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The Best of Robert E. Howard: Crimson Shadows
Robert E. Howard is one of the most famous and influential pulp authors of the twentieth century. Though largely known as the man who invented the sword-and-sorcery genre–and for his iconic hero Conan the Cimmerian–Howard also wrote horror tales, desert adventures, detective yarns, epic poetry, and more. This spectacular volume, gorgeously illustrated by Jim and Ruth Keegan, includes some of his best and most popular works.
Inside, readers will discover (or rediscover) such gems as “The Shadow Kingdom,” featuring Kull of Atlantis and considered by many to be the first sword-and-sorcery story; “The Fightin’est Pair,” part of one of Howard’s most successful series, chronicling the travails of Steve Costigan, a merchant seaman with fists of steel and a head of wood; “The Grey God Passes,” a haunting tale about the passing of an age, told against the backdrop of Irish history and legend; “Worms of the Earth,” a brooding narrative featuring Bran Mak Morn, about which H. P. Lovecraft said, “Few readers will ever forget the hideous and compelling power of [this] macabre masterpiece”; a historical poem relating a momentous battle between Cimbri and the legions of Rome; and “Sharp’s Gun Serenade,” one of the last and funniest of the Breckinridge Elkins tales.
These thrilling, eerie, compelling, swashbuckling stories and poems have been restored to their original form, presented just as the author intended. There is little doubt that after more than seven decades the voice of Robert E. Howard continues to resonate with readers around the world.
Inside, readers will discover (or rediscover) such gems as “The Shadow Kingdom,” featuring Kull of Atlantis and considered by many to be the first sword-and-sorcery story; “The Fightin’est Pair,” part of one of Howard’s most successful series, chronicling the travails of Steve Costigan, a merchant seaman with fists of steel and a head of wood; “The Grey God Passes,” a haunting tale about the passing of an age, told against the backdrop of Irish history and legend; “Worms of the Earth,” a brooding narrative featuring Bran Mak Morn, about which H. P. Lovecraft said, “Few readers will ever forget the hideous and compelling power of [this] macabre masterpiece”; a historical poem relating a momentous battle between Cimbri and the legions of Rome; and “Sharp’s Gun Serenade,” one of the last and funniest of the Breckinridge Elkins tales.
These thrilling, eerie, compelling, swashbuckling stories and poems have been restored to their original form, presented just as the author intended. There is little doubt that after more than seven decades the voice of Robert E. Howard continues to resonate with readers around the world.
530 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Robert E. Howard
2,984 books2,650 followersRobert 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
June 25, 2013
This volume (especially when paired with The Best of Robert E. Howard: Grim Lands) pretty much does what it sets out to do -- gives a selection of Howard's best work in the many, many genres in which he wrote. You have the better-known stuff -- Kull ("The Shadow Kingdom"), Solomon Kane ("Red Shadows"), Conan (my personal favorite Conan story, "Beyond the Black River") and the lesser-known stuff -- boxing stories, El Borak, historical adventures, Westerns both humorous and non- -- punctuated by selections of his poetry. Some of the material (boxing, El Borak, Westerns) was new to me; much of it was familiar, which brings me to one slight complaint related to this volume in particular -- if you've been getting the previous Del Rey Howard editions, then a not-insubstantial part of this book is stories you already own. But I suppose that's to be expected -- you wouldn't want a general Howard collection without Kull, Bran Mak Morn and Conan, but you wouldn't want the Conan, Solomon Kane or Kull books to omit anything. So look at your own collection and take whatever action seems appropriate.
A couple of things: Howard was writing, very quickly, for pulp magazines in the 1930s, so there's a certain amount of repetition and some of the stories have gender & racial attitudes that are ... questionable. But they're still thunderingly good adventure stories with a surprisingly poetic turn of phrase:
Etched in the dying sun, as he had first appeared, Kull stood, and then, like a mist lifting, a mighty vista opened behind the reeling king. Cormac’s astounded eyes caught a fleeting gigantic glimpse of other climes and spheres–as if mirrored in summer clouds he saw, instead of the heather hills stretching away to the sea, a dim and mighty land of blue mountains and gleaming quiet lakes–the golden, purple and sapphirean spires and towering walls of a mighty city such as the earth has not known for many a drifting age.
