The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 2: Grim Lands (Google eBook)

Robert E. Howard

Random House Digital, Inc., Nov 27, 2007 - Fiction - 544 pages

“[Behind Howard’s stories] lurks a dark poetry and the timeless truth of dreams.”
–Robert Bloch

“Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks.”
–Stephen King

The classic pulp magazines of the early twentieth century are long gone, but their action-packed tales live on through the work of legendary storyteller Robert E. Howard. From his fecund imagination sprang an army of larger-than-life heroes–including the iconic Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn–as well as adventures that would define a genre for generations. Now comes the second volume of this author’s breathtaking short fiction, which runs the gamut from sword and sorcery, historical epic, and seafaring pirate adventure to two-fisted crime and intrigue, ghoulish horror, and rip-roaring western.

Kull reigns supreme in “By This Axe I Rule!” and “The Mirrors of Tuzan Thune”; Conan conquers in one of his most popular exploits, “The Tower of the Elephant”; Solomon Kane battles demons deep in Africa in “Wings in the Night”; and itinerant boxer Steve Costigan puts up his dukes of steel inside and outside the ring in “The Bulldog Breed.” In between, warrior kings, daring knights, sinister masterminds, grizzled frontiersmen–even Howard’s stunning heroine, Red Sonya–tear up the pages in stories built to thrill by their masterly creator.

And in such epic poems as “Echoes from an Anvil,” “Black Harps in the Hills,” and “The Grim Land,” the author blends his classic characters and visceral imagery with a lyricism as haunting as traditional folk balladry. Lavishly illustrated by Jim and Ruth Keegan, here is a Robert E. Howard collection as indispensable as it is unforgettable.

“Howard had a gritty, vibrant style–broadsword writing that cut its way to the heart, with heroes who are truly larger than life.”
–David Gemmell

“For stark, living fear . . . What other writer is even in the running with Robert E. Howard?”
–H. P. Lovecraft


From the Trade Paperback edition.

What people are saying

Review: The Best of Robert E. Howard: Crimson Shadows (Volume 1)

User Review  - Steve Bladek - Goodreads

Howard's writing is alway intense no matter the genre in which he was writing. This collection does an admirable job of collecting great stories from Conan, westerns, eastern adventures, humorous pugilists . . . And it's all great stuff.

Review: The Best of Robert E. Howard: Crimson Shadows (Volume 1)

User Review  - Jon - Goodreads

4 stars Due to the acquisition of GoodReads by Amazon on March 28, 2013 and my existing and continuing boycott of all things Amazon, the review I wrote after reading this book now resides, safe and secure, at my blog. You can read it by following this link: http://bit.ly/11LN4Oq

About the author

Robert E. Howard was born in Peaster, Texas on January 22, 1906. At the beginning of his writing career, he primarily wrote pulp fiction and had numerous stories published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales including Spear and Fang, The Hyena, Wolfshead, Red Shadows, and The Shadow Kingdom. He created the character of Conan the Barbarian in the pages of Weird Tales. By 1936, almost all of his fiction writing was in the western genre and his first novel, A Gent from Bear Creek, was about to be published. He committed suicide on June 11, 1936 at the age of 30.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 2: Grim Lands; A Del Rey trade paperback original; Volume 2 of The Best of Robert E. Howard, Robert Ervin Howard
• Author: Robert E. Howard
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc., 2007
• ISBN: 0345502507, 9780345502506
• Length: 544 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Action & Adventure; Fiction / Fantasy / Epic; Fiction / Fantasy / General