Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume One

If, like me, you've hunted for Harold Lamb's stories dispersed in old and rare magazines and books long out of print and despaired that you would ever have them all - you will be grateful to Howard Jones for collecting and editing them. I am, even more so because I got to know Howard towards the end of this enterprise and got a glimpse of how huge and intricate his job was. If you've ever dreamed of adventures in a world younger than ours, where bravery and cunning count for something and danger or treasure could wait around the next bend of the road - these stories are for you. If you've ever wished for tales that would let you breathe the sharp air of the Hindukush range, feel the burning sun of the deserts, taste the dust of the steppes, see the Cossacks or nomads quarrel, fight and revel - these stories are certainly for you. Get all four volumes and ride with Khlit, a cunning old Cossack retired from the Sietch, who keeps looking for adventures, alone or with a few companions, in lands where if your hosts regret your parting you never know whether they found your company good or whether they regret they did not have enough time to rob you. Read these stories, enjoy them and tell your friends!

For honest disclosure, the editor, Howard Andrew Jones, is a friend and colleague. But that won't stop me from saying "wow". The first tale of Khlit starts off the character at the very audacious age of 50-ish. And Khlit ages as the series goes on. To have this wiley old man have to think his way through the traps and conflicts that beset him and not just rely on sword and brawn, is just so damn cool. Others have noted how modern Harold Lamb writes. I concur. His prose is evocative without being overly flowery. He sketches a world that is deep and dangerous, but never gets in the way of the story. And Lamb's exploration of cultures and religions of this region, well, I think that Khlit and Lamb expose us to some very thought provoking situations that pertain to our world, NOW. After all, this is the world of Turkey to China. I think there are some events happening in that area these days that are of import. I'm not saying that this is a history lesson in these pages....but history and culture are nonetheless taught as we follow the wandering Cossack.

I bought this book (and the companion volume) after reading some of Lamb's work in the 'Flashing Swords' ezine and anthology from Pitch-Black Press (Sages and Swords). I'd never heard of Lamb before--and now I've read his work, I'm stumped if I know why that is. Everything that's good about adventure fiction is in this book: strong and cunning protagonists, treacherous villains, and exotic locales, and all written in a clean and fast-paced prose style I wish I could emulate. I read the whole thing in a week, then read the other volume straight after. When I finished, I went back and read them again. My only caveat about the books has nothing to do with the stories, but the covers. The stock used for the covers is a little thin, and it warps badly if it gets damp. If you do buy a copy (and you should), then keep the cover away from water, otherwise it will curl and start to come apart. If you're at all interested in adventure fiction, you should buy this book and any others by Lamb you can. Really, they're very, very good. [This is the same review I wrote for the other of the two books currently available--but I read them both at the same time, and I have the same comments about both, so ...)

It is a real pleasure to see these grand, rich, and full blooded adventure tales return to print. Many of Harold Lamb's Cossack tales have been unavailable for decades. Now they are, and shall be, collected into book form in reading order. But don't let that stop you from skipping around. These tales are readable in any order. Harold Lamb begain his writing carreer with fiction before moving to his famous biographies and historical narratives. Among those tales are those of Khlit the Cossack. Here is a character to ride with Taras Bulba and cut from the same cloth. Originally published in the early pulps, a handful of these tales appeared in later, and now sometimes hard to find anthologies. This book is the first of a projected four volumes of ALL the collected Cossack tales of Harold Lamb. These are pure adventure stories with no -isms or political agendas, no techincal inovations to save the day or clutter the landscape. These tales are well written by a fellow who did his homework. These are thrills made plausible with plain writing. Battle, plots, sudden action, and epic scope crowd the pages. You are caught up in some of the finest writing right from the pages of historical action and romance, among the best of the pulp writers. Khlit, the Wolf of the Steppes, and a load of colorful characters, both friend and enemy, all come intensely alive with quickly moving drama involving war and peace, loyalty, intrigue, sometimes grim humor, fear, and all as told with supurb dash and writing as only from the pen of Harold Lamb. There is neven an idle moment and as always, Mr. Lamb had a real talent for writing well and above all, he keeps the reader entertained. Thank you Mr. Howard Jones and those folks at Bison Books for reprinting this wonderful series. M. Clagett

"One of the finest adventure fiction writers of the twentieth century."-Robert Weinberg. "Lamb knew how to write straight-ahead adventure the way Michelangelo knew how to paint."-S. M. Stirling. "They are tales of wild adventure, full of swordplay, plots, treachery, startling surprises, mayhem, and massacre, laid in the most exotic setting that one can imagine and still stay in a known historical period on this planet."-L. Sprague de Camp Master of driving pace, exotic setting, and complex plotting, Harold Lamb was one of Robert E. Howard's favorite writers. Here at last is every pulse-pounding, action-packed story of Lamb's greatest hero, the wolf of the steppes, Khlit the Cossack. Journey now with the unsung grandfather of sword and sorcery in search of ancient tombs, gleaming treasure, and thrilling landscapes. Match wits with deadly swordsmen, scheming priests, and evil cults. Rescue lovely damsels, ride with bold comrades, and hazard everything on your brains and skill and a little luck. Wolf of the Steppes is the first of a four-volume set that collects, for the first time, the complete Cossack stories of Harold Lamb and presents them in order: every adventure of Khlit the Cossack and those of his friends, allies, and fellow Cossacks, many of which have never before appeared between book covers. Compiled and edited by the Harold Lamb scholar Howard Andrew Jones, each volume features never-before reprinted essays Lamb wrote about his stories, informative introductions by popular authors, and a wealth of rare, exciting, swashbuckling fiction. In this first volume, Khlit infiltrates a hidden fortress of assassins, tracks down the tomb of Genghis Khan, flees the vengeance of a dead emperor, leads the Mongol horde against impossible odds, accompanies the stunning Mogul queen safely through the land of her enemies, and much more. This is the stuff of grand adventure, from the pen of an American Dumas.