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The moonlight shimmered hazily, making silvery mists of illusion among the shadowy trees. A faint breeze whispered down the valley, bearing a shadow that was not of the moon-mist. A faint scent of smoke was apparent. The man whose long, swinging strides, unhurried yet unswerving, had carried him for many a mile since sunrise, stopped suddenly. A movement in the trees had caught his attention, and he moved silently toward the shadows, a hand resting lightly on the hilt of hi...

Shadows in the Moonlight is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in April 1934. Howard originally named his story „Iron Shadows in the Moon”. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan escaping to a remote island in the Vilayet Sea where he encounters the Red Brotherhood, a skulking creature, and mysterious iron ...

In this final (chronologically) Conan story, Howard demonstrates why he was one of the best adventure writers of all time. In the only novel he ever produced, Howard is able to maintain the blistering pace he is known for, while still weaving a complex and interesting tale. The story is set during Conan’s time as King of Aquilonia, which is a period in the hero’s life often overlooked.

A powerful wizard named Thugra Khotan is awoken from his three-thousand year sleep by an audacious yet unlucky Zamoran thief named Shevatas. Thugra wakes with dreams of world domination. He assumes the name Natohk, the Veiled One, gathers an army of desert tribes and sets out to conquer the Hyborian nations.

Taramis, Queen of Khauran, awakened from a dream-haunted slumber to a silence that seemed more like the stillness of nighted catacombs than the normal quiet of a sleeping place. She lay staring into the darkness, wondering why the candles in their golden candelabra had gone out. A flecking of stars marked a gold-barred casement that lent no illumination to the interior of the chamber.

Some such thoughts flitted vaguely through my mind that night as I groped along the narrow trail that wound through the deep pinelands. Such thoughts are likely to keep company with any man who dares invade, in the night, that lonely stretch of densely timbered river-country which the black people call Egypt, for some obscurely racial reason.

In „Black Wind Blowing”, Howard lays it on so thick I half suspected he was trying to do a spoof on the genre. But then, his normal storytelling was always full of bizarre images, hyperactive violence and heavy use of adjectives so this story is probably just an extreme example. It helps too, that „Black Wind Blowing” has enough wild premises to build at least two or three effective horror stories on. If you’re not moved by what’s going on at the moment, by the next page th...

Professor John Kirowan is a fictional character from Robert E. Howard’s contributions to H.P. Lovecraft’s story cycle „the Cthulhu Mythos”. Kirowan is often partnered with the character John Conrad, to the extent that these stories are often referred to under the group title Conrad & Kirowan. Professor Kirowan is a younger son of a titled Irish family and a scholar of the Mythos who travelled widely in search of forbidden knowledge. His ancestor, Sir Michael Kirowan was...

Good collection of stories. Black Canaan is a favorite of mine. I have some doubts that REH would have finished „The House” with the suicide of John Conrad, but it is a Lovecraftian ending (Augest Derleth finished the REH fragment in this volume).

A young settler named Balthus walks blissfully unaware through a forest trail when the sound of combat draws his attention. He hides behind a tree and sees Conan step into the open, having just slain a Pictish robber who was about to ambush Balthus. Conan had been tracking the Pict for some hours, as he has been chasing the encroaching Picts on commission from nearby Fort Tuscelan.

An Earthman transported to Almuric, a remote alien world where he must contend with apelike humans, winged monsters, and other sinister forces. Robert E. Howard’s collection of fantastic fantasy science fiction short stories will not fail to entertain!

The creator of Conan looks to the stars in one of fantasy’s most enduring science fantasy classics! Robert E. Howard’s Almuric is a savage planet of crumbling stone ruins and debased, near-human inhabitants. Into this world comes Esau Cairn, Earthman, swordsman, murderer. Only he can overthrow the terrible devils that enslave Almuric, but to do so he must first defeat the inner demons that forced him to abandon Earth.

Edmund Hall, born a mutant with too many joints in his fingers and a double mind, tries to find a purpose in a society of humans. This superman is no caped crusader fighting for justice though. Rather, he is a dual-brained super-intellect with an IQ so far off the charts that normal human beings appear as Neanderthals next to him. In this story, our evolved human is born into modern society without anyone knowing his nature. While pondering whether he’s a superman or the de...

After a worldwide plague breaks civilization, Joaquin Smith and his sister build an empire up the Mississippi Valley. Who would be brave or foolish enough to stand in their way? Who but a young backwoodsman named Hull Tarvish? „Dawn of Flame” was written in the year 1939 by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum. This book is one of the most popular novels of Stanley Grauman Weinbaum, and has been translated into several other languages around the world. After his death, Weinbaum became ...

Stanley Grauman Weinbaum (also wrote as John Jessel and Marge Stanley) (1902-1935) was an American science fiction author. His career in science fiction was short but influential. His first story, „A Martian Odyssey”, was published to great acclaim in July 1934. Most of the stories fall into two categories: travelogue types that explore different planets, and the others with Dixon Wells and the great scientist Van Manderpootz, who invents amazing stuff that Wells manages to...

