(pb; 1934—1936, 1974. Three-novella/prequel
fantasy anthology to Son of the White Wolf. “Introduction” by Darrell
C. Richardson.)
From the back cover
“It lay hidden from the world,
beyond the far ranges of the Himalayas. Yolgan! Forbidden city of unspeakable
vengeance and unimaginable treasure, where the goddess Yasmeena waits for the
only force on earth that can free her—the curved and thirsty blade of the
blue-eyed desert warrior El Borak!”
Overall review
Caveat: Iskander
sports
an amplified sense of colonialism, racism and sexism that was bold-face inherent
in the 1920s and 1930s, but it’s not quite as repellent/intense as one might see
in Sax Rohmer’s fourteen-book Dr. Fu-Manchu series and H.P. Lovecraft’s stories.
It’s downplayed in these Francis X. Gordon stories but it’s still
there. In short: If the concept of appropriate context (judge
a work by the standards during which it was created, not by modern standards),
you might want to skip Howard’s work as well as those mentioned earlier in this
“Caveat.”
Iskander is one
of the better Howard collections, more tightly edited than some of his other
works (notably certain Conan stories and books), with Howard’s ever-present
focus on machismo, bloody and savage action, constant twists, the overall superiority
of Caucasian culture, and all-caps PULPY prose. There’s less focus on Howard’s
usual display of sensual and/or treacherous women in these Gordon stories than
one might see in one of Howard’s Conan works.
Iskander is
worth buying if you’re a fan of older pulp, can look past/stomach its biases,
and appreciate its hyperbolic, action-packed stories and Howard’s clear love of
bordering-on-poetic-prose language.
The remainder of Howard’s
Francis X. Gordon stories are collected in Son of the White Wolf.
Review, story by story
“The Daughter of Erlik Khan”:
Legendary, American adventurer Francis X. Gordon (aka El Borak) and his small
army of savage Turkoman face treachery, supernatural elements, physical
deprivation and constant violence on the way to (and inside) Mount Erlik Khan
after Gordon’s tricked into guiding two Englishman (Ormond and Pembroke) through
wild lands to satisfy their secret, murderous greed. Within the walled, gold-rich
and mountainous city of Mount Erlik Khan, he must also confront the priests of
the god Yolgan, who threaten his former lover (thought by some to be a
goddess), Yasmeena!
This twisty, cinematic-rich,
action fantasy tale is a constant-endorphin-hit work that succeeds in its
epic-tone ambition, a great read if you can get past its inherent, imperialist
racism.
“The Lost Valley of
Iskander”: Gordon, pursued and shot at by Gutsav Hunyadi, the wily and “satanic
Hungarian,” and his Central Asian hoards, carries Hunyadi’s proof-of-future-invasion
letter to Hunyadi’s Central Asian allies—Gordon means to warn Hunyadi’s initial
prey (those commanding Fort Ali Masjid) of the incoming threat. But first
Gordon must elude and, if possible, stop his devilish foe and his men!
While fleeing said invaders, Gordon
encounters newly met Bardylis, a blue-eyed blond young ally and one of many
“Sons of Iskander”—the descendants of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian soldiers
who, left in this isolated location thousands of years prior, built the
Grecian-influenced, walled town of Attalus. . . which is now Hunyadi’s new
target.
As is often the case with
Howard’s better-edited works, “Iskander” bristles with vivid images,
machismo-fueled intensity and immediate threat/action, woven through with a
fantastic sense-melding of real-world and imagined-realm history. Great,
short-for-Howard story.
“Hawk of the Hills”: The
Himalyas. After some of Gordon’s Afridi friends are betrayed and slaughtered
by Khorouk Orakzai and his Pathan henchmen in a “holocaust of murder,” Gordon
must escape their bloodthirsty numbers and regroup his surprising allies who’ve
been scattered. Can he do so in time to defeat the treacherous Orakzai and Afdal
Khan, who controls the region?
As in “The Lost Valley of
Iskander,” the tale begins in the middle of the action, this time with the legendary
“High Scotch and black Irish” adventurer hanging off the side of a cliffside
while his enemies stand below him. In the middle of all this crazy scramble plotting
and intense fighting is an Englishman, Sir George Willoughby, who’s been sent by
his government to quell the expanding dispute between Khan and Gordon’s forces.
“Hawk,” like Iskander’s other stories, is a fun, fast-paced, and
plot- and character-twisty read.
