Kull: Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard
|
List Price: Our Price: $10.33 You Save: $6.67 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $6.08 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Kull: Exile of Atlantis
Book Review: Another Sword & Sorcery Hero
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm enjoying these stories quite a bit. Kull is similar to Conan in many superficial respects, but his psyche is a bit different. The stories are well written and drive the reader along at a strong pace. The one major difference I see so far is that there are no "love" interests in the stories. Kull is not infatuated with women like Conan is so often thus making him less of a romantic hero and more of a raw hero and leader of men. I can't say that this is good or bad, but it makes him different enough from Conan that it works for me.
A great read!
Book Review: Before Conan there was Kull
Summary: 4 Stars
Howard's first barbarian hero. From Atlantis he --like Conan -- becomes a king. The stories are a mixed bag from the incredible ("The Shadow Kingdom"), the eerie ("The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune") and straight adventure ("By This Axe I Rule" -- which after failing to sell was later rewritten by REH as the Conan story "Phoenix on the Sword", with a supernatural element added.Book Review: I feel guilty for not liking it
Summary: 2 Stars
I just didn't find Kull as entertaining as Conan, or even as Solomon Kane, for that matter. I was also angry that what was advertised as a book of Kull stories turned out to be something like 40% stories and 60% fragments in various states of incompleteness.
I really, really wanted to like the book. The plentiful drawings were very atmospheric, and the language--particularly in description of place and mood (for my money, Howard competes with the titanic Henry James)--was so stirring that it took your breath away in anticipation of stunning action. But such action simply never materialized--or, if and when it did, it had little to do with our putative protagonist.
Btw you can really see how Howard was just beginning to get into the flow, even having difficulty summoning up names of characters: in one story, we have a Thulsa Doom and a Kulun Kroom (or some such quite close), while another story features a Ka, a Kaa-u, and a Ka-nu. Please, now, how are we supposed to keep track of such characters? One is reminded of 1970s Saturday morning cartoons like "Korg: 70,000 BC," wherein everyone was named Ug.
"Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" could be favorably compared to Dostoyevsky's "A Strange Man's Dream." I wonder if I'm the first to notice.
Book Review: Kull disjointed
Summary: 2 Stars
The advance ads implied this was a single story rather than a disjointed review and groups of unlinked stories