Bob gets called out on account of a monster program called SATAN STARE, that ties back into some past work for the Laundry and others.He has to recruit, quickly, a pretty with it cop, and she helps him combat the beast, and the odd zombie.

    yet some would ensnare him in the city's intrigues: the beautiful Princess Afrianda, with powers she does not fully understand herself, and Zaius, foremost swordsman of the Temple warriors. Their paths are like nothing Conan has seen before, following labyrinthine trails he cannot imagine, thrusting him toward banishment or death. And in the dying city of Sark, the soulless High Priest Khumanos wields the legendary Sword of Onothimantos and schemes for the return of ancient gods. Qjara does not want Conan, but only one man can prevent the sacrifice of the city to the Tree of Mouths. Only one-- Conan the Outcast

    

    It was later included as part of his first published book, The Opener of the Way (1945), and his 1994 collection The Early Fears. As a Cthulhu Mythos tale it is notable for introducing the forbidden tome De Vermis Mysteriis (Mysteries of the Worm), and being a prequel to Lovecraft's own short story The Haunter of the Dark, which was dedicated to Bloch.-- Wikipedia

    Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Classic characters like these made sword and sorcery a storytelling sensation, a cornerstone of fantasy fiction — and an inspiration for a new generation of writers, spinning their own outsize tales of magic and swashbuckling adventure. Now, in the Book of Swords, acclaimed editor and bestselling author Gardner Dozois presents an all-new anthology of original epic tales by a stellar cast of award-winning modern masters — many of them set in their authors’ best-loved worlds. Join today’s finest tellers of fantastic tales, including George R.R. Martin, K.J. Parker, Robin Hobb, Ken Liu, C.J. Cherryh, Daniel Abraham, Lavie Tidhar, Ellen Kushner, and more on action-packed journeys into the outer realms of dark enchantment and intrepid derring-do, featuring a stunning assortment of fearless swordsmen and warrior women who face down danger and death at every turn with courage, cunning, and cold steel.Contents:- The Best Man Wins by K.J. Parker- Her Father’s Sword by Robin Hobb- The Hidden Girl by Ken Liu- The Sword of Destiny by Matthew Hughes- "I Am a Handsome Man", Said Apollo Crow by Kate Elliott- The Triumph of Virtue by Walter Jon Williams- The Mocking Tower by Daniel Abraham- Hrunting by C.J. Cherryh- A Long, Cold Trail by Garth Nix- When I Was a Highwayman by Ellen Kushner- The Smoke of Gold Is Glory by Scott Lynch- The Colgrid Conundrum by Rich Larson- The King’s Evil by Elizabeth Bear- Waterfalling by Lavie Tidhar - The Sword Tyraste by Cecelia Holland- The Sons of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin

    Robert E. Howard created the genre with his original stories; Frank Frazetta's definitive Conan book covers set the standard for dynamic fantasy artwork; Roy Thomas, with Barry Windsor-Smith and later John Buscema, used the character to push the boundaries of comic-book adventure; and Arnold Schwarzenegger launched an amazing film career with his iconic portrayal of the barbarian. Conan historian Paul M. Sammon looks at all the stages of the character's development, with commentary and archival material from the most integral players in that history.

    I have spent my life under his saddle - with him in it, too, and he is good for two hundred pounds, without his clothes; and there is no telling how much he does weigh when he is out on the war-path and has his batteries belted on. He is over six feet, is young, hasn't an ounce of waste flesh, is straight, graceful, springy in his motions, quick as a cat, and has a handsome face, and black hair dangling down on his shoulders, and is beautiful to look at; and nobody is braver than he is, and nobody is stronger, except myself. Yes, a person that doubts that he is fine to see should see him in his beaded buck-skins, on my back and his rifle peeping above his shoulder, chasing a hostile trail, with me going like the wind and his hair streaming out behind from the shelter of his broad slouch. Yes, he is a sight to look at then - and I'm part of it myself. I am his favorite horse, out of dozens. Big as he is, I have carried him eighty-one miles between nightfall and sunrise on the scout; and I am good for fifty, day in and day out, and all the time. I am not large, but I am built on a business basis. I have carried him thousands and thousands of miles on scout duty for the army, and there's not a gorge, nor a pass, nor a valley, nor a fort, nor a trading post, nor a buffalo-range in the whole sweep of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains that we don't know as well as we know the bugle-calls. He is Chief of Scouts to the Army of the Frontier, and it makes us very important. In such a position as I hold in the military service one needs to be of good family and possess an education much above the common to be worthy of the place. I am the best-educated horseoutside of the hippodrome, every-body says, and the best-mannered. It may be so, it is not for me to say; modesty is the best policy, I think. Buffalo Bill taught me the most of what I know, my mother taught me much, and I taught myself the rest. Lay a row of moccasins before me - Pawnee, Sioux, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, and as many other tribes as you please - and I can name the tribe every moccasin belongs to by the make of it. Name it in horse-talk, and could do it in American if I had speech.

