Rating: 
Summary: Some of Howard's formative work, some excellent
Review: Robert E. Howard is largely credited with having invented the "sword & sorcery" brand of fantasy literature. And deservedly so. His fantasy stories resonate with a stygian darkness and masculine energy that few have been able to duplicate since. Many of the Bran Mak Morn stories published in this edition are a bit in the formative stages of Howard's development as an author, or at least they seemed that way to me. Maybe he was just fighting a deadline on some of them. However, many of these stories are excellent, particularly "Worms of the Earth" and "The Dark Man." Bran is a different hero from most of Howard's barbarians. He's the evolved member of a dying race, the Picts. While the Picts are doomed to become extinct as a race and there's a sense they know it, they refuse to go down without a fight, doing battle with the Roman legions to the bitter end. Bran embodies this fighting spirit in all the tales contained within.
Rating:
Summary: Some of Howard's formative work, some excellent
Review: Robert E. Howard is largely credited with having invented the "sword & sorcery" brand of fantasy literature. And deservedly so. His fantasy stories resonate with a stygian darkness and masculine energy that few have been able to duplicate since. Many of the Bran Mak Morn stories published in this edition are a bit in the formative stages of Howard's development as an author, or at least they seemed that way to me. Maybe he was just fighting a deadline on some of them. However, many of these stories are excellent, particularly "Worms of the Earth" and "The Dark Man." Bran is a different hero from most of Howard's barbarians. He's the evolved member of a dying race, the Picts. While the Picts are doomed to become extinct as a race and there's a sense they know it, they refuse to go down without a fight, doing battle with the Roman legions to the bitter end. Bran embodies this fighting spirit in all the tales contained within.
Rating: 
Summary: One fine story and a bunch of dreck
Review: Robert E. Howard is perhaps most notable for being the founding father of the sub-genre of fantasy known as "swords and sorcery," perfected long after his death by other writers, such as Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock. This collection, which falls squarely within that subgenre, is a not-quite-complete compilation of the Howard tales that concern his version of the Picts: a once-proud race of men that ruled the isles of Britain before succumbing to succeeding waves of foreign invaders, culminating with the Romans ca. 200-100 B.C. Howard's Picts, while based on factual evidence, are of course highly fictionalized and should not be taken seriously as historical figures. As literary figures, however, they are rich with potential, as is the particular leader who lends his name to this anthology, Bran Mak Morn. This potential is most fully realized in the centerpiece tale, "Worms of the Earth," in which Bran makes a horrible bargain with a devolved race of humanoids to help him rid Britain of the accursed Romans. The remaining stories are far less engaging, and suffer more acutely from Howard's painful prose style, engorged as it is with faux-arcane phrasing, always-ominous atmospherics, lazy place and character descriptions, and the like. A modern reader might also begin to feel a little uncomfortable with the constant references to the race to which a given character belongs, and the traits this necessarily imparts upon him. Howard was emblematic of the trend (or perhaps originated it for subsequent writers too lazy to avoid it) in many fantasies to associate good or evil with specific races. Anyone who enjoys sword-and-sorcery style fantasy should read some Howard, if only to be familiar with the relevant antecedents. "Worms of the Earth" is worth the asking price of this collection by itself. Those who are not aficionados of fantasy (and even some who are) will find this unbearable, however.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent fantasy, and possibly something more....
Review: Robert E. Howard's tales of Bran Mak Morn, last king of the Picts, have long been recognised as some of the first, and best, heroic fantasy ever written. That's certainly how I regarded them, fantasy. Then I began to notice some curious parallels between current research into the the lost Atlantian civilization and Howard's stories.
First of all, there does indeed seem to have been a high stone age seafaring culture in the area we now call the Carribean approx. 10,000 years ago. This culture also seems to have had regular contact with both North and South America, as well as, the Mediterranian region. Now the ancestors of the Picts are thought to have come from the Mediterranian region during the high stone age. This small, dark race is thought to have spread over all of the British isles, as well as, a good part of Europe. They were only displaced by the coming of the Celts. Some experts believe that the Basques may be the only modern recognisable remnant of this people.
Now, the contact between the Carribean and Mediterranian, seems to have been suddenly disrupted a little over 8,000 years ago by a collossal comet shower over North America and the Carribean. It is documented that there was an abrupt climactic change and flooding at this time. There would almost certainly have been tidal waves in the Carribean region before this. In fact, it was only recently recognised that the "serpent" imagery found in much high stone age art probably represents "cosmic serpents"- or comets.
Now, Howard has his Bran Mak Morn making claims that his ancestors: 1.) were connected with Atlantis, 2.) knew of North and South America, 3.) ruled most of Europe, 4.) were driven out by the Celts, and 5.) have a strong religious connection with a destructive serpent cult. Not only that, but the physically degenerate stature of his Picts are what would be expected of a cut-off remnant of a race that was surrounded by nothing but enemies. Interbreeding, and lack of a sufficient gene-pool, would produce just the abnormalities and degeneracy that Howard attributes to his Picts.
