‘Dog-Brothers’
James LaFond's impressions of The Cliffs Reel, Chapter 3, Robert E. Howard’s Hour of the Dragon
© 2019 James LaFond
MAR/7/19
reading from pages 98-105 of the Del Rey edition
The lead illustration by Mister Gianni depicts the royal pavilion guarded by ten hard-bitten “veterans,” left to defend the prostrate king and a squire attending a saddled and barded horse, lion banner blowing to the right.
As Conan lays suffering from lack of action moreso than any pain, the squire peeks through the curtain and relates the unfolding battle to Conan who sees it clearly in his mind’s eye, predicts folly and calamity and has his worst fears magnified and related to him, for, as his heroic body double falls for a wizardly ruse his strike force is not ambushed in the mountain pass viewed from across the contested riverbed, but the mountain itself reels and comes crashing down, crushing the flower of Conan’s army...
Read more over at the BlogSpot:
Literary Impressions of the Prose and Verse of Robert E. Howard
wife—
fiction anthology one
the year the world took the z-pill
within leviathan’s craw
fanatic
the greatest lie ever sold
logic of steel
blue eyed daughter of zeus
hate
broken dance
by the wine dark sea
on combat
america the brutal
uncle satan
barbarism versus civilization
night city
thriving in bad places
all-power-fighting
orphan nation
the lesser angels of our nature
the first boxers
triumph
dark, distant futures
sons of aryas
under the god of things
predation
song of the secret gardener
your trojan whorse
songs of aryas
the sunset saga complete
ranger?
beasts of aryas
son of a lesser god
z-pill forever
advent america
let the world fend for itself
taboo you
honor among men
into leviathan’s maw
book of nightmares
the gods of boxing
the fighting edge
the greatest boxer
when you're food
solo boxing
winter of a fighting life
on the overton railroad
fate
masculine axis
cracker-boy
logic of force
the combat space
time & cosmos
menthol rampage
sorcerer!
I always like how the West Coast stickfighters chose this epithet as their moniker.