Review of The Fire of Asshurbanipal
At first, this appears to be a story wherein many typical elements occur. In fact, it bears some similarities to The Thing on the Roof. However, I appreciate how some details make sense, rather than appearing to be dues ex machinas. For example,
Having a story with some traditional elements such as a city in ruins in a desert and Arabs being fought by and around it (not really spoilers since its first page stuff) is okay when surrounded by a writer who gives you obvious reasons to believe the story. I appreciate little details like that. This is a very traditional Howard story in a lot of ways. Despite the presence of Arabs and guns, you can just feel that this is a Conan story or a Kull story. It has a lot of similarities between them. The next story will have even more similarities.
I like the location and the story. Again, it’s a story light on Mythos elements, and it just pushes you into the story and the world. A lot of later stories by authors that come by will push the Mythos too much in their story, and every single person has a copy of the Necronomicon and knows of Cthulhu and names are dropped all over. Consider how light some of the stories we’ve read, such as The Colour out of Space, this, and a few others have been. This is a masterful understanding of showing the world, but not getting wrapped up in the details.
Anyway, I give it a 4 stars out of 5. It’s not Howard at his best, but he’s on his game.