Customer Reviews

Bran Mak Morn: The Last King

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Roman Empire has stretched in Britain. One race of people fights Caesar at every turn, the Picts, led by their king, Bran Mak Morn. But the Picts, rulers of a vast empire themselves in the days of Atlantis, have long since degenerated into brutish barbarism. Bran knows that his battle against Rome and his own people's extinction is a lost cause, and fights on, nonetheless.

I was unfamiliar with Bran Mak Morn before Wandering Star and Del Rey began reprinting Robert E. Howard's work. Since I had enjoyed the Conan and Solomon Kane volumes, I added "Bran Mak Morn: The Last King" to my library eagerly. However, after reading the volume, I must admit that this isn't my favorite example of Howard's work. I was surprised, as most scholars consider Bran Howard's most personal character. Bran arose from Howard's interest in his own Scots-Irish ancestry. Bran also represents Howard's own ideas about the nature of humanity, the ever-present barbarian struggling against the hypocrisy of civilization. Unlike many of his other stories, however, Howard's Bran stories place substantial emphasis on mood more so than on action.

Bran's people, the Picts, are a common fixture in Howard's writings. They appeared frequently to plague Conan years after Howard had left Bran behind. Howard's version of these people is a romanticized one, with an elaborate, mythical history of their spectacular empire built in the long-forgotten past. But he also presents them as a disintegrating people, who long ago forgot most of the basic skills necessary to maintain and build a civilization. Howard is also able to examine some of his own racialist points of view, as Bran is an exception, maintaining the majestic Aryan qualities that had marked the Picts in the ancient days.

Howard only completed six stories about Bran. Howard experimented with techniques with Bran more than he did with his other characters. The first story "Men of the Shadows" is a first person narrative of a Roman soldier and his capture by the Picts, and his meeting with Bran, who is simply referred to as a chief. The most important aspect of this story is that it sets the stage for who and what the Picts are. It was not published until after Howard's death.

The second story, "Kings of the Night" is one of the two truly stand-out stories in this collection and certainly one of Howard's best stories generally. Bran is attempting to build an alliance with various tribes against an impending Roman assault. One tribe refuses to fight unless led by a king. A wizard summons forth Howard's own King Kull from the past. This story is interesting as it explicitly connects Howard's various series of fiction. Bran is the descendent of Kull's ally Brule the Spear-Slayer and Kull himself plays an important role. The action of the battle is gleeful and ferocious, and the atmosphere is chilly and foreboding.

In "Worms of the Earth", which is certainly one of Howard's most intense and creepy tale, and the other real stand-out story. The only story told from Bran's point-of-view sees the monarch make an unholy bargain with another race the Picts forced underground generations past. The bargain: vengeance against the Roman procurator. The imagery of sub-human creatures skittering around in the dark waiting to drag unsuspecting souls to their deaths is delicious in its horror.

The last two stories are interesting in that Bran isn't physically in either story. In "The Dark Man", Turlogh Dubh, an outcast Celt, pursues a young princess of his clan and her Viking captors. On his journey, he discovers a large wooden statue, and carries it with him on his pursuit. The statue is an image of Bran Mak Morn, long dead, but still thirsting for battle. "The Dark Man" is an entertaining yarn, as the statue plays a pivotal and magical role in Turlogh's quest. I also found it fascinating that Howard had allowed one of his characters to have definitive end.

The other story "The Lost Race" finds another Celt, Cororuc, in a battle for his life when he is captured by the last remnants of the Picts, long driven underground. It's an interesting story providing a coda to the Bran saga, but at the same time going back over the Picts history and their tragedy without providing anything new or insightful. Bran has long been dead, and no trace of him appears, only his magical descendent.

"Bran Mak Morn: The Last King" is probably my least favorite collection of Howard's work thus far. While I liked the character, there is so little complete Bran material that I never felt connected to the character. The bonus materials are fascinating, but at the same time, they feel like padding. A small part of me wondered if perhaps, instead of the various unfinished drafts and the like, the Bran stories might have been better served in a more general collection of Howard's work. That having been said, Howard's storytelling skills are in top form in these stories, and anyone who has enjoyed Conan does owe it to themselves to read Bran Mak Morn.

One thing I notitced is that a lot of the works were finished by other writers. Not true of this collection! Not only could they not capture the true spirit of Howard's writing but they should have been left as so...unfinished. This volume leaves the stories as they should be. I was glad to see the type written unfinished story at the end of the book.

I have to wonder why Bran Mac Morn never shared the popularity of Conan. Perhaps it was the poetry that turned off some readers. It was an unexpected departure from the Conan character we all know. We can only speculate as to what Howard might have created had he lived past age 30. Not only does Howard transend the art of pulp fiction, he should be up there with Tolkien as one of the great fantasy creators of all time.

If you've never read anything by Robert E Howard, you should know that he wrote for "pulp" magazines of the 20's and 30's like Weird Tales and with characters like Conan the Cimmerian and Bran Mak Morn, invented what we term "swords and sorcery" today.

This collection focuses on the people he termed Picts and their king, Bran Mak Morn who is the last of his race with an unbroken bloodline. The Picts were the first of the Stone Age tribes to build a society, strive for art and explore the world, but time has displaced them, wars with the Celts drove them from conquered lands and as a result of intermingling bloodlines has thrust them into primative shadows of former glory. The setting for most of these stories takes place in the historical period of the Roman conquest of Briton and focuses on Bran Mak Morn's hatred of the Roman invaders and his drive to restore his race to civilization. Most of the stories are short, but the longest,"Worms of the Earth" is considered one of Howards best, and the all fit firmly in the mythos of Conan, Solomon Kane, King Kull and others. Also included is the Lovecraftian "Children Of Darkness", poems that tell the history and prophcies of the Picts, fragments and first drafts.

