The Haunter of the Ring and Other Tales, a part of the Wordsworth Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural series, collects some of the weird fiction of Robert E. Howard, a prolific contributor to pulp magazines throughout the 1920s and mid-1930s until his suicide in 1936. The quality of the stories in this anthology truly runs the gamut. It’s hard to determine any particular style, as it seems Howard wrote stories for submission to pulp magazines of the day, and tailored each to the prevailing style in vogue for that particular publication.

In the Forest of Villefore / Wolfshead - A pair of linked stories of lycanthropy open the anthology. Good gothic tales that move briskly and build to a strong climax.

The Dream Snake - Feverish tale of a recurring dream that purports a descent into insanity. A bit overheated and overwrought; Howard struggles to explain the complexities of his conception of the relationship and interaction of the “dream mind” and the waking mind. This one just didn’t work for me.

Hyena - Clear racist overtones sour this crudely written tale of a shapeshifting “savage”. Bland African jungle pulp of a very amateurish variety.

Sea Curse - After the death of her niece, Moll Farrell places a curse on rowdy seaman John Kurlek, who had shamed the young maiden. A solid sea yarn well told.

Skull-Face - Strange novella about Stephen Costigan, an addled dope fiend in Yun Shatu’s Temple of Dreams, a filthy den of degradation in London’s Limehouse district, where Kathulos, the skull-faced Master controls everyone within his realm! It’s one bizarre turn after another in this epic of pulp horror/noir madness.

The Fearsome Touch of Death - A trifle of a tale wherein a man agrees, as per the primitive custom and at the behest of the presiding doctor, to sit overnight with the corpse of Old Adam Farrel.

The Children of the Night - Thinly cloaked in pulp mythos, this is an abhorrent racist ode to the supremacy of the Aryan race and the inferiority of all others. Howard at his most repulsive.

And it’s at this point that I decided to go no further in the book. There may well be a few more pulpy gems ahead, but I’m unwilling to slog through any more of Howard’s offensive filth to reach them. ( )

Robert E. Howard works are the most versatile and imaginative that I’ve ever read.

Here we have a selection of his many horror tales. As much as I admire this gifted genius, his horror stories are my least favourite of all the genres he wrote. Some are brilliant and exciting, though on the whole I find them heavy-going; hard to digest. This could be down to him focusing more on creating an eerie atmosphere, when character focus would’ve been better.

That said, this is the best collection of his dark stories that I’ve read, and there’s more adventure and intrigue, with – on the most part – more emphasis on character than plot. ( )