Francis Xavier Gordon — El Borak — is a quintessential Robert E. Howard hero. He is an American, a crack shot and wickedly fast swordsman, an intrepid and renowned explorer of the East, featured in conversations in caravanserai to bazaar from Kabul to Delhi. The Lost Valley of Iskander collects three tales of El Borak.
The Daughter of Erlik Khan. We meet El Borak guiding a pair of Englishmen who employed him under false pretenses. We encounter a number of competing tribes in the mountains of Afghanistan and learn of the mysterious Mount Erlik Khan. Duplicity, battles, secret passages, dark caverns, and swordplay follow. As is almost inevitable in this sort of adventure yarn, coincidence and contrivance play their parts. But also, inevitably, Howard carries us through with verve, kinetic action, and sheer bravura.
The Lost Valley of Iskander. A lost race story. Tale of a forgotten tribe of descendants of Alexander’s Macedonians seem to have been popular at the time, c.f. A. Merritt’s The Metal Monster. Compared to Daughter, Lost Valley is slighter, the plot simpler. But its compactness works for it, providing a streamlined, rousing action yarn of a secluded tribe (aided by El Borak) facing an attack from a (somewhat) more modern foe.
Hawk of the Hills. El Borak in a tale of revenge and tribal warfare, told primarily from the point of view of an English diplomat/frontier fixer. This is solid action fare, with gunfights galore, and El Borak always a step ahead of his foes.
I consider this collection to be a fine companion volume to Swords of Shahrazar. And Michael William Kaluta’s interior illustrations are a pleasant bonus.
Richard Avery’s Expendables 2: The Rings of Tantalus doesn’t miss a beat following volume 1. The story continues to convey peak 1970s men’s sci-fi flare. It is thus, in essence, more of the same. But if you liked that first glass of beer, why not order another? The Expendables must prove another world safe for human habitation and face a mysterious threat. The subplot of a saboteur in the ranks is carried through nicely, keeping the tension high. Fun, fast-paced, and quite short. Formatted more compactly it might not come in more than 150 pages.
If you are looking for another fun, fast-paced series to read, give Falchion’s Company a read, available in print, digital, and audio formats.
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