The Dwellers Under the Tomb

by Robert E. Howard

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1976

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

[Benjamin Uke · Rating 4 out of 5]

O'Donnel, staying at his friend Conrad's house in the Dagoth Hills, is awakened by a neighbor, Job Kiles, who reports that his twin brother Jonas (the family degenerate who spent his life traveling the world), died a week earlier and has come back as a vampire.
As will happen.

The skeptical friends accompany Job to the Kiles family tomb, perched atop a Smuggler's Point (O'Donnel, being from Texas, bringing his revolver). Job goes in first, alone, and staggers out, fatally frightened. His friends pursue the truth in his memory.

O'Donnel and Conrad explore the tomb, and find Jonas's lidless coffin empty and a diary. Plot twist, we learn that Kiles faked his death (over in India Fakyr taught him how to slow his breathing) and manufactured all kinds of clues that would make his brother Job think he was a vampire. Hoping to kill his wealthy brother and replace him.

Second plot twist: they discover a secret door that leads to an extensive series of underground chambers leading down into the hill. An underground labyrinth, turns out to be inhabited by real monsters--a degenerate subterranean race forced underground by the Indians-

Retreating back down the evolutionary ladder until "Crawling obscenities seething in the slime of the earth’s unguessed deeps–the ultimate horror of retrogression–the nadir of human degeneration–good God, their ancestors were men!"

4/5
(My bachelors degree is in biology, the 'science' of the statement might give me a brain-clot. Still a fun story-idea.) The double-twist makes it fun, along with Howards mastery of action-writing.

Note: Howard had a fondness for building a background world of secret stunted people in his stories like in "People of the Dark," "Children of the Earth," "Worms of the Earth," and "The Little People." Jonas Kiles' diary notes that "a legend persisted among Indians of this vicinity that many centuries before the coming of the white men, their ancestors drove a strange alien race into the caverns of Dagoth Hills."

[Анатолій Волков · Rating 4 out of 5]

«Живущие под усыпальницами» Рассказ продолжает тему тварей, прячущихся в земных недрах. Чем-то он мне напомнил о «Земляных червях» из «Пиктского цикла». Главные герои Кирован и О'Доннелл решают помочь одному старику избавиться от наваждения, тому привиделся умерший брат. Чтобы убедить себя, что ему померещилось он просит друзей сопроводить его в усыпальницы где похоронен брат и убить его, так как тот стал, по мнению брата вампиром. Оказалось, что умерший брат все подстроил и свою мнимую смерть в том числе, вот только никто из них не учел, что усыпальницами скрывается древнее зло.
В этом рассказе, как и в многих другим, монстры не описываются, они прячутся в тени и читателю приходится самому наделять из зловещими чертами.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two men are disturbed when their neighbor Job Kiles burst in one night insisting that his twin brother, several weeks dead, has risen from the grave as a Vampire bent on ending his brothers life.

And so begins a ho-hum story that treads some well worn ground for Robert E. Howard. Dwellers is competently written but lacking in some of the vigor and braun of Howards other work. Unsurprisingly this story was initially rejected in the early 30's and wouldn't see publication until after Howard's death. Its worth a read if you're a completionist but for the rest, for a better version of this story check out Howards The Valley of the Lost or his legendary Worms of the Earth.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is fear contagious? Two men get sucked into a fear filled night by one of their friends who believes he has encountered his dead brother. This is a creepy, good fun, story.
There are some Howard standards, such as a race of devolved beings and their living completely underground and undiscovered. There is a hint at vampirism. Also, whenever there are twins and one mysteriously dies, there is bound to be a mystery involving identity.
Definitely one of Howard's better stories. Audible edition.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I've read this before or read something that heavily referenced this work... But it was amazing from start to finish. It begins as a vampire story, to a hoax story, to the reveal of the real horror of an ancient serpent like civilization. Definitely will want to read the physical book after.

[Forked Radish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Criminals don't keep diaries, but characters in pooly contrived stories do.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started as a vampire story then went into subterraneans.

[Fivefivefive · Rating 5 out of 5]

classic!

[Angelasdawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story had more twists to it than I expected from a 50 minute audiobook. It's very Lovecraftian.

[John Remedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first experience with Howard gave Lovecraftian vibes throughout. Good tension-building and some classic misdirection takes you on a surprisingly involving journey for a ~60 minute short story.

[Anna Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spooky. Old school.

[Nick McDowell · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Robert E Howard and H.P Lovecraft were friends. They were so opposite ends of the spectrum that they could've made a winning Laurel and Hardy style duo, but god bless them they got along.

This book is basically a in joke between them. Its Robert E Howard trying his hand at an H.P. Lovecraft kind of story and I'm sure the only person giggling harder than Howard while he was writing it was H.P. Lovecraft while reading it.

Its a novelty! If your a fan of both authors your obligated to read it and enjoy it.
It also sucks really, really hard lol. Poor is the person who first experiences Robert E Howard through this short story lol!

[Alex Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that was a good eldritch horror story.