This is the second collection of stories using Robert E. Howard’s characters by Stephen Gaspar. I enjoyed his first collection, 3 Blades Against Darkness, and I enjoyed this one as well.
A large number of Robert E. Howard fans like to erect barriers preventing their enjoyment of things. They hate pastiche, they hate AI art, they hate unauthorized books… they hate a lot of things. I’m not going to spend anytime addressing those hates. This is a book review for people who prefer to enjoy things.
Stephen Gaspar writes clear unadorned prose. That is his strength. He strives to tell a good story. Unfortunately he tries to get a little fancy and inserts epigraphs at the beginning of every chapter. Ignore them.
Stone of Doom. This story starts by having Conan racing ahead of a pack of angry pursuers. Arrows are fired and Conan is hit. He rides harder into the sandstorm and escapes. Conan passes out and is rescued by Augur, a man on a quest to eradicate evil. The dialogue between Conan and Augur is quite good. Most authors are afraid to have Conan talk too much. Conan agrees to join Augur in his search for fragments of “The Black Stone” thinking there might be profit in the adventure. After a decent action scene, in which Conan kills three men, he learns there isn’t going to be any profit and abandons Augur. Conan later learns that Augur has been killed and the fragment of rock they found has been stolen. The story becomes more of a typical Conan tale at this point. Conan decides to find out who was responsible for Augur’s death and encounters bad men and a bad woman. This story beats 90% of the Heroic Legends e-books for pure entertainment.
Nil Desperandum. This a Bran vs. Rome tale. The story starts with a good description of Bran’s latest nemesis, Caius Dracus, and segues into a battle between Romans and Picts. Bran and Dracus end up in a wrestling contest that lasts a while and separates them from their men, They end up getting captured by another band of Picts hostile to Bran. The author has Dracus and Bran talking to each other (and their captor.) I remembered that Bran spoke Latin. It isn’t mentioned if Dracus speaks Pict. When Bran has to ask Dracus what “Nil Desperandum” means and Dracus responds “Never despair,” I was taken out of the story wondering who was speaking Latin and who was speaking Pict? The story continues on with Norseman attacking the hostile Picts and taking Dracus and Bran as prisoners. Dracus and Bran apparently understand Norse. They escape on a small boat and see the Loch Ness monster. Bran and Dracus part on possibly grudgingly friendly terms. But then Dracus is immediately captured by the remnants of the hostile Picts. What will Bran do regarding his Roman foe? This was a good story despite the language confusion.
Demon of Darkness. This story takes a few too many paragraphs to get started. There is a short history lesson regarding the town of Kirkland in the center part of Northern England and mood setting regarding Solomon Kane and Travis March, a cheating barkeep. All this to introduce another haunted moor story. Kane goes to investigate Blaec Moor and meets a father and his daughter who tell him about the scary place that they live in. Kane asks to spend the night. They sneak out after Kane goes to bed and Kane follows them to a field of stones. All the villagers are there and chanting hooky spooky words. An evil but handsome fellow named Dinger-Kek materializes. Dinger tells the crowd to keep repeating this ritual every night and eventually Dinger will reach full power. Kane travels back to the house and confronts the returning couple. Dinger-Kek is a dark god, blah, blah, blah. Kane decides to confront Dinger and knows God’s righteousness will prevail. They fight until the sun rises. Dinger is defeated. Ho-hum.
The Steward of Time. This story starts with Ka-nu telling King Kull about “The Black Stone.” It is a bad stone, causing madness in people, a gateway to hell, pure evil. The gods cast lightening and broke the stone but it can be reassembled. (All this ties back to the first story “Stone of Doom.”) Then others tell Kull more scary stories. Kull is intrigued and wants to visit a scary place. The next day, Kull, his soldiers, and Brule the Spear Slayer travel to a known mysterious location, an empty field giving off weird emanations. Kull starts hallucinating, passes out, and wakes up in a curved color changing environment and meets “the steward of time.” What follows are lots of paragraphs about the nature of time. Kull eventually snaps out of it and everybody wants to leave this uncomfortable place. Kull sees it is late now and asks, “my, where does the time go?” Not as clever as I would have liked but it brought a smile.
The Ice Castle. This story starts with Conan in the freezing cold. He spots a castle made of blocks of ice and escapes the blistering winds. He meets the beautiful woman who lives in the Ice Castle. She tells her story of being cursed by an evil wizard. Conan stays with her for a while and believes he has fallen in love. She recites poetry to him and it all seems chastely happy. Months pass and Conan is ready to leave. Trouble. The story ends rather predictably.
Dark Covenant. A Christian church was founded long ago in a remote part of Africa. Time has passed and the church has been reestablished by a near madman named Biruk. A beautiful woman named Zeria decides to use Biruk and his church and its now corrupted teachings to her benefit. Enter Solomon Kane. Zeria has followers now and a local tribe has resisted her warriors. Kane is perplexed by the Christian imagery being used to scare the local tribe. Kane investigates and is captured. Biruk and Kane have some dialogue about King Solomon and Bible verses. Zeria meets Kane and we get “The Moon of Skulls” vibes with Zeria coming on to Kane the same way Nakari did in that story. The story gets a little convoluted but remains interesting. Kane receives a vial of the Apostle Matthew’s blood from a spirit of the Church’s founder. The Lord’s help is needed to triumph over Zeria. I think Mr. Gaspar has captured a slight Howardian feel in this story.
The Dark Man’s Revenge. Gonar is worried about Bran Mak Morn’s future. Bran is preparing for a big battle with the Romans. Bran is worried and wishes he had had a normal life. A man named Nothus (Latin for bastard) shows up. He is the offspring of Bran and Atla (from “Worms of the Earth”). Gonar tells Bran he is working on a statue to encase Bran’s spirit when he passes (see “The Dark Man”). Bran makes a deal with the leader of a rival Pict tribe saying he will abdicate his throne if he joins the fight against Rome. And if there wasn’t enough happening already, Brule the Spear Slayer time travels to visit. The big battle starts and the rival Pict tribe deserts leaving Bran’s army outnumbered. Bran dies in the battle. Gonar does his magic and “The Dark Man” statue is created. The story doesn’t end here. The author adds an ending that mixes Howard’s Picts with the real life Onuist. The timeline really doesn’t work historically. Onuist was king of Pictland (Scotland) from 732 to 761 but I suppose the Onuist in this story could be a forefather of the later Onuist.
The Well. Conan is working for Captain Oscuro and has taken over Captain Bosmer’s ship, the Baltar. Bosmer is only concerned about a woman named Narissa. He offers Conan a bargain for treasure in return for the woman’s safety. Before Conan can make a deal, Captain Oscuro appears, Bosmer attacks and is killed by Conan. Oscuro tells Conan to take the woman to his ship. Conan advises Oscuro that the Baltar now belongs to him per their agreement and that he is keeping the girl. Oscuro, now Conan’s enemy, leaves for his own vessel. Narissa shows Conan a pink diamond and tells of a treasure. What follows is a halfway decent adventure with giant sea creatures, humorous pirate banter, rock monsters, and the bride of Quetzalcoatl.
4(Four) Blades of Ruin is available in a graphic edition, a non-graphic edition, and on Kindle. Find them on Amazon!
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