People of the Dark: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 3

“Read these stories and enjoy. Dip into the exciting horrors and adventures of Robert E. Howard. Do not come into them with an academic mind. Come into them with an eager heart. That way they will give you much. Because they know little of logic, and much of desire - and desire drives us. Howard knew that. Let him share this knowledge with you.” - Joe R. Lansdale, from his introduction. 

People of the Dark is the third volume of a series that collects the fiction and poetry of Robert E. Howard as it originally appeared in Weird Tales magazine. This volume (Kindle edition) has nine short stories and two poems.

In these stories you’ll encounter Bran Mak Morn, King Kull, Solomon Kane, 11th century Irishman Turlogh Dubh O’Brian, forbidden texts, the Cthulhu Mythos, and the reaver Conan, a character Howard wrote a story about just before creating the one that would become more famous. 

In “Kings of the Night,” Kull of Atlantis, the king of Valusia gets pulled from the past to help Bran Mak Morn, king of the Picts fight a battle against Romans. The first two parts set everything up, the third and concluding part is one intense battle. I enjoyed the crossover aspect of this story having read the Kull stories in volume one. The fighting scenes are fast paced and exciting but what I really like about this story is the brooding sense of melancholy that hangs over everything. 

 

“Children of the Night'' begins with a group of men, which include Howard’s character Professor John Kirowan, in a discussion. Topics move from anthropology, weird fiction, to secret cults and forbidden texts like the Necronomicon. During the discussion the narrator O'Donnel thinks to himself that one of the men, Ketrick, seems strange because of his features and goes on about racial purity. Later the narrator gets knocked unconscious and finds himself reliving part of a past life in battle against the Children of the Night, a snake-like people. There are some great action scenes but the racial purity aspect which pops up again at the end took me out of the story. This is the one story in this collection that I didn’t enjoy.

“The Footfalls Within” begins with Solomon Kane tracking a group of slavers in Africa. After Kane gets captured trying to rescue a woman, the group discovers an ancient mausoleum in the jungle. Hoping to find treasure the leader of the slavers decides to open it. Chaos ensues. The action and the background we get regarding the ancient staff Kane received from N'Longa in “Hills of the Dead” (from volume two) made this a fun read. 

“The Gods of Bal-Sagoth” is a sequel to ‘The Dark Man” but was published first. Irish outlaw Turlogh Dubh and his rival, the Saxon Athelstan, wind up shipwrecked together on an island. They encounter a lost civilization and try to help a woman reclaim her crown. The rivalry between Turlogh and Athlestane, plus lots of action made this an exciting read. 

“The Black Stone'' begins with the narrator reading about a strange stone in the book Nameless Cults (also known as The Black Book) by von Juntz. Nameless Cults is a fictional forbidden book created by Howard and first introduced in his story “The Children of the Night.” Later after conferring with August Derleth, H. P. Lovecraft gave the book a name in German, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and both writers used the book in their stories. In this story the narrator travels to the mountain village in Hungary where the stone is located. He has what he believes is a dream about ritual sacrifices and a toad-like monster. Violent and creepy. 

“The Dark Man” is the first story that Howard wrote about Turlogh Dubh of the Clan na O’Brian. Although now an outlaw he sets out to rescue Moira, a woman from his clan that has been kidnapped by a Viking raider. On the way to the island where the raiders have their camp he discovers a strange dark statue and brings it with him. The statue appears to protect him as he survives a storm. He arrives at the island and sneaks into the raider’s longhouse. Among the Vikings are women and children and a Saxon by the name of Athelstane who has been raiding with the Vikings. An absolutely brutal battle follows. At the end of the story we learn that the dark statue is a statue of a king from centuries in the past. One of my favorite stories in this collection. 

“The Thing on the Roof” begins with the history of the book Nameless Cults. Hoping to find gold, the book is used to find a lost tomb, The Temple of the Toad. Something gets released. The story also includes references to the Necronomicon and the Black Stone in Hungary. It was okay but so far I prefer Howard's other stories over his Cthulhu stories.

In “Horror From the Mound” a former cowboy ignores the warnings of his Mexican neighbor and digs into an Indian burial mound, hoping to find gold. I could see that this was not going to turn out well and I wasn’t surprised when something got released. I was surprised by what was released though. Another example of Howard putting his own spin on a traditional monster. Great story. 

In “People of the Dark” the narrator enters Dagon’s Cave with a gun intending to kill a man who is a rival for the woman he loves. After a fall he relives a past life as a reaver named Conan. Not that Conan. Howard will use that name again for a character in upcoming stories. The phrase "by the thunder of Crom" is used by the narrator though. In this story Conan of the reavers has chased a beautiful woman and her protector into the cave, his goal being to kill the protector and capture the woman. He soon realizes that he has entered “the dread Cavern of the Children of the Night.” The three soon discover they are not alone and wind up having to work together. I feel Howard makes much better use of the “reliving a past life” idea here than he did in “Children of the Night.” A dark story with a bittersweet ending. Another one of my favorites in this collection.

