S.E Lindberg rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ghor Kinslayer – A Weird Sampling of Legendary Authors: The author line-up for this series is beyond incredible (see below recopied book description), and the idea for developing one of R.E.Howard's unfinished tales ... just awesome! But the delivery was just so-so. Actually, the first few tales had me hooked. Then I came upon Michael Moorcock's contribution and couldn't get over his over-the-top, misogynistic introduction of the female Shanara. I was really disappointed in this, since it poisoned the tone of the subsequent chapters…and I had expected more professionalism and better style from the creator of Elric (in which he better balanced violence/weirdness/machismo). But the collection serves as a great sampling of legendary authors. Get it for historical interest if nothing else.
Availability: Amazon has used hardcopies. It is still available “new” from the publisher, Necropress.com directly for ~$8USD. Here is the description:
Robert E. Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, Joseph Payne Brennan, Richard L. Tierney, Michael Moorcock, Charles R. Saunders, andrew j. offutt, Manly Wade Wellman, Darrell Schweitzer, A. E. Van Vogt, Brian Lumley, Frank Belknap Long, Adrian Cole, Ramsey Campbell, H. Warner Munn, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Richard A. Lupoff: Ghor, Kin-Slayer: The Saga of Genseric's Fifth-Born Son, A Necronomicon Press Trade Paperback, 176 pp., $8.95
Seventeen leading fantasy authors ...
One epic novel of heroic fantasy ...
Only Robert E. Howard could have begun it ... left by his parents to die, and subsequently raised by wolves, Ghor becomes the mightiest warrior of his time, driven by a boundless desire to revenge his abandonment.
Decades later, this unfinished tale by the creator of Conan sees completion by sixteen of the top fantasy authors of our time, each bringing with them their own unique style and vision to the adventures of Ghor, Kin-Slayer. The reader will not only be guided through a rousing adventure of heroic fantasy, but discover intriguing elements of weird fiction, with even a touch of H. P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" thrown in for good measure.
Available [at Necropress.com] for the first time in its complete form, Ghor, Kin-Slayer is the rare opportunity to read a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between Robert E. Howard and the finest fantasy authors of the past several decade.
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