The Fire of Asshurbanipal [short story] by Robert E. Howard

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Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. He is well known for having created the character Conan the Cimmerian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond. Voracious reading, along with a natural talent for prose writing and the encouragement of teachers, conspired to create in Howard an interest in becoming a show more professional writer. One by one he discovered the authors that would influence his later work: Jack London and Rudyard Kipling. It's clear from Howard's earliest writings and the recollections of his friends that he suffered from severe depression from an early age. Friends recall him defending the act of suicide as a valid alternative as early as eighteen years old, describing such an end not as a tragedy but as a release from hell on earth. show less

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Tim_Pendry 1,208 reviews

This is a rollicking imperial adventure story set in the sands of Arabia which had a Lovecraftian horror element added to it for publication in 1936 (the year of Howard's death). It works either way though perhaps the horror is not entirely necessary to make it work.

Seventy years later, it is curious to see an Afghan tribesman as co-hero but that is all to the good. Howard rather liked the martial races of India - like the quiet noiseless Sikh in the much weaker 'The Noseless Horror' published long after his death.

Howard was good on rangers in desert and semi-desert conditions, a legacy of his own Texan background, and this sits alongside his often well written cowboy stories as a variant of the same basic model of tough men in tough show more conditions.

There is the usual business of hordes of 'savages', accursed and lost ancient places and the monster behind the veil but the story is entertaining, in fact thrilling, and well written. This is one of those stories that I may well go back to in an idle moment. show less

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Robert E. Howard

1,896+ Works 32,194 Members

Robert E. Howard was born in Peaster, Texas on January 22, 1906. At the beginning of his writing career, he primarily wrote pulp fiction and had numerous stories published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales including Spear and Fang, The Hyena, Wolfshead, Red Shadows, and The Shadow Kingdom. He created the character of Conan the Barbarian in the show more pages of Weird Tales. By 1936, almost all of his fiction writing was in the western genre and his first novel, A Gent from Bear Creek, was about to be published. He committed suicide on June 11, 1936 at the age of 30. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Robert E. Howard has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.

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