A couple of things: Howard was writing, very quickly, for pulp magazines in the 1930s, so there's a certain amount of repetition and some of the stories have gender & racial attitudes that are ... questionable. But they're still thunderingly good adventure stories with a surprisingly poetic turn of phrase:
Etched in the dying sun, as he had first appeared, Kull stood, and then, like a mist lifting, a mighty vista opened behind the reeling king. Cormac’s astounded eyes caught a fleeting gigantic glimpse of other climes and spheres–as if mirrored in summer clouds he saw, instead of the heather hills stretching away to the sea, a dim and mighty land of blue mountains and gleaming quiet lakes–the golden, purple and sapphirean spires and towering walls of a mighty city such as the earth has not known for many a drifting age.
October 23, 2014
This was probably the best collection of his work that I've ever read & I'm pretty conversant with his work. I have over 40 of his books, half being Conan. I think every type of story he wrote was covered & the very best were picked. There were even a couple of stories that I don't think I had read before, which is surprising.
If I have any quarrel with the book, it's the amount of his poetry that is included. It is interspersed among the stories well, but by cutting back on it, perhaps another great story could have been included, such as "The Sowers of Thunder". Still, poetry was something he was apparently good at (I'm no judge, I don't care for it) so I guess it will make the books for some others.
There are some good summations of his life & work in the introduction & appendices. They're very much to the point & capture his life as few others have.
If you have any interest in pulp fiction, whether Sword & Sorcery, Fantasy, Horror, Detective, Boxing or Western, then this is a good book to read. It has it all.
If I have any quarrel with the book, it's the amount of his poetry that is included. It is interspersed among the stories well, but by cutting back on it, perhaps another great story could have been included, such as "The Sowers of Thunder". Still, poetry was something he was apparently good at (I'm no judge, I don't care for it) so I guess it will make the books for some others.
There are some good summations of his life & work in the introduction & appendices. They're very much to the point & capture his life as few others have.
If you have any interest in pulp fiction, whether Sword & Sorcery, Fantasy, Horror, Detective, Boxing or Western, then this is a good book to read. It has it all.
January 17, 2008
I never imagined that the guy who created Conan and Kull was such a fantastic writer, or that I'd really enjoy a Conan story. But I not only loved the Conan stories in this one, I loved Solomon Kane, Frank Gordon, Bran MacMorn, and others. And this also adds to my appreciation of Dictionary of Mu.
June 20, 2016
This is a feast for fantasy geeks. Old school at its best. Howard's writing is intense, visceral, and he's a master of gory fight scenes and tough, heroic characters. Good stuff.
April 7, 2008
I have been watching my local bookstores' shelves explode with reprinting of some pulp era classics, since they went public. Shadow, Doc Savage, Lovecraft, and of course one of my all-time favorite authors, Robert E. Howard.
This new Del Rey collection covers every aspect of his writings, every genre type, major character, and series. Here we have perhaps the best starting point, volume one of "The Best of" collection. I bought one for my brother also.
This volume has a wide-ranging sample of his work, from fantasy adventure to Wild West to horror to detective to poetry to his comedies. A great way to survey Howard's range.
Howard remains one of the best genre writers ever. Reading this you can see why.
Now, on to Volume Two.
This new Del Rey collection covers every aspect of his writings, every genre type, major character, and series. Here we have perhaps the best starting point, volume one of "The Best of" collection. I bought one for my brother also.
This volume has a wide-ranging sample of his work, from fantasy adventure to Wild West to horror to detective to poetry to his comedies. A great way to survey Howard's range.
Howard remains one of the best genre writers ever. Reading this you can see why.
Now, on to Volume Two.
June 14, 2010
Mr Howard was essentially the inventor of the "sword and sorcery" genre and for that, I thank him. His stories are very much a young man's stories; as a woman I found all the mighty thews and such a bit tedious after a while. Also, while of course these things must be considered in their historical context, I found it difficult to get past his comments on the "native savagery" of various races as compared to the mighty, superior Aryans.
January 3, 2009
Robert E. Howard was an extraordinary storyteller. His creations more in that never land between myth, history and lies, and we're not sure where we want them to alight. Frankly, I enjoyed his tales which had one foot in history better than the purer fantasy, but that's me.
Too bad we were robbed of a few more decades of output.
Too bad we were robbed of a few more decades of output.