As in the previous volumes I liked the poetry. Dark and atmospheric.

One of the things I’m really enjoying about this series is reading Howard’s stories in the order that they appeared in Weird Tales, being able to see how his stories connected and how his storytelling progressed. It was also really interesting to learn that Howard used the names Conan and Crom in a story that predates the more famous Conan stories. 

Looking forward to reading volume four.  

Kings of the Night (Bran Mak Morn/Kull) (4/5)

The Song of the Mad Minstrel (poem)

The Children of the Night (John Kirowan/Cthulhu Mythos) (2/5)

The Footfalls Within (Solomon Kane) (4/5)

The Gods of Bal-Sagoth (Turlogh O’Brian) (4/5)

The Black Stone (Cthulhu Mythos) (3/5)

The Dark Man (first Turlogh O’Brian) (5/5)

The Thing on the Roof (Cthulhu Mythos) (3/5)

The Last Day (poem)

Horror From the Mound (4/5)

People of the Dark (from Strange Tales) (Cthulhu Mythos) (5/5)

Overall (4/5)

Social Media Struggles and Solutions

 “Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” - John Updike

I love reading and I love writing. I also like Twitter and Instagram. That can be a problem. Spending too much time on social media means less time reading and writing. Spending some time on social media can be relaxing, but it can also become a time trap.

I think part of the problem was that I was following too many accounts. Add to that, the algorithms that social media companies insist on using. I found myself just scrolling past pictures and tweets that I had no real interest in.

Usually purging accounts that I had lost interest in would solve the problem. But with Instagram I was still following so many accounts that a lot of them got lost in the algorithms. With Twitter there are news cycles where I find my feed taken over by current events. I've found myself mindlessly scrolling though numerous tweets of bad news and more bad news. The kids call it doomscrolling. 

A few months ago I learned about Lists on Twitter. It was a real game changer. Lists allows you to customize your feed by organizing and prioritizing the tweets in your timeline. I made ten lists but I find myself using three in particular: one for friends, one for people who post about books, and one for authors I like. On my author list I have Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, and Chuck Wendig among others. It’s like having separate Twitter feeds for different topics. It’s nice having the option to silence all the noise and focus on one topic when I want to. It’s made using Twitter a more enjoyable experience. 

More recently I did a couple of  things that have made Instagram fun again. First I did a major purge. Hitting follow really adds up over time. I was following almost 400 accounts. Scrolling through my feed was endless. It was overwhelming. There were so many random accounts that I had lost interest in my feed. Then I discovered accounts that had stopped following me. So I went through my feed. If an account didn’t spark joy it was deleted. I purged about 150 accounts. I noticed a change right away. Accounts I hardly ever saw before started showing up in my feed again. Opening up Instagram became a pleasurable experience again. 

Next I started a second account. My main account has always been a mix of things. I had toyed with the idea of starting a themed account but I could never decide on anything I wanted to focus on. I love reading and I love collecting books, especially old paperbacks. I also found boxes of my old books in my parent’s attic recently. So I decided on a book theme for my second account. For this account I’m mostly only following other book accounts. It’s nice having the option to focus on one topic. I’ve found other collectors out there with some really nice collections. It’s been a lot of fun.

Of course, even with these changes it’s still possible to spend too much time on social media and not enough time reading or writing. I knew I wasn't going to quit completely. But besides making the social media experience more fun, the changes have also allowed me to focus more. Now I can get to an endpoint. I no longer find myself scrolling endlessly like a zombie. The changes have allowed me to balance things out and have made it easier for me to put my phone down. 

While these changes have helped to give me more time for writing, I also like watching movies and television shows. But that’s a story for another time. 

Shadow Kingdoms by Robert E. Howard: Paperback vs. Kindle

In February I reviewed the Kindle version of Shadow Kingdoms: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Volume One. Last month I acquired the paperback published by Cosmos Books. It has cover art by Ken Kelly.

My initial excitement turned to confusion and disappointment though. According to the information on the back cover, it should include all the stories from volume one of the Kindle version, starting with "Spear and Fang" and ending with "Red Thunder."

The table of contents tell a different story. It shows that the stories from volume two are also included. Great! Only one problem. The first three stories from volume one are missing.

According to the The Howard Works website, “The Cosmos Books series is based off the Wildside Press series. It combines two or more volumes at a time (as well as taking out some content with copyright questions) to make a new five book series in mass market paperback form.”

Well that clears things up a little but I'm still wondering how the mistake with the back cover got past the editors.

The missing stories include Howard’s first short story, “Spear and Fang” and his two werewolf stories, "In the Forest of Villefore" and "Wolfshead." I’m also really curious about what kind of copyright issues would prevent those stories from being included, especially since they're still available in the Kindle version.

This edition is weird in more ways than one.