Search Results for: Desert Blood

A Witch Shall Be Born

09
Aug

A WITCH SHALL BE BORN is one of the original sword and sorcery novellas by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in only a few days in the spring of 1934 and first published in Weird Tales in December 1934. 

Queen Taramis of Khauran awakens one day to find her identical twin sister, Salome, staring her in the face. As an infant, Salome was deemed a witch due to a crescent-shaped birthmark on her chest. This birthmark was believed to be a sign of evil, so she was left in the desert to die. However, a magician from Khitai (China) found Salome, brought her up, and instructed her in the art of sorcery.

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Blood of the Gods

“Blood of the Gods” is an El Borak short story by Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the July 1935 issue of the pulp magazine Top-Notch. 

A group of soldiers of fortune seek a set of matched rubies called the Blood of the Gods, owned by al Wazir. To find it, they capture an Arab who they believe knows the location of al Wazir, who has become a desert hermit. After the Arab agrees to help them, despite his fear of el Borak, a friend of al Wazir who leads the caravan to al Wazir’s hermitage and reveals al Wazir’s location at the Caves of El Khour, the Arab is shot by one of el Borak’s other allies, Salim.

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The Legend of El Borak

19
Feb

An article written by Rick Lai about the Legend of El Borak. Best known for his tales of heroic fantasy, Robert E. Howard (1906-36) also wrote contemporary tales of adventure for the pulps. Howard was influenced by Talbot Mundy, a major writer for Adventure in the 1920’s. Mundy’s heroes were American and British adventurers roving around India and the Middle East. Utilizing Mundy’s settings, Howard fashioned his own band of protagonists. Among Howard’s soldiers of fortune, the most famous is Francis Xavier Gordon.

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Kirby O’Donnell

16
Feb

Kirby O’Donnell is a fictional character created by American author Robert E. Howard. He is an American treasure hunter who operates in early-twentieth century Afghanistan disguised as a Kurdish merchant named “Ali el Ghazi.” O’Donnell appears in three stories written by Howard, two of which were published during his lifetime. The stories featuring Kirby O’Donnell are noted for their blend of historical adventure, action, and intrigue.

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El Borak and Other Desert Adventures

11
Apr

Robert E. Howard is famous for creating such immortal heroes as Conan the Cimmerian, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn. Less well-known but equally extraordinary are his non-fantasy adventure stories set in the Middle East and featuring such two-fisted heroes as Francis Xavier Gordon—known as “El Borak”—Kirby O’Donnell, and Steve Clarney. This trio of hard-fighting Americans, civilized men with more than a touch of the primordial in their veins, marked a new direction for Howard’s writing, and new territory for his genius to conquer.

The wily Texan El Borak, a hardened fighter who stalks the sandscapes of Afghanistan like a vengeful wolf, is rivaled among Howard’s creations only by Conan himself. In such classic tales as “The Daughter of Erlik Khan,” “Three-Bladed Doom,” and “Sons of the Hawk,” Howard proves himself once again a master of action, and with plenty of eerie atmosphere his plotting becomes tighter and twistier than ever, resulting in stories worthy of comparison to Jack London and Rudyard Kipling. Every fan of Robert E. Howard and aficionados of great adventure writing will want to own this collection of the best of Howard’s desert tales, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artists Tim Bradstreet and Jim & Ruth Keegan.

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