Book Review 246 // The Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. Howard.

We are nearing the end of our adventures with Conan, and I can't help but feel a little sad. It has been a joy to read these in order and watch as Howard progresses the character and builds upon previous ideas. This is a unique title as it was originally written as a series and then squashed together to make the book. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Title: The Hour of the Dragon

Author: Robert E. Howard

Blurb: Written in the 1930s as a serial for Weird Tales, the famous pulp magazine, Hour of the Dragon is the only novel by Howard featuring his greatest creation, Conan the Barbarian. This powerful novel of violent adventure has spawned many imitations in the genre over the years, including a series of best-selling paperbacks which, in imitation of Howard, continued the adventures of Conan.

Conan is at the pinnacle of his career in this story, having roamed the imaginary prehistoric world of Hyborea and, with native cunning and sheer force, fought his way to the throne of Aquilonia. He is the archetype of the invincible warrior: tough, fearless and incredibly strong.

As the novel opens, King Conan is captured by the magic of the evil sorcerer Xaltotun, whom Conan's enemies have raised from the dead, after three thousand years, for the express purpose of removing Conan from the throne. Conan's armies are so unprepared to battle Xaltotun's sorcery that they are routed on the battlefield and Aquilonia is conquered.

Conan is secretly released from prison by a slave girl who loves him, and he fights his way out of the dungeon catacombs to freedom, defeating a giant murderous ape who blocks his way. In the course of his escape, he overhears a secret meeting and learns that the source of Xaltotun's power is a mysterious jewel, the Heart of Ahriman, which Xaltotun's allies have stolen from him to insure their control over him.

Conan resolves to track the jewel across the barbaric landscape of Hyboria, destroy Xaltotun and regain his kingdom.

Format: 296 pages, E-book (you can find it on my affiliate store)

Review

Strange to read a multiplot story in one go as a book. If you read it as a series over months, the story would flow better. But in this set-up, it felt like a lot of jumping forwards was happening and a loss of time. But as a story, I personally really enjoyed it. It feels like Howard is finding his stride and embracing previous ideas in this tale. People may dislike its similarities to other tales, but I can see how Howard tries to improve upon previous attempts.

With a longer flowing story, we can enjoy events you wouldn't usually get in a short tale. We get full-scale battles, well-rounded villains, and encounters. We also still have plenty of space for creature features and treacherous allies. I enjoyed the quest, as Conan has to move through many personas to seek a magical jewel that will end the reign of the evil wizard. It allowed our kingly Conan to revisit his Barbarian days and his old life as a pirate and polish up on his thieving skills. Pirate Conan is my favourite version of the hero.

Though it is a highlight, it acts as a double-sided blade, and due to so much travelling, we lose the joy of the location. In his short stories, Howard has done a fantastic job of describing a place. But with this constant changing of the site gives us no chance to enjoy this aspect of his writing. But overall a great read that I would happily enjoy again.

Book Review 239 // Queen of the Black Coast by Robert E. Howard

This next title in the series is described as one of Howard's most famous pieces. I am hoping this doesn't fall flat and delivers a good read.

Title: Queen of the Black Coast

Blurb: "Queen of the Black Coast" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine c. May 1934. During the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age, Conan becomes a notorious pirate plundering the coastal villages of Kush alongside Bêlit, a head-strong femme fatale.

Due to its epic scope and atypical romance, the story is an undisputed classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his most famous tales.

Review

Hm. Guess it had to happen. This one missed the mark for me. It was alright. It just fell wrong. Firstly the positives, Howard's world-building is impressive. The Conan adventures and settings have changed in every book, yet Howard has always managed to set the scene wonderfully. Also, the way he writes a story is effortless and easy to read. This style continues into this story, with me finishing it in one sitting.

The story is set at sea, within my favourite theme of pirates. Howard then sneaks in the makings of early Cosmic Horror within this setting. Now this is where I start having issues. His world-building is impressive, yet this monster/creature feels out of place. We know it comes from a dead civilization, and that's about it. It left what should have been a scary creature feeling flat and 2D. Almost rushed.

Then we have the racism and sexism in this title that you can't ignore. It is disappointing that the only two powerful people had to be white. It could have been amazing to have someone different set-up as the Queen, an opportunity definitely missed (though as I learn more about Howard, I sadly understand him to be narrow-minded in these topics). Then I also felt the Queen character was poorly used. Here we have a character who has risen to rank and power, leads a crew, and is an influential female figure, suddenly losing all control and throwing herself at Conan. What the hell!? If anything, Conan should have been throwing himself at her. And before you complain, I understand the story format of the muscle-bound hero saving the woman. That would still be the same, but damn, how cool would it have been to have them be more equal or even Conan in awe for a page or two.

If you enjoy Pulp stories, you will enjoy this, but don't be blinded to the issues within it.

Book Review 238 // Shadows in the Moonlight by Robert E. Howard

Wow. Ten Conan Adventures in the series. I think I am going to miss the tales. I may even have to try out other authors in the setting to see what it is like.

Title: Shadows In The Moonlight

Author: Robert E. Howard

Blurb: On the run from the army of Turan, Conan and fellow fugitive Olivia hide out on a small island in the Vilayet Sea. They soon find themselves stalked by an unseen terror in the jungles and threatened by a group of pirates belonging to the Red Brotherhood, which is led by Conan's sworn enemy-Sergius of Koth! However, those may be the least of Conan's concerns, because when the moon rises on this island, the ruins of a lost civilization stir and an ancient, deadly curse awakens! Conan will be pushed to his limits as he and Olivia fight to survive!

