The Pool of the Black One is one of the original short stories starring the sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan becoming the captain of a pirate vessel and encountering a remote island with a mysterious pool that has powers of transmutation.
...Shipwrecked on a mysterious island, two sailors find traces of a lost civilization – and memories of their own impossible part in it! ...The „last words” of an operatic tenor bring the music of hell to the man who destroyed him....Turlogh O’Brien, mighty Gaelic warrior who serves no master but gold and blood, battles for a kingdom against the fearful ancient gods of Bal-Sagoth. All together for the first time in The Gods of Bal-Sagoth.
The fisherman loosened his knife in its scabbard. The gesture was instinctive, for what he feared was nothing a knife could slay, not even the saw-edged crescent blade of the Yuetshi that could disembowel a man with an upward stroke. Neither man nor beast threatened him in the solitude which brooded over the castellated isle of Xapur.
The long tapers flickered, sending the black shadows wavering along the walls, and the velvet tapestries rippled. Yet there was no wind in the chamber. Four men stood about the ebony table on which lay the green sarcophagus that gleamed like carven jade. In the upraised right hand of each man a curious black candle burned with a weird greenish light. Outside was night and a lost wind moaning among the black trees.
The Black Stranger"is one of the stories byRobert E. HowardaboutConan the Cimmerian. It was written in the 1930s but not published in his lifetime. When the original Conan version of the story failed to find a publisher, Howard rewrote „The Black Stranger” into a piraticalTerence Vulmeastory entitled „Swords of the Red Brotherhood.”
Before Robert E. Howard wrote of „Conan the Cimmerian”, he wrote of the swashbuckler Solomon Kane. „The Adventures of Solomon Kane” takes you through Howard’s horrific and fantastic world of swords and sorcery, the world of ancient secrets and the monsters that live in the jungles of Africa where Kane vanquishes evil. Here are shudder-inducing tales of vengeful ghosts and bloodthirsty demons, of dark sorceries wielded by evil men and women, all opposed by a grim avenger arm...
This collection contains all of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian stories published during his lifetime, contextualized with biographical details of their author. His Conan stories feature a young barbarian warrior who carves himself a kingdom and rules with a degree of wisdom and justice. Neither supernatural fiends nor demonic sorcery could oppose the warrior as he wielded his mighty sword and dispatched his enemies to a bloody doom on the battlefields of the legenda...
Red Nails is the last of the stories about Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard. A novella, it was originally serialized in Weird Tales magazine from July to October 1936. It is set in the pseudohistorical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan encountering a lost city in which the degenerate inhabitants are proactively resigned to their own destruction. Due to its grim themes of decay and death, the story is considered a classic of Conan lore and is oft...
The dagger flashed downward. A sharp cry broke in a gasp. The form on the rough altar twitched convulsively and lay still. The jagged flint edge sawed at the crimsoned breast, and thin bony fingers, ghastly dyed, tore out the still- twitching heart. Under matted white brows, sharp eyes gleamed with a ferocious intensity.
Shadows in Zamboula is one of the original stories by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian, first published in Weird Tales in November, 1935. Its original title was „The Man-Eaters of Zamboula”. The story takes place over the course of a night in the desert city of Zamboula, with political intrigue amidst streets filled with roaming cannibals. It features the character Baal-pteor, one of the few humans in the Conan stories to be a physical challenge for the main Cimme...
The cliffs rose sheer from the jungle, towering ramparts of stone that glinted jade-blue and dull crimson in the rising sun, and curved away and away to east and west above the waving emerald ocean of fronds and leaves. It looked insurmountable, that giant palisade with its sheer curtains of solid rock in which bits of quartz winked dazzlingly in the sunlight. But the man who was working his tedious way upward was already halfway to the top.
Rogues in the House is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine in January 1934. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan inadvertently becoming involved in the power play between two powerful men fighting for control of a city. It was the seventh Conan story Howard had published.
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.
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...
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.
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.
The Kai Lung books are really short-story collections, whose disparate, rambling tales are knitted together by framing narratives featuring the eponymous travelling storyteller. The third in Bramah’s Kai Lung series of fantasy novels. „Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat”, like the others in the series consists of thinly connected stories related by Kai Lung, concerning the adventures of the storyteller and his lady love Hwa-Mei versus the wicked but ever-smooth Mandarin Shan Tien and...
The second volume of amusing Chinese fantasies. A captivating collection that’s ripe for rediscovery, „Kai Lung’s Golden Hours” stands as the very best of these beguiling books. As with other Kai Lung novels, the main plot serves primarily as a vehicle for the presentation of the gem-like, aphorism-laden stories told by the protagonist Kai Lung, an itinerant story-teller of ancient China. With the help of beautiful Hwa Mei, who has the attention of evil Ming Shu, Kai tries ...
„The Wallet of Kai Lung” is a collection of fantasy stories by Ernest Bramah in which the Chinese Kai Lung tells stories – often to stave off some unpleasant fate, like Scheherazade. These tales of an unlikely but marvelous China are classic works of fantasy, with each story holding a story-within-a-story. Ernest Bramah’s Kai Lung is a storyteller in an imagined China, telling tales of earnest examination candidates, corrupt mandarins, beautiful maidens, alchemical potions,...
