Customer Reviews

The End of the Trail: Western Stories (The Works of Robert E. Howard)

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In this collection, many of Robert Howard's best westerns are presented for those who enjoy this great authors work. While in the same series is another collection of humorous westerns, those are, because of their lack of Howard's usually downbeat vision, inferior to these. The Vultures of Whapeton--the longest of the stories--is easily the finest, featuring intensely described gunfights, paranoia, and carefully interwoven, downbeat moral themes. Also, the ending is very powerful (though a somewhat lesser happy ending is also included). There are any number of other fine stories though, including crossovers such as The Man on the Ground, which effortlessly injects a sense of wonder and awe into what would otherwise be a traditional western revenge story. As with most of Howard's prodigious body of work, the writing is grim and crisply paced, making it not only quick but enjoyable. My sincerest hope is that some talented young director will read these stories and choose to adapt one into a worthwhile movie. Overall, this is one of the finest collections of Howard's work and is thoroughly recommended.

Robert E. Howard is widely considered to be the father of "heroic fantasy", often given credit for having gotten the first such story ever published with his first "Kull the Conquerer" story. But he really truly loved writing westerns. He sold as many of them to the pulp magazines of his day as he could and this book exemplifies his superb style in this genre. I highly recommend it.

We all know Howard was a mastrer of fantasy, but here we can see he is equally brilliant with western stories. In this book we find great adventure and passion.
There is no humor in these stories, but action and drama go to the highest peaks.
The best story here is Vultures of Wahpelton, just a manual of how these type of stories should be written.
In little words, you can't miss this book.

I'm not a big fan of the Western genre...just not something I ever got into.

however, I am a fan of the author, as he created my favorite character: Conan the Barbarian. So, I purchased this collection of short stories and loved them!!!

The men are based on stories that old timers who lived through the era told Mr. Howard back in his childhood through the 1930s, when he was a professional author.

The raw, rude writing style coupled with the action, gives these short stories memorable punch.

After reading dozens of R.Howard stories,from Kull to Breckinridge Elkins I was looking foward to this collection of dramatic westerns.For some reason they just didnt hold my interest.Unlike most of his other stories these seemed very dated.I realize they are seventy years old,but Howard's other writing seems to me to be as fresh as if it was written last week.There are a couple of good stories, "Law Shooters of Cowtown" and "Vultures of Wahpeton",but mostly its like the difference between watching a western like "Shane", and then watching "Hopalong Cassidy".I did like the three "spooky" westerns and I thought a poem "The Sandhills Crest", was excellent.If you are a Howard fan,like me, you might like this just to get a taste of his western work, but if your looking for exciting western action I would probably look elsewhere.