    Howard's gorgeous world of enchantment, swordplay, glittering jewels, beautiful women, danger and passion come alive in this lushly illustrated book! This is the first new Conan adventure in years!Cover art by Sanjulián

    He is one of just a handful of characters in sword-and-sworcery fiction who have had a seminal impact on the entire genre, and his compelling tale and tortured conscience have inspired countless rendering by artists both famed and unknown. Elric has even inspired songs from groups as diverse as Hakwind and Blue Oyster Cult to Cirith Ungol and the Tygers of Pan Tang.

    Howard and further chronicled by other fantasy greats, including such notables as L. Sprague de Camp, Poul Anderson, and Robert Jordan.Now Harry Turtledove, one of today's most popular writers of fantasy and SF, contributes a novel to the Conan saga--a tale of Conan in his youth, in the year or so before he becomes the wandering adventurer we know from the tales of Howard and others.On the verge of adulthood, he lives in a Cimmerian hamlet, caring for his ailing mother, working in his father's smithy, and casting his eye on the weaver's daughter next door.Then war comes: an invasion by the Aquilonian Empire. Conan burns to join the fight, but he's deemed too young. Then, from the border country, comes an unbelievable report: The Aquilonians have smashed the Cimmerian defending forces, and can rule as they please. Soon their heavily garrisoned forts dot the countryside. Their settlers follow after, carving homesteads out of other men's land.Every Cimmerian longs to drive the intruders out with fire and sword, but they must stay their hands, for the Aquilonians have promised savage reprisals. Then, intolerably, the Aquilonian commander takes a wholly dishonorable interest in the weaver's daughter -- and he's not a man to wait, or even ask permission.It's not a recipe for a peaceable outcome.

    Yet it all began with a handful of stories from Robert E. Howard. In the decades since, there have been feature films, television and comic book series, and numerous spin-off novels. In 1979, Poul Anderson—winner of a staggering eight Hugo and three Nebula Awards—wrote what is regarded as one of the finest adventures in the canon of Conan: Conan the Rebel. Conan the barbarian and Belit, his raven-haired beauty, lead a band of savage pirates striving to free Belit’s people from the iron grip of an evil reptile god and its cruel minions. Striking at the heart of tyranny, Conan must break the chains of oppression before eternal darkness claims them all.

    they had other plans... (note: very short story!)

    

    LovecraftNew Tales of Terror!What would happen if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's peerless detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his allies were to find themselves faced with Lovecraftian mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but beyond sanity itself. In this collection of original tales, twenty of today's cutting-edge writers provide answers to that burning question.Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Brian Stableford, Poppy Z. Bright, Barbara Hambly, Steve Perry, and Caitlin R. Kierman. These and other masters of horror, mystery, fantasy and science fiction spin dark tales within a terrifyingly surreal universe.Includes the Hugo Award-winning story A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman.Cover design: David StevensonCover Illustration: John Jude Palencar

    First, a cave-boy loses his mother, falls in love, and learns a deadly lesson. He is followed by an extraordinary cast of characters: a murderess who impersonates her victim; a fisherman who believes he has become a different species; a Roman emissary who realizes the bitter truth about the Empire; a crippled nun who is healed miraculously by a disturbing apparition; an old crusader whose faith is destroyed by witnessing the ultimate relic; two witches, lovers, who burn at the stake. Each related tale traces a path in a journey of discovery of the secrets of the land.In the tradition of Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill, Schwob's Imaginary Lives, and Borges' A Universal History of Infamy, Moore travels through history, blending truth and conjecture, in a novel that is dazzling, moving, sometimes tragic, but always mesmerizing.This edition presents Voice of the Fire for the first time in hardcover format, with full color illustrations by Jose Villarrubia.