Today marks 120 years since Robert E Howard was born, and as I’ve been meaning to come back to writing retro book reviews, I have decided that now is a good time to highlight the work of this legendary author. Robert E Howard did write several books worth of material, but most of his work was in short story form ( He had only written a single Conan novel length story for instance), and as such I will highlight a few of his better stories. Rather than just focusing on his famous Conan tales, I want to also talk about a few others that stand as some of the author’s best.
The Shadow Kingdom
Before Conan, there was Kull. The exile of Atlantis who ascended the throne of Valusia, Kull is rather different from his literary ( and according to later writers, biological) descendant in that he is more of a brooding and deeply philosophical character. Kull represents a contrast between a barbarian outsider and a decadent court and the story The Shadow Kingdom introduced him in a big way while also establishing a deeper horror lurking beyond with the Serpent Men. Kull joins forces with the pictish warrior Brule the Spear-Slayer, an uneasy alliance for Kull as the Picts were the Atlantean’s ancient foes, but soon the two become friends. This is a fantastic introduction to Kull and the stories of the Thurian Age, and also establishes multiple ideas Robert E Howard would later build on.
By This Axe, I Rule
By This Axe, I Rule is a famous story, but not for the reasons initially intended. The story was rejected by his editors at Weird Tales and so Howard rewrote it into The Phoenix On The Sword, which became the first of the Conan stories. The thing is though, The Phoenix On The Sword always felt like a weaker Conan story because of its origins, but the original Kull story is fantastic as a Kull story. Throughout the Kull short stories he wrote, most of which had gone unpublished in his lifetime, Howard established a few running plots and some would intersect at times. By This Axe, I Rule sees the resolution of recurring plotlines, while also giving Kull his most iconic moment when he makes the titular declaration. It gets overshadowed by the Conan rewrite, but the Kull original is the better story.
Red Shadows
A man comes across a woman on the rode, she has been attacked, raped and left for dead by a group of bandits led by a figure known as Le Loup. Despite only knowing this woman for a few moments as she dies, and not having ever seen her before, he says five words that establish exactly what kind of person he is, when he declares “Men Shall Die For This”. Thus we meet Solomon Kane, the fanatic puritan Witch Hunter with a strong sense of justice. Kane stands out as one of the more interesting Howard protagonists, with his strong beliefs and the lengths he will go to to pursue justice.
Kane relentlessly pursues Le Loup and his men, eventually tracking them to Africa where he comes across a deposed shaman named N’longa. Despite N’longa being a practitioner of what Kane considers vile witchcraft, the two work together,as N’longa retakes his tribe and Kane seeks justice, becoming blood brothers.A fantastic debut, Solomon Kane would become iconic in his own right. Some have argued the Solomon Kane stories set in Africa aged poorly for how Black people are portrayed, yet another story challenges that idea in a way.
Hills of the Dead
Kane has returned to N’longa’s village, feeling like he was called by something. N’longa senses this as well, and realizing Kane will go deeper into danger, gives him what will become his iconic staff while warning him of what lurks beyond. Hills of the Dead is a fascinating twist on the vampire tale, because it depicts vampires in an entirely different way than stories had up to that point, showing Howard’s creativity and desire to do storytelling his own way. What always stood out to me was the depiction of N’longa in the story, especially at the very end. I will not give spoilers, but it very much challenges a lot of claims of the stories aging poorly due to racism, and makes it clear that Robert E Howard was a much more complex writer than many gave him credit for.
Worms of the Earth
Bran Mak Morn is not as well known as other Robert E Howard characters, and admittedly these are some of his weaker stories. The last king of the Picts may not have had many great stories, but one that stands out as among Howard’s greatest tales is Worms of the Earth. Bran Mak Morn seeks revenge against Rome for killing a Pict, but the lengths he goes to prove to be too far, especially when he deals with the titular Worms.
Worms of the Earth is unnerving and easily one of the best Lovecraftian horror stories not by Lovecraft, fitting as Howard and Lovecraft were friends and there are references to Cthulhu in the story. The atmosphere is terrifying and Bran Mak Morn’s realization of the horror he is dealing with is well realized. The story also ties into one of Howard’s other great horror stories, and we will get to that soon.
Kings of The Night
Many of Robert E Howard’s stories actually exist in a shared universe, with Kull explicitly taking place many millennia before Conan, but Howard rarely did actual crossovers with his characters. Kings of the Night was one such example, and saw Bran Mak Morn, established now as a descendant of Kull’s ally Brule, seek aid against Rome only to be told his allies will only follow a King. What results is sorcery induced time travel that sees Kull meet Bran Mak Morn.
I’ll be honest and admit that the quality is not on the level of other Robert E Howard stories, but it doesn’t matter because it is just a fun story and does a lot to establish the shared Howard universe. It would have been neat to see Howard do more stories like this before his death, but what we have is pretty good.
The Shadow of the Vulture
Many longtime fans think of one character when they think of a female sword and sorcery hero, well fans of comics anyways, and that is the iconic chain-mail bikini clad sword woman Red Sonja. The thing is though, Red Sonja was not a Howard creation, and came about when a non Conan story was turned into a Conan story for the Marvel comics series. The Shadow of The Vulture as written by Robert E Howard instead was a historical fiction story set in the 16th century during conflicts between the Holy Roman Empire and The Ottoman Empire.
The story stars the hero Gottfried Von Kalmbach, dealing with an attack by the Ottomans while an elite Ottoman soldier is sent to kill Gottfried Von Kalmbach. Things change when Red Sonya of Rogatino (Note the spelling), gets involved desiring her own revenge against the Ottomans. While primarily known now for inspiring the Sword and Sorcery character, The Shadow of The Vulture in its original form is one of Howard’s best historical action stories and extremely satisfying from beginning to end.
Sword Woman
Howard seemed to enjoy writing about strong female characters and warrior women, such as the aforementioned Red Sonya and later characters like Belit and Valeria in the Conan stories, but my favourite of these stories were the Dark Agnes stories. Dark Agnes de Chastillon is the daughter of an abusive father and nearly forced into marriage before killing her would-be husband and setting off to seek adventure. Compared by some to C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry stories, Moore was a noted fan of Howard and was enthusiastic about Dark Agnes and had hoped to see more tales starring her. Alas, Howard wrote only two complete stories and one incomplete tale, but these are truly terrific tales with well realized and fleshed out characters and well worth checking out.
The Black Stone
The Kirowan and Conrad stories are some of my favourite horror stories by Howard ( although I will admit some aspects did not age well, this is more due to the lack of information available to Howard at the time about certain matters), and while Kirowan is not explicitly stated to be the protagonist of The Black Stone, he is often assumed to be the otherwise unnamed narrator as it fits his characterization and nature. Considered by many to be the finest Cthulhu Mythos story not by Lovecraft (along with Worms of the Earth), this story involves dark secrets long hidden away from humanity and asks disturbing questions that there are no real answers for. For Man was not always master of the earth—and is he now?
The Children of the Night
Considered the definitive entry in the Kirowan and Conrad stories, TheChildren of the Night is another story with crossover elements, this time calling back to Bran Mak Morn again although he does not appear in the story. Rather what occurs is a look at a forbidden older era, and unfortunately some racial ideas since discredited. Still, the story is a first rate Lovecraftian tale, with the Children of the Night raising many questions as to their nature. Perhaps they are the Worms from Worms of the Earth, perhaps the Serpent men, or perhaps both? The story continues many of the themes from The Black Stone, hence why many believe Kirowan to be the protagonist in that tale, and the same revulsion at the unknown is described in brutal detail. The horror the story presents is excellent and the ending makes it clear there are some things worth any cost.
Wolfshead
Wolfshead was Howard’s third short story published and a sequel to his second story, In the Forest of Villefére. Wolfshead is a very different take on the werewolf story and is both a horror story, a fantasy story and a historical story at once. Howard was still learning his craft, but he was already showing off the brilliance he would display in his best works. Howard was not afraid to go against the norm and it shows with this sterling work.
Beyond the Black River
And now we come to Conan. There are four stories considered to be the best Conan stories, and I have chosen to talk about two of them here. Beyond the Black River is often cited as one of the best because it lacks the formulaic elements Howard would often put in to make a quick sale, and instead explored deeper themes. Beyond the Black River looks at the deeper nature of humanity and is the source of one of the most famous Conan quotes about barbarism vs civilization ( though it should be noted Conan doesn’t say the line, it is said to Conan). Conan is at his best and extremely observant of the reality of the situation, and there are many clear instances of calling forward to the stories of Conan as King of Aquilonia, making it clear why Conan would become king and why he was a good king. Moreover, it manages to take a cowboys and Indians story in a fantasy setting and does it in a brilliant way that let Howard explore ideas he was passionate about.
Tower of the Elephant
Another of the four best Conan stories ( the other two being Queen of the Black Coast and Red Nails), Tower of the Elephant is my absolute favourite Robert E Howard story. This is where Howard really started hitting his stride with Conan ( no coincidence it was right after he did a world-building essay to give himself a framework to use) and has a lot of what makes the character great. There is action, deeper themes, adventure and a twist that asks us who the real monsters are. Howard took Lovecraft’s ideas and shook them up greatly here, doing things his own way and presenting characters you really feel for. Just a masterpiece worth reading always.
And there we are, my 13 favourite Robert E Howard Stories. Howard wrote so many great stories in so many genres, from boxing tales, to westerns, weird west stories, detective stories, poetry and even comedy stories in addition to the genres mentioned here. His stories are amazing and his work should continue to be read by all.