The story centers on a feud between two cowboys, Cal Reynolds and Esau Brill, who have hated each other most of their lives. They encounter one another while out riding and a gunfight ensues. They stalk one another from hiding places among the boulders, firing occasional shots over a long period.
“Kings of the Night” by Robert E. Howard is a compelling story that intertwines elements of fantasy, historical fiction, and adventure. It unfolds in ancient Britain, where Bran Mak Morn, the king of the Picts, faces an imminent threat from a Roman legion marching towards his land. The story is notable for its blending of Howard’s created mythos with historical elements, creating a rich tapestry of ancient cultures and legendary figures.
“The Hyborian Age” is an essay by Robert E. Howard pertaining to the Hyborian Age, the fictional setting of his stories about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but only partly published during Howard’s lifetime. Its purpose was to maintain consistency within his fictional setting.
The essay sets out in detail the major events of Howard’s pseudohistorical prehistory, both period before and after the time of the Conan stories. In describing the cataclysmic end of the Thurian Age, the period described in his Kull stories, Howard links both sequences of stories into one shared universe. The names he gives his various nations and peoples of the age borrow liberally from actual history and myth. The essay also sets out the racial and geographical heritage of these fictional entities, making them progenitors of modern nations. For example, Howard makes the Gaels descendants of his own Cimmerians.
Howard wrote one of the first “Weird Western” stories ever created, “The Horror from the Mound,” published in the May 1932 issue of Weird Tales. This genre acted as a bridge between his early “weird” stories (a contemporary term for horror and fantasy) and his later straight western tales.
There is a secret held inside an Indian burial mound, only a few know the secret and they have been sworn to secrecy… until someone became greedy, deciding that there must be treasure hidden in the mound…
First published in Weird Tales, August 1930. In Africa again, Kane’s old friend N’Longa (the witch doctor from “Red Shadows”) gives the Puritan a magic wooden staff, the Staff of Solomon, which will protect him in his travels. Kane enters the jungle and finds a city of vampires.
‘Hawks of Outremer’ is a story in the Cormac Fitzgeoffrey series about a knight fighting in the Crusades. Cormac Fitzgeoffrey only appears in two of these tales: Hawks of Outremer and The Blood of Belshazzar, both written in 1931. In the latter, Cormac seeks help in rescuing his leader from barbarians even more fierce and evil than those that hold his friend captive.
First published in Oriental Stories (Spring 1931) after being accepted by that magazine in October 1930. “Outremer” (literally, “Oversea”) was what the Crusader states were often called.
“The Grey God Passes” is a vivid tale set during a tumultuous period in Irish history, focusing on the Battle of Clontarf and the symbolic end of the Norse gods’ influence over the region.
The story begins with Conn, a thrall (slave), confronting a mysterious stranger who knows of Conn’s killing of his master, Wolfgar Snorri’s son. The stranger, later revealed to be Odin, the Grey God, hints at an impending war in Ireland and vanishes after predicting doom and the fall of gods.
The Ace collection contains many well-known stories by Howard. Pigeons from Hell, The Gods of Bal-Sagoth, and many more.
The Book of The Howard Review second edition. This book is a collection of essays from The Howard Review edited by Dennis McHaney. It also includes a large number of stories by Howard now in the public domain.
Zebra Books, 1976; Volume 1 of 2. Mass market paperback, 1st edition. Introduction by the book’s editor Glenn Lord. Includes sixteen poems, and several of Howard’s stories.
