|
|
|
||||||||
David Barbour and Richard Raleigh
Shadows Bend
Ace
ISBN: 0441007651
October 2000
Trade Paperback
I was more than a little skeptical when I picked up David Barbour and Richard Raleigh's "Shadows Bend" (Ace). After all, the main characters are two writers that I admire -- H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard -- and I didn't want to see their names sullied in a hack job.
I shouldn't have worried. Barbour and Raleigh did their homework, researching biographies and delving into the works of Lovecraft and Howard to produce a tribute fitting of the two pulp legends.
Lovecraft and Howard kept up a well-documented correspondence for many years, but the two men never met. In "Shadows Bend," Barbour and Raleigh ask what if the two had met with the fate of the world in the balance.
It's 1935, and Lovecraft has come to a startling discovery. He's recently received an artifact that suggests the Cthulhu Mythos he's written about for years is not just a figment of his imagination. Lovecraft's suspicions are confirmed when another friend, the poet Clark Ashton Smith, discovers a copy of "The Necronomicon" by the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred -- a tome Lovecraft thought existed only in his stories. What's more, the author is convinced that Cthulhu and the Old Ones are attempting to break into the world and it's up to him to stop them.
Lovecraft travels from New England to Texas to meet up with his friend Howard. A third member is added to the party when Howard defends Glory McKenna from a group of oilfield roughnecks and then ends up giving her a ride to her sister's home in Las Vegas. The ride lasts much longer. Pursued by a couple of strange men, the trio makes its way to Smith's primitive home in California, where "the three musketeers of Weird Tales" finally meet over the horrific pages of "The Necronomicon." From there, Howard, Lovecraft and Glory head to the New Mexico desert to prevent an ancient evil from entering the world.
While the story itself would be intriguing for any fan of Lovecraft or Howard, the real strength of this book is the portrayal of the men themselves. Lovecraft is prim, proper and a bit pretentious. One of the first people he meets in Cross Plains, Texas, a storeowner, immediately identifies him as a Yankee, then amends that to "a Yankee who thinks he's a Redcoat, no less." Howard, on the other hand, has more of a simple, good ol' boy outlook on life. The characters provide an interesting counterpoint to each other, which makes for some nice tension that has nothing at all to do with Old Ones or Cthulhu.
Howard dislikes Lovecraft's propensity to use big words and talk in circles just as much as Lovecraft disdains Howard's blunt, straightforward manner of speech. Howard's proud of his status as one of the "kings of pulp," while Lovecraft sniffs at the designation. The pair disagree on seemingly every aspect of life, but at the same time they have a great deal in common.
Shades of Lovecraft and Howard's work also permeate "Shadows Bend." Aside from the obvious threat of Cthulhu and the Old Ones or the discovery of "The Necronomicon," we see in Lovecraft many of the traits and mannerisms of his protagonists. He's frail, frugal, eccentric and prefers to use his brain to get out of a jam, just like most of his heroes. Howard takes on many of the traits of his legendary hero Conan. He cuts an imposing figure and tends to leap into the fray and consider the consequences later. Glory is an even more interesting character. At times she seems like one of the helpless "damsels in distress" with Howard's Conan dashing to the rescue. At other times -- especially in the latter half of the book -- she seems like a fiery warrior, more akin to Red Sonja.
While the characters of Howard and Lovecraft are based on real people and Barbour and Raleigh did use L. Sprague de Camp's biographies for many of the details, they are still mostly fictional. Still, I'd like to believe the two writers I admire were at least a little like these two eccentric characters. I'd also like think they'd truly appreciate "Shadows Bend."
Buy Shadows Bend
Return to archive.