Armchair BEA: Novellas/Short Stories

It's day three of Armchair BEA-- day two for my late-to-the-party self-- so here is today's topic:

Now it is time to give a little love to those little stories in your life. Share your love for your favorite shorts of any form. What is a short story or novella that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves? Recommend to readers what shorts you would recommend they start with. How about listing some short story anthologies based upon genres or authors?

It will come as no surprise to my regular readers that I love short stories. There's something about a bite-size chunk of fiction that really appeals to me, and I really enjoy working in that format myself, which is why my first book was a collection of short stories. It's no coincidence that most of my favorite authors, such as Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury, and Robert E. Howard, were masters of the short story. Today, I'll be talking about one of  Howard's tales of Solomon Kane, The Footfalls Within.

I've covered REH's Solomon Kane work a couple of times before, and as with those posts, this story is found in the collection The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, which reprint all of REH's Kane work in their original form, unlike the edited versions found in some other reprint collections. The story begins as Kane runs afoul of a group of Islamic slavers, and is captured while attempting to free their captives. Their leader has heard of Kane, and has special plans for him once they reach their destination. The group encounters an ancient structure along the way, and things quickly go downhill from there. This story is a very concise twenty pages, and its relentless pace keeps it moving so quickly you could swear it was half as long. As with most fiction from the early twentieth century, there are a few cringe-inducing lines reflecting the common prejudices of the time, but REH was rather progressive in his views for that era, particularly for a Southerner. (I say that as a Southerner, where I routinely see that some of those views are, sadly, still disturbingly common. Definitely not the majority, however.) That said, this is a rock-solid adventure story with a wonderful pulpy tone, plenty of action, and some solid characterization work on Kane himself. With the religious zealotry and many of the prejudices you'd expect from a sixteenth century Puritan, Kane is certainly not the most likeable of REH's characters, but he is one of the most interesting. Highly recommended for lovers of classic adventure fiction, and these Del Rey REH reprint volumes are the perfect place to dive in!

National Poetry Month: Solomon Kane's Homecoming

In observation of National Poetry Month, I present one of my favorites: Solomon Kane's Homecoming, by Robert E. Howard. Even if you loathe poetry, read it. It's awesome.

The white gulls wheeled above the cliffs, the air was slashed with foam,
The long tides moaned along the strand when Solomon Kane came home.
He walked in silence strange and dazed through the little Devon town;
His gaze, like a ghost’s come back to life, roamed up the streets and down.

The people followed wonderingly to mark his spectral stare,
And in the tavern silently they thronged about him there.
He heard as a man hears in a dream the worn old rafters creak,
And Solomon lifted his drinking-jack and spoke as a ghost might speak:

“There sat Sir Richard Grenville once; in smoke and flame he passed.
And we were one to fifty-three, but we gave them blast for blast.
From crimson dawn to crimson dawn, we held the Dons at bay.
The dead lay littered on our decks, our masts were shot away.

“We beat them back with broken blades, till crimson ran the tide;
Death thundered in the cannon smoke when Richard Grenville died.
We should have blown her hull apart and sunk beneath the Main.”
The people saw upon his wrist the scars of the racks of Spain.

“Where is Bess?” said Solomon Kane. “Woe that I caused her tears.”
“In the quiet churchyard by the sea she has slept these seven years.”
The sea-wind moaned at the window-pane, and Solomon bowed his head.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and the fairest fade,” he said.

His eyes were mystical deep pools that drowned unearthly things,
And Solomon lifted up his head and spoke of his wanderings.
“Mine eyes have looked on sorcery in dark and naked lands,
Horror born of the jungle gloom and death on the pathless sands.

"And I have known a deathless queen in a city old as Death,
Where towering pyramids of skulls her glory witnesseth.
Her kiss was like an adder’s fang, with the sweetness Lilith had,
And her red-eyed vassals howled for blood in that City of the Mad.

"And I have slain a vampire shape that drank a black king white,
And I have roamed through grisly hills where dead men walked at night.
And I have seen heads fall like fruit in a slaver’s barracoon,
And I have seen winged demons fly all naked in the moon.

"My feet are weary of wandering and age comes on apace;
I fain would dwell in Devon now, forever in my place.”
The howling of the ocean pack came whistling down the gale,
And Solomon Kane threw up his head like a hound that sniffs the trail.

A-down the wind like a running pack the hounds of the ocean bayed,
And Solomon Kane rose up again and girt his Spanish blade.
In his strange cold eyes a vagrant gleam grew wayward and blind and bright,
And Solomon put the people by and went into the night.

A wild moon rode the wild white clouds, the waves in white crests flowed,
When Solomon Kane went forth again, and no man knew his road.
They glimpsed him etched against the moon, where clouds on hilltop thinned;
They heard an eerie echoed call that whistled down the wind.

31 Days of Halloween: The Rattle of Bones

One year ago: The Comedy of Terrors
Happy birthday to John Lennon!

Author Robert E. Howard is best known for his creation of the heroic fantasy genre and its greatest hero, Conan the barbarian. However, he created dozens of characters in his short career, and one of the most beloved is Solomon Kane. Kane is a Puritan adventurer who traveled Europe and parts of Africa, rooting out evil and corruption, and meting out justice. He sees himself as doing god's will, eradicating the malevolent forces that inhabit the dark places of the world.

The volume The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane from Del Rey includes everything REH wrote of the character, including fragments and scraps of stories that he never finished. It's also got some great art from Gary Gianni. I've selected the short story The Rattle of Bones because it serves as an excellent entry point for new readers; it's short and concise, yet delivers a chilling adventure that presents a very accurate picture of what Solomon Kane stories are like.

The story begins as Kane arrives at a forbidding inn in the middle of a dark forest as night falls. Arriving with him is Gaston L'Armon, who he has met on the road. The malicious innkeeper lets them in, but only grudgingly agrees to let them stay the night. When shown to their room,  Kane remarks that he is sure he has seen his traveling companion somewhere before, but he can't place him just yet. The door and doorjamb have notches for a bar to secure the room, but there is no bar. They set out to explore a bit to find a bar or something similar to use; in the course of their exploration, they discover a dusty skeleton chained to the floor, its skull cleft by what must have been a very powerful blow. Things immediately get even more interesting...

REH's style of writing is energetic and fast-paced, and the man writes action scenes far better than anyone else whose work I've read. Although his work is from the 1920s and 1930s, his dynamic style of writing prevents his stories from feeling dated. A few of these Solomon Kane tales rank among his best work, and this volume is an excellent entry point to REH's body of work in general. As a neat bonus, the book also includes H.P. Lovecraft's tribute to the memory of his peer and friend. The Solomon Kane saga makes for very compelling reading, and it's suitable for your Halloween reading list, as well.