Category Archives: Robert E. Howard

Blood and Thunder, Release 2.0

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Blood and Thunder
Mark Finn
The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press
$45 REHF members, $50 nonmembers, plus shipping

It’s been a few years since the first edition of this volume was published, and in that time Howard studies have moved forward, with new biographical material coming to light.  In fact, new biographical details  have continued to be unearthed since this edition went to press. That will probably (hopefully) continue for some time.

As he explained in the two part interview posted here last year (part 1, part 2), Mark Finn felt it was time for a second edition.  Rather than rehash his remarks, I’m going to get straight to the point and discuss the book.

Including the endnotes but not the bibliography and index, the book comes in at 426 pages.  It starts slow, giving family background information.  That’s typical in any biography, so please don’t take the previous sentence as negative.  That’s just the way it is.  The book is divided into four sections, same as in the previous edition, with some chapters being heavily rewritten and others hardly touched.  Again, not surprising or in any way atypical of many biographies that have new editions.

The book really took off for me in the second section, with the first chapter, “Authentic Liars”, discussing the oral storytelling tradition in which Howard grew up.  It’s the tradition of the porch raconteur, the spinner of tall tales, the person who mixes enough truth into his words that you’re never really sure at which point he begins pulling your leg.  It’s also a tradition that is vanishing, and in many parts of the country, lost.

This chapter sets the tone for much of what follows.  Finn’s central thesis, or one of them at least, is that to understand Howard, one must understand the Texas in which he grew up.  It’s a valid point, and one which is easy to overlook.  With many of the traditions and values of the time being passed down relatively unchanged, we often forget how much has changed.

While this concept was central to the first edition of the book, Finn has expanded on it.  What’s fairly new, and in my opinion of major importance to future Howard studies, is Finn’s assertion that an understanding of Howard’s humor is required to truly understand the man and his work.  This is in my opinion one of the strengths of the second edition.  I’ve never gotten into Howard’s humor.  After reading the new material on his humorous stories, and reading again about how those stories fit in with the tall lying tradition, I’m going to be seeking them out.  There’s a lot there I’ve been missing.

Finn tries his best to avoid the excesses of arm chair psychoanalysis engaged in by L. Sprague de Camp in Dark Valley Destiny.  In many ways this book was written as a refutation of that biography.  Fans of de Camp, and of DVD in particular, won’t be pleased with what they find here.  While some interpretation of how events in Howard’s life showed up in his work is inevitable in any study of the man, Finn walks a delicate line between projecting his own agenda and biases on his subject and erring on the side of caution too much by not offering any interpretations at all.  For the most part, I think he’s successful.  He tries to delineate what are his opinions and what are facts.

By the time I turned the last page, I had a new understanding of Robert E. Howard the man.  While I had always pictured him as someone who wanted to fit in, some of the details had been filled in.  Hopefully I’m not merely projecting my own experiences growing up in a similar small Texas town nearby onto what I read.  Finn  quotes from Howard’s correspondence (collected in three volumes by the REHF Press), especially his correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft (collected in two volumes by Hippocampus Press).  I’ve got these volumes but haven’t finished reading them.  I will, if for no other reason than I want to understand better the different facets of his personality Howard presented in his correspondence.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Finn has expanded his remarks on Conan.  Rather than get into Conan here, I’ll just say that he thinks “Queen of the Black Coast” isn’t one of Howard’s best Conan tales.  While I’ve not posted anything new in my series on Conan (see links in the sidebar) in a while due to other projects, I’ve not given up on the series and will save my remarks for upcoming installments. 

I do have a few gripes about the book overall, though nothing major.  At the front is a map of West Central Texas during Howard’s time, showing the roads.  Mark told me at ConDFW last weekend that he had pieced the map together from several maps and had removed more than one road that didn’t exist in Howard’s lifetime by hand.  He missed one major highway, though:  Interstate 20.  The interstates weren’t built until a couple of decades after Howard’s death.  This might seem to be a minor thing, but it does call into question the accuracy of the rest of the map.  For what it’s worth, the interstate is near the top in the middle of a number of other highways (I used a magnifying glass to confirm it was there), and thus easy to miss.  I personally don’t think it’s a huge deal.

