Bob Howard Returns

The Cowboy and the Conqueror by Teel James Glenn

The first volume in this series was pretty audacious in its premise: author Robert E. Howard doesn’t commit suicide but instead decides to travel the world, during which he crosses paths with no less than Count Dracula. It was a fantastic book and when I heard a sequel was coming, I was very excited.

This book is very different from the first in that this tale is told from the perspective of a German writer. This means that REH is somewhat removed from the reader. We don’t get to see the ins and outs of his thoughts and he becomes a little more larger-than-life as a result.

Also, our writer is a thinly disguised Adolf Hitler.

Yes, so you probably wonder about that part, don’t you? I was amazed that TJ Glenn would actually try to portray this alternate history version in such a positive light… but there is a scene near the end when our writer-Hitler is confronted with the knowledge of what he’s like in OUR world… and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make the entire book worth it. It’s a tremendous creative risk that was taken here and I’m so impressed (and, as a writer myself, more than a bit jealous) that it was paid off.

If you enjoyed the first book, you owe it to yourself to move on to the second volume. Let’s hope there’s a third book soon.

Recommended Reading

A Cowboy in Carpathia by Teel James Glenn is one odd beast. Basically, it starts off as a work of alternative history — in this reality Robert E. Howard, creator of such pulp characters as Conan and Solomon Kane, did not commit suicide after the death of his mother. Rather, he decides to honor her memory by exploring the world and continuing to write his stories. What follows is bizarre, humorous, and strangely thought-provoking: Bob Howard fights Dracula.

Yep, you read that right. Conan’s creator ends up hanging out with the Harker family from Bram Stoker’s classic novel and then ends up exchanging fisticuffs with the vampire lord himself. It’s a lot of fun and makes me hopeful that we’ll get many more adventures of Bob Howard — personally, I hope a sequel lets him pay a visit to his buddy “Howie” Lovecraft. Highly recommended to pulp lovers everywhere.