Howard as Protagonist

[linefacedscrivener]

I decided to title this thread "Howard as Protagonist" to give it more potential for including other stories and books in which Robert E. Howard is a character in the story. I just started a series of articles for REHupa on this topic, so stay tuned for future postings. 

In this case, I just so happen to open my Ignatius Press catalog today and saw the ad for this book. Over the past decade, they have been publishing more fiction, and the subtitle "A Fantasy Quest" caught my eye. Was I shocked when I read this blurb:


"At his typewriter in little Cross Plains, Texas, Robert E. Howard created big characters—Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, Conan the Barbarian—who shaped the art of fantasy fiction for generations. But Howard would never know it. On June 11, 1936, at the age of thirty, he shot himself outside his country home. Why would he do it, and where could death have taken him?

"Providence Blue imagines the strange underworld journey of Howard after his suicide, through Texas flatlands, ancient Egyptian ruins, and New England city gutters. Meanwhile, as his girlfriend Novalyne Price investigates what caused the tragedy, she is led to Providence, Rhode Island, home of the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, where she makes a terrifying, life-changing discovery.

"In Providence decades later, aging grad student Joseph Bonaventure struggles to finish his dissertation on Lovecraft. When he and a young librarian, Fay O'Connell, chance upon some of the author's lost papers, this breakthrough locks both of them in a web of black magic, occult conspiracy, and dark cosmic forces—and ties them intimately to the fate of Robert E. Howard. Alongside a cast of Providence characters, including a local priest and a stray Chihuahua, Joseph and Fay join a supernatural quest for good against evil, heaven against hell, the Lamb of God against the horrors of oblivion.

"Written in a lean, direct style, with a native's sense of Rhode Island's geography and culture, David Pinault's Providence Blue pushes the fantasy novel into new terrain, bringing the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft into contact with the startling reality of Christian doctrine."


So, this was not exactly a catalog in which I thought I would ever find a novel about Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, as Ignatius is a Catholic Press, but the blurb certainly peaked my interest.

I immediately checked with some people in Howard circles to see if they had heard of the book or the author and no one had. So, this really just came out of the blue.

Anyway, I ordered a copy and will let you all know what I think after I read it. If anyone else purchases a copy and reads it, I'll be interested in hearing what you all have to say.

To order the book, link to it here: www.ignatius.com/Providence-Blue-P3980.aspx

[karasuthecrow]

The idea looked great.
I was developing the concept of a urban fantasy short story having Howard and Lovecraft as the main protagonist but I stopped writting it in order to focus on other proyects.

Also in Cataluña the book "Querido H.P.Lovecraft" is a reimagining of Howard last days within his letters to Lovecraft but I have been unable to read but the reviews are posotivo to that book.

[linefacedscrivener]

Oct 20, 2021 17:41:29 GMT -5 karasuthecrow said:

The idea looked great.
I was developing the concept of a urban fantasy short story having Howard and Lovecraft as the main protagonist but I stopped writting it in order to focus on other proyects.

Also in Cataluña the book "Querido H.P.Lovecraft" is a reimagining of Howard last days within his letters to Lovecraft but I have been unable to read but the reviews are posotivo to that book.

Thanks! I have never heard to that book either. So far for REHupa I have covered Novalyne Price's play and Hugh B. Cave's short story featuring "Sam Walser" looking for Robert E. Howard. I also plan on doing something on The Heart of Ahriman, which I finally was able to read at the Texas A&M library this past summer. It was written by Bill Crider and Charlotte Laughlin, but remains unpublished. I'll have to post on all of these at some point here. I'll also have to see if I can track down this book (while I can't read Spanish, my daughter-in-law can!). 

[karasuthecrow]

Oct 20, 2021 17:48:32 GMT -5 linefacedscrivener said:

Oct 20, 2021 17:41:29 GMT -5 karasuthecrow said:

Thanks! I have never heard to that book either. So far for REHupa I have covered Novalyne Price's play and Hugh B. Cave's short story featuring "Sam Walser" looking for Robert E. Howard. I also plan on doing something on The Heart of Ahriman, which I finally was able to read at the Texas A&M library this past summer. It was written by Bill Crider and Charlotte Laughlin, but remains unpublished. I'll have to post on all of these at some point here. I'll also have to see if I can track down this book (while I can't read Spanish, my daughter-in-law can!). 

Its kind of a rare book, I belive was published in Catalan first and last year finaly made into a Spanish translation, I hear a review in a podcast and they said that its a re-imagining of Howard last days but adding fantasy elements from both Conan and Lovecraft stories, I will try to get it but importing books from Spain to México its quite expensive.

