Books read in 2018: No. 39 -- Pictures in the Fire

by Robert E. Howard

edited by Paul Herman

Started: July 17
Finished: August 2

Notes: This summer I had the pleasure of attending Robert E. Howard Days in the small town of Cross Plains, Texas. The festival celebrates the author, Howard, and I managed to pick up plenty of reading material while there. I also managed to meet a bunch of new people and to finally come face to face with some folks I have only known through the Internet for yours. This books is meant to be a collection of rare Howard materials, works that have rarely or never appeared elsewhere. From the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, I believe only 200 of these were printed, at least in hardback, so this one should be worthy of Howard collectors.

Mini review: This was a great read for the most part. While towards the end there is some juvenalia and some silly material obviously not meant for publication, much of what is here are great stories and snippets (some quite long) of what would have been great stories. Hardcore Howard fans will find a lot here to enjoy, but be warned there's very little Sword & Sorcery, most of the tales being from Howard's historical or Africa-related materials. But that's fine with me as I find Howard a solid writer no matter the genre. This might be a tough-to-find book as I believe there were only a couple of hundred printed, but maybe that was just for an initial run and there will be more later, or you might find some used copies online. All in all, I'm glad I picked this up, and those seeking a look into Bob Howard's rarer materials should do themselves a service and search out this book.