrás de los cuentos de fantasía en calidad literaria y emoción.

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