This having happened to me I sat still on my brother Bill’s horse, because that’s the best thing you can do when a feller is p’inting a cocked.45 at your wishbone. This feller was a mean-looking hombre in a sweaty hickory shirt with brass rivets in his leather hat band, and he needed a shave. He said, „Who are you? Where you from? Where you goin’? What you aimin’ to do when you get there?
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.
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.
Breck Elkins is a hillbilly from Bear Creek, a fictional location in the Humboldt Mountains of Nevada. He is „mighty of stature and small of brain"–a physically huge and imposing figure, and his reputation as a short-tempered and ferocious fighter often precedes him throughout the Southwest. He is usually found in the company of Cap’n Kidd, his equally fierce and cantankerous horse.
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.
Drums of Sunset was published in eight parts. Steve and Hard Luck, his newfound companion (or is he? The curious should check those back issues linked above!), are hot on the trail of a host of criminals ranging from ‘Navajoes’ to a ring of counterfeiters. Pieces of the mystery that have plagued Steve for six installments are starting to come together. And oh, the CLIFFHANGER! Steve and Hard Luck are locked in mortal combat with a rowdy group of Native Americans.
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.
San Leon lay as if slumbering in the desert heat as the five brothers rode up to the doors of the Cattlemen’s Bank. None noted their coming; the Red Lode saloon, favorite rendezvous for the masculine element of San Leon, stood at the other end of the town, and out of sight around a slight bend in the street.
”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...
The stories are humorously written as if told by Breckinridge Elkins, a hillbilly with no schooling. He and his kin live in the Humboldts in Nevada. Elkins is six feet six inches tall, is as strong as a grizzly bear. He can be just as bad tempered if riled. And there is a lot to rile him, especially his relatives.
When the character of Cole Lavery first appeared in the 1940’s, readers immediately fell in love with this, which had a surprising smile and a quick gun. And, for the first time in a soft cover, all the stories of Cole Lavery were accumulated in one volume. The events in the book are continuously moving from one adventure to the next, when Cole bites with river pirates and the notorious gangster and unfair robber the baron; as he travels to California on a train infected wi...
The Young Lion Hunter is a story of a young adventurer Ken Ward. Kenneth Ward and his younger brother, Hal, spend their holidays in the Utah Forest Preserve, where they accompany the second Ken and help him capture the mountain lions and the pum in the Grand Canyon. An engaging adventure novel dating from the Old Zachary of America.
Kidnapping Collie Younger: When Rod Brecken stole the most beautiful and outrageous flirting mistress who ever made the cowboy crazy, this is just the lesson she needs; but Rod may have tasted more than he can chew on. Palaces persecutors: Dale Brittenham follow the footsteps of the horse thieves to bring to justice before angry runners overtake them.
This essay is often considered a children’s book, The Young Forester is following the young Kenneth, in his quest to become a forester. After he received his father’s permission to go west to work with a friend of childhood, Ken sees a devastating operation that cuts down the trees and leaves nothing behind. Throughout the text, Ken struggled with woodcutters to preserve the Penetrari Forest and the future of the industry. The book is written at a time when the United State...
You have brought me happiness, „said Tappan, to a small gray storm circling around his mother. „Your name is Janet. You are Bopo Tappana,” I think he will stick to you, „from the book,” Intelligence was a lonely business for Tappan, but his drum Jenet was a good company. She knew the dots and the water wells better. Thappan, from the burning heat and poisonous atmosphere of the Death Valley to the blind blizzards of the Arizona Mountains. Janet traced with him the faithful,...
Ta kategoria zawiera książki należące do gatunku, który leży na styku historii i literatury. Autorzy takich tekstów łączą materiał historyczny z fikcją, świat przedstawiony umieszczony jest w przeszłości, tłem są ważne wydarzenia historyczne, mogą pojawić się nawet znane postaci historyczne, ale pozostałe elementy są fikcją. Książki znajdujące się w tej kategorii przedstawiają różne epoki i okresy historyczne. Znaleźć tu możemy utwory wchodzące w skład kanonu literatury polskiej i europejskiej, jak „Potop” Henryka Sienkiewicza czy „Trzej muszkieterowie” Aleksandra Dumasa, a także zbeletryzowane biografie takich osób jak genialny malarz postimpresjonistyczny Vincent van Gogh („Pasja życia” Irvinga Stone’a) czy zapomniana przez świat nauki Mileva Marić („Pani Einstein” Marie Benedict). W serwisie Woblink.com znajdują się także opowieści o starożytności, (np. trzytomowy cykl Roberta Harrisa – „Cycero”, „Spisek”, „Dyktator” – o starożytnym Rzymie, którego bohaterem jest wybitny mówca i polityk Marek Tulliusz Cyceron), legendach arturiańskich („Trylogia arturiańska” Bernarda Cornwella) czy II wojnie światowej i obozach zagłady (bestsellerowa powieść „Tatuażysta z Auschwitz” Heather Morris), a także kryminały („W cieniu prawa” Remigiusza Mroza) i romanse historyczne („Nieproszona miłość” Julii Justiss). W kategorii „Powieść historyczna” nie mogło również zabraknąć książek Elżbiety Cherezińskiej, pisarki specjalizującej się w powieściach dotyczących historii Polski w różnych okresach dziejowych. W ofercie znajdują się książki Cherezińskiej o zjeździe gnieźnieńskim („Gra w kości”), rozbiciu dzielnicowym („Korona śniegu i krwi”), II wojnie światowej („Legion”), a nawet o wikingach (saga „Północna droga”).