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Echoes of Valor

Karl Edward Wagner (Editor),

Henry Kuttner

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Feb 14, 2017 Derek rated it really liked it

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery

Not to be confused with the '70s revival fashion guide, Echoes of Velour. I joke.

Wagner has a thing for the original forms of the stories. "The Black Stranger" is an unpublished Conan story that Howard later rewrote into a Black Vulmea piece, "Swords of the Red Brotherhood". "Adept's Gambit" is an earlier version, bereft of the framing device that draws the Twain from Nehwon to fantasy-historical Lebanon. It may even predate Leiber's construction of Nehwon itself, though Lankhmar is mentioned sh Not to be confused with the '70s revival fashion guide, Echoes of Velour. I joke.

Wagner has a thing for the original forms of the stories. "The Black Stranger" is an unpublished Conan story that Howard later rewrote into a Black Vulmea piece, "Swords of the Red Brotherhood". "Adept's Gambit" is an earlier version, bereft of the framing device that draws the Twain from Nehwon to fantasy-historical Lebanon. It may even predate Leiber's construction of Nehwon itself, though Lankhmar is mentioned shudderingly at one point.

In his introduction to "The Black Stranger", Wagner identifies the twin influences of Old World legend and Old West tales as the alchemy to Howard's writing, which is a fascinating thought. The story forms a pair with "Beyond the Black River", taking place just after those events and in the same basic area, near the Thunder River frontier of Aquilonia or Zingara.

I wish that Howard had done more with the setting, with Conan wandering around the outskirts of civilization. It suited the character and suited the level of adventure that Howard favored: strongmen behind fortresses, piracy in spades, lost treasures, and politically-incorrect natives.

It is astonishing how polished "Adept's Gambit" is with regard to characterization and tone, at least for its first half. There's no date given for its actual writing, but Leiber has nailed the relationship of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and their hijinks. I challenge any reader to be unaffected by the pair's contentious interview with Nigauble: the interplay, the use of words, the sheer musical language, the way it all locks together. And just afterwards is an 80's movie-style montage as the two fetch the shopping list of impossible artifacts, dispensing with in a few pages what a lesser author might drag into a trilogy. It is delightful to read, with a sense that behind the small mentions and allusions lurk a host of other adventures of at least equal narrative value.

But the story takes a weird right turn just after their confrontation with Anra, where Ahura narrates a weirdly gothic backstory whose purpose seems minute given the abrupt endgame. ...more

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Jun 27, 2018 Jason Waltz rated it really liked it

Shelves: s-s, anthologies, heroic, fantastical, series, own, keeper

Great anthology, opens and closes with terrific tales of heady action and heroic derring-do. Sad there is only 3 stories, but they are fine specimens of sword-and-sorcery's loving embrace. REH of course rocks with one of Conan's more exciting tales involving Picts and pirates and pretty baubles and prettier dames and powerfully diabolical sorcery. Some terrific turns of phrase describing battle, blood, and Conan's prowess at finding both. Leiber follows this with a great example of both his famo ...more

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