[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2021 17:35:06 GMT -5 linefacedscrivener said:

I decided to title this thread "Howard as Protagonist" to give it more potential for including other stories and books in which Robert E. Howard is a character in the story. I just started a series of articles for REHupa on this topic, so stay tuned for future postings. 

In this case, I just so happen to open my Ignatius Press catalog today and saw the ad for this book. Over the past decade, they have been publishing more fiction, and the subtitle "A Fantasy Quest" caught my eye. Was I shocked when I read this blurb:


"At his typewriter in little Cross Plains, Texas, Robert E. Howard created big characters—Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, Conan the Barbarian—who shaped the art of fantasy fiction for generations. But Howard would never know it. On June 11, 1936, at the age of thirty, he shot himself outside his country home. Why would he do it, and where could death have taken him?

"Providence Blue imagines the strange underworld journey of Howard after his suicide, through Texas flatlands, ancient Egyptian ruins, and New England city gutters. Meanwhile, as his girlfriend Novalyne Price investigates what caused the tragedy, she is led to Providence, Rhode Island, home of the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, where she makes a terrifying, life-changing discovery.

"In Providence decades later, aging grad student Joseph Bonaventure struggles to finish his dissertation on Lovecraft. When he and a young librarian, Fay O'Connell, chance upon some of the author's lost papers, this breakthrough locks both of them in a web of black magic, occult conspiracy, and dark cosmic forces—and ties them intimately to the fate of Robert E. Howard. Alongside a cast of Providence characters, including a local priest and a stray Chihuahua, Joseph and Fay join a supernatural quest for good against evil, heaven against hell, the Lamb of God against the horrors of oblivion.

"Written in a lean, direct style, with a native's sense of Rhode Island's geography and culture, David Pinault's Providence Blue pushes the fantasy novel into new terrain, bringing the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft into contact with the startling reality of Christian doctrine."


So, this was not exactly a catalog in which I thought I would ever find a novel about Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, as Ignatius is a Catholic Press, but the blurb certainly peaked my interest.

I immediately checked with some people in Howard circles to see if they had heard of the book or the author and no one had. So, this really just came out of the blue.

Anyway, I ordered a copy and will let you all know what I think after I read it. If anyone else purchases a copy and reads it, I'll be interested in hearing what you all have to say.

To order the book, link to it here: www.ignatius.com/Providence-Blue-P3980.aspx

Thanks Linefacedscrivener

I read the preview pages available at Amazon, looks very interesting.

I look forward to your review.

[karasuthecrow]

I will try to get it if Amazon offers a good deal in the year end offers as the preview was interesting.

[linefacedscrivener]

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the first book that featured Robert E. Howard as the protagonist is none other than Robert E. Howard's own Post Oaks and Sand Roughs. If you have never read this pseudo-autobiography (or semi-autobiography), I highly encourage you to pick up a copy from the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press. It serves as a great insight into the mind of REH himself. 

To do so, just click here: rehfpress.com/product/post-oaks-and-sand-roughs/

[linefacedscrivener]

And, if you want to be the first to review one of the most recent books in which our favorite author appears as the protagonist, check out this book. I just learned about it last week on the DMR Books Blog, in a posting by Richard Fisher. You can read the article here:

dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2021/11/20/review-a-cowboy-in-carpathia-a-bob-howard-adventure-by-teel-james-glenn

And you can purchase the book here:

www.amazon.com/Cowboy-Carpathia-Bob-Howard-Adventure/dp/B08KJ66FFG?&linkCode=sl1&tag=dmrbooks-20&linkId=fecec7b507fb953271845ef4151ab027&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

I purchased a copy and it is now on my "to read" bookshelf, but I probably won't get to it until sometime over Christmas. I'll be interested in hearing what everyone has to say about this book (and the others). 

[karasuthecrow]

I will definitively give it a try.

[cromfelge]

Surprised that Conan #28 in the 2003 Dark Horse series hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet.
If you haven't read it yet, do it, I think it is a lovely homage to Howard.

[linefacedscrivener]

Dec 18, 2021 14:01:26 GMT -5 cromfelge said:

Surprised that Conan #28 in the 2003 Dark Horse series hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet.
If you haven't read it yet, do it, I think it is a lovely homage to Howard.

Good addition. I have read that one and found it to be very uniquely done, but definitely fitting for "Howard as Protagonist."

From the Dark Horse website: