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, Howard’s 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 battle in the meadowlands of the Euphrates was over, but not the slaughter. On that bloody field where the Caliph of Bagdad and his Turkish allies had broken the onrushing power of Doubeys ibn Sadaka of Hilla and the desert, the steel-clad bodies lay strewn like the drift of a storm. The great canal men called the Nile, which connected the Euphrates with the distant Tigris, was choked with the bodies of the tribesmen, and survivors were panting in flight toward the whit...
So thay brought the envoys, pallid from months of imprisonment, before the canopied throne of Suleyman the Magnificent, Sultan of Turkey, and the mightiest monarch in an age of mighty monarchs. Under the great purple dome of the royal chamber gleamed the throne before which the world trembled– gold-paneled, pearl-inlaid. An emperor’s wealth in gems was sewn into the silken canopy from which depended a shimmering string of pearls ending a frieze of emeralds which hung like a...
The Sowers of the Thunder is a short story by Robert E. Howard (published in Oriental Stories, Winter 1932) that takes place in Outremer (the Crusader states) in the time of General Baibars and deals with the General’s friendly/adversarial relationship with Cahal Ruadh O’Donnell, an Irish Crusader with a troubled past cut in the Howardian mold. Both the Siege of Jerusalem (1244) and the Battle of La Forbie feature in the plot.
The tall Englishman, Pembroke, was scratching lines on the earth with his hunting knife, talking in a jerky tone that indicated suppressed excitement: „I tell you, Ormond, that peak to the west is the one we were to look for. Here, I’ve marked a map in the dirt. This mark here represents our camp, and this one is the peak. We’ve marched north far enough.
The long low craft which rode off-shore had an unsavory look, and lying close in my covert, I was glad that I had not hailed her. Caution had prompted me to conceal myself and observe her crew before making my presence known, and now I thanked my guardian spirit; for these were troublous times and strange craft haunted the Caribees.
Once it was called Eski-Hissar, the Old Castle, for it was very ancient even when the first Seljuks swept out of the east, and not even the Arabs, who rebuilt that crumbling pile in the days of Abu Bekr, knew what hands reared those massive bastions among the frowning foothills of the Taurus. Now, since the old keep had become a bandit’s hold, men called it Bab-el-Shaitan, the Gate of the Devil, and with good reason.
Zojce i Krzysztofowi niebo runęło na głowy. Bo można pokonać każdą przeszkodę, ale jak wygrać z pojawiającą się nagle biologiczną matką panny młodej? Która na dodatek oświadcza, że pan młody jest jej przyrodnim bratankiem… Zojka robi więc to, do czego przyzwyczaiła się od dzieciństwa. Ucieka. Choć tym razem gdzieś w głębi serca wie, że wróci. Bo tak jak nie mogłaby żyć bez powietrza, nie mogłaby żyć bez ukochanego Krzysia. Krzysztof wierzy, że jej ucieczka nie jest bezpow...
Robert E. Howard is famous for creating such immortal heroes as Conan the Cimmerian, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn. Less well-known but equally extraordinary are his non-fantasy adventure stories set in the Middle East and featuring such hero as Francis Xavier Gordon. Texas gunfighter F. X. Gordon traveled the world before settling in 1920s Afghanistan. The Afghans dubbed him „El Borak” for his quick thinking and skill with a sword and gun. The respected Gordon frequently...
One moment the glade lay empty; the next a man poised tensely at the edge of the bushes. No sound warned the red squirrels of his coming, but the birds that flitted about in the sunlight took sudden fright at the apparition and rose in a clamoring swarm. The man scowled and glanced quickly back the way he had come, fearing the bird-flight might have betrayed his presence. Then he started across the glade, placing his feet with caution. Tall and muscular of frame, he moved w...
Francis Xavier Gordon was a living legend in the Middle and Far East. The boars called him El Borac, „Swift,” the title earned by his awkward abilities with a gun, a knife and a sword. Now, the mighty El Borak must stretch its forces to prevent the Turkish uprising, protect the hermits from murders and stop the dangerous amir without allowing him to seize control over India.
From Robert E. Howard’s fertile imagination sprang some of fiction’s greatest heroes, including Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull, and Solomon Kane. But of all Howard’s characters, none embodied his creator’s brooding temperament more than Bran Mak Morn. The last king of the Picts, Bran Mak Morn exists in a brutal, savage world set in the same universe as H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Unlike most of his race, Morn eschewed violence and actively sought peace among the other ...
The singing of the swords was a deathly clamor in the brain of Godric de Villehard. Blood and sweat veiled his eyes and in the instant of blindness he felt a keen point pierce a joint of his hauberk and sting deep into his ribs. Smiting blindly, he felt the jarring impact that meant his sword had gone home, and snatching an instant’s grace, he flung back his vizor and wiped the redness from his eyes.
The Turks, cruelly lead by the scurrilous Bayazid, crushingly defeat a bunch of European Christians who were invading so as to steal land from the Turks, or something. But one of the Europeans, a Scott, Donald MacDeesa escapes with his life and hooks up with Ak Boga, who who had secretly been spying on the carnage. Ak Boga works for the Amir of Samarcand, one Timour the Lame.