A map of Cross Plains during Howard’s lifetime would have been nice, though.  Surely it wouldn’t have been too difficult to obtain one.  I was also disappointed in the number of photos.  Each chapter opens with a photo.  There’s no section of photographs, and some of the more famous ones are missing.  Primarily on this point, there’s no photo of Novalyne Price.  I’m not that crazy with the one on the cover, either.  In fairness, I realize that copyright issues probably prevented Finn from including some of the photos most readers might expect.  Also, more pictures of Cross Plains in the 20s and 30s would have been a nice touch.  And I’ve never seen a drawing or map of the Howard property at the time of his death.  Where was the car parked?  Was it outside or in a garage?  Did they even have a garage?  Also, Howard took to wearing a mustache near the end of his life.  Did he still have it when he died?  It’s clearly visible in the last known photo of him (included in the book).

Overall, though, this a major work.  Howard scholarship and fandom are contentious enough that it would be easy to stoop to the level of picking nits (which I’m sure some will say the preceding two paragraphs did).  Finn has set the standard here by which future biographical projects will be measured.  By examining the cultural influences on Howard, Finn has expanded the avenues by which scholars can approach their subject.  I would like to see further analysis of Howard’s humor for example.  Still, this is a volume that belongs in the library of any serious fan of Texas literature, Robert E. Howard, or the pulps.

Publications from the REHF Press tend to be priced out of the range of the casual fan.  The production values make them worth the money, and the limited print runs mean if you want a copy, don’t wait.  While popular titles go through more than one printing, not all of them do.  While I have every expectation this one will see a second printing, they take time.  If you want a copy, grab one now.

Dunsany’s Heir

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The New Death and Others
James Hutchings
0.99, various ebook formats (Kindle)(Smashwords-various formats)

About one hundred years ago or so, give or take a decade, there was a fantasy writer named Lord Dunsany.  Some of you may have heard of him.  He wrote a couple of novels, but most of his reputation was built on short stories, many of them about a chap named Jorkens who had all sorts of fantastical adventures.  Other stories, though, the ones that weren’t about Mr. Jorkens, ah, those were a delight.  They were often brief, what would be referred to today short-shorts.  Dunsany was known for his irony and wit.  And while writers who wrote witty, ironic tales, often about chaps who have fantastical adventures, have continued to this day, none have mastered the short-short the way Dunsany did, certainly none with his bite.

Until now.  James Hutchings has taken up that mantle, and he wears it well.  The New Death and Others contains 44 short stories and 19 poems.  And to quote from the promotional copy, there are no sparkly vampires.

Usually in these reviews, I give a run down of the stories, listing them and perhaps saying a thing or two about them.  I won’t do that here.  Not with 44 stories, some of them only about a page in length.  Instead, I’ll try to give you a feel for the book.  For starters, this is the second book I’ve read in the last couple of weeks that made me laugh out loud.  (The first was Giant Thief.) The humor is wry, ironic, and at times biting.  I loved it.

Oh, and puns.  Did I mention puns?  There are number of them.  One example, in “Sigrun and the Shepherd” unkind shepherds are sent to angora management classes.  There are more where that came from; “The Adventure of the Murdered Philanthropist” is a Sherlock Holmes spoof that contains a whole string of them.  Now, there are those who say the pun is the lowest form of wit.  You need to remember that these people only say that because they aren’t clever enough to think of puns themselves.

Four of the poems are retellings of fantasy stories by famous authors, one each by Lovecraft, Howard, Smith and the aforementioned Dunsany.  And they’re good.  I haven’t read all the originals, but the Howard poem, based on “The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune“, captures the spirit of the original exceedingly well.

In fact all of the poems, whether short or long, are worth reading.  These poems have rhyme and meter, and more than once I found their cadences echoing through my mind after I had finished them.

Many of the stories concern the fiction city of Telelee.  (This is a different spelling than the author has on his blog, but I checked the book to make sure.)  These are among the most Dunsany-esque tales in the book.  Telelee is an imaginary city in a world that never was.  Every story (and poem) set there was different, exotic, and fascinating.  I want to visit this world many times.

Don’t think, though, that Hutchings has merely recycled old tropes.  While his love and respect for the source material he draws on is evident, these are stories for the twenty-first century.  Many of the puns and jokes would have been incomprehensible to Dunsany, Howard, or Lovecraft.  Computers and modern technology appear frequently, and a number of the stories are set in present day.  Huthcings has built on what has come before, paid homage to it, and expanded it.  In doing so, he has made this style of writing his own.

