A Master of his Art: Rattle of Bones and Other Terrifying Tales by Robert E. Howard

A Master of his Art: Rattle of Bones and Other Terrifying Tales by Robert E. Howard

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Rattle of Bones and Other Terrifying Tales (Clover Press, October 20, 2020). Cover by Gabriel Rodriguez

“Damned be the dark ends of the earth where old horrors live again.”
— Robert E. Howard

Some of the finest gifts are from your buddy, a kindred spirit and dog brother in REH fandom, such as that damnable reprobate, Levi Combs. At Gamehole Con this year, Levi gifted me with this beautiful copy of Rattle of Bones and Other Terrifying Tales, by Robert E. Howard. And what a treasure it is!

This collection contains some of REH’s finest horror yarns, such as “In the Forest of Villefère,” “Wolfshead,” “Sea Curse,” “Rattle of Bones,” “The Touch of Death,” “Dig Me No Grave,” “People of the Dark,” and “The House of Arabu.” It was published by Clover Press and features beautiful art by Gabriel Rodriguez. It also features an afterword by horror master Steve Niles, perhaps best known for 30 Days of Night.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Pirates Rise from a Watery Grave

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Pirates Rise from a Watery Grave

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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (USA, 2003)

It’s hard to remember now, but a mere quarter-century ago, the pirate movie genre was dead and over, ninety years of cheesy swashbuckling and occasional scalawag glory doomed to the ash-heap of history. And then, grinning with malice, pirate films rose like drowned zombies and shambled back to the screen, more raffish and rakehelly than ever. And who do we have to thank for this unforeseen and unholy resurrection? A committee of corporate bean-counters at, of all places, Walt Disney Pictures — damn their eyes!

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The Tuvela Theory: The Demon Breed by James H. Schmitz

The Tuvela Theory: The Demon Breed by James H. Schmitz

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The Demon Breed (Ace Books, September 1979). Cover by Bob Adragna

Earlier this year, I visited my city library during a book sale. One of the things I spotted on their shelves was a novel by James H. Schmitz that I wasn’t familiar with. I’ve liked Schmitz since I discovered his story “Novice” in the collection Analog 2 — so I bought this one.

The Demon Breed came out in 1968, fairly late in Schmitz’s career, which lasted from 1943 to 1974. Like a large part of his work, it first appeared in Analog, where it was serialized as The Tuvela. Most of what he wrote was short fiction, including his best known story, “The Witches of Karres,” expanded into a novel with the same title in 1966; The Demon Breed is one of only four novels, and by today’s standards, a fairly short one.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: REH’s Swords of Shahrazar

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: REH’s Swords of Shahrazar

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

Back in 2022, I covered three different Pulp genres of Robert E. Howard. The third looked at one of my REH favorites – the Adventure Pulps. I talked about Kirby O’Donnell’s “Gold from Tartary.” You can read that here.

Howard had created El Borak as teen, and refined him years later, with “The Daughter of Erlik Khan” appearing in December of 1934. El Borak is his best-known ‘Cowboy of the East,’ and rivals Conan as my favorite REH character. But Howard found it impossible to break into the higher-paying Adventure pulps, and only four of his seven El Borak stories saw print during his lifetime. Two were published not long after his suicide, while the other two lay unpublished for decades.

Kirby O’Donnell was a similar character to El Borak, and he saw print first, with “Swords of Shahrazar in the October, 1934 issue of Top-Notch Magazine. I talked about that publication in my prior essay. Curiously, “Swords” was actually a direct sequel to “Gold from Tartary,” which appeared after “Swords,” in the January, 1935 issue of Thrilling Adventures.

“Swords” was about twice as long as “Gold,” and maybe that played into the decision to pass on it. But it certainly flows smoother to read “Gold,” then “Swords.”

I mentioned in “Gold” that Howard starts thing off FAST. Here, O’Donnell had awoken to a stealthy footstep near his room in the palace of forgotten Shahrazar. And in paragraph four, was “a great black body hurtling at him from the shadows, the gleam of a plunging knife.”

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Janet E. Morris Memorial Tribute

Janet E. Morris Memorial Tribute

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Perseid Press recently announced the passing of author, editor, and publisher Janet E. Morris (JEM, August 2024). A group of us who have known and written for her and published by her, decided to honor her memory and her legacy with this group memorial. This ad-hoc remembrance has organically turned into a virtual shrine. This post initially has ~17 contributions, but collecting testimonials can be chaotic and more comments may be added. Janet and Chris Morris made a remarkable creative couple, and our deepest condolences extend to Chris.

As a brief introduction, we open with a bit taken from her Wikipedia page, which captures her work by the numbers well.

Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than forty novels, many co-authored with her husband  Chris Morris  or others. Her debut novel, written as Janet E. Morris, was  High Couch of Silistra , the first in a quartet of character-driven novels with a female protagonist. According to original publisher  Bantam Books , the Silistra Quartet had over four million copies in print when the fourth volume,  The Carnelian Throne was published. Morris has contributed short fiction to the  shared universe  fantasy series  Thieves’ World , and created, orchestrated, and edited the series  Heroes in Hell . Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on non-lethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.

Black Gate has featured many of these books. Most of her work is available via the Perseid Press website; at the end of this article are links to Black Gate reviews of many of these. Read now personal notes from Janet E. Morris’ Hellions (synonymous with Heroes in Hell and/or Perseid Press contributors).

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Howard Andrew Jones’ Lord of a Shattered Land and the Serious Business of Swords, Sorcery, and Comedy

Howard Andrew Jones’ Lord of a Shattered Land and the Serious Business of Swords, Sorcery, and Comedy

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Lord of a Shattered Land (Baen Books, August 1, 2023). Cover by Dave Seeley

At about the halfway mark in Howard Andrew Jones’s Lord of a Shattered Land, the excellent opening volume of The Chronicles of Hanuvar, the author shifts gears. “Against the run of play,” he opts for comedy.

Lord of a Shattered Land is set up in episodic form, such that each of the chapters can be read independently. The first eight unfold through tightly plotted escapades that firmly position Hanuvar, the refugee general, as a heroic figure. His journeys bring him face-to-face with enemy soldiers and more than a few gruesome creatures.

As ever, the line between horror and S&S remains thin –– but that’s a discussion for another post. For today, I’m sticking with Chapter Nine, “The Autumn Horse,” in which Jones signals that he’s ready for a change of pace. To accomplish this, he has a single tool, the same one employed by every humble scrivener, and that, of course, is prose.

So how, exactly, does Jones haul Hanuvar, however briefly, into the realm of the comedic?

Let’s find out. Nuts and bolts, look out below!

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A to Z Reviews: “The South China Sea,” by zm quỳnh

A to Z Reviews: “The South China Sea,” by zm quỳnh

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A to Z Reviews

In my collection, the letter Q is represented by 12 authors and 28 stories, ranging from Qitongren’s “The Spring of Dongke Temple,” which I discussed last week and ending with zm quỳnh’s “The South China Sea,” which appeared in the anthology Genius Loci, edited by Jaym Gates in 2016. I should note that my story “Well of Tranquility” also appears in Genius Loci.  The only letter represented by fewer authors is X (two authors and four stories).

The title provides the setting for quỳnh’s story, which looks at the plight of refugees fleeing from war in Việt Nam. The narrator’s family owns a boat and uses it to attempt to ferry the refugees from their homeland to a safer place. Unfortunately, the sea is as dangerous and implacable enemy as the militaries fighting over their home countries. The threats of storms and pirates are pervasive and as the story opens, it is clear that over several attempts to ferry people to safety, the family has failed, resulting in the deaths of many refugees and family members, and the ultimate return to Việt Nam.

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Goth Chick News: (Initial) Looks Aren’t Everything…

Goth Chick News: (Initial) Looks Aren’t Everything…

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With both being released to streaming, I finally got around to seeing two horror films I told you about when their trailers were first released. Abigail hit theaters in April, while the indie film The Beast Within starring Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) made it to the big screen in July.

So, what was the final verdict?

Yes, for one, and a great big no for the other – and you may be surprised which was which.

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Biggus Footus, Part I

Biggus Footus, Part I

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Ape Canyon (Cyfuno Ventures, 2019), Bigfoot vs. The Illuminati (Wownow
Entertainment, 2020), and Big Legend (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2018)

So it begins, a new watch project. All Bigfoot (or similar) movies, no Yetis allowed. They must be films I haven’t seen before. All free to stream.

Ape Canyon – 2019 – Prime

In tents? Nope – safe enough for my daughter to watch.

Any good? An interesting start to my watch-a-thon – this is actually a lightweight character study wrapped up in a dramedy, with nary a Sasquatch in sight. Right out of the gate, we are hit with the Moby Dick allegory that forms the spine of the story about a man-child in search of Bigfoot and meaning to his life, who drags his sensible sister along for the ride. Lots of bad decisions are made, but it’s gently satisfying and well made.

Hit or Myth? 7/10

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The (New) Crow – It’s a No From Me

The (New) Crow – It’s a No From Me

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Good afterevenmorn!

Well, it turns out that a new version of the film The Crow was released last week. Touted not as a remake of the 1994 gothic masterpiece, but a re-adaptation of the original graphic novel (I have my doubts), it nevertheless garnered quite negative reviews on release. As of the writing of this, it has a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes.

This was… predictable.

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