Back around 1997 or 1998, Howard A. Jones contacted me on the internet. I was the official editor of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association at the time. People would seek me out on how I could help them sell their Conan pastiche novel to Tor Books or get on the syndicated Conan T.V. show of the time.

Howard was a pleasant surprise as he was (probably still is) the world’s greatest Harold Lamb fan. At the time he told me he wanted to do for Harold Lamb what Glenn Lord had done for Robert E. Howard. Howard A. Jones managed to get Lamb back into print with University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books around fifteen years ago. Get yourself a copy of Swords From the West by Harold Lamb and read it.

He has become a published writer with three Pathfinder novels, the Ring Sword Trilogy, and two novels and a collection in the “Chronicle of Sword and Sand” series.

One of Howard’s favorite historical personages is Hannibal Barca, who almost brought Rome to its knees. The Hanuvar series of stories is a fictionalized Hannibal in an alternate world.

“The Dervan Empire has at last triumphed over Volanus, putting the great city to the torch, its treasures looted, temples defiled, and fields sown with salt. What little remains of Volanus is scattered across the empire, its wealth plundered and its survivors sold into slavery. It is an absolute victory for the Dervans in every way but one.

Hanuvar, last and greatest general of Volanus, still lives. He now travels the length of the Dervan Empire that conquered his homeland, driven by a singular purpose—to find what remains of his people who were carried into slavery across the empire, and free them from subjugation by any means necessary.

Against the might of a vast empire, he had only an aging sword arm, a lifetime of hard-won wisdom, and the greatest military mind in the world, set upon a single goal. No matter what the empire musters against him, no matter what man or monster stands in his way, from the empire’s festering capital to its furthest outposts, Hanuvar would find his people, every last one of them.

And he would set them free.”

The first Hanuvar story was “A Stone’s Throw” from Glyph #2 all the way back in 2000. Other Hanuvar stories have appeared in issues of Tales From the Magician’s Skull. Lord of a Shattered Land, new from Baen Books is a fix up of the Hanuvar stories, the first in a series of forthcoming novels.

The following stories were incorporated into the book.

The world itself is a mirror image of the classical Mediterranean region as you can see from the map. The events preceding this book telescopes history by combining the Second and Third Punic Wars. Derva is an empire with an emperor and not a republic as Rome was when it destroyed Carthage. Howard A. Jones’ Volanus, his stand-in for Carthage has been smoothed out. No crucifixion of defeated generals or child sacrifice to Moloch as the historical Carthaginians engaged in. There are also fantastic elements present in each story.

Jones’ writing style is measured. Think of writers like Talbot Mundy, not so much Robert E. Howard. The sequel book, The City of Marble and Blood will be out in October.