I enjoyed this. The only Robert E. Howard I've read/listened to was the Conan story that ran here, so this is the first Solomon Kane story I've come across. It was straightforward, and written in a very... expansive way, I guess I'd call it. But it fit the time, and fit the subject material. It seems like Robert E. Howard liked demigod type humans, sort of like Beowulf, who have no supernatural powers, but they just can't help but kick ass nonstop.
On the topic of what stances we take now that people will cringe at in 30 years, that's a tricky one to answer. I feel like society has been moving in the direction of acceptance of more groups of people as time goes on. The two things that I think:
1. I think that homosexuality and gay marriage will be much more widely accepted, and gay marriage bans will be seen as we see 1950s race segregation laws.
2. Although I think we're moving in the right direction in most cases, I don't think that every group has caught up to each other yet. I still see some institutional sexism at work, not on any verbal level, but it seems like the upper administration expects the few women in the office to arrange food for meetings, clean up messes, that kind of thing, even when not specific to their occupation. I think that will lessen and will look ridiculous in retrospect.
3. This isn't so much true of the current time, but of a decade or so ago, women didn't get an even chance at comedy. I thought I hated Cheri Oteri on SNL, but I think I just hated the roles she was given. I don't think that was a prejudice that I had--if you're funny you're funny--but the comedy roles for women were often not that great. Hilarious women like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Kristin Wiig have done a lot to even that bar.
4. I think that we're moving in the right direction, but in some cases I feel like reactions to criticisms of people of groups that have worked hard to achieve equality can sometimes be too strong as a matter of course. To the point where I'm a little afraid to criticize certain people publicly as a result, even if I think they have faults worth criticizing.Especially when those individuals have spent much of their fame proclaiming "Look at how much our society has advanced, because I have become so popular with the public and I'm of this less-advantaged-group", then criticisms of that person is too often seen as criticisms of that group. I think that will be looked at with scorn--if we are to view people by who they are, then criticisms of them should not be seen as criticisms of their demographic.