Mostly short stories this month plus one book.
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1989. Originally published in 1930)
This was a re-read. I enjoyed this just as much as I did when I first read it many years ago. A cynical mystery with interesting characters, some hardboiled dialog, and a plot that kept me reading. I plan to re-watch the 1941 film soon.
Conan: Comrades by Brian D. Anderson (The Heroic Legends Series, Titan Books, 2025)
A gritty and fast paced short story about Conan as a mercenary. It does a great job of showing what those who fight for coin deal with. The ending hits hard.
Old Moon Quarterly: A Magazine of Dark Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery Issue #5 (Summer, 2023)
This is another great mix of dark fantasy/sword and sorcery stories along with some poetry. Highly recommended. I’ll post a more in-depth review soon.
“Blood of the Gods” by Robert E. Howard
(From El Borak and Other Desert Adventures, Del Rey Books, 2010. Originally published in Top Notch, July 1935)
It’s been a while since I read anything by one of my favorite authors, Robert E. Howard. As his birthday is on January 22, I wanted to read something by him, but I wasn’t sure what to pick at first. Then I remembered that author Scott Oden recently wrote on his Substack about what Robert E. Howard taught him about writing fight scenes. I learned a lot from it. In the article he analyzes the El Borak story “Blood of the Gods.” Here’s a link: Rivers of Crimson - by Scott Oden
I have the Del Rey collection of El Borak stories, so between the Scott Oden post and the book sitting unread on my shelf, “Blood of the Gods” was an easy pick. The stories are about an American gunfighter’s adventures in Afghanistan. He’s given the name El Borak (Arabic for “The Swift”) due to speed and quickness.
In this story he races to the aid of a friend after learning that dangerous soldiers of fortune are seeking the friend and his treasure, the Blood of the Gods. The story is fast paced with lots of action right from the start leading to an excellent finale. While I wouldn’t rate it as high as most of Howard’s Conan or Soloman Kane stories, it’s an excellent pulp adventure story and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Looking forward to reading more of El Borak in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment