Black Vulmea’s Vengeance is a collection of three Robert E. Howard stories (novellas and/or novelettes–I didn’t perform a word count.) Two feature the title character, Black Terence Vulmea, an Irish pirate of the sixteenth century. The third, while not a Vulmea story, carries on the piratical theme.
As you’d expect, Howard sinks his teeth into pirate stories as neatly as he does westerns, boxing stories, and adventure pieces set in any other historical era and setting. After all, Conan spent more than his share of time striding a bloody deck. Howard is more than at home in these tales.
The first story, Swords of the Red Brotherhood, takes place on the Pacific Coast, presumably somewhere in California. It involves three competing bands–two pirate crews and one a displaced French nobleman fleeing a horror of his past–and a hidden pirate horde. Vulmea arrives via land, having traversed the southwestern part of the continent from a shipwreck presumably on the Texas coast. He has history with the two pirates. There is a lot of backstory that is seamlessly interwoven into the story. A couple of women help move the narrative. There is plenty of action with Indian attacks and conflict among the competing parties. Pirate tropes, including dead men guarding treasure, help establish the atmosphere. And, intriguingly, there is a supernatural element connected with the terror pursuing the French nobleman. This element is overt enough that it can’t be entirely dismissed as coincidence. In fact, I can imagine Black Vulmea and Solomon Kane inhabiting the same universe, perhaps with overlapping careers. That would be an encounter, as the two would likely be antagonistic.
The second story, Black Vulmea’s Vengeance, finds Vulmea captured by the British, his crew slain, his ship sunk. He avoids hanging from the yard arm by spinning a tale of hidden treasure, not because he is in fear of his life, but because he recognizes the captain of the British ship and has a score to settle. Vulmea leads the captain and a small shore party inland to a lost city he’d visited before, knowing he is taking them into a death trap. This story’s fantastical element is more of the Lost World type. It works well with the story. Howard again shows his deft hand with action, and this being Howard, we get a giant snake. But what stands out is Howard’s clever shift against narrative expectations and the ultimate revenge Vulmea actually takes. Show this story to anyone who thinks Howard couldn’t write complex characters.
The final story, The Isle of Pirates’ Doom, is told in first person. Unlike nearly everyone in the book so far, the narrator, Stephen Harmer, is an honorable, honest man, a shipwrecked sailor who loathes pirates. Onto his deserted island comes a boat from a ship, dropping off eight pirates, one of how assaults another and runs off into the jungle. Harmer locates this one, discovering she is a notorious pirate by the name of Helen Tavrel, a character who’d feel comfortable in the company of Red Sonya or Valeria. Harmer and Tavrel make common cause against the other pirates who are there in search of–naturally–a hidden treasure. There is a romance angle largely absent from the other two stories that is handled fairly well. Again we get a Lost World fantastical element. And snakes, though not on as grand of a scale. The final showdown in the mysterious temple is clever, and again Howard zigs where he might have been expected to zag.
In all, a nice collection. Not a dud in the bunch. It will sit nicely on my shelf with my increasing collection of Zebra’s REH collections.
If you’d like to add an adventure volume to your shelves, I’d suggest Twilight Galaxy: Dekason. Read it soon before the second book of the series lands at the end of July.
