The Tower of the Elephant

Robert E. Howard

Torches flared murkily on the revels in the Maul, where the thieves of the east held carnival by night. In the Maul they could carouse and roar as they liked, for honest people shunned the quarters, and watchmen, well paid with stained coins, did not interfere with their sport. Along the crooked, unpaved streets with their heaps of refuse and sloppy puddles, drunken roisterers staggered, roaring. Steel glinted in the shadows where wolf preyed on wolf, and from the darkness rose the shrill laughter of women, and the sounds of scufflings and strugglings.

The Treasures of Tartary

Robert E. Howard

An Irish-American warrior passes himself of as a Kurd and sets out to steal the treasure of Tartary. This is one of Robert E, Howards fast-paced short stories, featuring lots of fights and sliced entrails. Not one of his best works, in my opinion, as it somehow lacks substance. It seemed all hell and no notion.

The Vultures of Whapeton

Robert E. Howard

This is a good book of four Western stories. The title story, however, is the longest. The Vultures of Whapeton suffers from a protagonist who is just a bit too manly and effective to be believed. Everyone who meets Steve Corcoran seems to instantly know hell just prevail in any kind of gunfight, no matter how outnumbered he is -- and then, of course, Corcoran goes on to do use that.

Three Tales of the Ring

Robert E. Howard

From the unsurpassed imagination of the creator of Conan, Robert E. Howard, here are three tales of boxing, suspense and high adventure. Three Tales of the Ring is an excellent sampler of his non-sword and sorcery output, with a very strong emphasis on the gothic and the macabre. The collection includes such Howards masterpieces as The Apparition in the Prize Ring, Alleys of Darkness, Cupid vs Pollux. The Apparition In the Prize Ring is a ghostly little boxing story, narrated by a boxing manager of a black heavyweight Ace Jessel also known by the title Sucker Fight. Alleys of Darkness is a story in the Sailor Dennis Dorgan series. Cupid VS. Pollux is similarly a bit humorous tale of a heavyweight boxer, whos fallen in love. The boxing tales of Robert E. Howard have been collected into several different collections, some containing only them, some all of the works Howard has written.

Wings in the Night

Robert E. Howard

Wings in the Night collects Robert E. Howards fiction and prose published in Weird Tales Magazine from July 1932 to May 1933. These works represent literary stepping-stones to Howards infamous Cthulhu mythos stories and his most famous character of all -- Conan the Cimmerian -- and ably demonstrate that each of Howards stories improved and added to his formidable skills as a master of fantasy and adventure.

Worms of the Earth

Robert E. Howard

The speaker wrapped his purple cloak closer about his powerful frame and settled back into his official chair, much as he might have settled back in his seat at the Circus Maximus to enjoy the clash of gladiatorial swords. Realization of power colored his every move. Whetted pride was necessary to Roman satisfaction, and Titus Sulla was justly proud; for he was military governor of Eboracum and answerable only to the emperor of Rome.

Xuthal of the Dusk

Robert E. Howard

The desert shimmered in the heat waves. Conan the Cimmerian stared out over the aching desolation and involuntarily drew the back of his powerful hand over his blackened lips. He stood like a bronze image in the sand, apparently impervious to the murderous sun, though his only garment was a silk loin-cloth, girdled by a wide gold-buckled belt from which hung a saber and a broad-bladed poniard. On his clean-cut limbs were evidences of scarcely healed wounds.