Brak the Barbarian

Rating:
Summary: It's the sound you make
Review: Brak - It's the sound you make when trying to clear something unpleasant from your throat; and in this case it's awfully apt. The renewed interest in swords and sorcery fiction in the 1960's led to many exciting and worthwhile additions to and expansions of the field. Michael Moorcock turned the genre on its head, while the likes of Karl Edward Wagner developed interesting twists on the established ideas. And somewhere along the line John Jakes made it into print with the most staggeringly derivative, thoroughly uninteresting series you'll find on my bookshelf. I bought the lot at a clearing house for a few pennies and still feel that I overpayed. Wander blindfolded into any bookshop and select a volume at random: it will certainly be head and shoulders above Brak. These are stories you might classify as "sub-Conan" and they try desperately hard to capture the spirit and feel of Howard's best, but in the end read like fan fiction. Trust me on this - life is too short to be spent reading Brak.