The Complete Chronicles of Conan

Robert E. Howard. Orion Publishing. (944p) ISBN: 9780575077669
The Complete Chronicles of Conan

The Complete Chronicles of Conan

Decided to stop reading this early as it was really not for me any longer, enjoyed it in the past but it is so boring now.

Always a big Conan fan though even at an early age I could see the racist stereotypes that he used throughout his works, and though he always liked buxom women there were quite a few strong female characters that didn’t always need rescuing, but these stories are still incredibly dated.

and this is a bit of a worry, I’ve not read any Conan for about 25 years and could see myself possibly hating them now, but going to give them a try as I know I’m still capable of reading Lovecraft, but I never put down Lovecraft for a period of time so not sure what I’ll get out of Howard.

Conan the Cimmerian: the boy-thief who became a mercenary, who fought and loved his way across fabled lands to become King of Aquilonia. Neither supernatural fiends nore demonic sorcery could oppose the barbarian warrior as he wielded his mighty sword and dispatched his enemies to a bloody doom on the battlefields of the legendary Hyborian age.

Collected together in one volume for the very first time, in chronological order, are Robert E. Howard’s tales of the legendary hero, as fresh and atmospheric today as when they were first published in the pulp magazines of more than seventy years ago.

Compiled by and with a foreward and afterword by award-winning writer and editor Stephen Jones.

The Hyborean Age

All my worries aside I’d completely forgotten how turgid and long-winded a lot of Robert E. Howard’s writing could be. This is a short fictional history that places the world and peoples of the Conan cycle within our world, all pre-cataclysmic and it is here we get a flavour of his racist views as the language he uses is very much weighted about savages and barbarians.
Taking all this into account though we get a glimpse of his imagination and world building and it feels very thorough.

Cimmeria (verse)

About as pompous as fantasy verse can get, not for me.

The Phoenix on the Sword

Was a bit thrown by this being near the end of the Conan storyline and that the stories aren’t necessarily going to be in chronological order, but this was still a solid story of Conan against enemies and beasts from the pits of darkness. The thing about being out of order is that there is no character growth/depth as we are meant to already have all that knowledge, but I suppose there has never been any real depth to the character anyway. We meet Thoth-Amon once more but massively changed, the whole story felt a bit thin and rushed though.

The Scarlet Citadel

The Tower of the Elephant

Black Colossus

The Slithering Shadow

The Pool of the Black One

Rogues in the House

Shadows in the Moonlight

Queen of the Black Coast

The Devil in Iron

The People in the Black Circle

A Witch Shall Be Born

Jewels of Gwahlur

Beyond the Black River

Shadows in Zamboula

Red Nails

The Hour of the Dragon (verse)

The Hour of the Dragon

The God in the Bowl

The Black Stranger

The Frost-Giant’s Daughter

Drums of Tombalku (draft)

The Vale of Lost Women

Wolves Beyond the Border (draft)

The Snout in the Dark (draft)

The Hall of the Dead (synopsis)

The Hand of Nergal (fragment)

Notes on Various People of the Hyborian Age


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Around the World in 80 Birds

Mike Unwin, Ryuto Miyake. Orion Publishing. (224p) ISBN: 9780857828958
Around the World in 80 Birds

Around the World in 80 Birds

I’d already loved ‘Around the World in 80 Trees’ in this loose series from Laurence King Publishing and was really looking forward to this one, so much I popped into work on my holiday to pick it up as soon as I found out it was there.

I was immediately enthralled by the beautifully shining illustrations from Ryuto Mikaye, turning each bird into a masterpiece of flow and movement on the page.

The book follows the formula of the previous two ‘Around the World in 80…’ books and explores a small selection of birds from around the world in the context of their importance, interaction with humans, rarity, or some other factor chosen by the author. Hopefully some just because of how beautiful they are!

A couple of the birds I enjoyed reading about the most are both extremely strange little beasts. The Resplendent Quatzal is such a beautifully colourful bird linked with a lot of South American mythology and I’ve always been fascinated by it. The other is the Crested Caracara which we were told is really intelligent and curious, but has become a pest in certain areas of Central America, raiding houses by going down chimneys and opening doors and windows.

Small chapters make this series a perfect bedside book, dipping into at night for a relaxing read, though it never really works like that as I again devoured this whole book in one sitting.

Always look forward to this series and waiting for the next one.


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Wild City: Encounters with Urban Wildlife

Florence Wilkinson. Orion Publishing. (336p) ISBN: 9781398701854
Wild City: Encounters with Urban Wildlife

Wild City: Encounters with Urban Wildlife

I received this book at work unexpectedly, addressed to me, which was fine as it felt as though Orion knew me and my love of nature, especially of the ways that humans intersect with nature.

This bumped it’s way right to the top of the TBR pile and I started reading it right after the book I was reading was finished (well abandoned a third of. the way through, it wasn’t all that) and I tore through it in a couple of days.

In this book Florence Wilkinson explores some basic habitats and explains what animals we can ind in those habitats, from foxes in the streets of our towns and cities to line-specific mosquito in the London Underground.

Each section looks at the different wildlife that inhabits those biomes and explains how this is being helped or hindered by human proximity and what we can do to help animals in these areas of our towns.

Florence brings to life with great enthusiasm not only these animals but the people she meets along the way who are involved in some way with these urban enclaves, recording, protecting, maintaining, educating, all the people she talks to come across as highly dedicated and single-minded in their pursuit of promoting and protecting their chosen species.

A wonderful paean to urban wildlife and how it enriches our lives, beautifully written and observed.


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