When „The Black Flame” was first published in 1939, Stanley G. Weinbaum had already been dead for three years. This novel contains of two short novels: „Dawn of Flame” and „The Black Flame”. Both are very similar stories, the reason for that is that Weinbaum had not released the first one and reworked it into the longer second part. The story itself is a weird SciFi love story set in a very distant future. Mankind had nearly become extinct, but recovers to a good number by ...

Pat is a beautiful young woman with many admirers. Nick is a young man with a secret. When his dark side interferes with their burgeoning love, things turn grim, and psychologist Carl Horker has to intervene. The plot wraps up in a way that the coming Hollywood would approve of, and with a deus ex machina that a theater would envy. Stanley Grauman Weinbaum (April 4, 1902 – December 14, 1935) was an American science fiction writer. His career in science fiction was short but...

Der promovierte Physiker und Mathematiker Kurd Laßwitz gilt als Begründer der deutschsprachigen Science Fiction, veröffentlichte daneben jedoch auch zahlreiche Arbeiten zu physikalischen und vor allem philosophischen Fragen. In dem umfangreichen, 1897 erschienenen Roman „Auf zwei Planeten”, seinem bedeutendsten Werk, schildert der Autor die Ankunft von zunächst friedfertigen Marsbewohnern auf der Erde, die sich allmählich zu einer Invasion entwickelt. Während die Marsianer ...

Der Autor beschreibt Zukunft und Raum, technische Möglichkeiten und deren Auswirkungen, Katastrophen der spezifischen Wissenschaftsglauben und innere Kraft des Menschen, die bei der Überlebung eine bedeutende Rolle spielt. In seinen „Zukunftserzählungen” wird jedoch trotz allen technischen Fortschritts immer wieder deutlich, dass die Menschen ihrem Naturell treu bleiben und dass die Liebe nie an Bedeutung verliert. Es ist das Jahr 2371. Die Menschheit nutzt „Luftdroschken” ...

Hanns Heinz Ewers war gebürtiger Düsseldorfer, Weltenbummler, ein Vorläufer der Beat-Generation, drogenerfahren, experimentierfreudig, skandalumwittert, ein Bestsellerautor. „Vampir” ist der Abschluss seiner autobiographisch geprägten Frank-Braun-Romane (Alraune/Der Zauberlehrling) und spielt zur Zeit des ersten Weltkriegs in den USA. „Vampir”: ein Roman zwischen Mescalrausch, Lust und Vampirismus, ein Roman über Demagogie und die Macht der Rede. Aus dem Buch: „In dem Jahre...

Ewers Geschichten kreisen um die Themen Phantastik, Erotik, Kunst bzw. Künstler und Reisen in exotische Länder. Seine teils äußerst drastischen Darstellungen machten ihn zum skandalumwitterten Bestsellerautor, gleichzeitig musste er sich immer wieder gegen den Vorwurf zur Wehr setzen, seine Werke seien trivial, unmoralisch oder pornographisch. Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871-1943) war ein deutscher Schriftsteller, Filmemacher, Globetrotter und Kabarettist. Aus dem Buch „Der Zauberl...

Zwei Großkonzerne wollen – nachdem sie die Atomkraft bereits nutzbar gemacht haben – die atmosphärische Elektrizität für sich gewinnen. Parallel steht die Entdeckung eines neuen „Energiestoffes” mit noch nie dagewesenen Eigenschaften ganz oben auf der Prioritätenliste der Konzerne. Das Atmosphärische Elektrizitätswerk des deutschen Bergmann-Konzerns arbeitet dank der genialen Erfindungen eines gewissen Dr. Frank famos, während das amerikanische AE-Werk der United Electric n...

Im Jahr 1955 droht das britische Empire zu zerfallen, denn Kanada und Australien wollen einen Zollverbund mit den USA bilden. Letztendlich erklären nach kriegerischen Provokationen die Briten den USA den Krieg. In diesem Moment greift die „Macht der Drei ein”: Drei Männer (der Deutsche Sylvester Bursfeld, der Schwede Erik Truwor und der Inder Soma Atma) mit einer neuartigen, gefährlichen Waffe, dem telenergetischen Strahler. Sämtliches Kriegsgerät der Erde wäre wirkungslos ...

Klaus im Glück ist ein 1928 veröffentlichter Roman des Autors Hans Dominik. Hans Dominik (1872-1945) war ein deutscher Science-Fiction- und Sachbuchautor, Wissenschaftsjournalist und Ingenieur. Diesmal wurde das Schicksal eines armen Bauernjungen dem Leben nacherzählt, dem eine schneidige Lebensrettung Gelegenheit bietet, Techniker zu werden. Man steigt mit dem munteren Jungen auf den Führerstand der Lokomotive, lernt Eisenbahnen und Brücken bauen, begleitet ihn nach Südwes...