Jesse’s Reviews > Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures > Status Update

“The Road of the Eagles”

More middle-east intrigue, this time the heroic force composed of Cossacks attempting to avenge the death of their leader against a Corsair. Kurds, Armenians, Turks, uh, and a Persian dancing girl with ARYAN ANCESTRAL BLOOD :flex:

This story’s philosophical focus is an ethnic essentialism that ascribes Muslims a certain fatality that hinders them from nigh-impossible aspirations.

“The Shadow of the Vulture”

This story is mostly about the Ottoman siege of Vienna in the early 1500s. BUT, we have two main characters: a himbo lush named Gottfried who fought the Sultan a year before and who had his eternal enmity, and the discovered RED SONJA who is a madcap woman warrior who, like Agnes, has no time for anyone’s bullshit but watches out for Gottfried.

“Blades For France”

The second and last complete Dark Agnes story has her caught up in some political intrigue surrounding the Duke of Bourbon, I think Charles III, foiling a kidnapping plot that she just happens to stumble upon after slaying one of the principal members in an indignant rage and taking his sweet-ass cloak. She’s still pretty awesome but I wish she had gotten to kill de Valence!

“Sword Woman”

Agnes du Chastillon is going to be forced to marry a rich pig to ease her father’s waning years. Her sister gives her a dagger, implying that she kill herself rather than marry and let marriage beat her down. In a moment of wild impulse, she murders her groom at the altar and then runs off, getting herself into quite a few scrapes and shootouts. Agnes is BAD. ASS.

“Timur-Lang”

Howard MAY have picked Timour for “Samarkand” because of a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe that he quotes at the header of a few of the story’s chapter. Here he has his own poem, reckoning on the ephemerality of even a brutal conqueror such as Timour’s own mark on history.

“Lord of Samarcand”

REH historical fiction template

1) find significant figures from the Middle East
2) invent a Celtic or Viking blood dude and who plays a significant role in the history
3) write badass, bloody pageantry with tons of gory deaths

In this case it’s the last great Mongol conqueror, Timour, who acquires the services of an exiled Scotsman who is as barbaric as they come.

“A Thousand Years Ago”

This Howard poem seems more like yearning for a time when a man could prove himself in mortal conflict, referencing the Chagatai people that Howard clearly had some affinity for as the narrator of “The Road of Azrael” counted himself among their tribe.

“The Skull in the Clouds”

One of Howard’s poems as character sketches where an Irishman had been sent to assassinate the “Black Prince” (I assume England’s Prince Edward of the 1300s), sort of gains immense respect for him, and is sent away by the prince when he figures out what the dude’s original mission was.

“The Sowers of the Thunder”

A longer-form tale of a would-be Irish king during the final act of Outremer. Cahal is a chivalrous character and does the best that he can in doomed circumstances. This story has a predictable plot twist with the “slim knight” who you can guess through the economy of character. This cycle of stories pits Christian and Muslim together against “pagan” Turks.

“Red Blades of Black Cathay”

This one has a French-Norse dude, Godric, who was sent east during one of the more mercenary Crusades periods to look for the fabled Christian kingdom of Prester John. His dwindling band saves a Princess of a northern Chinese kingdom, he recuperates, and then he leads them to fight Ghengis Khan’s horde to an amicable halt through manly combat love.