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Robert E. Howard
said there was “so little of the scientist about my nature”
that he questioned his ability to write science fiction effectively,
especially the formulaic, post-Wells, pre-Heinlein pulp SF of
the early 1930s. However, two of his SF stories – published
after his death – are notable because the ‘science’
in them takes a back seat to the kind of material that Howard
did best: sword-swinging adventure and blood-chilling horror against
exotic and extraterrestrial backdrops.
A novel of stunning imagery. Esau Cairn, a hot-tempered Texas
brawler, faces a murder rap after killing a crooked big-city political
boss. His way out is a secret device that transports him to the
uncharted alien planet of Almuric. There, battering his way to
a place of honor among the savage tribe of Koth, he wins the name
Esau Ironhand and a reputation for courage and toughness to rival
the mighty Conan’s. But Esau of Almuric finds even his mighty
valor tested when he ventures to the horrific land of Yagg, where
the seductive winged queen Yasmeena, Mistress of Night, rules
an empire of terror from the benighted citadel of Yugga.
Long before Indiana Jones there was Robert E. Howard’s Jim
Brill, a 1930s adventurer who travels on a quest of honor to the
far reaches of the Gobi Desert. In this land of the savage Mongol
nomads, a weird scientific experiment has bred desert spiders
to the size and ferocity of wild boars. And Brill finds an even
stranger scientific secret in the lost city of Khor, once the
sanctuary of the magnificent Genghis Khan, where another wandering
American has discovered the means to channel the spirit of that
bloody conqueror. Only one person stands between the reborn Genghis
Khan and world domination ... Jim Brill.
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