Short stories with a horror element. I'm not a huge Conan fan, and Howard sometimes veers into the melodramatic, but I enjoyed all these stories. It was nice to see Howard's work outside of Conan (although there is a Conan story here). I wish I'd been alive during the era of the pulps. So much imagination . ( )

5.0 out of 5 stars Tales of Horror & Suspense by the Master Writer, December 4, 2009

I will on occasion pick up an old sci-fi or horror anthology and stuff it in my pocket for safekeeping. Such a book is "The Mythos and Kindred Horrors", a collection of stories originally appearing in Weird Tales back in 1930s America, when pulp was king and Robert E. Howard was tops.

Howard, author and creator of the Conan series, also delved into Lovecraft territory. Lovecraft was a contemporary of Howard and they would often correspond. Unfortunately Howard committed suicide at a young age, so we will be forever rereading his wonderful horror stories.

Here's the contents!

Contents
* Introduction by David Drake
* Arkham (poem)
* The Black Stone
* The Fire of Asshurbanipal
* The Thing on the Roof
* Dig Me No Grave
* Silence Falls on Mecca's Walls (poem)
* The Valley of the Worm
* The Shadow of the Beast
* Old Garfield's Heart
* People of the Dark
* Worms of the Earth
* Pigeons From Hell
* An Open Window (poem)

The Old Ones and ancient Gods, such as Cthulhu and others will seem familiar to Lovecraft fans. The stories were pretty scary in their time and still grab you by the heart and freeze it! What lurks in the abandoned mansion in "The Shadow of the Beast?" Why does Old Jim still live and looks like he hasn't aged a day in the last 100 years in the horror western, "Old Garfield's Heart"?

The "Pigeons from Hell" is not a tale of white-spotted bronze statues!

The "Black Stone" harkens to the horrors of ancient gods and the spirits that still worship them and still appear on Midsummer's Night during the full moon. The "Necromicon" appears throughout several of the tales, a book that just by reading it you go screaming insane!

Recommended! ( )

5.0 out of 5 stars Tales of Horror & Suspense by the Master Writer, December 4, 2009

I will on occasion pick up an old sci-fi or horror anthology and stuff it in my pocket for safekeeping. Such a book is "The Mythos and Kindred Horrors", a collection of stories originally appearing in Weird Tales back in 1930s America, when pulp was king and Robert E. Howard was tops.

Howard, author and creator of the Conan series, also delved into Lovecraft territory. Lovecraft was a contemporary of Howard and they would often correspond. Unfortunately Howard committed suicide at a young age, so we will be forever rereading his wonderful horror stories.

Here's the contents!

Contents
* Introduction by David Drake
* Arkham (poem)
* The Black Stone
* The Fire of Asshurbanipal
* The Thing on the Roof
* Dig Me No Grave
* Silence Falls on Mecca's Walls (poem)
* The Valley of the Worm
* The Shadow of the Beast
* Old Garfield's Heart
* People of the Dark
* Worms of the Earth
* Pigeons From Hell
* An Open Window (poem)

The Old Ones and ancient Gods, such as Cthulhu and others will seem familiar to Lovecraft fans. The stories were pretty scary in their time and still grab you by the heart and freeze it! What lurks in the abandoned mansion in "The Shadow of the Beast?" Why does Old Jim still live and looks like he hasn't aged a day in the last 100 years in the horror western, "Old Garfield's Heart"?

The "Pigeons from Hell" is not a tale of white-spotted bronze statues!

The "Black Stone" harkens to the horrors of ancient gods and the spirits that still worship them and still appear on Midsummer's Night during the full moon. The "Necromicon" appears throughout several of the tales, a book that just by reading it you go screaming insane!

Recommended! ( )

I've been a fan of Robert E. Howard ever since reading his Conan stories when I was a teenager.

This is a collection of some of his horror/weird fiction (this being R.E.H., several of the stories still had a strong adventure element, particularly The Fire of Asshurbanipal). It was nice to see Howard writing (and writing well) outside of the usual sword and sorcery he's most famous for.

These stories aren't everyone's cuppa, but I liked most of them. In a couple of stories (though not all of them as the book seems to imply) Howard played in Lovecraft's Cthulhu sandbox. While his tone was very different (his characters tended to have a little more fortitude than an average H.P. protagonist), his writing was much stronger. And the unlikely named Pigeons From Hell is a minor horror classic (and a lyric in a Pretenders song!). ( )