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A review by aoc
Bran Mak Morn: The Last King by Robert E. Howard
4.0
I've always found it challenging how to approach collection reviews if only because they're inherently uneven. Even if there is a tinge of that here in Bran Mak Morn: The Last King I walked away tremendously satisfied with how Howard ties all the material together as far as tone and mood are concerned. Included in the book are also his musings, research and correspondence with various parties as to where he was going with his stories that make for quite the insight regarding an author with a number now cult classic characters to his name.
Of the actual published works there are no weak entries here. It helps the book starts out strong with Men of the Shadows and that foreboding poem absolutely sets the stage with verses speaking of stone men's doom as we witness Bran Mak Morn for the first time through a captured soldier's eyes. Much time is spent on divulging his history and plights of the race of Picts he's trying so desperately to save almost despite their nature. This is then followed up by Kings of the Night which is a longer story involving our eponymous protagonist as he's mustering final forces before the big confrontation against the Romans with Cormac of Connacht joining his lot... and audience discovering old Gonar might be more than just crazy with his talks of wizardry. Where some others would summarize a battle Howard goes into exquisite detail on how all these different people would partake. You might even recognize a certain mythical king from ages long past if you've read the man's other works. And lastly, Worms of the Earth. This one concerns Bran Mak Morn personally, or under a pseudonym for narrative reasons, as he agrees to an unspeakable alliance to strike at forces of Rome. This is the one where mystical forces are brought to the stage and are definitely regarded as making a deal with the devil that will come for payment.
There are more stories, but seeing as they do not involve our doomed king directly I'll leave for you to dig into them. I would say they concern a matter possibly more important than our hero, as much as Howard saw some of himself in Bran Mak Morn according to personal notes - race of Picts. He hadn't immediately settled on what they were beyond "a stunted, dark-skinned remnants of once glorious people" and he toys with their origins in at least two stories. Interestingly, they're set later in the timeline and you see "doomed" was apt description. If anything author seems to have an unhealthy obsession with races even if his extrapolations and theories go so far back to employ creative freedoms regarding historical migrations and such. He repeats these facts overbearingly enough that you buy into them with ease as this grand goal of their last living king. If I had to risk it I'd say there's a degree of repetitiveness involved because I'm not reading these stories as they were originally penned for singular magazine releases. Read back-to-back their shared themes can become grating. Howard's at times lecture-style narrations of their backstory doesn't help and is salvaged by otherwise evocative, rich scene setting immediately transporting you to savage Britain and brutal wards of his.
Worth noting is the Untitled story later discovered that had plans to include Bran Mak Morn had Howard gotten around to completing it. This never happened and it's a shame because what we got, story spanning multiple characters and ages, was a great appetizer. I wonder how last of the pure Picts would've fit in. There is something engaging in reading a long lost typescript with errors and all.
Lastly there are correspondences I brought up in the opening. This is where you're either glued to the text as you WANT to find out more about author's inner thoughts and process or you'll just skim over as they summarize the stories you read. Of peculiar note were his letters to H.P. Lovecraft and discourse on nature of Picts. In fact, I was astonished to find out just how many of Howard's ideas ended up in the stories themselves. Which might explain the long-winded nature of explanations at times - he really wanted to cram it all in.
Of the actual published works there are no weak entries here. It helps the book starts out strong with Men of the Shadows and that foreboding poem absolutely sets the stage with verses speaking of stone men's doom as we witness Bran Mak Morn for the first time through a captured soldier's eyes. Much time is spent on divulging his history and plights of the race of Picts he's trying so desperately to save almost despite their nature. This is then followed up by Kings of the Night which is a longer story involving our eponymous protagonist as he's mustering final forces before the big confrontation against the Romans with Cormac of Connacht joining his lot... and audience discovering old Gonar might be more than just crazy with his talks of wizardry. Where some others would summarize a battle Howard goes into exquisite detail on how all these different people would partake. You might even recognize a certain mythical king from ages long past if you've read the man's other works. And lastly, Worms of the Earth. This one concerns Bran Mak Morn personally, or under a pseudonym for narrative reasons, as he agrees to an unspeakable alliance to strike at forces of Rome. This is the one where mystical forces are brought to the stage and are definitely regarded as making a deal with the devil that will come for payment.
There are more stories, but seeing as they do not involve our doomed king directly I'll leave for you to dig into them. I would say they concern a matter possibly more important than our hero, as much as Howard saw some of himself in Bran Mak Morn according to personal notes - race of Picts. He hadn't immediately settled on what they were beyond "a stunted, dark-skinned remnants of once glorious people" and he toys with their origins in at least two stories. Interestingly, they're set later in the timeline and you see "doomed" was apt description. If anything author seems to have an unhealthy obsession with races even if his extrapolations and theories go so far back to employ creative freedoms regarding historical migrations and such. He repeats these facts overbearingly enough that you buy into them with ease as this grand goal of their last living king. If I had to risk it I'd say there's a degree of repetitiveness involved because I'm not reading these stories as they were originally penned for singular magazine releases. Read back-to-back their shared themes can become grating. Howard's at times lecture-style narrations of their backstory doesn't help and is salvaged by otherwise evocative, rich scene setting immediately transporting you to savage Britain and brutal wards of his.
Worth noting is the Untitled story later discovered that had plans to include Bran Mak Morn had Howard gotten around to completing it. This never happened and it's a shame because what we got, story spanning multiple characters and ages, was a great appetizer. I wonder how last of the pure Picts would've fit in. There is something engaging in reading a long lost typescript with errors and all.
Lastly there are correspondences I brought up in the opening. This is where you're either glued to the text as you WANT to find out more about author's inner thoughts and process or you'll just skim over as they summarize the stories you read. Of peculiar note were his letters to H.P. Lovecraft and discourse on nature of Picts. In fact, I was astonished to find out just how many of Howard's ideas ended up in the stories themselves. Which might explain the long-winded nature of explanations at times - he really wanted to cram it all in.