Customer Reviews

The Black Stranger and Other American Tales (The Works of Robert E. Howard)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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Since the TOC isn't available from the publisher, I thought I'd make it available here. Parenthetical comments are mine.

Introduction
The Black Stranger (not L. Sprague deCamp's version)
Marchers of Valhalla
The Gods of Bal-Sagoth
Nekht Semerkeht (combined drafts & synopsis; not Andrew Offutt's version)
Black Vulmea's Vengeance
The Strange Case of Josiah Wilbarger
The Valley of the Lost
Kelly the Conjure-Man
Black Canaan
Pigeons from Hell
Old Garfield's Heart
The Horror from the Mound
The Thunder-Rider
"The Classic Tale of the Southwest" (excerpts from letters)
The Grim Land (poem)
Source Acknowledgments

Kudos go to Bison Books for collecting several of Robert E Howard's lesser known works into some well-put-together volumes. This one focuses on Howard's stories set in America (though the title story takes place in prehistoric Europe, more on that later). Generally, the stories here are not Westerns, although Nekht Semerkeht and a few others do have Western settings. Most have supernatural occurrences, but Black Vulmea's Vengeance only hints at the supernatural without ever actually introducing that element into the story--to great effect really. Although all the stories are strong, the longest seem to be the best: Marchers of Valhalla, The Gods of Bal Sagoth, The Valley of the Lost, Black Canaan, and Pigeons from Hell. Howard clearly had a sense of wonder and awe about his native country and infused with that a sense of malevolent foreboding that can be spine-tingling at times, particularly in the a-traditional vampire story The Horror from the Mound. Finally to return to the title story, at the time he wrote this, Howard was looking more at his home country for material, so he decided to put his most famous character into a fictional milieu resembling colonial America. The Black Stranger is one of the most powerful Conan stories and serves well to indicate Howard was planning to become a local color writer before his death. It is unfortunate he did not live to continue this trend. As with anything he wrote, Howard's writing is clear and fast-paced and opens broad vistas to the imagination. It's too bad Howard didn't live long enough to write more stories, for the sampling we have here only serves to whet out appetite for more. For all who appreciate good storytelling, these stories are sure to satisfy.

This is a great collection and will please any fans of Howard's work, however the numerous typos are disconcerting. Every few pages there are errors that at first glance make little sense. They should be obvious to any proofreader, especially in such quantity.

It's my opinion that the text of this compilation was scanned from another source by a computer program, perhaps run through a second program to check for spelling errors, and reprinted without ever being properly proofread by a human being.

I'm not sorry I bought this book, but I am a little disappointed at how some publishers are so lazy as to rely almost wholly on computers.

In my opinion, this anthology captures the spirit of the American experience that might not seem immediately apparent in any one of Howard's works. Thanks to this collection I now see the literary parallels between Howard and other American greats such as Hawthorne, Poe, Twain, and London.

Kudos to Bison for publishing this in paperback.

This is some excellent writing that really takes the reader to interesting places. I first heard of Howard through Lovecraft, another favorite of mine. Bleeding liberals like me might be taken aback by some of his borderline-racist descriptions, but it doesn't really distract from the stories all that much.

I'd love to see some of these stories adapted into film.

pidgeons from hell is the best includes a conan story a good introduction to RE Howard

Robert E. Howard's Pigeons From Hell was the scariest story I've ever read. Scarier than Poe and Hitchcock is putting it mildly! Per Chris Ward of Wizard Comic Magazine Pigeons From Hell was on a television show called Thriller narrated by Boris Karloff. The story is pure terror! Anytime I here a whistle now I get goosebumps and am ready to run like Hell! A must read is "Blood & Thunder - The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard" by Mark Finn. Below are comments from John Nevins and I agree totally! QUOTE
With enthusiasm, skill, and expertise Mark Finn has written the new and definitive biography of Robert E. Howard. Finn not only corrects a number of errors previous biographies and biographers made about Howard and his writings, Finn also describes, with sensitivity and nuance, Howard's environment and upbringing and the context in which Howard's work should be placed. Finn neither places Howard on a pedestal nor demeans him, but instead gives Howard the credit he deserves. UNQUOTE

My favorite stories that Robert Howard wrote are Pidgeons From Hell, Beyond The Black River, and Red Nails. There are so many great ones but these really stand out as the very best.

Tell five other people about Robert E. Howard and enjoy his stories. There's a DVD called The Whole Wide World 1996 Sony Pictures that is about Robert E. Howard and Novelyn Price his girlfriend. Renee Zellweger stars as Novelyn and Vincent D'Onofrio as Robert. Blockbuster carries it. Enjoy Robert Howard Fans! Check out the REH Foundation and Forum!

If you've seen my recent review of The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard You can feel relieved that this is not that review.

The folks compiling this edition have given us a well designed and well selected anthology that reaches from the high fantasy of Conan among the pirates in "The Black Stranger" to the deepest of regional horror in "Black Canaan".

Buy and slowly savour this wonderful collection, the short story form doesn't get much better than this EVER!

The Black Stranger is not too bad as a collection of stories, however it draws a few stories from other books by R. E. Howard such as the Black stranger and the Gods of Bal-sagoth which are from Cthulhu mythos or Conan the barbarian books. It is very well written, and the descriptive power of Howard's writings comes out as is expected. I particularly enjoyed Marchers of Valhalla which turned to be one of my favourite stories. In Black Cannaan, the story comes across as very politically incorrect especially with its description of Afro-Carribean people or African-Americans and could easily offend a reader's sensitivities. All together its another good collection of stories from R.E. Howards writings.