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The Harold Lamb Megapack: 18 Classic Adventure Tales
"The Harold Lamb Megapack" presents 18 classic tales by one of the greatest adventure fiction writers of all time. Lamb inspired countless other authors, including Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian) with his historically accurate tales of exotic lands and peoples, from Cossacks to Arabs and Turks. Included EXCELLENCY THE VULTURE (1917)KHLIT (1917)WOLF'S WAR (1918)TAL TAULAI KHAN (1918)ALAMUT (1918)YELLOW ELEPHANTS (1919)THE VILLAGE OF THE GHOST (1921)THE GRAND CHAM (1921)THE MAKE-WEIGHT (1921)THE HOUSE OF THE STRONGEST (1921)THE WOLF-CHASER (1922)THE GATE IN THE SKY (1922)THE NET (1922)SANGAR (1922)THE ROAD OF THE GIANTS (1922)PROTECTION (1923)THE RED COCK CROWS (1928)THE ROGUE'S GIRL (1932)And if you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 100+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!
687 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
89 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Harold Lamb
129 books161 followersHarold Albert Lamb was an American historian, screenwriter, short story writer, and novelist.
Born in Alpine, New Jersey, he attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. Lamb built a career with his writing from an early age. He got his start in the pulp magazines, quickly moving to the prestigious Adventure magazine, his primary fiction outlet for nineteen years. In 1927 he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and popular history books until his death in 1962. The success of Lamb's two volume history of the Crusades led to his discovery by Cecil B. DeMille, who employed Lamb as a technical advisor on a related movie, The Crusades, and used him as a screenwriter on many other DeMille movies thereafter. Lamb spoke French, Latin, Persian, and Arabic, and, by his own account, a smattering of Manchu-Tartar.
From Wikipedia
Born in Alpine, New Jersey, he attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. Lamb built a career with his writing from an early age. He got his start in the pulp magazines, quickly moving to the prestigious Adventure magazine, his primary fiction outlet for nineteen years. In 1927 he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and popular history books until his death in 1962. The success of Lamb's two volume history of the Crusades led to his discovery by Cecil B. DeMille, who employed Lamb as a technical advisor on a related movie, The Crusades, and used him as a screenwriter on many other DeMille movies thereafter. Lamb spoke French, Latin, Persian, and Arabic, and, by his own account, a smattering of Manchu-Tartar.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 14, 2015
Classic adventure tales
These tales conjure up lost realms and times... Exotic peoples , Cossacks , Tatars , hard bitten adventurers and errant knights caught in the charming romantic language of a master teller of tales a la the early 20 th century . Good reading for those who hunger for well wrought word slinging and yarns of yore .
These tales conjure up lost realms and times... Exotic peoples , Cossacks , Tatars , hard bitten adventurers and errant knights caught in the charming romantic language of a master teller of tales a la the early 20 th century . Good reading for those who hunger for well wrought word slinging and yarns of yore .
July 14, 2025
It's easy to see why Robert E. Howard found inspiration in Lamb's work. Lamb's prose is muscular, vivid, evocative. His protagonists are principled and heroic, displaying the best of human nature. I enjoyed every one of these stories. That said, I preferred his shorter pieces; the novellas had so much detail that I tended to forget, from one night's reading to another, just exactly what had taken place. Regardless, if you're a fan of Howard's stories about Conan or Solomon Kane, you simply must read this collection by Harold Lamb.
September 9, 2018
18 classic adventure fiction tales by Harold Lamb who inspired countless other authors. A series of short stories from the past set in exotic lands and peoples from Cossacks to Arabs, Turks and Englishmen.
Most enjoyable read especially if you like adventure tales featuring men and women who are brave, story and principled.
Most enjoyable read especially if you like adventure tales featuring men and women who are brave, story and principled.
November 30, 2018
Loved it
Old time adventure fiction in an erudite, old fashioned British style. The sort of stuff I enjoyed as a young boy and still love all these years later.
Old time adventure fiction in an erudite, old fashioned British style. The sort of stuff I enjoyed as a young boy and still love all these years later.
August 10, 2024
I’ll do a much more comprehensive review of this and other Harold Lamb works on my Swords & Planet League page on facebook, but here are my initial thoughts on the Megapack. There are 18 stories here. A few are relatively short but most are long. Several are novella length. That makes this a “megapack” indeed, and—perhaps strangely—I found that a deterrent for me in reading future Megapacks. One would think that getting a whole lot of stories for a small price (only 99 cents in ebook) would be outstanding. As a value, it is. However, for me, and perhaps for me alone, I found it too much of a good thing. I love to read all sorts of things, and I generally like to finish any book or collection I start. I keep a record of everything I read. But because there was so much here, it took me forever to finish the book (From February to August). For me, (and this may well sound weird), I actually found it discouraging to read for a solid hour and have my kindle tell me I’d finished only 3% of the book. I’m the kind of weirdo who likes to make a to-do list that includes “make a list,” and I get pleasure crossing off the items as I finish them. Similarly, I get pleasure in moving a book from my unread pile to my read collection, and that’s not easy with a collection of this length.
Harold Lamb was a superb adventure writer and is deservedly remembered. He was a big influence on Robert E. Howard, particularly for REH’s historical based fiction, and this can be readily seen from reading Howard and Lamb in juxtaposition. Lamb captures character and situation quickly, creates good internal mysteries, and keeps the action moving. However, there is a certain sameness to Lamb’s work. There are often similarities of characters and situations, and even language. This would not be a problem if one read 2 or 3 Lamb stories in a row, but it became fairly obvious to me going through 18 long stories. I did, in fact, take several long breaks when advancing through the Megapack, although I don't like doing that, but because of who I am as a reader I pushed ahead faster than I should have and found myself getting bored here and there. That’s my fault, not Lamb’s. In the future, I’m going to buy shorter collections of authors’ works. I believe I would have enjoyed these stories more in that fashion.
Harold Lamb was a superb adventure writer and is deservedly remembered. He was a big influence on Robert E. Howard, particularly for REH’s historical based fiction, and this can be readily seen from reading Howard and Lamb in juxtaposition. Lamb captures character and situation quickly, creates good internal mysteries, and keeps the action moving. However, there is a certain sameness to Lamb’s work. There are often similarities of characters and situations, and even language. This would not be a problem if one read 2 or 3 Lamb stories in a row, but it became fairly obvious to me going through 18 long stories. I did, in fact, take several long breaks when advancing through the Megapack, although I don't like doing that, but because of who I am as a reader I pushed ahead faster than I should have and found myself getting bored here and there. That’s my fault, not Lamb’s. In the future, I’m going to buy shorter collections of authors’ works. I believe I would have enjoyed these stories more in that fashion.
October 5, 2022
Of the four tales tales of Khlit the Cossack, three are terrific, one is good. Khlit is old, a good thinker and a good fighter, but his fighting happens off the page, which I like. The other stories are okay, but as soon as a Western European appears, he saves the day, which is much more generic than the Khlit stories. Also, the number of typoes or scanning mistakes is stunning.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews