Hours of the Dragon The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 8
Oct05

Hours of the Dragon The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 8

Hours of the Dragon The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 8 Edited by Paul Herman   These ongoing pieces are overviews rather than reviews and therefore contain spoilers galore.         When you take a moment to think about it, in the half-a-dozen or so years after 1928, between them Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Robert Ervin Howard changed the very face of horror/fantasy writing – and the reverberations...

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Beyond the Black River – The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 7 – Pt 2
Sep19

Beyond the Black River – The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 7 – Pt 2

Beyond the Black River The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 7 Edited by Paul Herman Part Two   These ongoing pieces are overviews rather than reviews and therefore contain spoilers galore   The first two-thirds of this seventh volume contained two pretty naff Howard pieces — and one stone cold masterpiece in the shape of the title story.  Unfortunately, since the remaining two consisted of an oddity and a run-of-the-mill...

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Return to Lovecraft Country
Sep19

Return to Lovecraft Country

Return to Lovecraft Country 15 Frightening Forays into the Lovecraftian Landscape   An Occasional Look at Lovecraftian Anthologies: 7   Hmmm… ‘Return to Lovecraft Country?’  I’m not quite sure that I’ve ever left it for long.  Well, perhaps for as much as a year at a stretch.  But forty-five years ago a boy of twelve walked through an angle that made no sense in the physics of this world and emerged onto a landscape where everything...

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Beyond the Black River : The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 7
Sep09

Beyond the Black River : The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 7

Beyond the Black River The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 7 Edited by Paul Herman Part One   These ongoing pieces are overviews rather than reviews and therefore contain spoilers galore   When you have a hero who is described as having a  voice ‘as harsh as the rasp of steel’;  who has a yell that is ‘less like the cry of a man than the grunt of a charging lion’; and – listen now, this is the big one – who can take a blow...

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Gardens of Fear The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 6 pt. II
Aug05

Gardens of Fear The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 6 pt. II

Gardens of Fear The Weird Works of Robert E.  Howard, Volume 6 Edited by Paul Herman Part Two   These ongoing pieces are overviews rather than reviews and therefore contain spoilers galore   Weird Tales for August of 1934 was home to the tenth published episode in the life of Conan of Cimmeria, Howard’s most commercially successful series to date.  And since I’m that anal-retentive kind of obsessive who likes nice, neat little lists,...

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H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life
Jul30

H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life

H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life   ‘Of course, life has no meaning.  But neither does death.  And this is another thing that curdles the blood when one discovers Lovecraft’s universe.  The deaths of his heroes have no meaning.  Death brings no appeasement.  It in no way allows the story to conclude.  Implacably, HPL destroys his characters, evoking only the dismemberment of marionettes.’ Or: ‘At the intersections of...

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