“The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 2: Grim Lands”, by Robert E. Howard, illustrated by Jim & Ruth Keegan

510 pages, Del Rey, ISBN-13: 978-0345490193

In the early oughts, Del Rey began producing the complete works of Robert E. Howard; The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 2: Grim Lands, illustrated by Jim & Ruth Keegan, was the eighth volume to be published. Once you crack the spine on this particular edition, you will stories such as: Black Vulmea’s Vengeance, The Bull Dog Breed, By This Axe I Rule!, Gents on the Lynch, Lord of Samarcand, The Man on the Ground, The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, Old Garfield’s Heart, Pigeons From Hell, Red Nails, The Shadow of the Vulture, Son of the White Wolf, The Tower of the Elephant, Vultures of Wahpeton, Wild Water and Wings in the Night, along with the poems A Song of the Naked Lands, Black Harps in the Hills, Cimmeria, Echoes From an Anvil, Flint’s Passing, The Grim Land, The King and the Oak, Musings, Never Beyond the Beast, Solomon Kane’s Homecoming, Timur-lang and Which Will Scarcely Be Understood.

This book, along with the first volume (The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volume 1: Crimson Shadows, reviewed on April 22^nd, 2023) provides an excellent look into the lesser-known works of a truly American author. This edition to the Del Rey collection of Howard’s work covers his stories from Conan, to his westerns, to horror and many other genres, to boot (while I understand the publisher’s decision to start with Howard’s better-known works, one would almost be better off starting with this volume and Crimson Shadows, seeing as they cover his many literary oeuvres). I only started reading REH when these Del Rey collections began coming out in 2003; before then, I had only been familiar with the Conan the Barbarian movie starring the Austrian behemoth – oh, and as it turns out, with Kull the Conqueror, from the comics that were published by Marvel in the 70s, although I don’t think I knew then that the creator of Conan and Kull were one and the same.

However – there’s often an however, isn’t there? – all is not well. I have to say that it is Howard’s Sword’n’Sorcery works that really do it for me, while his other tales – the Westerns, the Crime Stories, the Violence for the sake of Violence Stories – are okay; oh, I don’t hate them or think they are subpar, they just don’t grab me the way in which Conan or Kull or even Solomon Kane does…er, you know what I mean. Perv. Maybe that’s why I feel like the tales offered here feel rather like warmed-over leftovers, never mind all of the praise that artists Jim & Ruth Keegan lavish on these tales (or their humble-bragging over how difficult it sometimes was to bring these tales to life). Perhaps the fact that some Conan et al. tales were added to this volume, rather than to the books dedicated to their characters, says something – like, that Del Rey and the Keegans knew they had to bulk up this volume of B-Listers with a star attraction or two.

Ah, bugger all. If you’ve made it this far in the Del Rey Howardpalooza then maybe you’ll just gloss over these needling details. I mean, they can’t all be pearls, right? Right? I for one am constitutionally incapable of leaving a collection unfulfilled, so even if this edition of Howard’s work was full of his juvenilia, or pencil doodles, or speeches endorsing FDR or something (perish the thought) I would have still bought it, and maybe even have enjoyed it. Who knows, maybe you’ll think these tales are as good as REH’s other works, that maybe he missed his calling as a western writer, or that maybe he should have stuck to the boxing tales. Whatever. While I can’t say that all of the stories in Grim Lands are good, I’d still prefer them to so much of the crap being churned out by publishers today with their woke nonsense and whatnot. Just think: Howard’s worse is better than most modern writer’s best. Scary stuff.