Wśród czekających na Was na Woblink dzieł odkryjecie najlepsze książki fantasy dla dorosłych, młodzieży oraz dla dzieci - zarówno klasyczne książki fantasy, jak i nowe książki fantasy.
Fantastyka jest pojęciem nadrzędnym nad fantasy. Książki z działu fantastyki można podzielić na wiele podtypów. Do najbardziej znanych należą fantasy, science fiction (fantastyka naukowa) i horror. O ile wyróżnienie tego ostatniego spośród pozostałych nie powinno stanowić problemu, o tyle stwierdzenie czym charakteryzuje się literatura fantasy nie jest już takie proste. Podziały te nie są jednoznaczne, jednak można pokusić się o próbę ich wyznaczenia.
Książki fantasy opierają się przede wszystkim na magicznych i nadprzyrodzonych motywach i formach, które stanowią główną oś fabuły i świata przedstawionego. Czasem utrzymywane są w nieco bardziej baśniowej scenerii niż dzieła sci-fi czy horrory. Do książek fantasy zaliczane są na przykład “Koralina” Neila Gaimana, “Silmarillion” oraz “Hobbit, czyli tam i z powrotem” J. R. R. Tolkiena, “Cykl demoniczny” Petera V. Bretta (dziesięć powieści zawartych w pięciu tomach: „Malowany człowiek”, „Pustynna Włócznia”, „Wojna w blasku dnia”, „Tron z Czaszek” i „Otchłań”) czy “Niekończąca się historia” Michaela Ende.
Fantasy to także rozległy gatunek literacki, który ma swoje podtypy. Na co dzieli się fantasy? Tzw. high fantasy zazwyczaj rozgrywa się w świecie przypominającym nasze średniowiecze. Należą do nich na przykład takie epickie cykle fantasy jak “Władca Pierścieni” J. R. R. Tolkiena czy “Opowieści z Narnii” C. S. Lewisa. Ich swoistym przeciwieństwem jest tzw. low fantasy, czyli historie, w których magia nie odgrywa zbyt dużej roli lub jest w ogóle nieobecna. Wciąż jest to jednak alternatywna rzeczywistość. Za prekursora tego podgatunku uznaje się Roberta E. Howarda i jego cykl o Conanie. Dobrym polskim przykładem jest “Trylogia husycka”, której autorem jest Andrzej Sapkowski (“Lux perpetua”, “Boży bojownicy” i “Narrenturm”). Z kolei akcja tzw. urban fantasy rozgrywa się w mieście, gdzie istnieje pozorna sprzeczność współistniejących obok siebie magii i techniki. Należą do nich na przykład “Nigdziebądź” Neila Gaimana, cykl “Dary anioła” Cassandry Clare, czy cykl o Percym Jacksonie Ricka Riordana.
Wśród dzieł tworzących czołówkę książek fantasy, warto wyróżnić tak cenione serie fantasy jak “Archiwum Burzowego Światła” Brandona Sandersona, serię “Malazańska księga poległych” Stevena Eriksona, czy “Opowieści z meekhańskiego pogranicza” Roberta M. Wegnera. Znajdziecie tam również klasykę fantasy, do ktorej należą na przykład "Mroczna wieża" Stephena Kinga oraz “Pieśń lodu i ognia” George’a R. R. Martina.
Szukacie dobrego cyklu fantasy? Miłośnikom tego gatunku polecamy także “Kroniki Amberu” Rogera Zelaznego, serię “Czarna Kompania “Glena Cooka, “Z mgły zrodzony" Brandona Sandersona, “Trylogię Czarnego Maga” Trudi Canavan, “Wojnę makową” Rebecci F. Kuang która odbiła się głośnym echem w świecie literackim, czy trylogię “Mroczne materie” Philipa Pullmana, która stałą się podstawą filmu i serialu.
Polska również ma szczęście być miejscem, w którym powstają kultowe serie fantasy. Wystarczy wspomnieć o sadze Wiedźmińskiej Andrzeja Sapkowskiego, o serii “Pan Lodowego Ogrodu” Jarosława Grzędowicza, “Cyklu Inkwizytorskim” Jacka Piekary, czy “Zastępach anielskich” Mai Lidii Kossakowskiej. Wśród polskich książek fantasy dużą popularnością cieszą się także humorystyczne książki fantasy, których bohaterami są takie postaci jak Jakub Wędrowycz, postać stworzona przez Andrzeja Pilipiuka.
W gronie dobrych książek fantasy dla młodzieży z kolei czekają na Was na przykład, seria “Okrutny książę” Holly Black, trylogia “Dziedzictwo” Christophera Paoliniego czy "Szklany Tron" Sarah J. Maas.
Te i wiele innych zachwycających książek fantasy znajdziecie na Woblink jako książki papierowe, audiobooki lub ebooki. Nie czekajcie, wybierzcie się w nieznane światy książek pełnych magii już dziś!