I can’t explain what this book is.

I can’t explain what’s happening in it.

I can’t help you with choosing this book to read.

I can’t even tell you why I liked it.

 

But holy hell, I did.

I liked this book so much I walked straight into LOVE and CONFUSION land.

And I have no idea why.

 

Well, I know a little bit of why. Mostly it’s the fact that this author really knows his way around words. He snares you with verbs and nouns. He makes you think one thing, and then another, and then, when you fall flat on your face once again, you wonder, in your dizzy mind, What happened? How did I fall for that again?

 

Don’t ask me. I have no idea what happened. But it happened, over and over. All the way to the end. Absolutely shattering experience.

 

All I know is I might need to be Queened. Just a little. You know, just to understand.

 

Or not.

 

 

***

 

I bought this book with my own money.

 

 

Typical Robert E, Howard fare, by which I mean excellent story-telling and in a straight-forward, no-nonsense style!The title story of this collection is a very effective "haunted house" horror story - very creepy. Funnily enough, I was listening to the Pretenders' song, Back on the Chain Gang last night and realised that this story is most likely the source of a lyric that has always puzzled me: Got in the house like a pigeon from Hell: surely that phrase couldn't have occurred to two people independently! I'm still not sure how it relates to the rest of the song, though.Anyway, the rest of the stories are a mixture of historical adventures, atavistic throw-backs, Cthulhu Mythos and Western horrors. He uses the motif of a modern man haunted by the memories of an ancient ancestor several times in this collection, which is probably a reflection of the time pressures he was under to create stories to meet deadlines for his magazine publisher. However, the stories themselves are sufficiently different that the reuse of this plot device can be forgiven.I was really looking forward to reading the story that featured the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Pterosaur which grace the cover of my edition, but they don't make an appearance within - what a gyp!I've got a number of other REH books which I've had shelved To Read for the last 15-20 years or so. This year may well be the year when I make some headway into them!