One final word regarding the production values of the book.  This is one of the most professional ebooks I’ve seen in a long time.  Certainly more professional than the last ebook I read from a major publisher.  I don’t recall any formatting errors.  There is a fully interactive ToC, which worked every time I used it.  Hutchings has clearly put the time and effort in to produce a superior book in terms of production values.  And the cover fits the book to a “T”.  At ninety-nine cents, it’s a bargain at twice the price.  (No, James, I’m not sending you more money.)

I’ve somehow found myself with a pretty heavy reviewing slate.  Enough to keep me reading for the next six months.  I’ve got half a dozen books I’m committed to review, either to individual authors who have requested reviews or to publishers who have been kind enough to send review copies.  That’s not a bad situation to be in mot of the time, but if I’m not careful, the commitments can take the fun out of reading and make it seem like homework.  The New Death reminded me why I started doing this in the first place.  The humor and exotic settings were a breath of fresh air.  Many of the stories and poems are, like I mentioned, only about a page in length.  This is the perfect book to read when you only have a minute or three.  I recommend the book highly and will be following Hutchings’ blog from now on.

Happy Birthday, Robert E. Howard

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Today is the 106th year since the birth of Robert E. Howard.  (Yeah, I know the local time is still January 21, but by the time most of you read this, it will be the 22nd.  Besides, it’s the 22nd east of here.)  I’m not sure what I could say that would do the man justice that others haven’t already said and said better.  After last summer’s disastrous Conan movie, those of us who champion Howard’s work as literature probably have a harder row to hoe overcoming the (at best) misguided notion that his writing is hackwork.  If you are only familiar with Conan through the movie(s), pastiches, or comics, read some of the real thing.  And then read some of Howard’s other writings:  Kull, the horror stories, the historicals, the westerns, the boxing stories, the poetry.  And raise a glass in his honor.  Me, I’m going to celebrate by reading some of the spicy stories. 

More Glenn Lord Tributes

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Here are some more Glenn Lord Tributes that have gone up in the last few days:

Funeral arrangements have been posted on the REHupa site.

Barbara Barrett and John O’Neill; Glenn Lord, Nov 17, 1931 – Dec 31, 2011

Mike Chomko; Glenn Lord:  Another Giant Passes

Frank Coffman; On the Passing of Glenn Lord

Chris Gruber; Glenn Lord, Howardian Herald, 1931-2011

Dave Hardy; Glenn Lord 1931-2011

Al Harron; Glenn Lord, the Greatest Howard Fan, 1931-2011

Don Herron;  Two-Gun Bob: Into the West

Brian Leno; Edited by Glenn Lord

Damon Sasser; Glenn Lord: The Flame of Howard Fandom

Damon Sasser; In Memoriam, Glenn Lord  This one has links to several items of interest, including a interview with Glenn.

RIP, Glenn Lord

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Several Robert E. Howard related websites and blogs are reporting that Glenn Lord (1931-2011) passed away sometime yesterday, New Year’s Eve.  In case some of you don’t recognize the name, Glenn Lord was the person most responsible for helping to get Conan and Howard’s other work back  into print in the 1960s and 1970s.  I only met Glenn a couple of times and never really knew him.  By the time I became active in Howard fandom, Glenn wasn’t attending many Howard Days, at least that I can recall.  There’s nothing I can say that those who knew him well can’t say better.  There really hasn’t been time for any lenngthy tributes to be written (you can’t rush that type of writing), by read these brief tributes and announcements by Mark Finn, Damon Sasser, James Reasoner, Al Harron, and check the REHupa site periodically for more information.  Glenn touched many people in a significant way, and as tributes are posted over the next few days, I’ll provide links to all the ones I see.
Sigh.  I really didn’t want to start 2012 with this type of post.

One Final Robert E. Howard Anniversary This Year

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Cross Plains Universe
Scott A. Cupp and Joe R. Lansdale, ed.
Monkey Brain Books
296 p.
Given free to attendees of the 2006 World Fantasy Convention

In all the hubbub earlier this year about all the anniversaries related to Robert E. Howard, one seems to have been overlooked.  This year marked the fifth anniversary of the publication of Cross Plains Universe, an anthology put together to mark the Robert E. Howard centennial as well as the 30th anniversary of Lone Star Universe, an anthology of Texas writers. 

Now as anniversaries go, the fifth isn’t all that big a deal unless you forget and your wife has to remind you.  (Can I get an “Amen” from the brethren?)  Also, this book was never made for sale to the general public, at least as far as I know.  If you weren’t able to attend the 2006 World Fantasy Convention in Austin or one of the following Howard Days, where the book was made available in the gift shop, you probably haven’t seen a copy.  I’d even wager that many of you might not be aware of its existence. 

If you are able to score a copy, do so.  It’s worth your while.  A brief perusal of the contents will show you why.

After an introduction by Scott Cupp, Ardath Mayhar leads off the stories with “The Pillar in the Mist”, the tale of a young Briton who has to prove his prowess as a warrior on the moors one night.  Rick Klaw and Paul O. Miles give an interesting alternate history take on the pulps in “A Penny a Word”, while in “Slim and Swede and the Damned Dead Horse:  A Tale of Bloodson” C. Dean Anderson mixes two of Howard’s favorite genres, western and sword and sorcery.  Bradley Denton provides poetry in “The King Comes to Texas.”  Howard is resurrected from the grave in “An Excerpt from The Stone of Namirha” by Bill Crider and Charlotte Laughlin.  “Two Hearts in Zamora” by Jessica Reisman is the story of a pair of girls who find themselves in a dangerous land.  Co-editor Scott Cupp provides a weird western with “One Fang”.

l. to r., Cupp, Reasoner, Crider, Lansdale

One of Saddam Hussein’s sons meets an end not seen on the evening news in “The Bunker of the Tikriti” by Chris Nakashima-Brown.  Gene Wolfe tells the tale of “Six From Atlantis”, while Mark Finn lets us know why a Conan movie wasn’t made in the early 70s in “A Whim of Circumstance”.  James Reasoner’s contribution is a twisty El Borak story, “Wolves of the Mountains”.  The incomparable Howard Waldrop tells what happens when some seniors make a trip across the border in “Thin, on the Ground”.  Grandchildren learn about their grandmother’s encounter with a warrior king in Carrie Richerson’s “The Warrior and the King”.  Lillian Stewart Carl provides a historical adventure in “The Diamons of Golkonda” while “Prince Koindrinda Escapes” is an alternate history tale with giant apes from Jayme Lynn Blashke.

L. J. Washburn tells how a young Bob Howard helps solve a murder in Cross Plains during the oil boom with “Boomtown Bandits”.  Chris Roberson’s “The Jewel of Leystall” is an installment in his Paragaea series, and very much in the vein of Howard.  Neal Barrett, Jr. tells a tall tale in “The Heart”, while Lawrence Person explains why you don’t mess with “The Toughest Jew in the West”.  “The Sea of Grass on the Day of Wings” by Melissa Mia Hall is a meditation on Howard’s final hours.  Finally, Michael Moorcock gives us the story of Ronan the Red Archer in “The Roaming Forest”.

As you can tell, the contents of this anthology are quite varied, with stories told in the style of Howard, using new characters, characters and settings previously created by the contributors, Howard’s characters, and even Howard himself.  All of the contributors are from Texas or resided there at the time of writing, which is why some of the names may not be familiar to you. 

ABE currently shows 11 copies available with prices ranging from a steal to a gouge.  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that unsigned copies of this book are rare.  With the exception of Gene Wolfe and L.J. Washburn, all the contributors, including artist Gary Gianni, were at the WFC and participated in the mass signing, and Washburn sent signed bookmarks with her husband James Reasoner.  Before you buy a copy online, check to make sure you’re getting a signed copy.

Dispatches From the Lone Star Front, Christmas Edition: The Santa Claus Bandits

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This is going to be brief, in part because Damon Sasser did a thorough write-up on this crime last year, and I see no need to repeat what he said.  Also, Damon quoted from one of Robert E. Howard’s letter describing the crime.  Instead, I’ll provide a brief summary of what happened and then get into why I was reminded of this.

Site of Ratliff’s lynching

In short, four men robbed the First National Bank in Cisco, Texas on Friday, December 23, 1927.  The men were Marshall Ratliff, Henry Helms, Robert Hill, and Helm’s brother-in-law, Louis E. Davis.  The men started from Wichita Falls, in Northwest Texas.  They chose the bank in Cisco because Ratliff’s mother once ran a cafe there, and he knew the city.  To keep from being recognized, Ratliff wore a Santa suit into the bank.

Things went wrong from the get-go.  The end result was 14 causulties, including 6 fatalies, three people (all children or teens) kidnapped, two gun battles, and the first manhunt from the air in the state.  Davis died of his wounds received in the first gun battle, Helms went to the electric chair, and Ratliff was lynched after killing a deputy sheriff in an attempted jail break.

The whole thing almost reads like a movie script, one with equal measures of drama and comedy, especially if the Keystone Kops are involved.  It amazes me that law enforcement couldn’t catch wounded men driving on the rims because the tires have been shot out.  Twice, the second time ending in a chase on foot.  Two of the three crooks still on the loose got away; Ratliff was wounded in the leg and captured. The photo below shows the posse after capturing Hill and Helms in Graham.  Hill is the man in the front row to the right of center with his arm in his dark coat; Helms is the man on his left looking down.

The competency of the bank robbers wasn’t much better.  Ratliff was mobbed by children who thought he was Santa as he walked to the bank.  The robbers had to abandon the getaway car shortly after leaving the scene of the crime because they didn’t think to check the fuel level before the robbery and ran out of gas.  They were so intent on transferring their hostages to the next car that they forgot to transfer the money and left it in the original car.  Getting turned around in the dark after spending the night hiding in the country, they drove back into Cisco to steal another car (one the police wouldn’t be looking for) thinking they were driving into Breckenridge.  The two remaining robbers surrendered in Graham; they hadn’t eaten in days and were too weak to resist.  The whole thing sounds like one of Donald E. Westlake’s caper novels.

To get full details, read Damon’s post or see Gangster Tour of Texas by T. Lindsay Baker (filled with photos and maps) or A. C. Greene’s  The Santa Claus Bank Robbery for further details.  The Baker book is a tour book of gangster sties in Texas.  The bank in Cisco still exists, although it’s in a different location.  Other than the site of the first Hilton hotel (yes, that Hilton), the bank robbery is Cisco’s only real claim to fame.

The reason I’m bringing this crime up is because on Christmas Eve 1950, a highly fictionalized dramatization of the story with the title “Christmas Present” was broadcast on Tales of the Texas Rangers, a Dragnet-style radio program.  I heard it rerun the other day on satellite radio while driving my son to meet his grandparents.

The show took great liberties with the story, moving the story to 1931 and reducing the number of bank robbers to two men and one woman accomplice.  Both of the men wore Santa suits and pretended to be charity bell ringers, with one relieving the other.  The story also introduced a poverty stricken man who had been duped into renting the Santa suits in order to raise money to give his children a Christmas.  The thieves are caught with old fashioned detective work, with not a single shot being fired.

As a detective story told with the limits of radio, it was pretty good, even if it didn’t have much resemblance to the facts.  One of the consultants on the show was Manuel T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas.  Gonzaullas was one of the Rangers in the (unsuccessful) plane search for the bank robbers in the original crime.  My last installment of this series focused on a Texas Ranger, so I’ll save Gonzaullas for another time.

Blogging Conan: Iron Shadows in the Moon/Shadows in the Moonlight

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This has always been one of my favorite Conan yarns, in spite of the fact that it’s mostly an adventure story, without the depth of “The Tower of the Elephant” or “Red Nails”.  Still, there are some significant aspects to the story which could be overlooked. And that’s a shame, because the two things I want to focus on directly relate to some of the criticisms of Howard in particular and sword and sorcery in general.

There will be spoilers in this post.  Just so you know.


 The story opens with a young girl, Olivia, in a marsh on the edge of the Vilayet Sea, where she has fled from Shah Amurath, to whom she had been sold.  The Shah has cornered her on the edge of the sea and is about to take her back to the city of Akif when Conan bursts out of the reeds.  He has something of a grudge to settle.

Conan had been with the Free Companions, raiding along the Turanian, Zamoran, and Kothian borders, when Amurath had trapped and killed most of his companions.  They weren’t killed swiftly or painlessly.  Conan is the only survivor.  He’s been hiding out in the swamp, waiting for nightfall to row across the Sea in a boat he found earlier in the day.  Of course Conan makes short work of Amurath, even though he’s only wearing a loincloth and Amurath is in full armor.

This brings us to the first point I want to make.  Some people, who either clearly haven’t read Howard or paid sufficient attention if they did, criticize the Conan stories because they find Conan to be to much of a superhero.  Apparently they think he comes out of every fight without a scratch, in spite of the fact Howard routinely describes Conan’s body as being covered with scars.  Conan has been slithering through the muck, eating raw muskrats and roots he dug up.  Hardly the life of a successful superhero.

