Customer Reviews

Bran Mak Morn: The Last King

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Robert E. Howard is largely credited with having invented the "sword & sorcery" brand of fantasy literature. And deservedly so. His fantasy stories resonate with a stygian darkness and masculine energy that few have been able to duplicate since.

Many of the Bran Mak Morn stories published in this edition are a bit in the formative stages of Howard's development as an author, or at least they seemed that way to me. Maybe he was just fighting a deadline on some of them. However, many of these stories are excellent, particularly "Worms of the Earth" and "The Dark Man."

Bran is a different hero from most of Howard's barbarians. He's the evolved member of a dying race, the Picts. While the Picts are doomed to become extinct as a race and there's a sense they know it, they refuse to go down without a fight, doing battle with the Roman legions to the bitter end. Bran embodies this fighting spirit in all the tales contained within.

A long time fan of Conan and Kull, I enjoyed reading these seven anthologies. The way Howard mixes history with fiction in his depiction of the Picts is truly amazing, but the truth is he only wrote three Bran Mak Morn short stories. The rest of the book are stories about other characters, and one (by far the best story in the book) should really have been in the Kull anthology. It is a story Howard had a lot of fun with in which he brings many of his characters together. Nevertheless, I cannot bring myself to say it is a poor book, Howard would never let me forget it when we meet in Valhalla.

You gotta love these Robert E. Howard books! The grandfather of testosterone drenched fantasy stories hits another homerun with this cycle of Bran Mak Morn tales offered in one volume. It is really too bad the other Baen volumes of Howard's works are out of print because this is excellent entertainment.

Like Howard's other superhuman heroes, Conan and Kull, Bran Mak Morn is tough as nails and doesn't take you-know-what from anybody. The stories are set in the distant past (although not as distant as Conan or some of Howard's other tales), in the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. Bran is the last pure blood king of the Picts, an ancient people overwhelmed by numerous invasions during the ages. Howard takes liberal license with the real history, creating a mystical people with links to Atlantis and Lemuria. Bran is fighting for the survival of his people in a world populated by Lovecraftian monsters, sorcerers, Roman soldiers, enemy tribes, Vikings, and other assorted evils.

In "The Lost Race," a wandering Briton stumbles on a bandit leader and his evil minions. After fleeing from the thieves, he stumbles into a cave containing the remnants of the Pictish tribes, presided over by Bran Mak Morn. It is here we are introduced to Morn and discover how his tribe fell into misfortune.

"Men of the Shadows" is narrated by a Roman soldier lost in enemy territory after his fellow soldiers died in combat. His eventual meeting with Bran Mak Morn is no surprise, but serves to fill in details about the travels of the Picts through the ancient world. Some freaky sorcery and the usual Howardian sense of doom run throughout this tale.

"Kings of the Night" is a combat tale that reminds me of Howard's story on the Battle of Clontarf in "Eons of the Night." The Picts are assembling for a battle to prevent an invasion by the Roman army. Bran Mak Morn has some trouble persuading some Vikings to fight for him until a king comes to lead the Vikings into battle. Where this king comes from and how he gets there is enormous fun, as is the gory battle with the Roman invaders.

"Worms of the Earth" absolutely reeks of Lovecraft. In this story, Bran Mak Morn swears revenge on a sadistic Roman governor. In order to carry out his oath, Morn seeks the help of the worms of the earth, a race of humans pushed underground eons ago by the Picts. Something happened to these humans during their years underground, a sickening transformation that makes them a fearsome presence.

"The Dark Man" is the story of Turlogh Dubh, a survivor of Clontarf whose exile from his clan leads him on endless journeys through forbidding lands. When a gang of Vikings kidnaps a beautiful Irish princess, Dubh hunts them down with the help of a strange icon found in the hands of a dead Pict. After a bloody battle with the Vikings, Dubh meets the Picts and learns about the fate of Bran Mak Morn.

The final story, "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth," is a further adventure of Turlogh Dubh. Dubh is captured by Viking pirates, one of who is Athelstane, a survivor of the battle in "The Dark Man." After the Viking ship crashes, Athelstane and Dubh join forces to topple the king of Bal-Sagoth. This king is a puppet of a sorcerer who spends his free time creating weird hybrids in an underground cave. Predictably, everything quickly degenerates into an epic battle where bodies topple by the boatload.

Robert Howard is a hard act to follow. It really is a pity he committed suicide at a young age, thereby robbing the genre of countless tales that would have elevated his reputation even higher than it is today. Somebody really out to reprint the other volumes in this series. Selling them would be a piece of cake.

It is apparent when reading many of the stories in this bookthat Robert E. Howard was still a developing writer. Some of them lackthe depth and complexity of his greater Conan tales. However, stories like "Worms of the Earth," and "The Dark Man" make this book well worth the price of admission. I recommend it to any fan of Howard or of testosterone-infused fantasy stories.

'Bran Mak Morn' is rather typical of Robert E. Howard. In all of his stories there is the common theme of the barbarian against the world. He had a fascination with strong heroes. All of his characters are larger than life and here is more of the same. What makes this book so special is simply that it is one of the few of his works still in print. It is certainly a crime that it should be so hard to come by the stories of the father of sword and sorcery. Why this is I can't say. At any rate, this book is still a good volume to have. It is not his best work but it is a good representation of what Howard was all about. The characters in `Bran Mak Morn' are all bold and unforgiving. They are tough. They are men! Real men. None are so tough and terrible as the title character himself. Bran may not be as big and hulking as Conan but he is made of the same iron and steel. I would urge every fantasy fan to buy this book at once. Just as archeologists dig through the bones of ages past to see why the people of today do the things they do, so should you spend a little time digging through the fiction of ages past to see why the writers of today write what they write. This is the bare bones of the fantasy genre. Without Robert E. Howard and a few of his lesser known contemporaries today's fantasy would be nothing more than silly little fairy tales with no depth, no meat, no excitement. Give this book a try, you'll be glad you did.

