num_pages: 241
description: When Vegtam the Wanderer came to Herod-Thaar he was expecting good coin to play his lute and sing. Instead he kills a snake-man and has to go on the run with Tawna, the beautiful tavern wench. Their only possible escape from the reptilian-ruled city is a path through the demon-haunted ruins of Nephasth. Will Vegtam and Tawna escape the horrors closing in on them, let alone those that lie ahead? Find out in this collection of six savage sword-and-sorcery tales from the pen of Howie K. Bentley!   His series reminds me of 1970s sword and sorcery along the lines of Karl Edward Wagner or in Swords Against Darkness. There is a very memorable plot and secondary characters. I will remember this story in the future, which is one of the highest compliments I can give. – Morgan Holmes (Castalia House)  Bentley’s prose is good, and his sense of pacing on target. He’s done a good job here, successfully melding mystery, creepy atmospherics, and bloodletting, creating a tale that would be right at home in one of Lin Carter’s or Andrew Offutt’s anthologies. I can’t give a story a better commendation than that. – Fletcher Vredenburgh (Black Gate)  …Where There Is No Sanctuary by Howie K. Bentley is next and it is a real punch in the face. This might be my favorite story in the issue. A werewolf warrior cuts his way through a demonic tower that has fallen out of time. Lots of action, horror, and imagination. This is the type of material that I read Cirsova for. – wastelandandsky.blogspot.com  Pretty sure it gave me nightmares. – Cirsova  
language: English
title: The Snake-Man's Bane
publisher: Wild Hunt Books