Conan and Olivia row all day and night until they come to an island.  Well, Conan rows.  Olivia is just along for the ride.  There they find an abandoned temple filled with large iron statues.  They decide to hide on the island until a passing ship has gone by, for fear of being captured.  Instead, the ship lands, filled with pirates.  Conan kills their captain in single combat but is taken captive and held in the temple while the pirates decide what to do with him.  (Not much of a superhero if he lets himself get captured, is he?) Some say he’s now the rightful captain, others that he isn’t because he wasn’t one of them when he killed the captain.

Olivia has stayed hidden during these events.  And this brings me to the main point I want to make.  The story is told entirely from her viewpoint.  Our knowledge of Conan’s activities come from what he tells Olivia.  His captivity is never described from his viewpoint.  What we see is the character development of Olivia from a simpering wall-flower to someone who chooses to live by the sword.

One of Howard’s favorite themes is on full display here, that of barbarism vs. civilization.  After he rescues her, Olivia tells Conan that her father, the king of Ophir, sold her because she refused to marry a prince of Koth.  She was sold several more times before she became the property of Amurath.  When she mentions her people consider Cimmerians to be barbaric, Conan’s response is that they don’t sell their children.

At first Olivia is afraid of Conan, but before the end of the story, she not only overcomes her fear of him but much of her fear in general as well.  She slips into the temple after the  pirates are asleep and frees Conan.  And while she hasn’t completely overcome her scream queen tendencies by the end, she is braver and more hardened than she was when we first meet her.  She thinks through how she was treated by civilized men and compares that treatment to the treatment she receives from Conan and decides she much prefers the treatment of a barbarian to that of a “civilized” man.  Given a choice, she decides to sail with Conan and the pirates for a life of raiding.  She’s not simply another nearly naked damsel in distress (although I wish someone would explain to me why those type of characters are so bad, without taking a sanctimonious tone).

I think this story deserves wider recognition.  It’s not a perfect story by any means.  But through the character of Olivia, Howard demonstrates a clear contrast between civilized and barbaric standards of behavior.  It’s pretty clear he considers the barbarians to be morally superior to civilized men who sell their children.  We shouldn’t let the adventure aspects make us lose sight of that.

Robert E. Howard

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Barbarism at Home of Heroics

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I’m trying to finish a novel I’ve committed to review (one down, four to go), so I thought I’d point you to an essay that went up a few minutes ago over to Home of Heorics:  ” ‘Barbarian’ – Good or Bad?” by Werner A. Lind.  It’s a well thought-out examination of barbarism contrasted with civilization.  If you’re a fan of Robert E. Howard, you’ll want to read it.

As soon as I get this review done (which I will probably post at Futures Past and Present since it’s more science fiction than fantasy but will include a link here), I’ll look at a couple of items of short fiction.  In the meantime, check out what Werner has to say.

Year Two, Day One

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Although it doesn’t seem like it, it’s been exactly one year since I started this blog.  I’ve learned a lot, not least of which is how much I still have to learn.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who follows my posts, whether formally, with your picture there in the sidebar, or informally, checking in when you have a free moment.  While I haven’t met most of you in the flesh, I still consider those of you who have commented, and at times corrected my errors, friends.  If we find ourselves at a convention or Howard Days or some other venue together, let’s make sure we make time for a drink or two.

I’ve got some things planned for this next year in addition to the ongoing series such as the posts about Conan, to give one example. 

At the moment, I’ve got six novels I’m committed to review, including the sequel to Wolfsangel.  That one will be posted in late September/early October to coincide with the release of the book.  It’s number three on the reading list.  I’m hoping to add a Twitter feed within the next month.  That is if family obligations and dayjobbery will let me find the time.

This calendar year also marked several anniversaries I want to acknowledge before December 31st if possible.  One is the five year anniversary of Cross Plains Universe.  This was the anthology released at the World Fantasy Convention in 2006 as part of the Howard Centennial.  Another is the tenth anniversary of the US publication of the Australian anthology Dreaming Down Under.

I started a comprehensive post on some of the collections of Henry Kuttner’s short fiction, both solo and in collaboration with his wife C. L. Moore, that have been published in the last year or two.  I’m still reading through the collections.  Hopefully that post will appear sometime during the holidays.

I’ve also got some English translations of Kazakh historical novels I’ve been wanting to read.  The typesetting is different than that used in US and British books, so I want to make sure I’ve got the time to read them without distractions.

Once again, I want to thank all of you who are regular, semi-regular, or occasional readers of Adventures Fantastic.  If there’s anything you would like to see more (or less) of, please let me know.