Like myself, Robert E. Howard had an interest in old Scotland, back in the time of Hadrian's Wall when woad-decorated Pictish warriors held fast against the armor-covered legions of Rome. In a way, it is a historic demonstration of Howard's love of the clash of primitive and civilized. In Bran Mak Morn, he found a Scottish hero capable of rallying the primitive Picts and embodying his ideals.

Expect no historical accuracy here. Howard admits openly that he took the idea of the Picts and created his own fantasy race around them. He changed the spelling from Mac to Mak to disguise the Gaelic roots of his hero. Howard's Picts are mediterranean in origin, brown-skinned and dark haired. They shun armor and carry flint and bronze weapons.

The writing of Bran Mak Morn is not Howard's best. His best work was reserved for Conan, created later in his career. Still, I enjoyed every single story in this volume, with two or three stories sticking out as among the best of Howard's writing. The often singled-out "Worms of the Earth" is as good as you would think. Bran Mak Morn teams up with Kull the Conqueror in the excellent "Kings of the Night." "The Children of the Night" is inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's suggestion that Howard incorporate his Mythos elements into his primal yarns.

All around a good, solid series from Robert E. Howard.

Robert E. Howard's tales of Bran Mak Morn, last king of the Picts, have long been recognised as some of the first, and best, heroic fantasy ever written. That's certainly how I reguarded them, fantasy. Then I began to notice some curious parallels between current research into the the lost Atlantian civilization and Howard's stories.

First of all, there does indeed seem to have been a high stone age seafaring culture in the area we now call the Carribean approx. 10,000 years ago. This culture also seems to have had regular contact with both North and South America, as well as, the Mediterranian region. Now the ancestors of the Picts are thought to have come from the Mediterranian region during the high stone age. This small, dark race is thought to have spread over all of the British isles, as well as, a good part of Europe. They were only displaced by the coming of the Celts. Some experts believe that the Basques may be the only modern recognisable remnant of this people.

Now, the contact between the Carribean and Mediterranian, seems to have been suddenly disrupted a little over 8,000 years ago by a collossal comet shower over North America and the Carribean. It is documented that there was an abrupt climactic change and flooding at this time. There would almost certainly have been tidal waves in the Carribean region before this. In fact, it was only recently recognised that the "serpent" imagery found in much high stone age art probably represents "cosmic serpents"- or comets.

Now, Howard has his Bran Mak Morn making claims that his ancestors: 1.) were connected with Atlantis, 2.) knew of North and South America, 3.) ruled most of Europe, 4.) were driven out by the Celts, and 5.) have a strong religious connection with a destructive serpent cult. Not only that, but the physically degenerate stature of his Picts are what would be expected of a cut-off remnant of a race that was surrounded by nothing but enemies. Interbreeding, and lack of a sufficient gene-pool, would produce just the abnormalities and degeneracy that Howard attributes to his Picts.

To verify all this for yourselves, try reading _Gateway to Atlantis_ by Andrew Collins. You'll never see the fiction of Robert E. Howard in the same light again....

The gripping tales of the doomed king of a nearly extinct race. Howard lets you share the sense of despair as a noble warrior tries to protect his subjects against the encroaching Roman legions. This is as good as any pulp fiction written

REH rules still and these tales prove it. WORMS OF THE EARTH is still one fo the best barbarian tales ever done.

The Baen version of a book called Bran Mak Morn. It carries an excellent introduction by David Weber, as well as a poem.

As well as the stories featuring Bran Mak Morn, it ends with two Turlough Dubh O'Brien stories, as a bonus.

One handy little collection, this.

Bran Mak Morn Baen : The Lost Race - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : Men of the Shadows - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : Kings of the Night - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : Worms of the Earth - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : Untitled A Gray Sky Arched - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : The Dark Man - Robert E. Howard
Bran Mak Morn Baen : The Gods of Bal-Sagoth - Robert E. Howard

There are still some strange old Picts around, it appears.

2.5 out of 5

A band of Roman soldiers is slain until only a large warrior of Norse extraction remains, and he falls to Bran Mak Morn. There ensues a discussion about Pictish history with a wizard.

3.5 out of 5

Bran Mak Morn has leadership problems. Wulfhere's Northerners will not follow him, or Cormac, prince of Erin, they demand a King. Consulting with Gonar, who talks to his ancestor in Kull's time, and summons Kull, King of Valusia! Kull likes Bran, as he reminds him of Brule, and agrees to lead the Northerners. Wulfhere challenges him to combat. Big mistake for Wulfhere.

With Kull's help, Bran manages to hold the Romans for now, at some significant cost.

4 out of 5

One of Bran Mak Morn's subjects is being crucified while he is visiting some Roman commanders. This does not sit well with him or his aide, as he feels the punishment does not fit the crime, and the Romans are making a joke of doing what they will with the barbarians.

Bran has a plan for revenge on the Roman who gave the order, but Gonar cautions him against using mystic means. Bran ignores here, and seeks the Black Stone with the help of a were-woman. What he unleashes is a lot more than he bargained for.

4 out of 5

A messenger from Bran Mak Morn to Thorvald the Smiter gets drawn into a wrestling match with a feisty local woman.

3 out of 5

Swords in the storm, serpent ships, swimming with sharks, and a sheila scheming with religion.

3.5 out of 5

Turlogh Dubh O'Brien gets some inspiration from Bran Mak Morn in beach side battle.

3.5 out of 5