Hawks of Outremer is a tight tale. The main character is Cormac FitzGeoffrey, a bastard Norman-Gael who has thrown his lot in with the Crusaders. Once a loose peace was established in Outremer, Cormac returned to Ireland but after a short stint fighting, peace broke out there, too. Cormac returns to the Holy Land (Outremer) seeking to attach himself to a liege, only to learn that his liege of choice has been assassinated. Plots are afoot between Muslims and Christian lords ...
The immortal legacy of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian, continues with this latest compendium of Howard’s fiction and poetry. He will always be best remembered for his sword and sorcery tales but his work was extraordinarily varied. Unlike most of his better known works such as Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, etc., these stories are all historically based adventure stories. These adventures, set in medieval-era Europe and the Near East, are among the most grippi...
The castles of the Twelfth Century, fortresses rather than mere dwellings, were built for defense, not comfort. The hall through which the drunken band was hallooing was broad, lofty, windy, strewn with rushes, now but faintly lighted by the dying embers in a great ill-ventilated fireplace. Rude, sail-like hangings along the walls rippled in the wind that found its way through.
Pulp adventure, seemingly a bit crude and dashed off quickly, but good storytelling none the less. Pirates and lost cities – a bit of ’Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ’Indiana Jones’ rolled into one, but also with echoes of one of Howard’s best known tales of piracy, the Conan story ’Queen of the Black Coast’ – a superior story. The writing here is okay, entertaining enough, and even manages a little character exposition, but Howard could do and did do better work.
”I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom’s realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer’s Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue...
Czy można pokochać cudze dziecko? Nadia i Anita to skłócone siostry, które jeszcze w dzieciństwie rozdzielił mur wzajemnej niechęci. Są absolutnie różne, ale łączy je pewne wspólne doświadczenie życiowe: ich partnerzy mają dzieci z poprzednich związków. Zbieg okoliczności, a może przeznaczenie, sprawia, że po latach milczenia obie spotykają się na zajęciach grupy wsparcia, to tu kobiety, będące w podobnej sytuacji, mogą porozmawiać o tym, do czego nie wypada głośno się ...
Fenomenalne zakończenie cyklu o podzielonej Europie! W Tallinie Alice, młodsza pracowniczka szkockiej służby dyplomatycznej, zostaje wplątana w niezrozumiałą intrygę, rozciągającą się na dziesięciolecia. Na Morzu Egejskim młody uchodźca Benno porywa się na desperacką ucieczkę ku wolności i znajduje sobie nowe, niezwykłe życie. Na angielskich kanałach gromadzą się barki. Rudi, doświadczony coureur, po raz ostatni zostaje oderwany od restauracji, gdy wraz z Rupertem,...
Do literatury młodzieżowej zaliczają się książki pisane dla nastoletnich czytelników oraz tak zwanych młodych dorosłych (Young Adult). W literaturze dla młodzieży najczęściej poruszane są tematy i problemy ważne dla osób wkraczających w okres dojrzewania. Autorzy książek zaliczanych do literatury młodzieżowej piszą o pierwszych związkach i rozstaniach, miłości, porzuceniu, przyjaźni, a także o używkach, seksualności czy samobójstwie. Jedną z pozycji w tej kategorii, która podejmuje próbę zmierzenia się z wieloma problemami charakterystycznymi dla okresu dojrzewania, jest na przykład kontrowersyjna powieść „13 powodów” Jaya Ashera, w oparciu o którą powstał głośny serial pod tym samym tytułem (wyprodukowany przez platformę Netflix). Warto pamiętać, że wiele powieści uważanych obecnie za młodzieżowe w przeszłości było adresowanych do starszych czytelników. Dopiero po późniejszych adaptacjach były akceptowane jako powieści dla młodych osób – tak było w przypadku utworów pisanych przez Juliusza Verne’a. Znaczna część jego powieści powstała jako teksty dla dorosłych, jednak zyskały one popularność również wśród młodszych czytelników z uwagi na atrakcyjną formę. Dlatego też powieści Verne’a takie jak „20 000 mil podmorskiej żeglugi” czy „W 80 dni dookoła świata” znajdują się w kategorii „Dla młodzieży”. W tej kategorii odnaleźć można zarówno powieści zaliczane do fantastyki, horroru, kryminału czy thrilleru, jak i romanse, powieści obyczajowe, a także pozycje będące połączeniem dwóch lub więcej gatunków. Do takich należą powieści „Ponad wszystko” Nicoli Yoon, „Fanfik” Natalii Osińskiej, cykl „Buntowniczka z pustyni” Alwyn Hamilton, „Eleonora i Park” oraz „Fangirl” Rainbow Rowell, a także cykl Victorii Aveyard „Czerwona królowa”. Nie zabrakło tu również kultowej i międzypokoleniowej serii „Jeżycjada” Małgorzaty Musierowicz, powieści o Harrym Potterze J. K. Rowling, a także publikacji zaliczanych do klasyki literatury dla młodzieży („Mała księżniczka” Frances Hodgson Burnett, „Ania z Zielonego Wzgórza” Lucy Maud Montgomery).