Book excerpt: A sumptuous collection of epic fantasy heroes from the pen of Robert E. Howard, one of the true Masters of Fantasy Robert E. Howard was a pulpwriter who turned his hand to everything from historical adventure and detective stories to Western and boxing fiction - and invented the genre now known as sword-and-sorcery: it is for these tales of heroic fantasy and horror that he is best remembered. His mighty heroes - including an English Puritan adventurer sent on redressing grievous wrongs, the king of a mythical, antediluvian empire contemporary with Atlantis, a Pictish warrior-king - all these brothers of the sword and more bestrode the pages of WEIRD TALES and the other pulp magazines of the twenties and thirties. This companion volume follows on from the success of the first Gollancz Big Black Book featuring Howard's world-famous barbarian king, and contains all the stories featuring his brothers-in-arms, collected together in chronological order, as fresh and atmospheric today as when they were first published in the pulp magazines of more than eighty years ago. Compiled by and with an Afterword by award-winning writer and editor Stephen Jones, and with cover image, frontispiece and internal pictures by the award-winning artist Les Edwards.