Ghor, Kin Slayer: The Saga of Genseric's Fifth Born Son in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Mar 22, 2013 S.E. Lindberg rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed-by-se, sword-and-sorcery

Ghor Kinslayer – A Weird Sampling of Legendary Authors
The author line-up for this series is beyond incredible (see below recopied book description), and the idea for developing one of R.E.Howard's unfinished tales ... just awesome! But the delivery was just so-so. Actually, the first few tales had me hooked. Then I came upon Michael Moorcock's contribution and couldn't get over his over-the-top, misogynistic introduction of the female Shanara. I was really disappointed in this, since it poisone Ghor Kinslayer – A Weird Sampling of Legendary Authors
The author line-up for this series is beyond incredible (see below recopied book description), and the idea for developing one of R.E.Howard's unfinished tales ... just awesome! But the delivery was just so-so. Actually, the first few tales had me hooked. Then I came upon Michael Moorcock's contribution and couldn't get over his over-the-top, misogynistic introduction of the female Shanara. I was really disappointed in this, since it poisoned the tone of the subsequent chapters…and I had expected more professionalism and better style from the creator of Elric (in which he better balanced violence/weirdness/machismo). But the collection serves as a great sampling of legendary authors. Get it for historical interest if nothing else.

AvailabilityAmazon has used hardcopies. It is still available “new” from the publisher, Necropress.com directly for ~$8USD. Here is the description:

Robert E. Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, Joseph Payne Brennan, Richard L. Tierney, Michael Moorcock, Charles R. Saunders, andrew j. offutt, Manly Wade Wellman, Darrell Schweitzer, A. E. Van Vogt, Brian Lumley, Frank Belknap Long, Adrian Cole, Ramsey Campbell, H. Warner Munn, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Richard A. Lupoff: Ghor, Kin-Slayer: The Saga of Genseric's Fifth-Born Son, A Necronomicon Press Trade Paperback, 176 pp., $8.95

Seventeen leading fantasy authors ...

One epic novel of heroic fantasy ...

Only Robert E. Howard could have begun it ... left by his parents to die, and subsequently raised by wolves, Ghor becomes the mightiest warrior of his time, driven by a boundless desire to revenge his abandonment.
Decades later, this unfinished tale by the creator of Conan sees completion by sixteen of the top fantasy authors of our time, each bringing with them their own unique style and vision to the adventures of Ghor, Kin-Slayer. The reader will not only be guided through a rousing adventure of heroic fantasy, but discover intriguing elements of weird fiction, with even a touch of H. P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" thrown in for good measure.
Available [at Necropress.com] for the first time in its complete form, Ghor, Kin-Slayer is the rare opportunity to read a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between Robert E. Howard and the finest fantasy authors of the past several decade.

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Jan 04, 2009 Charles rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

This is an interesting but badly flawed book. It's flawed because it was written in a round-robin style by some 17 authors, each of whom wrote a chapter that built upon the previous author's chapter. It does have a loose form and an ending, but the most intersting thing about it is the individual chapters.

The opening chapter is by Robert E. Howard, with followups by such writers as Karl Edward Wagner, Joseph Payne Brenna, Richard L. Tierney, Michael Moorcock, Charles Saunders, Andrew Offutt, Man ...more

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