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.
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