Where to Start With Harold Lamb by Howard Andrew Jones It wasn’t so long ago that the fiction of Harold Lamb was best known only as a footnote in the old Lancer Conan books, mentioned in passing as being important and influential but almost completely unavailable. All that could be found of his prose were some late novels and his biographies, and, fine as those biographies are, neither were foundational works of sword-and-sorcery. Today, though, most of Lamb’s fiction is in print once more,* and fairly easy to lay hands on, just like the histories, many of which are retained to this day by libraries across the United States. So much is out there now it can actually be difficult to know where to start. You need no longer scratch your head in wonder, however – this essay will show you the way. First, to be clear, Lamb wrote some of the most engaging histories and biographies not just of his day but of all time. His non-fiction reads with the pacing of a skilled novelist and is the polar opposite of the stereotypical dry history book. His histories of The Crusades, Hannibal, Tamerlane, and, of course, Genghis Khan (particularly his March of the Barbarians, which is the history of the Mongolian Empire, not just the life of Genghis Khan) are all great reads, as are many of his other books. Some of them (for example, Charlemagne, Alexander the Great, and Cyrus the Great) are a peculiar hybrid of biography and historical novel that some people absolutely love, although I’ve always found them a little mismatched, as though he couldn’t quite decide if he were sewing up a garment to wear for a ball or a barbecue. If you want to get to the influential fiction material, however, allow me to suggest two starting points. If you’re already a fan of Robert E. Howard and have read and loved his historical fiction, then start with the tales collected in Swords From the West. Every tale within features Crusaders in one way or another, each culled from old Adventure magazine or the later so-called “slick” magazines (to distinguish them from the cheaper pulps). Those from the slicks tend to be more formulaic, though enjoyable, whereas those from Lamb’s pulp days are more inventive and surprising. All but two are standalone,...