The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard

By: Robert E. Howard

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 23 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Robert E. Howard, renowned creator of Conan the Barbarian, was also a master at conjuring tales of hair-raising horror. In a career spanning only 12 years, Howard wrote more than 100 stories, with his most celebrated work appearing in Weird Tales, the preeminent pulp magazine of the era.

In this collection of Howard's greatest horror tales, some of the author's best-known characters - Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, and sailor Steve Costigan among them - roam the forbidding locales of Howard's fevered imagination, from the swamps and bayous of the Deep South to the fiend-haunted woods outside Paris, to remote jungles in Africa.

Included in this collection is Howard's masterpiece "Pigeons from Hell", a tale of two travelers who stumble upon the ruins of a Southern plantation - and into the maw of its fatal secret. In "Black Canaan", even the best warrior has little chance of taking down the evil voodoo man with unholy powers - and none at all against his wily mistress, the diabolical High Priestess of Damballah. Also included is the classic revenge nightmare "Worms of the Earth" as well as "The Cairn on the Headland".

©2008 Robert E. Howard Properties, Inc. (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

“For stark, living fear...what other writer is even in the running?” (H. P. Lovecraft)

“[Behind Howard’s stories] lurks a dark poetry and the timeless truth of dreams.” (Robert Bloch)

“Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks.” (Stephen King)

Reminiscent of Dime Novel Fiction

So you're thinking of choosing this audiobook as your monthly pick thinking, (at 23 hours), you'll get more bang for the buck? Maybe, but maybe not. If you're a real connoisseur of the genre, you may consider these stories classics. However, if your interest is in contemporary horror, you may find 23 hours a bit much. I guess for my own tastes, a little of this somewhat dated style of horror is best taken in small doses.

Gone all too soon

H. P. Lovecraft called Robert E. Howard the greatest writer of horror tales of their time.
Come and see why.
Then lament over his early, tragic death.

Conan, just like you expect

These aren't brilliant literature, they're pulp stories. If you never read one, they might be better than you think. Taste vary. I'd love to give 5 stars for being classics (in my world) but pulp is necessarily pulpy.

Nice Collection

Stumbled upon Robert Howard through a short story from another collection. Thought it was pretty decent. Was happy to find this title in Audible. Read through the reviews and was shocked that some people were taken back by the 'racist' overtones in some of the stories. As a writer and reader, I know we cannot have thin skins. The world is not a fine a friendly place most of the time. Racist? Don't know. I believe using a racist term in a story does not necessarily make an author an evil person, who lives in fantasy and writes about other people and places (psst, that's what an author does). Context, people. Context. These were written in the 1920s and 1930s. Moving on. These tales are very like H.P. Lovecraft--poetic, good detail, full of monsters and creepy things, but some are not as great as Lovecraft's writing. It's still good and worth it, but some stories don't have that polish to them. I won't point them out, because these are my opinions and I am not going to taint another reader's / listener's experience. Overall, very impressive and exhaustive collection of tales. The narration is great and I am glad I purchased this.

Good Range of Howard's Weird Fiction

A lot of great stories in here with few or no duds among them. You get to hear a lot of stories from the various Howard universes, like Solomon Kane and Conan stories with horrific elements. As well as one-off stories in a theme similar to Lovecraft, but a more action/adventure focus. It was a great performance which always kept me engaged and excited to hear more. Great book, I would recommend it. My only complaint is that the track titles are generic (Track 1, Track 2, etc...) and not the story names.

Trip back into the macabre

If you're a fan of Robert Howard, HP Lovecraft, and that generation of writers you'll love these stories. I had forgotten how much mythos lore moves back and forth between the writers of this era.

The stories are a product if their time and there is one story where the N-word got dropped so frequently that I ended up skipping it.

Generally though it's just good, clean, creepy fun.

It's all here

Pretty much everything is here. The "John Kirowan" and "Faring Town" sets, the weird west stories, the Lovecraftian stories, and "a whole lot more". A few mediocre stories are forgivable given such a robust (to say the least) collection. Be sure to check out the Robert E. Howard bibliography page on Wikipedia. It's a great reference to help find the types of stories here that you like.

Very good stuff!

It's hard to write a good horror story without resorting to excessive violence, sexualization and sadism. Howard does an excellent job of this, evoking dread without such measures. The narrator does an exemplary job backing up the writing with suitably mysterious, somber and sinister voices.

Solid pulp fiction stories.

He was a product of his time, so many of his references to African Americans in particular was rough in some of the stories. It was interesting to see how he tried to weave in current anthropological paradigms and he must have read from the relevant literature. It was all very race based at the time but he did his best to weave it into some of his stories to ground them in the science of the day.

Wonderful.

A must have for any horror fanatic. many tales of terror and woe, woven together in masterful fashion. A few unfinished works, but worth the investment.