Heroes in the Wind: From Kull to Conan; the Best of Robert E. Howard is a 2009 collection of dark fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 and horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 short stories written by Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

, selected and with an introduction by John Clute

John Clute

John Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...

. Most of the stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines

Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...

 and feature Howard's heroes Kull, Bran Mak Morn

Bran Mak Morn

Bran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E. Howard. In the stories, most of which were first published in Weird Tales, Bran is the last king of Howard's romanticized version of the tribal race of Picts....

 and Conan

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...

, among others. It was first published in paperback in September 2009 by Penguin Books

Penguin Books

Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

 in its Penguin Modern Classics series.

Contents

• "Acknowledgements"
• "Introduction" (John Clute)
• Prelude
  • "Recompense"
• I Black Dawn
  • "The Shadow Kingdom
    The Shadow Kingdom
    "The Shadow Kingdom" by Robert E. Howard is the first of Howard's Kull stories, set in his fictional Thurian Age. It was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in August 1929....
    
    "
  • "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune
    The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune
    "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" is one of the original short stories about Kull of Atlantis, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine circa 1929. It is one of only three Kull stories to be published in Howard's lifetime...
    
    "
  • "Kings of the Night"
  • "Worms of the Earth
    Worms of the Earth
    "Worms of the Earth" is a short story by American fantasy fiction writer Robert E. Howard. It was originally published in the magazine Weird Tales in November 1932, then again in 1975 in a collection of Howard's short stories, Worms of the Earth...
    
    "
  • "The Dark Man"
• II Dark Interlude
  • "The Footfalls Within"
  • "Pigeons from Hell
    Pigeons from Hell
    Pigeons from Hell is a short story by Robert E. Howard written in late 1934 and published posthumously by Weird Tales in 1938. The story title derives from an image present in many of Howard's grandmother's ghost stories, that of an old deserted plantation mansion haunted by ghostly...
    
    "
  • "Graveyard Rats"
  • "Vultures of Wahpeton"
• III High Noon
  • "The Tower of the Elephant
    The Tower of the Elephant
    "The Tower of the Elephant" is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan infiltrating a perilous tower in order to steal a...
    
    "
  • "Queen of the Black Coast
    Queen of the Black Coast
    "Queen of the Black Coast" is one of the original short stories about Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine circa May 1934...
    
    "
  • "A Witch Shall Be Born
    A Witch Shall be Born
    "A Witch Shall Be Born" is one of the original stories by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian. It was written in only a few days in spring of 1934 and first published in Weird Tales in 1934. The story concerns a witch replacing her twin sister as queen of a city state, which brings her...
    
    "
  • "Red Nails
    Red Nails
    "Red Nails" is the last of the stories about Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard. A novella, it was originally serialized in Weird Tales magazine from July to October 1936. It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan encountering a lost city in...
    
    "

External links

• Entry at penguinclassics.co.uk