Robert E. Howard

Shadows In The Moonlight (Illustrated) (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

"Shadows in the Moonlight" (Howard's original title was "Iron Shadows in the Moon") is a Conan novellette. It begins when a female lovely named Olivia, having fled captivity from the city of Akif, is chased down and cornered in a marsh, on the edge of the Vilayet Sea. Her pursuer and former master is a sadistic rogue named Shah Amurath. But before he can lay loathsome hands on the hapless heroine, a figure rises from the reeds. The newcomer has seen all his friends betrayed and treacherously cut down to a man, before escaping into the marshes where he has hidden out for so long he is nearly mad. The newcomer quickly dispatches Shah Amurath, then he and Olivia hop in a boat and decide to lie low for the next little while. Only then does the newcomer identify himself: Conan the Cimmerian. The two fugitives, Conan and Olivia, find their way to a dark and apparently deserted island, where they spend the night sleeping in ancient ruins decorated with remarkably lifelike statues. Olivia has a dream in which she sees a band of men turned into those statues and wakes convinced they will come to life in the moonlight. Conan is less than convinced of Olivia's fears and is more concerned by whatever it is lurking in the jungle, lobbing giant boulders at the two fugitives. A pirate ship makes port on the island, and leaving Olivia hidden in the brush, Conan challenges their captain; an old rival. He slays the pirate captain, but is knocked unconscious by a stone from a sling. The pirates bind him and take him with them to the ruins where they discuss his fate, until they pass out drunk. Olivia meanwhile, narrowly escapes from a massive and dark figure that pursues her up to the ruins. Olivia sneaks past the drunken and sleeping pirates and frees Conan. Conan then slays the dark figure that pursued Olivia, a giant man-ape, which had also been hurling the boulders at them. As Conan recovers from his battle with the man-ape, they hear the beginning of a horrific slaughter back at the ruins. They quickly head back to the deserted pirate ship. As Conan prepares the ship to sail, a band of beaten and bedraggled pirates comes and asks to come aboard and leave the 'devil island'. Conan challenges them and they accept him as their captain. At the end Olivia begs Conan to allow her to stay with him and laughing, accepts, saying he'd make her 'Queen of the Blue Sea'.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: shineandre
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. März 2014
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9783730988329
• Artikelnr.: 54681847

Autorenporträt

Robert E. (Ervin) Howard was born on January 22, 1906. He was interested in writing from an early age, and witnesses report seeing his first stories written as early as 9 years old. He mailed off his first submission to a publisher at 15 years of age. His first professional sale came three years later when "Spear and Fang," a cave man story, was accepted by Weird Tales, the pulp magazine with which all his greatest successes would be associated. Howard is best known as the "father of sword & sorcery," with his most famous creations-Conan, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, and Kull the Conqueror-sliding (some more easily than others) into that genre. However, in addition to the sterling success of these fantasy adventure tales, Howard's versatility allowed him to support himself as a professional writer. He would write more than 100 stories between 1924 and his death in 1936 at age 30. He published regularly and wrote in genres as varied as westerns, weird westerns, horror, modern adventure stories, boxing stories, sailing adventures, and even "spicy" romance stories. Of special interest to this volume is Howard's relationship to H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft, an elder statesman of the "weird fiction" genre, was an early contributor to Weird Tales, where Howard first encountered his fiction. Howard wrote an admiring letter to Lovecraft after reading "The Rats in the Walls," and eventually through their extended correspondence became part of the "Lovecraft Circle," a group of pulp writers joined primarily through H.P. Lovecraft's efforts, with Lovecraft as the hub. Howard and Lovecraft corresponded for years, debating the merits of the human conditions of barbarism and civilization. Lovecraft is best known for his stories of "the Great Old Ones," especially Cthulhu. This shared corpus of story ideas and ancient, pre-human history of Earth, became a shared mythic backdrop for many writers published in Weird Tales. Howard's contributions to this mythos are the focus of the current volume.