{"id":374,"date":"2007-01-09T15:59:59","date_gmt":"2007-01-09T15:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/?p=374"},"modified":"2012-02-27T14:23:14","modified_gmt":"2012-02-27T14:23:14","slug":"cross-plains-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/?p=374","title":{"rendered":"Cross Plains Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross Plains Universe<\/em> edited by Scott A. Cupp & Joe R. Lansdale<\/h3>\n

Six people gathered at Charles and Willie\u2019s home for this meeting. Our topic was Cross Plains Universe<\/em>, an anthology of stories that honor the work of Robert E. Howard. All of the authors in the book are Texans. The book was co-published by FACT and Monkeybrain and released at the 2006 World Fantasy Convention in Austin. All of us had read Robert E. Howard before, and most had read at least some of the authors whose work appears here.<\/p>\n

The stories in the book mostly fell into a few categories: Heroic Fantasy, Westerns, and stories featuring Robert E. Howard himself. We were surprised that there were no stories about boxers or sailors, who were featured prominently in Howard\u2019s fiction.<\/p>\n

Three stories by relatively little-known authors were mentioned favorably by everyone at the meeting. \u201cA Penny a Word\u201d by Rick Klaw and Paul O. Miles is a clever secret history about the publishers of Howard\u2019s work. \u201cThe Toughest Jew in the West\u201d by Lawrence Person intricately weaves diverse elements including Western fiction, martial arts, golems, and religion into a wonderful and humorous whole. Melissa Mia Hall\u2019s \u201cThe Sea of Grass on the Day of Wings,\u201d a beautifully-written tale of Robert E. Howard\u2019s last day on Earth, would not surprise us if nominated for a major award.<\/p>\n

We liked several other stories. Jayme Lynn Blaschke\u2019s \u201cPrince Koindrindra Escapes\u201d is a fun twist on King Kong, with perhaps the most tenuous connection to the anthology\u2019s theme. \u201cThe Jewel of Leystall\u201d by Chris Roberson feels like an authentic REH-style fantasy adventure. We had fun with Jessica Reisman\u2019s young adult fantasy \u201cTwo Hearts in Zamora.\u201d Chris Nakashima-Brown\u2019s \u201cThe Bunker of the Tikriti\u201d is a clever and effective modern-day retelling of REH\u2019s classic \u201cTower of the Elephant.\u201d \u201cBoomtown Bandits\u201d by L. J. Washburn is a fun mystery set in Cross Plains, where Robert E. Howard himself gets to play detective.<\/p>\n

Some of the better stories in the book were written by well-established writers. Neal Barrett, Jr.\u2019s \u201cThe Heart\u201d is a wondrous Texas tall tale that ranks among his best work. Scott A. Cupp\u2019s \u201cOne Fang\u201d is a delightful and well-told Western horror story. And Michael Moorcock\u2019s \u201cThe Roaming Forest\u201d is an imaginative heroic fantasy that reads like a great lost REH story.<\/p>\n

Every story in the book had its admirers. We felt this was a strong anthology, and we offer kudos to the editors for their hard work and good taste.<\/p>\n

At the end of the meeting, two people who had not read the book arrived to join us for dinner. We had a nice meal at Hyde Park Grill South.<\/p>\n

— A. T. Campbell, III<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross Plains Universe edited by Scott A. Cupp & Joe R. Lansdale Six people gathered at Charles and Willie\u2019s home for this meeting. Our topic was Cross Plains Universe, an anthology of stories that honor the work of Robert E. Howard. All of the authors in the book are Texans. The book was co-published by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}