Black Hound of Death

by Robert E. Howard

Some such thoughts flitted vaguely through my mind that night as I groped along the narrow trail that wound through the deep pinelands. Such thoughts are likely to keep company with any man who dares invade, in the night, that lonely stretch of densely timbered river-country which the black people call Egypt, for some obscurely racial reason.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

36 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2018

About the author

Robert Ervin Howard was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. Howard wrote "over three-hundred stories and seven-hundred poems of raw power and unbridled emotion" and is especially noted for his memorable depictions of "a sombre universe of swashbuckling adventure and darkling horror."

He is well known for having created—in the pages of the legendary Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales—the character Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can only be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond.

—Wikipedia

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Mark Tallen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this short horror story written by Robert E.Howard, which, unfortunately isn't contained in the Del Rey edition of his horror stories. I've no idea why it wasn't included? Anyway, it is an effective short story, perfect for spooky season and Cimmerian September.

[3e · Rating 3 out of 5]

zeer racist, maar wel t eerste boek waar ik da horror gevoel had doordat da zo heeel beschrijvend was

[Sean Walczak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would give this a 3.5 stars if a half-star were available. I wanted to kick-start Cimmerian September by reading some REH fiction, and this story just happened to pop up before I started into "Red Nails". I found this story to be quite entertaining, and I might even re-read it in October given its subject matter.

[Teemu Öhman · Rating 4 out of 5]

If we ignore the fact that the story is racist by modern standards, Black Hound of Death was an entertaining horror story with a decent amount of blood & guts, set in the backwoods of America. In general, this genre is not really my cup of tea, but it helped getting through the massive amount of kitchen chores.

The version I listened to was the one in The SFFaudio Podcast #864 (skillfully read by Ben Tucker for LibriVox), not the Audible version.

3.75/5

[Tony Ciak · Rating 4 out of 5]

strange, weird, horror by a master.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some of Robert E. Howard's short horror stories are heavy going, 'Black Hound of Death' reads smooth and is free of excess description.

Set in Egypt, this supernatural tale has an eerie atmosphere. Several Americans encounter terror during the night.