I have been adding many new books to my collection recently. My interest in reading has shifted to older books and authors. So I thought instead of just a simple book haul post I would do more of a spotlight/introduction post as well. So in the post below you will not only find the usual book haul photo’s, but book and author info as well. I hope you will take the time to look it over and maybe take a chance at checking out books and authors that you may have forgot about or discover in these post!
I found this copy at my local used book store!
More REH to add to my collection!
Today we have:
The Lost Valley of Iskander (Ace 1986)
by Robert E. Howard
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Info from Howard Works.
A great resource!
“The Lost Valley of Iskander” is an El Borak short story by Robert E. Howard. It was not published within Howard’s lifetime, the first publication was in the FAX Collector’s Editions hardback The Lost Valley of Iskander in 1974. Its original title was “Swords of the Hills“.
This was one of two Berkley collections of Robert E. Howard’s El Borak stories, and the first time the story “The Lost Valley of Iskander” appeared in print. Five of his El Borak stories were sold during his lifetime, although two only came out after his death. According to the introduction to this collection, among Howard’s papers was found another El Borak story, plus an unfinished one—the completed one, “Swords of the Hills”, appearing in this volume as “The Lost Valley of Iskander.”Three-Bladed Doom”, except L. Sprague de Camp gives a complete history for that story in an essay found in The Sword of Conan. He indicates that “Three-Bladed Doom” was a complete, but unpublished manuscript.”The Lost Valley of Iskander” has El Borak racing to deliver papers detailing plans to “send howling hordes of fanatics across the Indian border”, while pursued by Gustav Hunyadi, the author of those plans. El Borak happens upon a lost city, left over from the invasion of Alexander the Great, and gets on the wrong side of the city’s king, Ptolemy.
In this story, El Borak discovers a legendary valley in which live Greek descendants of Alexander the Great invading army. Meanwhile, the vital package he carries must be carried to British India before the Hungarian, Hunyadi, can stop him or thousands will die. “The Daughter of Erlik Khan” has El Borak (aka Francis Xavier Gordon) fighting to rescue Yasmeena, one time rich brat, now pretend “goddess” to the people of the all-but-forbidden city of Yolgan. A former Rajah husband has offered a reward to any man who will bring her home so she can be beaten to death with a slipper (!), and two evil Englishmen, Ormond and Pembroke, have decided to take him up on it. One weakness with the El Borak stories is a dearth of women, so this story ranks a little higher in my estimation than some. Yasmeena herself is another one of those interesting strong-but-vulnerable female characters which REH did so well. For a woman with a death-sentence hanging over her head, she shows remarkable pluck. Then too, any woman who, bored with life, would chuck everything and run off to become a goddess.
Info from Wikipedia
Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre.
Howard was born and raised in Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains with some time spent in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding, eventually taking up amateur boxing. From the age of nine he dreamed of becoming a writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was 23. Thereafter, until his death at age 30, Howard’s writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he had become successful in several genres. Although a Conan novel was nearly published in 1934, his stories never appeared in book form during his lifetime. The main outlet for his stories was the pulp magazine Weird Tales.
In the pages of the Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales, Howard created Conan the Barbarian. With Conan and his other heroes, Howard created the genre now known as sword and sorcery, spawning many imitators and giving him a large influence in the fantasy field. Howard remains a highly read author, with his best works still reprinted.
Info from Wikipedia
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