Customer Reviews

Black Canaan

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although Robert E. Howard was an inspired writer when working on his most famous creation, Conan of Cimmeria, he never quite managed the same magic with his other characters, a host of prize fighters, detectives, sword-swinging Irish and Scots heroes, and a horde of other hot-blooded men of adventure. Inspired by his friend HP Lovecraft, he tried his hand at horror more than once with limited success. "Black Canaan" collects a few of the best of these efforts, and some mediocre.

Despite the mis-leading cover, where the word "Conan" appears just as large as the title, and a shirtless, black-haired barbarian swings a club at an approaching monster, this book contains almost no fantasy stories. Instead, we encounter folk such as Dermod O' Conner, John Conrad and John Kirowan. They are all cut from the same Conan mold, strong, thick-hewed men who are quick to act and bold in intention. The theme of buried racial memories, and an ancestral strain slowing climbing its way back to the present are frequent spring boards for stories. Settings for adventure are places such as Zimbabwe, Arabia and any place sounding exotic to Howard's Texan ears.

By far the two most successful stories in the collection are "Black Canaan" and "Moon of Zambabwe (sic)," both of which transport Lovecraftian tribal horror to the bayous of the South, where the African slaves brought their own dark gods with them, and unholy rituals. By the very nature of the tales, they appear somewhat racists in modern eyes, so it is important to see them in their proper historical context. However, both are great adventure/horror stories, and two of the best non-Conan stories Howard wrote. If you haven't read them, it is worth getting "Black Canaan" for these two alone.

Other successful tales include the almost Sherlock Holmesian "The Noseless Horror," another Lovecraft inspired swamp adventure, "The House in the Oaks" featuring Howard's Mythos addition, Justin Geoffrey, and the raw adventure "People of the Black Coast."

In the 1970's, several collections of Howards short stories came out and Black Canaan was one of those. The stories are primarily horror and dark fantasy as opposed to the more heroic fantasy that he is known for.

Among the better stories are the Moon over Zembabwei about a man trying to rescue the woman he loves from a zombie cult, and "People of the Black Coast" where survivors of a ship wreck discover strange creatures on an island.

Some of these stories, Particularly the title story are very racist and Howard uses the "N" word liberally when talking about black people. some may find it offensive so be warned.

True, while not a collection of Howard's very best, there's good stuff in here. ... And there are some good, but flawed pieces.

Black Canaan - A story of back-woods blacks being led to rise up and kill a lot of back-woods whites, by an evil conjure man who seeks to make himself "king," and his supernatural femme fatal assistant. Howard's racist streak is nowhere more apparent than here, which is ashame, since this is a truly well-crafted horror-adventure yarn. Lots of great atmosphere and creepy imagery.

... And no one writes about "the horrors of the pine-lands" quite like Howard!

A collection of supernatural horror in the main.

Black Canaan : Black Canaan - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : Delenda Est - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : The Haunter of the Ring - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : The House in the Oaks - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : The Cobra in the Dream - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : Dermod's Bane - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : People of the Black Coast - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : The Dwellers Under the Tombs - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : The Noseless Horror - Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan : Moon of Zambebwei - Robert E. Howard


Creepy swamp monsters, of the female variety. Not too bad, the atmosphere is done fairly well.

3 out of 5


Vandal time.

3 out of 5


Egyptian sorcerer makes placid wife a bit accidentally murderous.

3 out of 5


Conrad and Kinrowam investigate a mad poet's joint, and find it a tad Lovecraftian.

3.5 out of 5


Singh's men and serpents haunt sleep.

3.5 out of 5


Irish tree legend.

3 out of 5


Crab people encounter.

3 out of 5


Conrad comes to realise his friend may have something quite a bit worse than a vampire problem.

3.5 out of 5


Singh me a mendicant mummy.

3.5 out of 5


Do not let possessed people near firearms!

3.5 out of 5

"Black Canaan" is an interesting collection of some of Robert E. Howard's lesser tales, essential for the REH enthusiast but not a good introduction of this writer for the first time Howard reader. Only three of the yarns were published in Howard's lifetime. The best is the title story, an exciting tale of piney woods adventure and black witchcraft (Howard used a similar mileu in his excellent horror story "Pigeons fron Hell"), which first appeared in the legendary pulp magazine "Weird Tales" in 1935. Modern readers will probably be troubled by Howard's use of racist language and cliches in several of these stories ("Moon of Zembabwei" as well as "Black Canaan"). They probably won't know that REH, who died by his own hand at the age of 30 in 1936, was less racist than most of his Central Texas friends and relations, and far less racist than his pen pal H.P. Lovecraft (Lovecraft's defense of Hitler is pretty inexcusable). The collection also includes the story fragment "Delenda Est" which was later used as the basis for the round-robin novel "Genseric," published by Necronomicon Press a few years ago, one of those posthumous collaboration between Howard and living fantasy writers. Howard wrote many fine stories but these are not included in this collection which was printed in that period in the 1970s when practically everything the man ever wrote was published in pursuit of a fast buck.