December 24, 2015
This is an anthology of short stories written by Robert E. Howard in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Most of the stories are fantasy, with a couple of exceptions. For example, there is a very odd but rather funny western-type story at the end. A couple of Howard’s original Conan the Barbarian stories are also found in this anthology. I had recognized the name "Conan the Barbarian", but this was my first exposure to the character so I didn’t know anything about him.
For the most part, I found the stories to be only moderately entertaining. They weren’t bad, and I liked several of them, but they all blurred together with similar themes, similar settings, similar characterizations, similar plot devices, etc. I may have liked them better if I’d read them in the era in which they were written, before fantasy had gained the diversity it has today. I’m sure reading them all at once, as opposed to reading them over the course of several years as they were originally published, didn’t help.
I think the Conan stories were the ones I enjoyed the most, if only because the plot of those stories seemed to have more meat to them. The first Conan story was the most interesting to me, but it had a very wimpy female who couldn’t help but lust after the savage, brave, strong, and muscular barbarian who had taken her captive. That part annoyed me. The second Conan story is the only one in the book that squeezed a couple tears out of me.
In all of the stories, the main character was usually larger than life, wild, savage, brave, and unmatched with his fighting skills. He had primitive instincts (the author’s words) that helped him avoid death and accomplish his goals. Civilization was seen as a temporary and unnatural state of affairs that would eventually be overcome by the primitive nature of man. The stories often incorporated evil sorcerers and/or ancient objects that were sources of dark magic. Magic was usually evil, powerful, and ancient. It was very rarely used in a helpful context for our heroes. Reincarnation was another common theme in the stories, although it usually wasn’t an important plot point. Some of the main characters in different stories were apparently intended to be reincarnations of previous characters, so I guess some of the “sameness” of the main characters could be partly justified by that.
There was one sentence I came to in the book that made me laugh out loud, because the character’s sentiments almost exactly mirrored my own thoughts about the book: ”It seemed to the Aquilonian that they had been fighting and running for centuries.” A large portion of this book is spent fighting. If the characters aren't fighting, then they're likely either running toward or away from something.
After a while, I felt like I had seen certain words so often that I decided to search for them in my e-book to see just how many times they occurred. The below counts include occurrences of derivative words. For example, “instinct” includes not just the use of the word instinct, but also instinctive, instinctively, etc. For perspective, this is a 468-page book.
* wild – 130 occurrences
* savage – 87 occurrences
* civilized – 49 occurrences
* instinct – 45 occurrences
* primitive – 28 occurrences
I believe there are a few different anthologies out there containing Howard’s work. I had downloaded this one free from the Baen Free Library a few years back. The historical perspective that comes from reading fantasy works from almost 100 years ago was interesting, and I did enjoy the stories to varying degrees, but I don’t have any desire to seek out more work by the author.
For the most part, I found the stories to be only moderately entertaining. They weren’t bad, and I liked several of them, but they all blurred together with similar themes, similar settings, similar characterizations, similar plot devices, etc. I may have liked them better if I’d read them in the era in which they were written, before fantasy had gained the diversity it has today. I’m sure reading them all at once, as opposed to reading them over the course of several years as they were originally published, didn’t help.
I think the Conan stories were the ones I enjoyed the most, if only because the plot of those stories seemed to have more meat to them. The first Conan story was the most interesting to me, but it had a very wimpy female who couldn’t help but lust after the savage, brave, strong, and muscular barbarian who had taken her captive. That part annoyed me. The second Conan story is the only one in the book that squeezed a couple tears out of me.
In all of the stories, the main character was usually larger than life, wild, savage, brave, and unmatched with his fighting skills. He had primitive instincts (the author’s words) that helped him avoid death and accomplish his goals. Civilization was seen as a temporary and unnatural state of affairs that would eventually be overcome by the primitive nature of man. The stories often incorporated evil sorcerers and/or ancient objects that were sources of dark magic. Magic was usually evil, powerful, and ancient. It was very rarely used in a helpful context for our heroes. Reincarnation was another common theme in the stories, although it usually wasn’t an important plot point. Some of the main characters in different stories were apparently intended to be reincarnations of previous characters, so I guess some of the “sameness” of the main characters could be partly justified by that.
There was one sentence I came to in the book that made me laugh out loud, because the character’s sentiments almost exactly mirrored my own thoughts about the book: ”It seemed to the Aquilonian that they had been fighting and running for centuries.” A large portion of this book is spent fighting. If the characters aren't fighting, then they're likely either running toward or away from something.
After a while, I felt like I had seen certain words so often that I decided to search for them in my e-book to see just how many times they occurred. The below counts include occurrences of derivative words. For example, “instinct” includes not just the use of the word instinct, but also instinctive, instinctively, etc. For perspective, this is a 468-page book.
* wild – 130 occurrences
* savage – 87 occurrences
* civilized – 49 occurrences
* instinct – 45 occurrences
* primitive – 28 occurrences
I believe there are a few different anthologies out there containing Howard’s work. I had downloaded this one free from the Baen Free Library a few years back. The historical perspective that comes from reading fantasy works from almost 100 years ago was interesting, and I did enjoy the stories to varying degrees, but I don’t have any desire to seek out more work by the author.
July 22, 2023
Genius in story and writing style. Robert Howard brings you to the world he crafts. It is unfortunate the movies have done him no justice. I read it a couple times over the last 10 years, because he was just that good.
October 8, 2008
Howard is Death's poet and a truly masterful writer. He is so much more than Conan but is still arguably at his best in some of those tales.
September 10, 2019
OMG! OMG!! OMG!!!
June 28, 2020
En väldigt olycklig blandning. Jag är personligen förtjust i mycket av howards idéproduktion - han skapar häftiga världar och intressanta magisystem. Dessa texter reflekterar inte dessa hans styrkor, utan visar istället upp den halvslarvige actionförfattaren; och det är verkligen en urvalsfråga!
Jag avslutade denna bok endast för att få lägga dem till högen lästa och därmed till min läsutmaning.
Jag avslutade denna bok endast för att få lägga dem till högen lästa och därmed till min läsutmaning.
January 7, 2024
Το βιβλίο κάνει ακριβώς αυτό που υπόσχεται! Μας δείχνει γιατί ο Howard ήταν τόσο μοναδικός σε όσα είδη και αν καταπι��στηκε. Με μια απολαυστική συλλογή διηγημάτων μα και ποιημάτων, μας βάζει στον κόσμο του μεγαλύτερου συγγραφέα ΟΛΩΝ των εποχών (ναι, είμαι φανμποι)!
July 3, 2017
Painful. There are many REH compilations. Most of them are pretty good, since he's pretty good. This one appears to be devoted to presenting the worst of his writing, which makes the title even more painful than it would have been.
The Conan stories in this volume are crap Conan stories I'd never read before, despite being a Howard/Conan fan for a few decades. It was interesting reading them, because it'd been ages since I ran into Conan stuff by Howard himself I hadn't read before. I wasn't actually looking to read a bunch of Conan, I was hoping this would have more one-offs and not-popular characters. It did. But they were also crappy, so if you're coming at this as a fan of Howard's popular characters, or a fan of Howard looking for less common stuff, you're going to find what you came for and hate it.
As a fan of Howard in general or a completionist, I'd recommend reading this, because there's stuff here you've never read before, probably. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a best-of for Robert E. Howard. Sometimes, the reason stories don't get collected in omnibuses is because they suck. These stories were new to me mostly because they weren't worth publishing again, and I wasn't reading 10-cent pulps when they first appeared in print.
The proper place for those stories is in a "complete works of" collection, not a "best of" collection. Also, the editors of this collection seem to have inadvertently (giving them the benefit of the doubt) managed to consistently include Howard stories that are significantly more racist than his norm. Everyone knows he had some views that are a little outmoded and kinda disgusting. But they tend to not really be super-blatant and to-the-fore, in his better-known stuff.
That stuff is super-blatant and to-the-fore in this collection. The title of this collection would be accurate if they'd added "Eugenics Propaganda" in between "Best" and "of."
Buy any other book as an introduction to Howard. Buy every other book until you've read everything else he wrote. If, having done that, you'd like to see what he sounded like when he was off his game and on a weird white-supremacist kick, buy this one. Maybe. But you still won't enjoy it, because it's pretty terrible.
I did like the one about the sailor with the dog, and the one about the detective against the Asians, but that was because they were terrible in a unique way.
