In 1987, Karl Edward Wagner edited the Tor series, Echoes of Valor. (Read my review of the second volume here.) This series featured pulp tales in their original forms. In some cases–mostly Robert E. Howard’s case–this meant the final manuscripts of stories that actually had failed to find a slot in the pulps, but were still worthy stories deserving wider exposure.

To launch the series, Wagner chose Robert E. Howard’s original version of The Black Stranger. This story had seen earlier print in an abridged form (in Fantasy Magazine, 1953) and in an altered form; L. Sprauge de Camp’s re-work of the story into “The Treasure of Tranicos.” (Howard’s did his own re-work of the tale, “Swords of the Red Brotherhood,” which changed the hero from Conan to the non-fantasy character Black Vulmea. This version did not see print in Howard’s lifetime.) “The Black Stranger“’s appearance in Echoes of Valor was the first paperback availability of the original work. (You will soon be able to find the tale in Del Rey’s third volume of Howard’s original Conan tales, and it also currently appears in Bison Book’s collection The Black Stranger and Other American Tales.)

Enough background. The story is one of the more intricate Conan tales, involving lost treasure, ships, Picts, refugees, and a cast of villainous cutthroats–and lest we forget–the Black Stranger, too! The opening chapter is a cut-and-dry example of what made Howard such a deft writer of headlong action.

...the Cimmerian bounded into the path behind them and plunged his knife between the shoulders of the last man. The attack was so quick and unexpected the Pict had no chance to save himself. The blade was in his heart before he knew he was in peril. The other two whirled with the instant, steel-trap quickness of savages, but even as his knife sank home, the Cimmerian struck a tremendous blow with the war-axe in his right hand. The second Pict was in the act of turning as the axe fell. It split his skull to the teeth.

Conan promptly disappears at the end of the first chapter. The chapters that follow concern the maiden Belesa and the young girl Tina, the innocent occupants of a frontier fort. They are in the wilds of the world with their exiled uncle, Count Valenso. Valenso has fled the civilized world for reasons unknown, and every ship that passes his stretch of shore makes him jumpy. And, of course, the Picts are an ever-present threat. For a handful of chapters, we are introduced to a string of characters, deep into the tale. Perhaps Howard wanted to keep the reader guessing as to whom could be the Black Stranger. Was it one of the pirates? Conan? A Pict? Finally, the Black Stranger is revealed to be a demon who hunts Valenso.

The machinations of the various rouges to obtain the treasure of Tranicos are fun to read. Conan, too, has his own clever plans. The action builds as the various characters fight each other and the Picts. The final chaos of the burning fort is vividly drawn.

“The Black Stranger” follows almost immediately on the heels of “Beyond the Black River” where Howard did his best to abandon fantasy trappings and present Conan in a pseudo-American frontier milieu. As a result, the demon doesn’t play much of a role here–other than to drive Valenso mad and incense the Picts. Indeed, Conan’s final encounter with the demon seems almost a forced footnote, and Conan dispatches the villain with convenient ease.

This is certainly a strong, inventive Conan story and worth having in any Conan collection.

As an addendum, I took a quick thumb through my copy of Conan the Usurper, featuring “The Treasure of Tranicos.” If you’re curious, it appears that de Camp mostly reworked the final chapter. Whereas Howard left Conan awaiting the pirate ship’s return, confident that he would become their captain, de Camp made changes to the ship so that it was no longer a pirate ship. Instead, it was a warship that contained allies who would help Conan to become king of Aquilonia, and more directly tied the story to those that followed. De Camp also gave the nameless sorcerer a connection to Thoth-Amon. No such connection exists in the Howard original.

This was the first tale of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Here it is presented in its original form–as a story set in the historical past of Earth rather than the world of Nehwon where the later Fafhrd and Mouser tales would take place.

The story is sprawling, both figuratively and literally. The infamous duo travels the world over seeking to relieve a curse that affects their amorous moments with pretty wenches. The tone of the story ranges from bawdy humor to Clark Ashton Smith-style narration of horror and terror. The simple randy nature of the curse is strangely juxtaposed against the reason for the curse. The curse causes any woman they kiss to take on the form of an animal. The sorcerer who sent the curse believes that Fafhrd and Mouser’s cosmic destiny can aid in his thaumaturgical practices. They, of course, given their nature, want nothing to do with such nonsense–they are just two guys out for a good time.

The disparate tones of the various chapters make Adept’s Gambit somewhat difficult to enjoy as a whole. I don’t know if Leiber planned on continuing the stories of the duo when he penned this first tale. But, Fafhrd and the Mouser seem to take in the world over the course of the story–perhaps, in case, they were never to appear again. There are some wonderful moments in this tale; mostly the humorous ones–the duo’s rivalry, their relationship with the oracle-god-beast Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, are some examples. But there are certainly more focused and stronger stories to be found in the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser canon.

A tale of the Arthurian myths, filtered through Kuttner’s modern sensibility, this tale concerns Arthur Woodley, an R.A.F. pilot shot down over Wales during the Battle of Britain. He is lured into life under the lake, where Vivienne, Morgan le Fay, and other Arthurian side characters still hold court. Arthur, the King, is not present, but Merlin does make a swift appearance. The story works well, and as Wagner describes it:

“Wet Magic” is typical of editor John Campbell’s (Unknown Worlds) insistence upon a modern approach to fantasy tempered with whimsical humor...Despite its initial lighthearted cuteness, as the story progresses Kuttner manages to inject an unrelenting grimness of his own.

All in all this is a very original tale and take on Arthurian trappings. It is a tale that will stick in my memory for a while to come.

Echoes of Valor is a solid collection of longer pulp writings. It is definitely worth seeking out for place on your bookshelf!