Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8

Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8 (1948) This issue, edited by Donald A. Wollheim, collects fantasy and weird fiction from earlier pulp publications. The leading story is Robert E. Howard's "Queen of the Black Coast," featuring his Conan character on a pirate adventure in a fantastical African coast during the fictional "Hyborian age." Conan, fleeing Argosean authorities, boards a merchant galley commanded by Master Tito, who explains their route toward Cush. The narrative describes coasting past the lands of Shem and Stygia before encountering evidence of pirate raids in black coastal villages. The issue also includes "The Machine Man of Ardathia" by Francis Flagg, "Zero Hour" by Ray Bradbury, "The Man with a Thousand Legs" by Frank Belknap Long, Jr., H.P. Lovecraft's "The Temple," Algernon Blackwood's "The Other Wing," and other fantasy and weird tales by named authors including Mary Elizabeth Counselman and Ambrose Bierce.