The Phoenix on the Sword by Robert E. Howard

The Phoenix on the Sword
by Robert E. Howard

This is just a short story of about 20 pages or so featuring Conan the Barbarian, written by the creator of the character, Robert E. Howard. Often seen as a traveler, Conan has a bit of a different position in this story as king of a land he had conquered. There are some people plotting to murder him and in sort of a dream-like reality he is forewarned of this assassination attempt and acquires a phoenix marking on his sword which enables it to slay demons. I found it very entertaining and full of action while vividly creating the Conan world I’m used to seeing in his and Red Sonja’s comics. If you enjoy sword and sorcery stories, the Conan movies or comics, or Red Sonja, this deserves a try. I enjoyed it quite a bit and if I had more reading time would most likely read more of the Howard stories featuring Conan; I’ve been told by someone whose read them all, that the order in which you read them does not matter as they told in a non-consecutive manner anyway.

You can read this story on Hoopla as “The Phoenix on the Sword” or it can be listened to on Hoopla or OverDrive as the first story in the collection of Conan stories by Howard “The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian”. It is also freely available on Australia’s Project Gutenburg.

[NOTE: This story is literally the first “Conan” story written and published by Howard, and is credited with launching the “Sword & Sorcery” genre.]

[If you enjoy this, also on Hoopla is The Phoenix on the Sword, which is a comic by Timothy Truman. I’m guessing it’s the same story but I haven’t read it, but I do think it’d be interesting to read both and compare them.]

[ Wikipedia page for Robert E. Howard ] | [ official Robert E. Howard/Conan web site ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

"The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth" by Lord Dunsany (a short story)

“The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth”
by Edward, Lord Dunsany

A family member who has read the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft told me that Lovecraft was inspired by Lord Dunsany and they wanted to read some of his work. I found this in the library’s collection for them and after reading they thought I’d like it, so I gave it a try. It’s less than 20 pages long, so it is not a huge commitment. I thought it was pretty good and was reminded of J.R.R. Tolkien’s short stories such as “Farmer Giles of Ham” and “Leaf by Niggle”. Old, mystic and dreamy I think would best describe it. The story is about a village (Allanthurion) whose residents suddenly begin having nightmares from Hell and are afraid to sleep. The magician of the village determines the dreams are from Gaznak, the greatest magician, rider of a comet who visits Earth every few hundred years and feeds on the minds of men. The terrible dreams can only be stopped by defeating Gaznak and the only way to vanquish him is with a sword called Sacnoth. The sword is part of a dragon-crocodile named Tharagavverug, which can’t be slain because it’s made of metal and nothing can fell it save for hunger. So our brave village hero Leothric, starves the dragon, which takes a few days, gains the sword and sets off to destroy the wizard Gaznak. That’s sort of all there is to it, as it’s quite short, but I liked it more for how the story was told than some sort of complicated plot or character development. It’s a nice little story deserving of a read, even if you are not into Lovecraft and or Tolkien. Readers of fairy tales, fantasy, or fables will enjoy.

This is a short story available in several books the library owns including: The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales, Edited by Mike Ashley, 398.2 ASH; The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories, by Oxford University Press, 813.08 OXF; and The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth, by Lord Dunsany, on Hoopla.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Call of Cthulu, by H.P. Lovecraft, Farmer Giles of Ham, by J.R.R. Tolkien, Leaf by Niggle, by J.R.R. Tolkien, or Smith of Wooten Major, by J.R.R. Tolkien, all of which are short stories.] [ Article about Lord Dunsany and “The Fortress Unvanquishable” at Blackgate.com ] | [ Wikipedia entry on Edward, Lord Dunsany ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!