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Conan's Brethren: The Complete Collection

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This isn't a review per se, but a list of the contents in Conan's Brethren. And what a brethren he has! I've read about 99% of these stories at one time or another in various collections over years and there is not a dog in the bunch. In fact, all of them are classics! These stories are a greatest hits of Conan's Brethren; Bran Mak Morn, Kull, Solomon Kane, Black Turlough, James Allison etc. You'll find about all of them here. Now, for a list of the stories....

Introduction

Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane's Homecoming (verse)
Red Shadows
Skulls in the Stars
Rattle of Bones
The Moon of Skulls
The Hills of the Dead
The Footfalls Within
Wings in the Night

King Kull

The Shadow Kingdom
The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune
The King and the Oak (verse)

Bran Mak Morn & the Picts

The Lost Race
Kings of the Night
The Dark Man
Worms of the Earth

Savages, Swordsmen & Sorcerers

Spear and Fang
Hawks of Outremer
The Gods of Bal-Sagoth
The Sowers of the Thunder
Lord of Samarcand
The Lion of Tiberias
The Shadow of the Vulture
The Valley of the Worm
The Frost King's Daughter
The Garden of Fear
Gates of Empire
Almuric
The Ghost Kings (verse)

Afterword: Kinsmen of Conan by Stephen Jones

BUY IT! If you haven't read these fabulous REH stories I envy you. If you have, well, you're still in for a treat because you get to relive all those great adventures again!

Robert E Howard wrote a lot of things besides Conan. There were other fantastic heroes such as Kull and Bran Mak Morn, the "historical" stories of Soloman Kane, puritan killer. He also wrote modern horror, such as the short story Pigeons from Hell, westerns, sea tales...whatever took his fancy, and would pay the bills. Most of this writing was short stories, but then there was the odd novel, such as Almuric. This book is a collection of stories Howard wrote, and, save for Almuric, had published in his lifetime.

Solomon Kane opens the collection, with 5 or 6 stories devoted to him. Set largely (but not exclusively) in 1500's Africa, Kane is something of a driven man, intriguing to read about.

Then there is Kull, virgin king of Valusia: The Shadow Kingdom is one of the best short sword and sorcery short stories I have ever read, a real little gem. Kull reappears later in a Bran Mak Morn tale, and, speaking of Bran Mak Morn, the Worms of the Earth is a superb weird horror story set in the early years of the Roman Empire in Britain.

There is then a collection of short stories about various heroes of various short lengths, culminating in Almuric.

Almuric is a sword and planet tale, in the tradition of Burrough's Mars. Esau Cairn is an impressive physical specimen - the most perfect man on earth, perhaps - when he kills a corrupt politician and escapes to the lost planet Almuric with the help of a random scientist. That's pretty much the first page of the story, so I am not spoiling anything there. After that, Cairn has a pile of adventures, matching strength and wits with the locals - ape-like men and beautiful-like women (they have bred themselves that way. Really).
Lastly there is a short essay by Stephen Jones on these other heroes, and their publicaiton history, which is interesting reading.

Travis Deputy's review has the contents; I wont repeat that.

This is another excellent single volume colleciton of Howard's brawling heroes: the various Del Rey volumes have more in total (as do Wandering Star or Sub Press, if your budget stretches to it), but for a solid starting point for non-Conan Howard, you can't beat this.

The cover and style of the book is a great visual draw. I usually like to travel with smaller books, but his stories are short and easy to read. You will be through them in no time and have a book that looks amazing on the shelf. Read the adventures you want to live.

Although Conan is certainly Mr. Howard's most famous creation, he's not necessarily his best. Conan's Brethren collects the other swordsmen and adventurers from Mr. Howard's many fantasy works. Solomon Kane, King Kull and Bran Mak Morn are all gathered together - a triumvirate of pouting manliness. Editor Stephen Jones has also diligently scrounged up others, such as Cormac FitzGeoffrey, Turlogh O'Brien and Esau Cairn (from the rarely-reprinted Almuric).

Behind this cacophony of Anglo-Saxon nomenclature is the real hero of this collection: the art of the short story. Mr. Howard was the king of the pulp story and, in Conan's Brethren, demonstrates the full range of his talent.

From Gaul to Atlantis, there's no setting that he couldn't master - alternatively bringing savage wilderness or crumbling empire to life in a few, compact words. The heroes are defined equally swiftly - often brooding, rarely sullen; more driven than heroic. And, best of all, within the turn of the first page, the action invariably begins.

And, as far as action is concerned, Conan's Brethren contains some of Mr. Howard's very best. With almost thirty entries, it is impossible to detail every story, but a few of the classics are definitely worth special attention.

"Wings in the Night" sets Solomon Kane (my favourite of his creations) against winged reptile-men in the heart of Africa. The self-loathing Puritan is forced to wrestle not only with vicious dinosaur people but also with his own purity; resorting to pagan ritual to fight a demonic menace.

"Worms in the Earth" deals with a similar bargain - the Pict warchief Bran Mak Morn taps into an ancient power to avenge himself against Roman conquerors. In this case, it is the uncivilised hero who unleashes the unholy, with terrible consequences. "Worms in the Earth" is a horror story in the Lovecraftian vein, down to the merely-indicative description of the final evil and the fierce regret of the story's "hero" for having released it.

"The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" features Athelstane and Turlogh O'Brien, good strapping adventuring sorts, find themselves capsized in a faraway place - an island populated by the "brown-skinned folk who knew many dark secrets of magic". Half "lost race" story and all swashbuckling, the adventurers are caught in a power play between the wizened priests of Bal-Sagoth and the Machiavellian Brunhild, a lost Viking princess with great ambitions. Surrounded by collapsing idols and heaving bosoms, the two men follow the proper Howardian moral code - looking out for one another first, the loot second and the princess third.

"The Shadow Kingdom" is the first story of King Kull of Valusia, and probably the best adventure of this particular hero. King Kull is a precursor to Conan - a barbarian warlord who has worked his way up in the world. But whilst it takes Conan some time to gain his throne, Kull is introduced to the reader as royalty. In those Lemurian days, political leaders had worse problems than noisy backbenchers - in "The Shadow Kingdom", King Kull is forced to battle a vicious coup on the part of the serpent priests - minions of a dark, reptilian god. Fortunately, the omnipresent Picts are nearby to help... (Diligent readers of Marvel's Atlantis Attacks! will be familiar with this part of the story already - I suspect Mr. Howard would've been quite tickled by it, especially since Marvel's intepretation was neatly concluded with a whack by Thor's hammer).

The whole package (again - almost thirty stories!) is neatly concluded by Stephen Jones' afterword. If you don't mind a few spoilers, I'd actually suggest reading this first. Mr. Jones deftly summarizes each of the major heroes and provides an overview of their continued presence in comic, book and film culture. He structures the characters' stories around that of Robert Howard's - a reminder of a man who, in just a few short years, penned whole universes of adventures. Conan's Brethren is also illustrated by Les Edwards, who punctuates the book with black & white illustrations that seem straight out of the pages of Weird Tales. Finally, it is worth noting that this is also a massive tome of a book - faux leather and gilt. Conan has looted wizards' towers for less.

Even beyond the entertaining, face-value interpretation of Mr. Howard's works, his stories conceal a curiously-pessimistic philosophy that is equal to H.P. Lovecraft's when it comes to making compelling reading out of subtle horror. Mr. Howard's heroes are sparks of light in an overwhelming darkness, and this is a rare chance to capture them all safely in a single volume.