Click to Subscribe
‘Imprisoned in its Flat Bosom’
Casonetto’s Last Song by Robert E. Howard
© 2016 James LaFond
AUG/4/16
Unpublished until 1973, reading from Del Rey’s The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard, 2006, pages 71-4
Stephen Gordon is a Lovecraftian protagonist—meaning of the intelligently inquisitive but sub-heroic type—employed by Howard in his contemporary horror stories, and replaced in fantasy by Conan’s female co-protagonists. So that the retrospective telling of this tale might be possible, another contemporary Howard hero, the boxing seaman, Costigan, is present to thwart the fascinating sorcery afoot.
In this simple strong concept story, again, a one scene treatment featuring conversing parties, Howard reveals his vision of the sorcerer in a story that may well have been passed over because of its direct treatment of the satanic black mass.
Giovanni Casonetto is an evil operatic genius with a voice so magnetic its range transcends the grave. Here is the villain in his own words:
“Before me stands the shrine unnamable and before it the red-stained altar where many a virgin soul has gone winging up to the dark stars. On all sides hover dark mysterious things, and I hear the swish of mighty wings in the gloom.”
It is also notable that Howard continued to sketch characters of Scottish descent with the sir name Gordon, even as he forever changed the patrimonial name of his dark Irish heroes.
A Well of Heroes
‘Her Winsome Child’
book reviews
‘Hell Gapes for Him’
eBook
the lesser angels of our nature
eBook
songs of aryas
eBook
your trojan whorse
eBook
when you're food
eBook
the fighting edge
eBook
triumph
eBook
fate
eBook
the combat space
eBook
the gods of boxing
eBook
orphan nation
eBook
song of the secret gardener
eBook
winter of a fighting life
eBook
ranger?
eBook
by the wine dark sea
eBook
wife—
eBook
the greatest lie ever sold
eBook
within leviathan’s craw
eBook
honor among men
eBook
dark, distant futures
eBook
menthol rampage
eBook
z-pill forever
eBook
night city
eBook
time & cosmos
eBook
masculine axis
eBook
broken dance
eBook
under the god of things
eBook
on the overton railroad
eBook
let the world fend for itself
eBook
advent america
eBook
logic of steel
eBook
the sunset saga complete
eBook
fanatic
eBook
barbarism versus civilization
eBook
fiction anthology one
eBook
uncle satan
eBook
all-power-fighting
eBook
the year the world took the z-pill
eBook
sons of aryas
eBook
thriving in bad places
eBook
hate
eBook
into leviathan’s maw
eBook
cracker-boy
eBook
book of nightmares
eBook
beasts of aryas
eBook
america the brutal
eBook
taboo you
eBook
blue eyed daughter of zeus
eBook
solo boxing
eBook
sorcerer!
eBook
the greatest boxer
eBook
on combat
eBook
predation
eBook
son of a lesser god
eBook
logic of force
eBook
the first boxers
  Add a new comment below:
Name
Email
Message