Views & Reviews From Writer Steve Miller
Formerly Reviews and Stuff at Rotten Tomatoes, 2005 - 2009.

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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Robert E. Howard: An Under-Appreciated Writer

On June 11, 1936, Robert E. Howard died at his own hand. While those who know his writings mourn for what the world lost when he pulled that trigger, he did leave us with a wealth of great short stories and poems.

If all you know Howard for is Conan and Solomon Kane, you don't know his work at all, but you are like the vast majority of the reading public. And I think this is a tremendous shame. Howard did much better writing in other genres and in other stories that few know exist and even fewer read.

I would like to change that. I hope that some day Howard gets moved from the footnote status of "created the sword-and-sorcery fantasy sub-genre through the character of Conan" to his rightful place among great American authors. As a small way of making that happen, I've put together several collections of his humor, horror, and historical stories--most of which are vastly superior to any Conan story he wrote. Get any of "Oriental Stories" books and you'll see what I mean.


"Oriental Tales Vol. 2" offers a broad cross-section of what his non-Conan writings are like, so it's a great place to start getting to know him better. An even better choice might be to get all of the "Oriental Stories" collections, as the stories in those are among the ones Howard would probably preferred to be remembered for.

Click here to visit DriveThruFiction,com to see a full listing of NUELOW Games's entire Robert E. Howard Collection. I hope you'll consider getting one or more of them.