This is an excellent collection that is at times moving, chilling and all ways entertaining. If you've never read REH and want to start, here is a good place to begin. If you like historical warfare with a supernatural flair or threories of pre-cataclysmic Ice Age societies you can do no better than this.

If you are a Robert E. Howard fan, which I am, then your going to certainly like this one. Fast moving, as all of Howard's stories are, this is NOT just a Conan wrapped in a different skin. I do have to agree with a couple of other reviewers in that this is perhaps not Howard's best work, but it is certainly typical Howard and certainly worth the read. As has been pointed out, this is not a bunch of unpublished tales, cleaned up by other authors, this is the real stuff, warts and all. If you enjoy this particular genre, then you will no doubt enjoy this one. I collect these particular books and am glad to have a copy of this one, old and ragged as it might be.

Good old Robert E. Howard! In the last dozen years of his sadly truncated life, he created a whole universe of pulpy goodness. If you've read all the Conans, and all the Kulls, and the Solomon Kanes, you still have these jewels of fast-paced blood-drenched bosom-heaving skull-cleaving story-telling to look forward to. These are among my favorites in Howard-world: he's hip-deep in the kind of lost-race mythology that he loves, and the stories here of Bran Mak Morn and Black Turlough O'Brien really sing. Nobody did it better. When REH uses a cliche, he makes it HIS cliche, and you instantly forgive him for it. He took such JOY in creating these fantasies of wish-fulfillment that you're swept heedlessly along.

Thank Crom I discovered these stories when I was 11-- when I read them now, I'm that age again, and the wonder and innocence of that time is revisited.

Of all of Howard's many memorable characters (Kull, Conan, etc.) I would say that Bran Mak Morn is the most interesting.

As leader of the dwindling and nearly extinct race of Picts (a real culture that Howard has embellished upon), he battles Roman incursions and struggles to raise his beloved race out of the pit of savagery and darkness into which they are swiftly falling. He has a knowledge that no matter what he does, the fall of his race is inevitable. The true strength of Bran's character is that he battles and struggles toward his goal anyway, even though he knows that he will eventually fail.

'Men of the Shadows' is the first story in this collection and presents a strong start. It is a great introduction to Bran's character and the goals toward which he is striving.

'Kings of the Night' is the second story, and features a looming battle between the Roman Legions and the confederated armies of the northern races. This story also features an appearance from one of Howard's other popular characters. This comes very close to being my favorite in the collection.

'Worms of the Earth' is a strong tale featuring Bran's quest for vengeance against a Roman General's unjust treatment of a Pict. This is my favorite tale in the collection, and shows Howard at his best. Strong imagery, beautiful prose, and a dark plot.

'The Dark Man' takes place many centuries after Bran's death, but is nevertheless a powerful tale of the Pictish people who worship the dead king as a God.

'The Lost Race' is one of the weaker tale but presents a history of the Pictish people that makes it worthy of this collection.

The Miscellanea and Appendices present helpful information but the only complete stories that feature Bran Mak Morn are those mentioned above. There are also many of Howard's poems about the Pictish people and Bran Mak Morn that show a different side of Robert E. Howard's skills and add much to the character of Bran and his people.

The entire book is covered with Gary Gianni's beautifully atmospheric drawings and I would reccomend this collection for anyone seeking to discover Bran Mak Morn's character and Howard's expansive talents.

Beauty and savagery, sorrow and violence, such is the song of Bran Mak Morn. These are violent fantasy tales, but written with such literary flare you cannot put them down. Robert E. Howard captures the emotion of rage like no one else. As an exploration of rage and the things it can drive men to do, this is a superlative work. As compelling adventure stories, nothing is better.

I hadn't read any of these stories before, though I like Conan and Kane. Overall, I was a bit disappointed. The books seemed to have a lot of fillter, and the stories were only loosely connected. Some were definitely atmospheric, so it wasn't that the individual stories were disappointing. Just that I expected stories about a central character and got stories about a central idea -- the race of the Picts in a Howard's mythology.

In bringing to us the tale of the doomed Pict Bran Mak Morn, Robert Howard, perhaps unknowingly, reveals much about himself as he details the vain struggle of the First Race to overcome the tide of Roman power in Britain. Fighting against a fate he can never bring himself to yield to, Bran Mak Morn summons demons and asks the aid of long-dead kings even as he must battle bloodthirsty wizards in his own tribe as he seeks to reestablish the great days of Pictdom. Tragically for Bran, his failure is utter, and like his creator, he falls to his destiny. Had Howard written more about the king of the Picts, the saga would stand better among the Texan barbarian's work. As it is, though, the incomplete chronicles of this doomed hero haunt and intrigue readers to this day. His equally doomed creator would almost certainly have been pleased.

I'm a big fan of the Conan books by Robert E Howard and heard many times of his Bran Mak Morn stuff, especialy 'Worms of the Earth', which is supposedly one of his best short stories. After reading the stories contained in this collection, I can honestly say they're definitely some of the best short fantasy fiction I've read.

Bran Mak Morn stuff tends to be darker than Conan and set in a (slightly) more contemporary history, with Romans and such. As a result, I'd say that people who love Conan books are perhaps not garaunteed to enjoy these, but should definitely give them a go!!

The book itself, like the Conan books by this publisher, is fantastic. Very well editied and illustrated and despite the fact that the actual finished stories make up probably under half the book, the supplimentary material is what sets this collection above similar priced books. Smart presentation, good value for money and excellent fiction!! :)