Authors: Robert E. Howard, Gary Gianni
ISBN-13: 9780345461506, ISBN-10: 0345461509
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Date Published: June 2004
Edition: Reprint
Robert E. Howard's (1906–1936) tales of heroic and supernatural fantasy won him a huge audience across the world and influenced a whole generation of writers, from Robert Jordan to Raymond E. Feist.
With Conan the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard created more than the greatest action hero of the twentieth century—he also launched a genre that came to be known as sword and sorcery. But Conan wasn’t the first archetypal adventurer to spring from Howard’s fertile imagination.
“He was . . . a strange blending of Puritan and Cavalier, with a touch of the ancient philosopher, and more than a touch of the pagan. . . . A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things. . . . Wayward and restless as the wind, he was consistent in only one respect—he was true to his ideals of justice and right. Such was Solomon Kane.”
Collected in this volume, lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Gary Gianni, are all of the stories and poems that make up the thrilling saga of the dour and deadly Puritan, Solomon Kane. Together they constitute a sprawling epic of weird fantasy adventure that stretches from sixteenth-century England to remote African jungles where no white man has set foot. Here are shudder-inducing tales of vengeful ghosts and bloodthirsty demons, of dark sorceries wielded by evil men and women, all opposed by a grim avenger armed with a fanatic’s faith and a warrior’s savage heart.
This edition also features exclusive story fragments, a biography of Howard by scholar Rusty Burke, and “In Memoriam,” H. P. Lovecraft’s moving tribute to his friend and fellow literary genius.
Foreword | ||
In memoriam : Robert Ervin Howard | ||
Skulls in the stars | 1 | |
The right hand of doom | 19 | |
Red shadows | 29 | |
Rattle of bones | 73 | |
The castle of the devil | 85 | |
Death's black riders | 93 | |
The moon of skulls | 97 | |
The one black stain | 171 | |
The blue flame of vengeance | 177 | |
The hills of the dead | 223 | |
Hawk of Basti | 255 | |
The return of Sir Richard Grenville | 269 | |
Wings in the night | 273 | |
The footfalls within | 323 | |
The children of Asshur | 347 | |
Solomon Kane's homecoming | 379 | |
Solomon Kane's homecoming (variant) | 385 | |
App | A short biography of Robert E. Howard | 393 |
App | Gary Gianni | 407 |
App | Notes on the original Howard text | 409 |