Last week, I talked about the most recent audiobooks I’ve been listening to. After enjoying the Egil & Nix short story, two more Thieves World books, and finishing The Black Company again, I wanted more S&S. I have a Kothar book, but it’s an AI voice. Meh. So, I am listening to volume one of the Elric saga. Which I have read many times. Man – those stories are still terrific.

I’ve been watching a lot of movies and shows lately, so that’s probably gonna be a post soon. And I’ve been working on Fortnite levels. But I have also been sitting down with some books when I can. So away we go.

SEA OF GREED– Clive Cussler and Graham Brown

I used to stay up into the wee hours, devouring Clive Cussler and Robert Ludlum books. THOSE were page turners. Cussler ‘handed off’ his various series’ and seemed to be a franchise manager, rather than a writer. But they were still good (with one exception). Then he passed, so the lines are definitely just the work of the current authors.

I never did the Tom Clancy technical stuff, but I really like The Oregon Files. And I’m okay with Isaac Bell, though after the first one, I like the concept more than the actual books. I only read one Fargo book – it was okay. And I quit reading Dirk Pitt because Cussler gave it to his son (named Dirk) and he’s a bad writer. I read the first two and quit. Life’s too short to read bad books written through nepotism (Anne Hillerman is the poster child for this).

Kurt Austin and the NUMA Files are my favorite. Austin was a successor to Pitt, and they are both in the Doc Savage mold. There have been 21 Austin novels, the last 13 by Graham Brown (you can call a bunch of them co-written with Cussler – I don’t care. I don’t think he had much to do with writing most of the co-authored books). I think Brown does Austin as good as Cussler did, and while I’m a little out of order, I’m enjoying a NUMA adventure again. I’ll back fill the ones I missed if I find them at Half Priced Books, as I’m about eight behind.

I wrote about revisiting Cussler, here. 

THE CONTINENTAL OP – Dashiell Hammett

I got to write the introductions for the first two Continental Op collections from Steeger Books. And I just finished up the third. That took me to when Hammett quit Black Mask. He disliked editor Phil Cody, and he had a lot of life stuff going on. So, this was an uneven period – but average Hammett is still better than a whole lot of other Pulp. The Op is so much easier to read, than Carroll John Daly’s Race Williams. Here’s the first intro.

 

THE CASTLE OF TERROR – L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter

I like de Camp’s Conan stories more than most, it seems. I’m not a fan of his Robert E. Howard character assassination, but I can distinguish between the two. As you’ll see in the next item, I’m reading the old Marvel Conan the Barbarian for the first time. This was one of many stories Roy Thomas adapted for it. I always liked the story well enough, though Thomas didn’t care for it. And I think the short story reads better than the Marvel comic. I re-read this before I read the comic.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN – Roy Thomas’ #1-115

I blogged recently a couple times about Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian (CtB) comic that started in the seventies. I have been reading the Omnibuses they put out. Thomas wrote three memoirs covering the first 115 issues (which were his – he left Marvel for a time after that). For a couple years now I’ve been reading one issue, then the corresponding memoir chapter. And I have LOVED it!

This is the only way someone should do those early issues. Thomas’ insights and reminiscences are fantastic. They add so much to the experience. I’ve enjoyed spacing them out and soaking them in, rather than tearing them them to ‘get them all read.’ I just finished #111 (an adaptation of a Norvell Roberts novel. I talked about Roberts in the last What I’ve Been Reading). The third memoir has some extra stuff in it, so I’ll read that after I finish #115, and put the Omnibus away it’s volume four. I’ll finish it with the other writers, some day. I have #7 as well).

But Thomas does a nice job of balancing making the character Conan, while writing a good comic book. He takes liberties, but he’s making a comic book for sales. He adapted several non-Conan stories from Howard (even poems), as well as other sword and sorcery tales. I think this is a good comic for Conan fans.

 

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN – Roy Thomas

Another Conan comic which originated in the seventies; that I never bothered with. Thomas was completely responsible for this one, as well as CtB. This was a more adult comic, in black and white, and visually more complex to look at. And lots more text.

Thomas talked about this one some in his memoirs, and I only started on this after I’d read about 85 issues of CtB. It is a very different experience from CtB. Think, maybe, Teen Titans Go, vs. Young Justice. You can like both, but they are dissimilar takes on the same topic. I really admire what Thomas accomplished. He took Save Tales and made it REH-centric. It’s not just a Conan comic. There are essays that we call Sherlockiana in the Holmes world (Conania?). A lot of ‘extra’ info about the comics, Conan, Howard. Each issue was more of an experience than just a Conan comic. And the treatment of the original Conan tales was more in depth than in CtB.

I just finished the first Omnibus, and I respect the unconventional accomplishment Thomas achieved with Savage Sword. I skimmed some of the articles, but I’m gonna go back and give them the proper attention. Recommended for the slightly more serious Conan fan.

 

HOPEFULLY TO COME…

I intend on reading at least one more Cussler book while I’m in this mood. I wrote about James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux here, and I’m way behind on that series. I picked up three recently, but that’s one series I have to read in order. I’ll look for the needed volumes.

I am still re-listening to Jules de Grandin, and I actually read the first story in volume two, but more reading is on the back burner. The audiobooks will have to do.

And I’m going to start on volume two of Savage Sword of Conan. I got in such a Conan mood with these two comics, I reinstalled Conan Exiles. Which sucks my time away from writing!

Other What I’ve Been Reading

What I’ve Been Reading: April, 2025 (Frederick Nebel, Norvell Page, Harold Lamb, Steve Hockensmith)
What I’ve Been Reading: November, 2024: (Glen Cook, Dodgers’ baseball)
What I’ve Been Reading: September, 2024 (Harold Lamb, Hugh Ashton, Scott Oden)
What I’ve Been Reading: November, 2023 (Holmes on the Range, The Caine Mutiny, Jules De Granden)
What I’ve Been Reading: September 2022 (Columbo, Douglas Adams, Cleveland Torso Murderer)
What I’ve Been Reading: May, 2021 (Cole & Hitch, Dortmunder, and Parker, and Tony Hillerman)
What I’ve Been Reading: September 2020 (Jo Gar, Sherlock Holmes, Casablanca the movie, more)
What I’ve Been Reading: January, 2020 (Glen Cook, John D. MacDonald, Howard Andrew Jones, more)
What I’ve Been Reading: December, 2019 (Scott Oden, Norbert Davis, David Dickinson)
What I’ve Been Reading: July, 2019 (Clive Cussler, Gabriel Hunt, Max Latin)

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXVII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.