‘When the Nights are Long’
The Tale of Am-ra by Robert E. Howard
© 2016 James LaFond
JUL/15/16
Reading from Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Del Rey, 2006, page 252,
In this brief overture of about 200 words the reader glimpses a vision in outline of a primitive people, coming to the cave of "…old Gaur…wise and shrewd…” who tells tales of the wars of his youth, supplemented by his “picture-making art” and accented by the weapons and trophies of war and the hunt hung from the carven walls of his cave. The setting is subarctic and pre-Nordic, with the people of Gaur’s audience coming to wonder at their heritage, of wars fought against various enemy races and tribes.
Gaur is the chronicler of the hero Am-ra, being his Homer to Am-ra’s Achilles. The setting and tone evokes that of Almuric and of the Bran Mak Morn cycle, more so than the Kull and Conan sagas that evolved from the two verse and three sketches that comprise this collection.
blue eyed daughter of zeus
the combat space
barbarism versus civilization
when you're food
the year the world took the z-pill
z-pill forever
under the god of things
into leviathan’s maw
logic of steel
broken dance
cracker-boy
fiction anthology one
let the world fend for itself
the fighting edge
son of a lesser god
orphan nation
triumph
within leviathan’s craw
predation
sorcerer!
the greatest boxer
book of nightmares
taboo you
the lesser angels of our nature
on combat
ranger?
menthol rampage
honor among men
the greatest lie ever sold
your trojan whorse
winter of a fighting life
the first boxers
sons of aryas
fanatic
beasts of aryas
thriving in bad places
america the brutal
songs of aryas
uncle satan
all-power-fighting
solo boxing
on the overton railroad
fate
wife—
hate
logic of force
advent america
the sunset saga complete
masculine axis
night city
time & cosmos
by the wine dark sea
the gods of boxing
dark, distant futures
song of the secret gardener