Sword & Sorcery Monday! 'The House of Arabu' (Robert E. Howard) and 'The Slaughter of the Gods' (Manly Wade Wellman)

It wasn't just the movies over the weekend, I actually managed to get some reading done too (yay me etc...) And of course a good chunk of it was Sword & Sorcery, of course it was ;o) You've all been around here long enough to know that I love Sword & Sorcery. It's the ideal way to disconnect from a shitty week and it's storytelling like the bards used to do when they kept the villagers going during the depths of winter, the ideal combination for me. Most importantly though, it's never anything less than fun.

With that in mind then, here we are with a couple of stories from the first 'Renegade Swords' collection. 'The House of Arabu' was always going to be read and I'd never read anything by Manly Wade Wellman so I thought I'd give 'The Slaughter of the Gods' a go as well... You can find both stories in the first 'Renegade Swords' collection from DMR Books.

'The House of Arabu' – Robert E. Howard

'The bare outline of the saga of Pyrrhas the Argive is weak and paltry; it cannot catch the echoes of the thundering pageantry that rioted through that saga: the feats, revels, wars, the crash and splintering of ships and the onset of chariots. Let it suffice to say that the honor of kings was given to the Argive, and that in all Mesopotamia there was no man so feared as this golden-haired barbarian whose war-skill and fury broke the hosts of Erech on the field and the yoke of Erech from the neck of Nippur.'

I wonder if this was a slightly apologetic Robert E. Howard telling his readers that 'The House of Arabu' was going to be the only time that they saw Pyrrhas make an appearance? Either way, what an appearance! A really problematic way of dealing with recalcitrant slave women to one side (Howard focussed on that beating perhaps a little too much, or was it me?), Pyrrhas is a lot of fun to spend a half hour read with, swinging his sword across the page in just the manner of Howard's more established creations.

If there's a criticism to be levelled at this piece though, that's where it lies. Howard had already written stories about a barbarian who fears the darkness and civilisation but will take a sword to both if he has to; there's plenty of this in Pyrrhas but not a lot to have him stand out as a character in his own right. Maybe that's why Howard only wrote the one story...?

It's a small criticism though when weighed against the rest of the story which is basically Howard doing what Howard always did best. A mixture of courtly intrigue and denizens of the dark, all split in twain by a barbarian holding a big sword. And Pyrrhas' way of honoring bargains with evil men has to be seen to be believed, I loved it.

Howard clearly sees something pure in barbarism and by the end of this story, I could too.

'The Slaughter of the Gods' - Manly Wade Wellman

Like I said up the page, I'd never read anything by Manly Wade Wellman so was keen to get going now I had the chance. 'The Slaughter of the Gods' is only twelve pages long but moves so fast that it felt like half of that. You don't get much of a chance to get to know Kardios (last survivor of Atlantis) but you do get to see him bounce all over the place with a ready quip and a fair amount of swordplay. There is also a little commentary on the nature of gods, and man's reliance on these, but really, it's all about watching Kardios face down each threat with a grin and pure belief in his own skills. And isn't that part of what Sword & Sorcery is all about? It is a little bit.

Manly Wade Wellman doesn't hang around for too long with 'The Slaughter of the Gods' but he doesn't need to, the timing is spot on and to hang around for any longer would be wasteful. I'll have to seek out more of his books. And am I the only person who saw Kardios as being played by Douglas Fairbanks...?