‘The Bloodstained God’ – Robert E. Howard & L. Sprague De Camp

Page Count: 20 Pages

I didn’t realize this until the other but September isn’t just the month of my birthday… Nope. Presumably for alliterative purposes (but also to celebrate great stories), September is also the month where fans celebrate ‘Cimmerian September’ by either reading Howard’s original tales or the pastiche novels and comics that continue the tales of that most famous barbarian. Or both, you don’t have to read one or the other ;o) I thought I’d get involved this year so you can absolutely expect to see a little more Conan here before the month is out.

L.Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter helped keep Conan’s tales alive, either by completing some of Howard’s unfinished tales or by filling in gaps, in the timeline, with stories entirely their own. Again, I’m no scholar of Robert E. Howard but his name is next to the title so I’m assuming that ‘The Bloodstained God’ was taken on and completed by De Camp. I found this tale in an old copy of ‘Conan of Cimmeria’; I’m not sure where else you can find it, to be honest, but if you do come across it, it’s worth a look.

A dalliance with the mistress of a cavalry officer leads Conan to desert from the Turanian army and strike out on his own once more. Rumours of treasure send Conan into the Kezankian mountains where he will also find betrayal, death and a curse that stands between him and the treasure that he seeks…

Not a bad story to kick off my little corner of ‘Cimmerian September’ :o) There are no surprises here but I wasn’t really looking for any really, just something familiar enough to get into and have some fun with. And I did :o)

Any Sword and Sorcery tale that starts off in a city of thieves, and ends in a forgotten temple pretty has everything I need. And all the stuff in the middle worked very well too, with plenty of fighting and backstabbing to keep things ticking along at just the right pace. I wasn’t a hundred percent convinced by the finale though, I liked the ‘reveal’ (which really sheds a new light on the curse) but the execution felt a little rushed and slightly flat as a result.

Not a bad read to round off the evening though. I’m looking forward to doing a few more of these posts although I’m already thinking that I’ll need to throw a few original Conan tales into the mix. Lets see how it goes.