I have been rereading Robert E. Howard's Conan stories again (I know that the thread starter wanted something akin to him, but I didn't want to start a new thread). The one's that Del Rey released a few years ago (untouched and unedited). I had forgotten how much I love his style of story-telling. I have his complete Conan yarns as well as his Kull, Bran Mak Morn, and Solomon Kane tales.
So far I have reread the following:
-The Phoenix On the Sword
"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet..."
-The Frost Giant's Daughter
"The clangor of the swords had died away, the shouting of the slaughter was hushed; silence lay on the red-stained snow. The bleak pale sun that glittered so blindingly from the ice-fields and the snow-covered plains struck sheens of silver from rent corselet and broken blade, where the dead lay as they had fallen. The nerveless hand yet gripped the broken hilt; helmeted heads back-drawn in the death-throes, tilted red beards and golden beards grimly upward, as if in last invocation to Ymir the frost-giant, god of a warrior-race..."
-The God In the Bowl
"Arus the watchman grasped his crossbow with shaky hands, and he felt beads of clammy perspiration on his skin as he stared at the unlovely corpse sprawling on the polished floor before him. It is not pleasant to come upon Death in a lonely place at midnight..."
-The Tower of the Elephant
"Torches flared murkily on the revels in the Maul, where the thieves of the East held carnival by night. In the Maul they could carouse and roar as they liked, for honest people shunned the quarters, and watchmen, well paid with stained coins, did not interfere with their sport..."
-The Scarlet Citadel
"You sit on satin and guzzle wine the people sweat for, and talk of divine rights of sovereignty — bah! I climbed out of the abyss of naked barbarism to the throne and in that climb I spilt my blood as freely as I spilt that of others. If either of us has the right to rule men, by Crom, it is I!"
The God In the Bowl is my favorite (so far) after reading these again. I love the slow buildup, and the mystery aspect of the tale. It has great atmosphere.
Have you read all of these and his other yarns yet? If so, which is your favorite(s)?