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Wagner, Karl Edward (1945–1994)
Karl Edward Wagner began selling short stories
during the early 1970s, about equally distributed
between supernatural horror and heroic fantasy.
During the latter half of the 1970s he concen-
trated on sword and sorcery, but after 1980 his out-
put turned increasingly toward horror fiction and
continued in that vein until his death. Wagner’s
recurring fantasy hero is a barbarian warrior named
Kane, described somewhat in the mode of the
CONAN series by Robert E. HOWARD, although
Kane is much more likely to use his brains to extri-
cate himself from a situation than was Conan.
When Wagner added his own novel to the Conan
series, The Road of Kings(1979), he superimposed
many of Kane’s attributes on Howard’s character,
and the result is a much more complex novel than
most of the others appended to that series.
Kane made his first book-length appearance in
Darkness Weaves(1970, also published in abridged
form as Darkness Weaves with Many Shades), which
collects some of his shorter adventures into an
episodic narrative. Three more adventures appeared
as Death Angel’s Shadow (1973). Two full-length
novels followed. Bloodstone(1975) has Kane finding
an artifact that provides access to a magical power
left behind by an ancient civilization. The best of
Kane’s adventures is Dark Crusade(1976), wherein
Kane must take a leadership role to help defeat an
army of religious fanatics led by an insane but
charismatic criminal. More short pieces are woven
together as Night Winds(1978), and a collection of
his miscellaneous adventures later appeared as The

Book of Kane (1985). In addition to the Conan

novel, Wagner wrote one other book set in a world

created by Howard. Legion from the Shadows(1976)

is a suspenseful story of Bran Mak Morn, a heroic

figure in ancient Britain who helps the Pictish peo-

ple defend themselves from evil magic.

Wagner also edited several anthologies, in-

cluding 15 volumes of the Year’s Best Horrorseries

from DAW books from 1980 to 1994 as well as

others in both the fantasy and horror genres. His

own short horror fiction is collected in In a Lonely

Place(1983), Why Not You and I?(1987), and Ex-

orcisms and Ecstasies(1997). The last title won a

Bram Stoker Award for a single-author collection.

His short story “Beyond Any Measure” (1982) won

the World Fantasy Award. Other notable short sto-

ries include “But You’ll Never Follow Me” (1990),

the Civil War horror story “Hell Creek” (1993),

and the Lovecraftian “I’ve Come to Talk with You

Again” (1996).

Wakefield, H. R.(1888–1964)

The British ghost and horror story writer Herbert

Russell Wakefield never produced a novel of the

fantastic, although he did write a handful of detec-

tive thrillers at that length, and his short stories

have been shuffled around into various antholo-

gies, giving the impression that he was much more

prolific than is actually the case. He is one of the

more underrated writers of his period, however, for

his work was consistently well done and occasion-

ally matched the quality of M. R. JAMES, Arthur