FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #645: The CTHULHU STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD

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Robert E. Howard is best known for his Conan tales, but he also wrote a number of stories to add to the Cthulhu Mythos. This volume collects Howard’s Cthulhu stories and shows the influence of H. P. Lovecraft on his writing. Paul Di Filippo’s informative Foreword puts the stories into the context of publishing at that time.

Howard’s stories are organized by chronology and the collects they first appeared in. If you’re a Robert E. Howard fan, you’ll love The Cthulhu Stories. Causal fans will enjoy these tales, too. Are you a Robert E. Howard fan? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

FORWARD by Paul Di Filippo — vii

THE SHADOW KINGDOM

  1. The King Comes Riding — 3
  2. Thus Spake the Silent Halls of Valusia –9
  3. They That Walk at Night — 16
  4. Masks — 30

SKULL FACE

  1. The Face in the Mist — 41
  2. The Hashish Slave — 43
  3. The Master of Doom — 47
  4. The Spider and the Fly — 51
  5. The Man on the Couch — 57
  6. The Dream Girl — 61
  7. The Man of the Skull — 64
  8. Black Wisdom — 68
  9. Kathulos of Egypt — 71
  10. The Dark House — 78
  11. Four Thirty-four — 86
  12. The Stroke of Five — 89
  13. The Blind Beggar Who Rode — 94
  14. The Black Empire — 96
  15. The Mark of Tulwar — 106
  16. The Mummy Who Laughed — 111
  17. The Dead Man From the Sea — 116
  18. The Grip of the Scorpion — 124
  19. Dark Fury — 133
  20. Ancient Horror — 140
  21. The Breaking of the Chains — 150
  22. The Children of the Night — 157

THE GODS OF BAL-SAGOTH

  1. The Steel in the Storms — 177
  2. The Gods From the Abyss — 183
  3. The Fall of the Gods — 204
  4. Empire — 220

The Black Stone — 222

People of the Dark — 242

WORMS OF THE EARTH

  1. Chapter One — 267
  2. Chapter Two — 272
  3. Chapter Three — 281
  4. Chapter Four — 287
  5. Chapter Five — 292
  6. Chapter Six — 298

The Thing on the Roof — 306

The Haunter of the Ring — 317

THE CHALLENGE FROM BEYOND

  1. [C. L. Moore] — 337
  2. [A. Merritt] — 340
  3. [H. P. Lovecraft] — 343
  4. [Robert E. Howard & Frank Belknap Long] — 351
  5. [Frank Belknap Long] — 355

The Fire of Asshurbanipal — 358

Dig Me No Grave — 385

About the Author — 401

If You Liked… — 405

Other WordFire Press Titles — 407

20 thoughts on “FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #645: The CTHULHU STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD”

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    Loved Conan when I was a teenager but lost interest as the years have gone by. I just don’t find him a very good writer.

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  2. Patti Abbott

    Another author I have missed. Coincicentally, a mysterious postcard arrived in the mail this week with a Robert E. Howard postmark. It was signed Scott. I know three Scotts from Texas and when I posted about it on Facebook, it turned out to be Scott Cupp. He sent it because Robert E. Howard Days has a special one day only cancellation of June 11. A nice mystery and token.

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    1. george Post author

      Patti, I received a stamped envelop from Scott Cupp, too! I think it’s great that Texas celebrates a Robert E. Howard Day! That Robert E. Howard stamp motivated me to read and review THE CTHULHU STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD for today’s FFB.

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      3. Todd Mason

        Well, there’s Greg Abbott and George Bush and Rick Perry’s Texas, and then there’s Joe Lansdale’s and Kinky Friedman’s and Molly Ivins’s, among other better folks’…and Scott Cupp’s, and certainly not solely because of his annual gift!

  3. Jeff Meyerson

    Can’t say that I am a fan, particularly, but I haven’t read that much of Howard. I did read some of his Cthulhu stories in my early Lovecraft phase (early ’70s), so might check this out. I was never a fan of Conan.

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    1. george Post author

      Jeff, I’m fond of some of these Cthulhu stories that Howard had fun with. Of course, I’m a sucker for anything Cthulhu!

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  4. Michael Padgett

    I read a good bit of Howard back when lots of hacks were cranking out faux Howard stuff, although I stuck to the real thing. I enjoyed some of it, maybe including some of these stories, but doubt that I could read them now.

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    1. george Post author

      Michael, rumor abound that more faux-Conan books are in the works. TOR published a bunch of them (which I have…but haven’t read).

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    1. george Post author

      Rick, everything Robert E. Howard wrote is of interest to me. Howard has some flaws, but he also had a lot of raw talent.

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  6. Neeru

    I have read Howard’s Steve Harrison: Detective of the Occult which comprised of three stories. They were a little too grisly for my taste so have never gone back to him.

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    1. george Post author

      Neeru, many of Howard’s tales don’t involve grisly aspects. If you’re interested in more Robert E. Howard stories, let me know and I’ll be happy to send you a Howard collection.

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  7. Todd Mason

    I have preferred Karl Edward Wagner’s Conan stories to Howard’s own, but haven’t read Too many of the latter over the years (and like Wagner’s Kane stories even better…but of the two “fathers” of sword and sorcery fiction as overlapping yet somewhat distinct from epic fantasy, I prefer Fritz Leiber’s work and those more in his camp…Wagner, Jack Vance, Tanith Lee, Joanna Russ, Michael Moorcock, Janet Fox, Michael Shea, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Phyllis Eisenstein, Avram Davidson and Ursula Le Guin to an extent, and foremother C. L. Moore, among others (Phyllis Ann Carr, Craig Shaw Gardner…and…).

    The early experience of reading some of Howard’s “spicy” pulp fiction (which he apparently held in contempt, and well he might) and being disappointed by his ’70s paperback horror collection WOLFSHEAD helped me not pursue his fiction too readily, as well.

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    1. george Post author

      Todd, I’m going to have to re-read thos Karl Edward Wagner Conan pastiches. Robert E. Howard’s work is uneven…probably because of his prolific output.

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