Books I Read in February 2024

Lots of sword & sorcery plus some historical fiction this month.

Black God’s Kiss by C.L. Moore (Paizo, 2007)

Black God’s Kiss collects six stories about Jirel of Joiry, a red-headed warrior woman in an imaginary medieval France with warlords and sorcerers. They first appeared in Weird Tales magazine from 1934 to 1937. In most of the stories she travels to other worlds. I liked the lush prose and the descriptions of Jirel and her fiery personality. A great selection of tales from the early days of sword and sorcery. 

When I was looking up background information on C.L. Moore I discovered that she and Robert E. Howard corresponded and were fans of each other’s work. He sent her his own story about a warrior woman in France to read, a historical adventure titled “Sword Woman.” She had good things to say about it and expressed hope that he would write more of her adventures. I figured I’d read the story as I have it in a collection I keep meaning to get to.

“Sword Woman” and “Blades for France” by Robert E. Howard from Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures (Ballantine Del Rey, 2011)

A young country girl in 16th century France flees an arranged marriage, sets out for a life of wandering and violence, and becomes known as Dark Agnes. The first story tells her origin and the second is an adventure with her sidekick. I enjoyed them both but especially the first one. There’s a draft for a third story but it was never completed. For whatever reason Howard didn’t get the stories sold and they weren’t published until after his death. In any case, they were good reads, and it was interesting comparing stories between the two authors. 

Conan the Barbarian: Bound in Black Stone by Jim Zub and Robert De La Torre (Titan Comics, 2024)

This collects the Free Comic Book Day 2023 issue (a great introduction to the character done in the style of a Prince Valiant comic strip) and issues 1-4 of the ongoing comic. There are also some essays and a gorgeous map of the Hyborian Age. The Bound in Black Stone storyline has lots of action and a mystery that is solved by the end while also setting things up for future stories. References to various Robert E. Howard stories and characters were a nice touch. While I enjoyed the story, I absolutely loved the artwork by De La Torre. The trade cover by Dan Panosian is great but I would have preferred something by De La Torre on the cover.

Valley of the Worm: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Volume 5 (Wildside Press, 2006) 

Valley of the Worm is the fifth volume of a series that collects the fiction of Robert E. Howard as it originally appeared in Weird Tales magazine. This volume (Kindle version) has nine short stories and two poems. Six of the short stories are Conan the Barbarian stories. As with the previous volumes, it was interesting reading Robert E. Howard’s Weird Tales work in publication order. 

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard (Del Rey Ballantine, 2003)

This was just a partial read. I had read most of this collection a few years ago and thought I had finished it, but last month I realized there were some stories I had never gotten to. I finished up by reading the ones I had skipped, stories that never made it into Weird Tales and were published after Howard’s death. This is a great collection beautifully illustrated by Mark Schultz. It also includes drafts, maps, and an essay that goes into detail on Howard’s creation of Conan, the Hyborian Age, and the individual stories. 

Conan: The Shadow of Vengeance by Scott Oden (Titan Books, 2024)

Scott Oden channels Robert E. Howard while bringing in his own voice to this sequel to Howard’s short story “The Devil in Iron.” The set up hooked my interest, the escalation of events drew me in, and the finale had me reading with excitement. There were parts towards the end where I felt like I had been transported into a Ray Harryhausen film. Also loved the quick Lovecraft reference earlier in the story. What an entertaining read. 

This novella was originally published in twelve parts as a backup in the 2019 Savage Sword of Conan v2 comic book from Marvel Comics. It’s now part of an ebook short fiction series from Heroic Signatures and Titan Books. There are a few other Conan stories out already as well as a Solomon Kane story and a Bêlit story. A Bran Mak Morn story will be released at the end of March.