Robert E. Howard Readers discussion

I decided to re-read REH's Bran Mak Morn stories. The first story in this collection is "Men of the Shadows." I'm afraid Farnsworth Wright was correct about "Men of the Shadows." It simply has too little of story about it, and too much of history about a tribe. The story starts out compelling and then just dies. It's neat to hear about Lemuria and the half-Men (half-shark-lke being) that came from there, but it really bogged down the story.

One thing I remember liking about Bran Mak Morn when I read of him in the past was this sense of doom - that when Bran goes, so goes an entire race. That Bran Mak Morn cannot stop the march of entropy but can, at best, hold it back for a short while. This story had some elements of that, but not enough.

Finished re-reading "Kings of the Night," still an amazing story - and a cross-over event wherein Bran Mak Morn meets King Kull. Not the first literary cross-over, of course ("Tarzan at the Earth's Core," ERB's crossover between his Tarzan series and his Pellucidar series, predates this one by a year). I wonder what the first literary cross-over was. I also wonder what inspired REH to have those characters meet.

The battle description was truly amazing to read.

FWIW, Rider Haggard did a novel in 1921 where he crosses over his two most famous characters, Allan Quatermain and She Who Must Be Obeyed.

Neat! I recently bought a collection of Haggard novels to read. Which one was the one you are referring to?

I liked this one. Bran was always one of my favorite Howard characters. He's also the character in my favorite REH pastiche, Legion from the Shadows by Karl Edward Wagner.

How do his pastiches compare to REH? I own several of the Bran pastiches by KEW, but haven't read them yet.

Vincent wrote: "How do his pastiches compare to REH? I own several of the Bran pastiches by KEW, but haven't read them yet."

I thought he only wrote one Bran pastiche. He also did a Conan pastiche called Road of Kings, which a lot of readers like. I thought it was OK, but not great.

Ooops, you are right. I conflated the Bran pastiches (one of which was by David C. Smith and Richard Tierney) with the Cormac Mac Art pastiches by Offut and Taylor (I bought them in a group a few years back and never quite got around to reading them).

I agree that his "Road of Kings" was OK but not great. It's probably the only KEW I've ever read (other than the intros to the REH volumes he edited). So I take it that the Bran Mak Morn story was better than his Conan story?

Vincent wrote: "Ooops, you are right. I conflated the Bran pastiches (one of which was by David C. Smith and Richard Tierney) with the Cormac Mac Art pastiches by Offut and Taylor (I bought them in a group a few ..."

I think KEW's Bran story was much better than the Conan one. It had strong elements of horror. His Kane stuff is excellent, I think btw. I also like David C. Smith's For the Witch of the Indies, which one of the better pastiches.

Hi Vincent,
The title of the Haggard novel is SHE AND ALLAN. It's the second of two "prequels" Haggard wrote after he finished up She's saga in the second book-- which, as it happens, is exactly the same process he did with Quatermain, albeit with many, many more prequels.

I love the gloominess and doom of the Bran Mak Morn tales. There's something about REH when he's at his darkest that just brings out this quality that few other writers have ever mastered.

Tangentially, The Dark Man is a Bran Mak Morn tale; it is my favorite REH story.

I like that about the Bran Mak Morn tales, too. The Dark Man is a great story - I'm looking forward to re-reading it in this volume - but I think Worms of the Earth is my favorite Bran Mak Morn story, outranking The Dark Man by a small margin.

"Worms of the Earth" is a fantastic tale. I like how Howard, in the beginning of the story, presents barbarism and civilization in the forms of Bran Mak Morn and the Roman Governor, Titus Sulla. When Bran, a Pictish wild man, observes the "sophisticated" governor crucifying a fellow Pict, we get a glimpse of Howard's take on civilization reverting to savagery. This paradoxical theme occurs in some of R.E.H.'s other stories, but is quite prevalent in his personal letters.

I re-read "The Dark Man" recently. What a fantastic tale! I really like how REH allowed for Bran Mak Morn to continue on past his mortal life. It'd make a neat tale to have had his Kirowan characters discover it in the 30s (like they did Thoth Amon's ring in "Haunter of the Ring"). Anyway, a strong tale with a definite weird twist.

Re-Read "The Lost Race" today. Not a lot of character development, as REH was more focused on racial development, but a mildly entertaining tale nonetheless.

Read "The Little People," "The Children of the Night," "Bran Mak Morn," and an untitled synopsis. I never realized there was a missing page to "The Little People," and I liked how "The Children of the Night" mentioned the Dark Man statue of Bran Mak Morn. Howard was really into racial drifts and the conquering waves of new cultures over old cultures.

The play, "Bran Mak Morn" shows that it was written when he was 16 or 17 because it includes an "As you know, Bob..." moment, which is typically regarded as a sign of poor writing.

The synopsis sounded interesting.

I read the draft of "Worms of the Earth" today. Not much different from the previously published version other than a few more Mythos references, and Bran mentioning Cthulhu once.

http://www.conan.com/invboard/index.p...

Check out the REH forum at conan.com. On Jan 7th "Wandering Star" posted that a Bran Mak Morn TV series is in the works.
Didn't see it posted elsewhere here so I thought it fitting to add it to the Bran Mak Morn post.

Wow... that's a neat idea. A Bran Mak Morn TV series...

I think this is going to be my next REH read, although I won't get to it until early next year.

Excellent, RJ! Please post your thoughts and reviews here when you do!