Death! Decay! Red Nails really is something special. It's classic Conan! Conan lovers consider Red Nails to be one of the best, and you know, they make a point
It's possible that you won't agree with us that Pat Pending's latest adventure is a delightful story--possible IF you haven't been used to laughing in recent years. Blue Book printed more than a dozen of these stories by Nelson Bond about the "greatest inventulator of all time".
Venus was the most miserable planet in the system, peopled by miserable excuses for human beings. And somewhere among this conglomeration of boiling protoplasm there was a being unlike the others, a being who walked and talked like the others but who was different--and afraid the difference would be discovered. You'll remember this short story.
The trials of a patent lawyer are usually highly technical tribulations--and among the greatest is the fact that Inventors are only slightly less predictable than their Inventions!
Despite a warning received in the Suq by a nomad, Conan stays the night in a cheap tavern in Zamboula, run by Aram Baksh. As night falls, a black Darfarian cannibal enters Conan's small chamber by means of a trick lock to drag him away to be eaten. The Darfarian slaves in the city are cannibals who prey on travelers, the people of the city tolerate this and stay locked securely in their homes, while nomads and beggars make sure to sure to spend the night at a comfortable distance from its walls.