The Conan stories in this volume are crap Conan stories I'd never read before, despite being a Howard/Conan fan for a few decades. It was interesting reading them, because it'd been ages since I ran into Conan stuff by Howard himself I hadn't read before. I wasn't actually looking to read a bunch of Conan, I was hoping this would have more one-offs and not-popular characters. It did. But they were also crappy, so if you're coming at this as a fan of Howard's popular characters, or a fan of Howard looking for less common stuff, you're going to find what you came for and hate it.
As a fan of Howard in general or a completionist, I'd recommend reading this, because there's stuff here you've never read before, probably. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a best-of for Robert E. Howard. Sometimes, the reason stories don't get collected in omnibuses is because they suck. These stories were new to me mostly because they weren't worth publishing again, and I wasn't reading 10-cent pulps when they first appeared in print.
The proper place for those stories is in a "complete works of" collection, not a "best of" collection. Also, the editors of this collection seem to have inadvertently (giving them the benefit of the doubt) managed to consistently include Howard stories that are significantly more racist than his norm. Everyone knows he had some views that are a little outmoded and kinda disgusting. But they tend to not really be super-blatant and to-the-fore, in his better-known stuff.
That stuff is super-blatant and to-the-fore in this collection. The title of this collection would be accurate if they'd added "Eugenics Propaganda" in between "Best" and "of."
Buy any other book as an introduction to Howard. Buy every other book until you've read everything else he wrote. If, having done that, you'd like to see what he sounded like when he was off his game and on a weird white-supremacist kick, buy this one. Maybe. But you still won't enjoy it, because it's pretty terrible.
I did like the one about the sailor with the dog, and the one about the detective against the Asians, but that was because they were terrible in a unique way.
October 7, 2025
Rating: 4.5 / 5 stars
Reaction: I loved it.
Genre Fan? Definitely recommend.
Not a Genre Fan? A great choice if dipping your toes in.
A hidden gem from the author of Conan the Barbarian, this short story features Kull, an outlander-turned-king who makes an unusual alliance against an unseen foe. Full of mystery and reflections on the nature of power (and how it changes those who seek it), this short story follows the moody king as he unravels a profane plot and ends in a finale full of visceral sword & sorcery action.
I’d offer the usual disclaimer about certain elements not aging well, but this tale largely avoids many of the problematic elements often featured from that time period. Though...maybe this is where the "X politician is secretly a lizard person!" conspiracy originated??
Overall - a short but fascinating read that is feels less like an adventure of the week, and more like a reflection of who we choose to be across the course of our lives.
Reaction: I loved it.
Genre Fan? Definitely recommend.
Not a Genre Fan? A great choice if dipping your toes in.
A hidden gem from the author of Conan the Barbarian, this short story features Kull, an outlander-turned-king who makes an unusual alliance against an unseen foe. Full of mystery and reflections on the nature of power (and how it changes those who seek it), this short story follows the moody king as he unravels a profane plot and ends in a finale full of visceral sword & sorcery action.
I’d offer the usual disclaimer about certain elements not aging well, but this tale largely avoids many of the problematic elements often featured from that time period. Though...maybe this is where the "X politician is secretly a lizard person!" conspiracy originated??
Overall - a short but fascinating read that is feels less like an adventure of the week, and more like a reflection of who we choose to be across the course of our lives.
April 24, 2014
Wow. I know I know, by now I shouldn't expect those who opened the genre of Fantasy to have hobbled along lost in the great forest of Magically Inspired Tales. Most of the other genres were around for a while beforehand and I would never imagine that magic is difficult to write about considering the many sub genres have sprung up. Still. The magic in Robert E. Howard's stories is sometimes made by his phenomenal writing skills alone and not just by the wizards, sorceresses and necromancers who people his worlds.
I could be mistaken, but I felt his stories were uncluttered compared to a lot of present day stuff. As though, like a painter, he practiced conservation of strokes, choosing simple yet elegant lines to draw the worlds and people them.
I recommend this book and probably the rest of the series for any fantasy fans, especially those who really enjoy good prose.
I could be mistaken, but I felt his stories were uncluttered compared to a lot of present day stuff. As though, like a painter, he practiced conservation of strokes, choosing simple yet elegant lines to draw the worlds and people them.
I recommend this book and probably the rest of the series for any fantasy fans, especially those who really enjoy good prose.
