Men, Women and Guns by Sapper

This collection of short stories are generally written from the point of view of British Army officers during the First World War.

The story lines are conventional, sentimental and often propelled by improbable coincidences, much like the style of O. Henry. As a circa 1916 wartime collection the Germans are uniformly found to be ‘villainous Hun.’ A great value of the book is the insight the stories provide into life in the fighting trenches and how the brutality of trench warfare affects the characters. McNeile, a serving officer on the Western Front, takes great patience to explain this to the presumably unknowledgeable reader. After the war McNeile became a best-selling author, writing the melodramatic Bulldog Drummond series of novels and plays.

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Under the Deodars by Rudyard Kipling

A collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling.
Contents: The education of Otis Yeere — At the pit s mouth — A wayside comedy — The hill of illusion — A second-rate woman — Only a subalter — In the matter of a private.

The Education of Otis Yeere
Mrs. Hauksbee decides to start a salon in Simla, but Mrs. Mallowe talks her out of it. She then explains to Mrs. Hauksbee that she’s experiencing a mid-life crisis and that she came out of her own by becoming an Influence in the life of a young man.

At the Pit’s Mouth
The wife of a man who is serving in the plains of India, leaving her alone in Simla, enters into an extra-marital affair with a ‘Tertium quid’. They often rendezvous at the cemetery.

A Wayside Comedy
Major and Mrs. Vansuythen come to live at the station of Kashima. After a time, Mrs. Boulte comes to suspect that her husband has fallen for Mrs. Vansuythen.

The Hill of Illusion
A man just come back from the plains of India to see his fiancee, but becomes jealous when he learns that she has been keeping appointments with other men while he has been away.

A Second-rate Woman
Mrs. Hauksbee gossips with Mrs. Mallowe and is highly critical of Mrs. Delville, whom she calls ‘The Dowd’ (on account of her out-of-style dress), and a man whom she calls ‘The Dancing Master’ (because he dances so poorly), who seems to be courting her.

Only a Subaltern
Bobby Wick is made a subaltern and he joins a regiment called the Tyneside Tail Twisters. One of the soldiers, Dormer, has a temper and is constantly getting into trouble. Bobby takes him fishing and makes friends with him, eventually inspiring him to improve his behaviour and become a better soldier.

In the Matter of a Private
A soldier in barracks snaps under repeated teasing and takes his rifle to his tormentor.

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Soldiers Three and Other Stories by Rudyard Kipling

This 1899 collection of short stories concerns the soldiers Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris, who had also appeared previously in the collection Plain Tales from the Hills.

The Soldiers Three and other stories, consists of three sections which each had previously received separate publication in 1888; Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris appear only in the first section, which is also titled Soldiers Three. The books reveal a side of the British Tommy in Afghanistan rarely seen in the Twilight of the British Empire. The soldiers comment on their betters, act the fool, but cut straight to the rawness of war in the mid-east as the British began to loosen their Imperial hold.

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The Witch from Hell’s Kitchen by Robert E. Howard

The novel features a muscular hero known on earth as Esau Cairn. He is transported through space to a world known as Almuric by unspecified scientific methods. While there he battles with frightening monsters and beautiful women. Cairn becomes known as the Iron Hand due to his powerful punches and boxing skills.

The novel shares similar elements with the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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The Devil in Iron by Robert E. Howard

In “The Devil in Iron,” an ancient demon, Khosatral Khel, is awakened on the remote island of Xapur due to the meddling of a greedy fisherman. Upon reawakening, Khel resurrects the ancient fortress which once dominated the island, including its cyclopean walls, gigantic pythons, and long-dead citizens.

Meanwhile, Conan — a leader of the Vilayet kozaks — is tricked by the villainous Turan governor Jehungir Agha into pursuing the lovely Octavia to the island of Xapur. Jehungir Agha plans for Conan to fall into a prepared trap on the island. The unforeseen resurrection of the island demon and its ancient fortress, however, interrupts these plans.

When Conan arrives on Xapur, he must defeat not only the forces of the Agha led by Jelal Khan, but a giant serpent as well, and the iron-fleshed monstrosity that is Khosatral Khel.

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Red Nails by Robert E. Howard

One of the strangest stories ever written — the tale of a barbarian adventurer, a woman pirate, and a weird roofed city inhabited by the most peculiar race of men ever spawned!

That was the Weird Tales editor’s original terse blurb for this story’s magazine publication. (There was another, longer less coherent, but it wouldn’t fit here on the back cover.) Death! Decay! Red Nails really is something special. It’s classic Conan! Conan lovers consider Red Nails to be one of the best, and you know, they make a point.

“Red Nails” is the last of the stories about Conan the Cimmerian written by American author Robert E. Howard. A novella, it was originally serialized in Weird Tales magazine from July to October 1936. It is set in the pseudohistorical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan encountering a lost city in which the degenerate inhabitants are proactively resigned to their own destruction. Due to its grim themes of decay and death, the story is considered a classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his best tales.

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Queen of the Black Coast by Robert E. Howard

It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan becoming a notorious pirate and plundering the coastal villages of Kush alongside Bêlit, a head-strong femme fatale.

Due to its epic scope and atypical romance, the story is considered an undisputed classic of Conan lore and is often cited by Howard scholars as one of his most famous tales.

In Queen of the Black Coast, Conan joins with Belit, the magnificent pirate queen, whose fathers were the kings of Askalon! There is a frightening conflict with a monster winged ape before the sorrowful passing of the Queen of the Black Coast. She who belonged to the sea; to its everlasting mystery he returned her.Queen of the Black Coast also contains a second Conan story — The Vale of Lost Women, in which the massive Cimmerian rescues the girl Livia from her barbarous captors.

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Black Colossus by Robert E. Howard

It is set in the pseudo-historical Hyborian Age and concerns Conan leading the demoralized army of Khoraja against an evil sorcerer named Natohk, “the Veiled One.”

“Black Colossus” is one of the original short stories starring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian, written by American author Robert E. Howard and first published in Weird Tales magazine, June 1933.

This story formed part of the basis for the later Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon.