'The Garden of Fear' - Robert E. Howard


After another intense week, I decided to give myself the day off... So of course I ended up going book shopping ;o) More on that tomorrow. For now though, I thought I'd allow myself another recycled post from way back when (Sunday, 21st July 2013 to be precise) and yep, it's another Robert E. Howard short story. I'm bringing them back here so they don't get lost on a old, dead blog... ;o)

Apparently, I found 'The Garden of Fear' in a copy of 'Conan's Brethren', I've got no idea if I still have it... I'm going to have to have a look for it. While I do that...


It really shouldn't do but it still always surprises me just how much Robert E. Howard wrote in his relatively short life. Everyone here should know by now that Howard was about far more than Conan, Solomon Kane and even Kull. I just didn't realise that there were a whole load of short stories completely unconnected to any of his main characters; at least until I was looking at the contents of 'Conan's Brethren' and got a little introduction. What made me choose 'The Garden of Fear' for todays short story post? No idea other than that the title suggested 'Sword & Sorcery' (which is a real staple of my reading diet right now) and sounded really cool all at the same time. It was also only ten pages long and that pretty much sold the deal for me. It almost felt like an afterthought but 'The Garden of Fear' was an exciting read as well...

James Allison can remember every life he has ever lived, right back into the dawn of pre-history and beyond... 'The Garden of Fear' recalls James' life as Hunwolf, a warrior of the Aesir, and his fight to recover his love from a demonic birdman and his garden of carnivorous plants...

I’m only a little way into what I suspect is an extensive back catalogue but I have yet to find a short story etc by Howard that isn’t well written and entertaining. ‘The Garden of Fear’ maintains this standard nicely although there is a little waffle here and there, not ideal for a story that is only ten pages long… Having said that, I guess this would depend on how interested you were in the migratory patterns of the Aesir tribes. I wasn’t particularly interested (reminded me of the more tedious parts of his essay about Conan’s world, didn’t get on with that particularly well either).

There’s enough of a hook to get you past these opening passages (i.e. the mystery of James Allison, was this where Michael Moorcock got his idea of the Eternal Champion?) and it gets a lot better after that. While I liked the concept of James Allison, I did question Howard’s use of his modern day knowledge to explain things that Hunwolf could not fathom. This took away some of the mystery for me although Howard more than makes up for this right at the end with questions left unanswered.

Overall though, ‘The Garden of Fear’ offers high adventure and chills in equal measure with a typical ‘Howardesque’ hero fearlessly going up against a monster beyond his comprehension. The carnivorous plants are really creepy and I had to admire Hunwolf’s nerve and ingenuity in getting rid of them as well as the ‘barbarian instinct’ that allows him and Gudrun to dispatch the winged man. All of this is set against a wide open landscape that reeks of pre-history and this helps the reader see just how old the winged man really is. It’s an atmosphere that weighs heavily on the reader and all credit to Howard for creating this atmosphere in such a short space of time.

Not a perfect read then but the good outweighs the bad to such an extent that it almost is. You can’t ask for much more than that can you?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘Deathworlder’ – Victoria Hayward (Black Library)

Image
Before I get into the review proper, thank you Black Library for sending me a copy of ‘Deathworlder’ in return for a fair and honest review. Talking of ‘fair and honest’… There will be loads of the latter but I enjoyed the hell out of ‘Deathworlder’ so… We’ll see how being fair goes ;o) That’s your only warning, lets talk ‘Deathworlder’… Lazulai is a world beyond the brink, its battle against the tyranids all but lost. Once-magnificent cities lie in ruin. The seas boil. The skies crack. Horrific alien bioforms devour. In mere days the planet will be consumed. The 903rd Catachan ‘Night Shrikes’ defend one of the last fortresses still standing. Led by Major Wulf Khan, to die fighting is all that is expected of them… until she is given one last mission: to lead a squad through the apocalypse and recover a piece of archeotech that may doom or deliver the entire Lazulai System. Facing insurmountable odds and zero hope for aid, the major must hold her squad together as they pick their way ...
Read more

‘Cursed City’ – C.L. Werner (Black Library)

Image
I always have these vague ‘reading resolutions’, for the New Year and without fail, they all come to absolutely nothing. I still read loads, just none of the books that I meant to… This year is panning out slightly differently and I think I’m going to enjoy it. All the books that were originally ‘out of sight, out of mind’, in the loft at my old place, are now all over my new place and wherever I look, I’m constantly discovering books that I totally forgot I had but now quite fancy reading. Books like ‘Cursed City’ for example… I’m not going to tell you how long ‘Cursed City’ was sat in my loft, lets just say it was long enough for me to totally forget it was there and buy myself another copy… Oh well. I found it on the shelf the other day (only the one copy now) and figured it was way overdue a read, let me tell you about it… Ulfenkarn is a city of nightmares. Its vampiric rulers have indulged their bloodlust in every shadow-clad alley, turning the once-proud metropolis into a charnel...
Read more

‘Day of Ascension’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Black Library)

Image
Page Count – 196 Pages There isn’t a lot that’s good about moving house (especially when it slowly dawns on you just how much the new place is going to cost to run, I need to get another job…) but there are some good bits if you look for them. For me, it was mostly around getting all my books unpacked and back on shelves around me again, not stuffed up in the loft where I couldn’t see them. Old favourites were back within easy reach, along with a whole load of new books that I really should have read ages ago. You can probably guess what my main New Year’s resolution will be… ;o) ‘Day of Ascension’ was one of those new books and I figured it was as good a place as any to start over in making a dent in the ol’ TBR Pile. And I’m really glad I did. On the forge world of Morod, the machines never stop and the work never ends. The population toils in the mines and factoria to protect humanity from the monsters in the void, while the Adeptus Mechanicus enjoy lives of palatial comfort. Gene...
Read more