So, if you remember my review of A Cowboy in Carpathia, written by Teel James Glenn, last December, I liked the book and its plot of Robert E. Howard not killing himself and going off to travel the world and have exciting exploits. I expressed a desire that the author of the book, Teel James Glenn, would continue writing the adventures of Bob Howard. Mr. Glenn has answered my wish and written the second in what looks like a continuing series of the exploits of Robert E. Howard—The Cowboy and the Conqueror, which was published a month ago. I ordered a copy and have just finished reading it. How is it, you ask? Well, read on.

Story Synopsis

The book takes place a little after the events of the first book, A Cowboy in Carpathia. Howard has continued on his world tour, leaving behind his best gal, Gwendolyn Harker, to go see the splendors of Egypt. While there, he meets and becomes great friends with the actual narrator of the book, Adolph Hitler…

Picked your jaw up of the floor yet? Need a little more time to process that factoid? Ready? Okay.

It seems that Mr. Glenn in creating his new pocket universe where Bob Howard lived on, became friends with William Henry Pratt (Boris Karloff), and fought Dracula, decides to go for broke and include Adolph in this universe as a good guy. Adolph serves out his full prison term of 7 years for his part in the Beer Hall Putsch, and while in prison becomes a changed man due to his forced introspection of his life and beliefs, and also with the help of his half-niece, Geli Rabaul, whom he marries upon his release (she didn’t die in this universe). She encourages him to become a writer, and Adolph does indeed become a fairly successful writer of American Western stories…

Did your head just explode or are you laughing at the sheer chutzpah of the set-up? If you haven’t given up on the book yet, let’s continue.

As I said, Herr Hitler is the narrator of the story, writing to his wife, Geli, about the events. Hitler is also enjoying a holiday in Egypt and decides to take a slow boat up the Nile to see the ancient Egyptian cities along its banks. On the boat, he meets Bob Howard, and the two bond as fellow writers and Egyptian antiquities enthusiasts. They also meet and become friends with a group of English schoolgirls and their Governess also on the boat. One evening, the boat is boarded by Bedouin raiders who, after robbing and killing some of the passengers, specifically kidnap the schoolgirls and their governess and flee out into the desert. Due to the raiders damaging the boat’s radio, it will be several days before the slow-moving boat gets to a port to notify the authorities.

This is unacceptable to Bob and Adolph, who demand to be let off so they can go after the kidnappers immediately. This leads to a desert adventure much like one of Howard’s El Borak stories. The infamous leader of the Bedouins has been terrorizing Egypt for months, and turns out to be another famous, historical person. He is part of the White Glove group, which played a small part in the first book of the series, and which returns in this book centerstage with its plan to bring back “Howie” Lovecraft’s Elder Gods to Earth.

The daring duo of Bob and Adolph fight some actions in Egypt, before leaving to go to England for the climax, where Bob reunites with Gwen and Bill Pratt, who join with Bob and Adolph to fight the Spectre-like White Glove. Will Bob, Adolph, Gwen and Bill save the day and the Earth and prevent the White Glove’s maleficent machinations of doom from occurring? Read the book and find out, but you can probably guess if this is the second book in a series and Adolph is writing of the events to his wife what will happen.

General Thoughts

First and foremost, the book reads like a standard action-adventure pulp of the 1930’s. Each chapter ends on a propulsive moment either in the midst of action, or with our heroes getting another piece of the puzzle solved leading them to the next scene, to keep you wanting to read more. Mr. Glenn continues with his great plotting of action set-pieces in the story that keep it lively and entertaining.

His continued use of other famous people as major characters also leaves the reader shaking his head at what other wild things will be in store. Like the first book, where Mr. Glenn used many of Howard’s actual quotes to help flesh out Howard’s character, he uses many of Hitler’s quotes, but in a mirror-like way of what Hitler no longer believes in and hates now. He also uses quotes from the other historical folks to help flesh out their characters, too. Again, I will leave the identities of these famous folks unknown so you will be as surprised as I was when you come upon them in the story.

Mr. Glenn’s portrayal of Howard is much better this time, and he doesn’t have Howard use that awful stilted Texan language from the first book at all, although I was beginning to weary of his calling Adolph “Hoss” all the time. I have given up on my quibbles on some of the things that bothered me in the first book by accepting that this is a different universe’s Howard, so why wouldn’t he do those things? So long as Mr. Glenn’s portrayal of Howard tends to ring true to the actual man, then I can accept it.

What actually surprised me the most was Mr. Glenn’s portrayal of Adolph as a good, sympathetic man that I actually began to like and care about. What a great job of writing! Taking a horrible human and turning him into someone you would like to meet and have a beer with! Well done, Mr. Glenn! And, to help cut down on the jarring use of reading “Hitler” all the time, Mr. Glenn has Adolph adopt a different last name from history that has been applied to him by others.

The only major complaint I have is that Mr. Glenn really needs an editor or proofreader. Just about every other page or so, there is a misspelling, mispunctuation, or just plain missing word or phrase that throws me out of the flow. Having edited a few books myself now, I can understand and sympathize with getting too involved in your work to catch these mistakes. Please get a proofreader for the next installments!

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed the new book. It’s different from the first book, and is again, a fast, entertaining read in the manner of the action-adventure pulps. You definitely get your mind stretched at the people Mr. Glenn uses and how he uses them. If you can get over the use of Adolph Hitler as a good, decent man and the narrator of the book, then I recommend it. I’m definitely looking forward to episode 3!

John Bullard is a retired attorney who lives in Texas, and has updated The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard for The Robert E Howard Foundation Press, which will soon be available for purchase. He became a life-long Howard fan upon reading his first Howard story in an anthology of horror stories in 1974. While working on the Letters, he started seeing the subject matter of this post and has written it up for the education and edification of other Howard-ophiles. John is currently working on several projects for The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press.