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Skulls in the Stars
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Skulls in the Stars
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Skulls in the Stars
Ebook20 pages18 minutes

Skulls in the Stars

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this ebook

This early work by Robert E. Howard was originally published in 1929 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Skulls in the Stars' is a story that follows the adventures of the puritan explorer Solomon Kane. Robert Ervin Howard was born in Peaster, Texas in 1906. During his youth, his family moved between a variety of Texan boomtowns, and Howard - a bookish and somewhat introverted child - was steeped in the violent myths and legends of the Old South. At fifteen Howard began to read the pulp magazines of the day, and to write more seriously. The December 1922 issue of his high school newspaper featured two of his stories, 'Golden Hope Christmas' and 'West is West'. In 1924 he sold his first piece - a short caveman tale titled 'Spear and Fang' - for $16 to the not-yet-famous Weird Tales magazine. Howard's most famous character, Conan the Cimmerian, was a barbarian-turned-King during the Hyborian Age, a mythical period of some 12,000 years ago. Conan featured in seventeen Weird Tales stories between 1933 and 1936 which is why Howard is now regarded as having spawned the 'sword and sorcery' genre. The Conan stories have since been adapted many times, most famously in the series of films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherWhite Press
Release dateFeb 12, 2015
ISBN9781473397811

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There are some excellent stories in here, and a poem thrown in for good measure.

    Solomon Kane is my favourite Robert E. Howard hero, possibly because he's English so I more readily identified with him when I first encountered him in graphic form as a back-up feature in the UK reprint comic Savage Sword of Conan. As well as being English he was also dour and grim, which appealed to my pre/early teen moodiness, and probably appeals now to my middle-age grumpiness!

    The action in these tales of the Puritan avenger swings from the mist-shrouded moors of Devonshire, to the benighted forests of France and Germany, on to the jungles of Africa and then the Spanish Main. Ghosts, revenant wizards, psychotic Barons, decadent Atlantean Queens and savage pirates, all fall before Kane's muskets and rapier.

    My favourite story here is Blades of the Brotherhood which sees Kane back in England, after a trail of years, tracking down the pirate captain, Jonas Hardraker, the Fishhawk, to wreak bloody vengeance against him. Kane is outnumbered, but never outclassed! Stirring stuff.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I always found Robert E. Howard's Conan stories hard going (though I liked the graphic novel adaptations). However this earliest Solomon Kane story was very good. Kane's dour character comes across as well as the vaguely Lovecraftian horror of the tale. I look forward to reading more.