October 17, 2017
Picked this nice little anthology up at the library, hurray for free books!
Ah, Howard. What can you really say about innovators, other than 'thank you'? I imagine I'm not the only young fantasy reader (young men in particular, I expect) to have picked up a Howard story and goggled at some hyper masculine killer or king surrounded by poetic prose. I didn't know about his life back then - his early difficulties, this skinny kid that disciplined himself to a more muscular frame. Like him I was an ameteur boxer, just another young man trying to let out emotion with fists. I read about his feeling of isolation and understood it - this lover of history and books surrounded by blue collar texans and open plain.
I digress. A great collection from an inspiring writer lost much too soon. Howard is required reading for fantasy buffs.
Ah, Howard. What can you really say about innovators, other than 'thank you'? I imagine I'm not the only young fantasy reader (young men in particular, I expect) to have picked up a Howard story and goggled at some hyper masculine killer or king surrounded by poetic prose. I didn't know about his life back then - his early difficulties, this skinny kid that disciplined himself to a more muscular frame. Like him I was an ameteur boxer, just another young man trying to let out emotion with fists. I read about his feeling of isolation and understood it - this lover of history and books surrounded by blue collar texans and open plain.
I digress. A great collection from an inspiring writer lost much too soon. Howard is required reading for fantasy buffs.
December 16, 2008
Gods, the sheer manly power of these stories is like a punch between the eyes!
Howard makes ancient battles come alive, populates his worlds with strong men of honor and surprise you with some bits of quite clever humor.
Howard was one of the guys that created the sword and sorcery genre and even now, 60 years later is still one of the best. These are pure, undiluted adventure stories and they make no pretense at trying to be anything else.
I was surprised by several stories that were in more 'modern' settings and how well Howard did those too. Would have been interesting to see him do more with the western or PI genres of the pulps.
Howard makes ancient battles come alive, populates his worlds with strong men of honor and surprise you with some bits of quite clever humor.
Howard was one of the guys that created the sword and sorcery genre and even now, 60 years later is still one of the best. These are pure, undiluted adventure stories and they make no pretense at trying to be anything else.
I was surprised by several stories that were in more 'modern' settings and how well Howard did those too. Would have been interesting to see him do more with the western or PI genres of the pulps.
January 10, 2022
An excellent selection of some of Howard's best stories, concentrating mostly on a selection of his series characters. This includes my two favorite Conan stories, as well as stories featuring Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, El Borak and Breckinridge Elkins.
I don't know if this was on purpose, but the El Borak story "Hawk of the Hills" and one of the Conan stories "Beyond the Black River" are those written from the point-of-view of another character, letting us know how Howard's heroes are seen through the eyes of co-protagonists. It's one of the things that make these particular tales stand out.
There's also a nice selection of Howard's poetry.
I don't know if this was on purpose, but the El Borak story "Hawk of the Hills" and one of the Conan stories "Beyond the Black River" are those written from the point-of-view of another character, letting us know how Howard's heroes are seen through the eyes of co-protagonists. It's one of the things that make these particular tales stand out.
There's also a nice selection of Howard's poetry.
July 13, 2009
A truly excellent collection. Also of great interest in the article on Howard by Charles Hoffman and the short bio on Howard by Rusty Burke.
November 17, 2018
The book is for the novice Howard fan who hasn’t yet a nice pile of books.
It has almost everything you need to get a good taste of what the great man wrote
Kull and Conan stories Solomon Kane and Bran Mac Morn but also many poems and stories for the less known characters Howard created during his short writing life
All of them pulp heroes of a real diverse backgrounds, cowboy and boxing stories mystery and detective stories as well as oriental and more mundane stories
Howard wrote about almost anything that could have an adventure in it and except for his characters being all big strong male the backgrounds and the scenery would change drastically from jungles and exotic deserts to modern (for the writer’s time at least) cities.
It is a nice book full of stories and the details and biography in the end has many unknown information about the stories and writers.
A good start for those who seek adventures in their dreams.
It has almost everything you need to get a good taste of what the great man wrote
Kull and Conan stories Solomon Kane and Bran Mac Morn but also many poems and stories for the less known characters Howard created during his short writing life
All of them pulp heroes of a real diverse backgrounds, cowboy and boxing stories mystery and detective stories as well as oriental and more mundane stories
Howard wrote about almost anything that could have an adventure in it and except for his characters being all big strong male the backgrounds and the scenery would change drastically from jungles and exotic deserts to modern (for the writer’s time at least) cities.
