“So, avid reader, prepare yourself for the journey you are about to embark upon, and read a mythology that Howard painted with broad strokes from a palette which held a spectrum of history, philosophy, and imagination.” — Benjamin Szumskyj from his introduction.
Gardens of Fear is the sixth 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 version) has six short stories and one poem. Most of the stories are Conan the Barbarian stories. The poem first appeared in The Fantasy Fan fanzine.
Queen of the Black Coast (Conan) (5/5)
(Weird Tales, May 1934)
This chronicles how Conan met and joined a pirate crew headed by Bêlit, the Queen of the Black Coast, developed a reputation as they raided the coast, and then searched for a lost city. This story had action, adventure, romance, and a thrilling final battle with a melancholy ending. For a short story it felt epic.
One passage in particular stood out to me. When Belit asks Conan what he thinks about “the worlds beyond the river of death,” he responds:
“Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”
On a side note, the 2011 Conan the Barbarian movie includes a scene where Jason Momoa’s Conan has lines based on this passage.
The Haunter of the Ring (John Kirowan) (3/5)
(Weird Tales, June 1934)
Professor Kirowan investigates after a friend believes that his wife has been trying to kill him. A standard pulp tale with a connection to Conan. The ring in this story is Thoth-Amon’s Serpent Ring of Set which was introduced in “The Phoenix on the Sword,” the very first Conan story.
The Garden of Fear (James Allison) (3/5)
(Marvel Tales, July-August 1934)
James Allison tells a story of one of his past lives as Hunwulf of the Æsir tribe while he travels with his love, Gudrun. After a winged man, the last survivor of an ancient race kidnaps Gudrun, Hunwulf tracks them down to a tower surrounded by strange blood red flowers.
The Devil in Iron (Conan) (3/5)
(Weird Tales, August 1934)
A beautiful, enslaved woman is used to lure Conan to a deserted island in order to ambush him, but the island turns out to have a recently re-awakened demon dwelling there. While it relied a little too much on coincidence and echoed some of what has come before in previous stories, it still had its moments.
The Voices Waken Memory (Poem) (5/5)
(The Fantasy Fan, September 1934)
I really liked this dark poem. A step up from the poems in the previous volume.
The People of the Black Circle (Conan) (5/5)
(Weird Tales, September-October-November 1934)
On the borders of Vendhya, the Hyborian version of India, Conan’s scheme to save some of his men doesn’t go as planned and he winds up having to face a group of sorcerers in their mountain fortress. Howard is on fire here. Action, plot twists, a great cast of characters, and new setting make for a thrilling novella. Speaking of characters, because of the decisions she made and the way she handled herself in the face of adversity, by the end of the story Yasmina the Devi of Vendya became one of my favorite side characters written by Howard.
A Witch Shall Be Born (Conan) (4/5)
(Weird Tales, December 1934)
After a witch replaces her twin sister as queen of Khauran, she comes into conflict with Conan. Although there’s lots of exposition and the ending is a little anticlimactic, it was still an exciting read. This story has the iconic crucifixion scene with the vulture that was included in the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film. The scene and how things play out afterwards in this story do a fantastic job of showing Conan’s determination to survive and his brutal philosophy on life in the Hyborian age.
Howard's final Conan tales are spread out through the next three volumes of the Weird Works series. Volume 7 has three stories, Volume 8 has The Hour of the Dragon novel, and Volume 9 has the last published story. I've already read The Hour of the Dragon which I have in paperback and in the second Del Rey collection, so I'll be skipping it. As much fun as it's been reading Howard's Weird Tales work in publication order I'm going to put off the other Weird Works volumes for now and jump into the third Del Rey collection. It has the final four stories from Weird Tales plus a story that wasn't published until after his death. Now that I'm getting to the last of the Conan tales, I really want to read them all together.
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