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lgpiper's review against another edition
2.0
My long nightmare is over. I've finished this truly awful book. I think it's time for a dose of something more girly, perhaps the one Jane Austen I've not re-read over the past three or four years.
Esau Cairn is basically a brute, someone who is strong as an ox and also someone who has no self control. Wherever he goes, mayhem is sure to be present. It's not really his fault, he's just a manly man, perhaps the manliest of all men. Other people contrive to piss him off, thereby bringing mayhem upon themselves. Then, there are those who are just not manly enough to stand up to physical competition with him, e.g. when he tried organized forms of mayhem, such as football and boxing. How's it his fault when the damn pussies become permanently crippled or die on him? Suffice to say, he doesn't belong in polite society.
So, an astronomer friend contrives to transport him into another universe, a place where Cairn fits in better. Everyone in the new universe is a brute. The men he meets are all hairy ape men, whose idea of a good life is drinking and brawling. He becomes sort of a major figure in the hairy ape men tribe and leads them off to rescue their women—all lissome and fair—from a race of black, winged men. Something like that.
So if you like brutish behavior and lots of cleaving of skulls and limbs with swords and cracking bones and blood and guts flowing all over and dead bodies heaping up and so forth, perhaps this is a book for you. As for me, it's back to something a bit closer to reality, which in some people's eyes will tend to be a bit on the girly side.
I think this is the last of the pulp books I managed to snag from Munsey's before they got closed down by the lawyers, or something. Some of Munsey's pulp offerings were quite fun, some, like this one, not so much. Still, I'll miss Munsey's. Bummer that for me their lights went out for me, so to speak, on this piece of dreck.
Esau Cairn is basically a brute, someone who is strong as an ox and also someone who has no self control. Wherever he goes, mayhem is sure to be present. It's not really his fault, he's just a manly man, perhaps the manliest of all men. Other people contrive to piss him off, thereby bringing mayhem upon themselves. Then, there are those who are just not manly enough to stand up to physical competition with him, e.g. when he tried organized forms of mayhem, such as football and boxing. How's it his fault when the damn pussies become permanently crippled or die on him? Suffice to say, he doesn't belong in polite society.
So, an astronomer friend contrives to transport him into another universe, a place where Cairn fits in better. Everyone in the new universe is a brute. The men he meets are all hairy ape men, whose idea of a good life is drinking and brawling. He becomes sort of a major figure in the hairy ape men tribe and leads them off to rescue their women—all lissome and fair—from a race of black, winged men. Something like that.
So if you like brutish behavior and lots of cleaving of skulls and limbs with swords and cracking bones and blood and guts flowing all over and dead bodies heaping up and so forth, perhaps this is a book for you. As for me, it's back to something a bit closer to reality, which in some people's eyes will tend to be a bit on the girly side.
I think this is the last of the pulp books I managed to snag from Munsey's before they got closed down by the lawyers, or something. Some of Munsey's pulp offerings were quite fun, some, like this one, not so much. Still, I'll miss Munsey's. Bummer that for me their lights went out for me, so to speak, on this piece of dreck.
gamato's review against another edition
2.0
For being so action-oriented, this Howard story has a lot of slower points early on and ultimately contradicts some of its own commentary. In the beginning we get how noble and good a simple existence is, but later conclude its time to introduce some of the previously criticized culture. Howard was many versions of imperfect, but I think most of his other work is more reliably adventurous and consistent.
I've read a lot of Howard's stories, and this one has many familiar elements. It just reads more like a draft than a finished version, and is probably more of interest to people (like me) who find the author interesting in addition to his work.
I've read a lot of Howard's stories, and this one has many familiar elements. It just reads more like a draft than a finished version, and is probably more of interest to people (like me) who find the author interesting in addition to his work.
russk's review against another edition
3.0
By 1939 I guess that Robert E Howard's publishers and/or readers were getting tired of Conan the Barbarian and said, "What if he went to space?"
Esau is the toughest, strongest, fastest man on Earth. When he gets transported to the planet Almuric, where everything is tougher, stronger and faster than him, he goes through character development and becomes the toughest, strongest, fastest man on his new planet.
All your favorite classic pulp tropes are here. We've got savage tribes where the men are brutal and the women are sexy and beautiful. A hero who either defeats all of his foes or gets knocked unconscious until it's a convenient time to wake up. A damsel who's "not like the other girls" and needs to be rescued a couple times. This sword-and-space adventure has monsters to slay, friends to make, enemies to outsmart, and slaves to free (but only the sexy slaves, not the weird ugly slaves).
gianlucafiore's review against another edition
5.0
As a pulp story, it is as good as it gets. I thought it would feel the passing of time but it is as fun as I first read it 25 and more years ago. Don't expect a complex story, Howard was a master of entertaining, no slow moments, stories that are meant to engage and not make you think too much. In this, Almuric succeeds.
blchandler9000's review against another edition
3.0
A relatively decent pulp adventure on another world, sort of REH's take on a John Carter-like novel, filled with plenty of testosterone and blood.
Fighter Esau Cairn is transported to another world in another galaxy where he battles fierce beasts, swarthy warriors, hyaena men, and demon-like people. He makes his way into (im)polite society and finds a young lady to love, but these activities are almost secondary to the unending violence encountered and dealt on the wild planet.
It's fine. The writing isn't REH's most articulate or poetic. He seems to just be hammering out the tale, going from conflict to conflict without much verbal grace. It's not the worst pulp novel I've read, by any means, but I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point for someone exploring the genre or author.
Fighter Esau Cairn is transported to another world in another galaxy where he battles fierce beasts, swarthy warriors, hyaena men, and demon-like people. He makes his way into (im)polite society and finds a young lady to love, but these activities are almost secondary to the unending violence encountered and dealt on the wild planet.
It's fine. The writing isn't REH's most articulate or poetic. He seems to just be hammering out the tale, going from conflict to conflict without much verbal grace. It's not the worst pulp novel I've read, by any means, but I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point for someone exploring the genre or author.
bookwomble's review against another edition
4.0
If you've read any of Robert E. Howard's sword-and-sorcery or horror stories but not Almuric, then probably the only thing that will be unfamiliar is the setting: not the Hyborian Age, nor Southern Gothic or Cthulhu mythos, but rather another planet, possibly in another dimension. Now, if that sounds like faint praise, or even criticism, it isn't meant to be: Howard was very, very good at what he did, and this is an excellent example of his work.
The people and places on Almuric are savage and exotic. There's a lot of hints at back history, abandoned cities, elder races and unknown lands. I really wish that Howard had gone back to explore and expand the world he created.
The people and places on Almuric are savage and exotic. There's a lot of hints at back history, abandoned cities, elder races and unknown lands. I really wish that Howard had gone back to explore and expand the world he created.
aletheia's review
1.0
Deuda lectora desde hace 11 años, uno de los favoritos de mi compañero en su adolescencia. La verdad, no le he encontrado nada favorable, y la excusa de que esté escrito en los años 30 no lo redime.
Quizás en otro universo soy un púber en una época histórica diferente al que le ha hecho gracia este libro, en éste va a ser que no.
Quizás en otro universo soy un púber en una época histórica diferente al que le ha hecho gracia este libro, en éste va a ser que no.
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