It is a nice book full of stories and the details and biography in the end has many unknown information about the stories and writers.
A good start for those who seek adventures in their dreams.
December 29, 2019
A collection of works by REH. Two Conan tales, Kull of Atlantis, Bran Mak Morn, Cormac Mc Art, El Borak, plus a detective story, some cowboy tales, and a boxing story. All the best of REH, showing his range. Every hero is a two fisted brawler, outcast from society, and a born leader. Great adventure in every one, some showing the influence of H.P. Lovecraft and Sax Rohmer. A fine introduction to REH as something other than just a Conan writer.
October 9, 2024
A wonderful set of stories. It really shows that Robert E Howard could do any genre (as long as there's some fisticuffs involved).
Honestly my one nitpick would be they shouldn't have included any Conan stuff. Conan is the usual introduction to Robert E Howard, so have a best of Conan collection and a best of the other stuff collection. But this was an excellent intro to all of REH's best known characters and a few stories that are simply one offs.
Honestly my one nitpick would be they shouldn't have included any Conan stuff. Conan is the usual introduction to Robert E Howard, so have a best of Conan collection and a best of the other stuff collection. But this was an excellent intro to all of REH's best known characters and a few stories that are simply one offs.
April 7, 2020
There is not much to dislike, and reviewing this volume without reading Volume 2 is a tad useless.
Positives: Keegan art. Good selection of stories, sword & Sorcery, Historical Adventure, Horror, poetry. Good essays.
Positives: Keegan art. Good selection of stories, sword & Sorcery, Historical Adventure, Horror, poetry. Good essays.
July 15, 2018
Great selection of stories by one of my favorite authors of all time.
July 24, 2019
A weird melange of stories.
March 19, 2017
This is my first exposure to Howard, and it does not disappoint. I realize that for alot of the people reading these reviews I'm preaching to the choir, but this is definitely an author that deserves more of a modern readership. Most sci-fi/fantasy geeks at least know of H.P. Lovecraft, even if they haven't read anything by him, but I feel like Howard's mostly known for Conan, and Conan's mostly known for the freaking Schwarzenegger movies. For anyone who likes Lovecraft, George R.R. Martin, or just modern mythological fantasy, definitely give Howard a try: the mythology might be based on some outdated anthropology, geography, archaeology, and biology with a good deal of plain old artistic license, but the same thing's true of most Greek myths and Medieval romances, when you think about it, and the result is an interesting, original, surprisingly coherent invented world. Most of the main characters are rather similar (mostly being bloodier, raunchier versions of the Leatherstocking character), but Howard puts in so many variations in motivation, backstory, setting, and idiosyncrasies that it oddly makes them all the more interesting. And, when properly motivated, he can even do Lovecraft better than Lovecraft (having just about the same capacity for messed-up imagination and a much greater willingness to describe the monster he expects you to be scared of). So, if you're looking for the next great nerd frontier, definitely take a crack at Robert E. Howard and definitely start with this two-volume Best Of collection.
January 6, 2010
This is a great introduction to Robert E. Howard. Although he is best known for creating Conan the Barbarian, he is also the creator of Solomon Kane, El Borak, Kull the Conquerer, Steve Costigan, Bran Mak Morn, and many other characters. This book gives a good sampling of many of his different types of stories, including sword and sorcery, adventure, horror, boxing and western stories. Howard is great at quickly putting you in the middle of the action, and immersing you in the story. Give it a try. The only story that I really didn't care for was the Breckenridge Ellis western, which was meant to be a comedy, but the humor just didn't work for me. Everything else was a lot of fun. There are also a couple of interesting essays chronicling Robert E. Howard's tragically short life, and comparing Howard's work with mythological archetypes.
March 25, 2011
I'm a big Conan fan, which is why I tried this book. Unfortunately, I have to say after reading it that Conan is by far the best of Howard, followed by Kull. One has to admire and respect Mr. Howard's output, his breadth of genres, and his imagination, but the quality is decidedly mixed. If you're curious about Howard, by all means give this a try -- just don't go into it with high expectations.
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