Format: 60 pages, Paperback

Buy via my Affiliate store (Amazon)

Review

Classic-themed Conan. After saving a princess, Conan and his damsel escape to a secluded island that turns out to have its own inhabitants. But who or what is the biggest threat, the Island or the pursuing Pirates?

This for me had the making of a full novel, we could have had a 400-page adventure story here. There were major plot aspects not filled out or even explored. Sometimes you have to enjoy the short story for what it is and not what it could have been. Ultimately this is my favourite Conan story to date. Go try it.

Comic Review 116 // Aliens Omnibus Volume 6.

Finishing the year on a high. The entire Aliens omnibus collection is now read, reviewed and published. This has proven to not be an easy read. Though I love the franchise, this series has suffered from a lot of poor stories. Sadly, volume six falls into this category as well, a lot of stories in this issue should have been left on the editor's floor.

With thirteen stories to get through, we will move quickly and sweep those corners.

Apocalypse - A recurring author in the talented Mark Schultz and artwork by Doug Wheatley. The artwork is beautiful in this story and it is a great opener for this book. We have a return to LV-426 with Alecto Throop a strong powerful, female lead, who is hired to find Dr. Lucien. As the body count rises, the story gets Lovecraft creepy, with once more a deranged scientist, trying to find ways to control the xenomorph. Great story, great artwork, read it!

Once in a Lifetime - Mark Schultz once more with writing assistance from Phil Amara. Artwork by Rick Leonardi. Another Geholgod themed story, these guys are as bad as Weyland Yutani! A scientist is sent to investigate a world with xenomorphs that never grew from humans and see how they differ from human born ones. She seems to think the aggressive nature of the xenomorph may come from the genes of humans. An interesting idea, but a little rushed and not overly exciting.

Xenogenesis - Written by Tom and Mary Bierbaum and drawn by David Ross. Set further into the future, xenomorphs are a well-known threat. The companies are bored of them and now have specialist kill teams for extermination jobs. To be honest this is a poorly written story even in the xenomorph franchise. Teenage me may have liked it but he had terrible taste. Just skip it and move on.

Headhunters - Written by Mike W. Barr and drawn by Gene Colan, tells the story of xenomorph hunters attempting to claim some bounties on the death of the aliens. Pretty straight forward, basically a filler piece. Nice pencil artwork.

Tourist Season - Written by Beau Smith and drawn by Gary Morrow. A what I assume is a theme park-style planet, designed to represent the Wild West is under siege from Xenomorphs. Enter stage right the town sheriff for some gunslinging action. Basically, a tale to draw some cowboys - Yawn.

Pig - Script by Chuck Nixon and drawn by Henry Flint (amazing Judge Dredd artist). The story is about a bunch of space pirates attempting to loot a crashed spacecraft. The only problem is the planet is infested by Aliens. To solve the problem they decide to nuke the nest by strapping bombs on to a pig, nothing goes to plan for our pirates but it is one hell of a fun ride. Great story, fun artwork, love it.

Borderlines - Darko Macan and Tommy Lee Edwards team up on this tale. A weird soldier's tale of why we fight the aliens, the best line is "Their hunger of today or ours of Tomorrow". A non-offensive filler piece. Nice moody black and white artwork.

45 Seconds - Darko is back this time with the B & W artwork of Frank Teran. Great artwork on this one. 45 seconds is a tale of a colonial marine who has set bombs to go and blow up the Xeno nest. With only 45 seconds to get out the fear has his control. The ending is great and this is a solid piece. Very enjoyable.

Elder Gods - Story by Nancy A. Collins and drawn by Leif Jones. A lazy merging of Lovecraft and Xeno. Had the opportunity to be good, instead fell a bit flat by leaning too heavily into the Lovecraft theme. ie. Instead of Lovecraft, we have Loveless, instead of Cthulhu we have Tuulituu. Shame.

Purge - Script by Ian Edginton and Phil Hester on the artwork. A weird tale involving a science lab located on a remote planet. The lab specializes in the effects of alien impregnation on lepers. Turns out the defective human gene affects the alien to the point that they never leave the host. And actually, enhance their host in a positive way. Into this mix throw an android with DNA of a xenomorph gene and you are asking for trouble. A weird tale that I am not sure if I enjoyed or not, I find the android angle weird and annoying but the leper angle was definitely a fun spin. I wonder if we will ever meet these characters again?

Glass Corridor - A rare one in the sense that it is written and drawn by the same person, David Lloyd. Following a hitman called Frank, we join him after he fails a hit. Frank stows away on a transport ship with the hopes of escaping, unfortunately, it turns out there is a Xeno onboard. This is a story of redemption and Frank becoming a hero. A nice story.

Stalker - Seems we have a bus scenario happening, we suddenly have a second written and drawn by the same person, David Wenzel. Basically a story of Vikings vs Xenomorphs. A fun story with beautiful artwork. The story ends with a colonial trooper armed with the blade handle of his Viking ancestor, about to board a Xeno infested colony.   

Wraith - The final tale by Jay Stephens and drawn by Eduardo Risso. What happens when your campfire story turns out to be true. This is the theme of this tale. I have to honest this was not a great ending tale it felt and read I a weak-ass Creepshow story. It tried to be scary and then when you felt everyone was saved the twist kicks in. Below average at best.

Final thoughts for this omnibus is an above-average outing. Seems weird to think I've completed the range and I feel proud that I pushed through. Overall from volume one to six, the series has been all over the place. We have had highs like the initial story arc, then we also have had super lows (some even unreadable). But the one thing that has carried us through the entire series is the xenomorphs, I just love them. I also love the continuing threat of Weyland Yuntani, I wish they actually featured more. So where now? I feel it is time to move back to Judge Dredd and 2000 ad, maybe even Strontium Dog? Let me know what to read next in the comments below.

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