To verify all this for yourselves, try reading _Gateway to Atlantis_ by Andrew Collins. You'll never see the fiction of Robert E. Howard in the same light again....
Rating:
Summary: Bran Mak Morn is KING!
Review: So the title is a little misleading. King Bran Mak Morn isn't in but two of these stories. Mak Morn is the last full blooded Pict (the wild race of Conan's time) left. After centeries of thriving, the race is now on the verge of extinction from the Imperial Romans. Bran has sworn he will not just roll over die without a fight, so he fights the Latins by might or magic, even though he knows it is futile. The stories are all top notch. "The Lost Race" and "Men of Shadows are about the Picts, not Bran himself. "Kings of the Night" and "Worms of the Earth" are the only stories that actually feature Mak Morn. In "The Dark Man and "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" are Turlogh Dubh's stories. Bran has died by now, but has attained god like status. They are all worthy stories, and recomnded for any lover of adventure fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Bran Mak Morn is KING!
Review: So the title is a little misleading. King Bran Mak Morn isn't in but two of these stories. Mak Morn is the last full blooded Pict (the wild race of Conan's time) left. After centeries of thriving, the race is now on the verge of extinction from the Imperial Romans. Bran has sworn he will not just roll over die without a fight, so he fights the Latins by might or magic, even though he knows it is futile. The stories are all top notch. "The Lost Race" and "Men of Shadows are about the Picts, not Bran himself. "Kings of the Night" and "Worms of the Earth" are the only stories that actually feature Mak Morn. In "The Dark Man and "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" are Turlogh Dubh's stories. Bran has died by now, but has attained god like status. They are all worthy stories, and recomnded for any lover of adventure fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, the complete tales of the Pictish King.
Review: The gripping tales of the doomed king of a nearly extinct race. Howard lets you share the sense of despair as a noble warrior tries to protect his subjects against the encroaching Roman legions. This is as good as any pulp fiction written
Rating:
Summary: Another Howardian Gem
Review: You gotta love these Robert E. Howard books! The grandfather of testosterone drenched fantasy stories hits another homerun with this cycle of Bran Mak Morn tales offered in one volume. It is really too bad the other Baen volumes of Howard's works are out of print because this is excellent entertainment. Like Howard's other superhuman heroes, Conan and Kull, Bran Mak Morn is tough as nails and doesn't take you-know-what from anybody. The stories are set in the distant past (although not as distant as Conan or some of Howard's other tales), in the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. Bran is the last pure blood king of the Picts, an ancient people overwhelmed by numerous invasions during the ages. Howard takes liberal license with the real history, creating a mystical people with links to Atlantis and Lemuria. Bran is fighting for the survival of his people in a world populated by Lovecraftian monsters, sorcerers, Roman soldiers, enemy tribes, Vikings, and other assorted evils. In "The Lost Race," a wandering Briton stumbles on a bandit leader and his evil minions. After fleeing from the thieves, he stumbles into a cave containing the remnants of the Pictish tribes, presided over by Bran Mak Morn. It is here we are introduced to Morn and discover how his tribe fell into misfortune. "Men of the Shadows" is narrated by a Roman soldier lost in enemy territory after his fellow soldiers died in combat. His eventual meeting with Bran Mak Morn is no surprise, but serves to fill in details about the travels of the Picts through the ancient world. Some freaky sorcery and the usual Howardian sense of doom run throughout this tale. "Kings of the Night" is a combat tale that reminds me of Howard's story on the Battle of Clontarf in "Eons of the Night." The Picts are assembling for a battle to prevent an invasion by the Roman army. Bran Mak Morn has some trouble persuading some Vikings to fight for him until a king comes to lead the Vikings into battle. Where this king comes from and how he gets there is enormous fun, as is the gory battle with the Roman invaders. "Worms of the Earth" absolutely reeks of Lovecraft. In this story, Bran Mak Morn swears revenge on a sadistic Roman governor. In order to carry out his oath, Morn seeks the help of the worms of the earth, a race of humans pushed underground eons ago by the Picts. Something happened to these humans during their years underground, a sickening transformation that makes them a fearsome presence. "The Dark Man" is the story of Turlogh Dubh, a survivor of Clontarf whose exile from his clan leads him on endless journeys through forbidding lands. When a gang of Vikings kidnaps a beautiful Irish princess, Dubh hunts them down with the help of a strange icon found in the hands of a dead Pict. After a bloody battle with the Vikings, Dubh meets the Picts and learns about the fate of Bran Mak Morn. The final story, "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth," is a further adventure of Turlogh Dubh. Dubh is captured by Viking pirates, one of who is Athelstane, a survivor of the battle in "The Dark Man." After the Viking ship crashes, Athelstane and Dubh join forces to topple the king of Bal-Sagoth. This king is a puppet of a sorcerer who spends his free time creating weird hybrids in an underground cave. Predictably, everything quickly degenerates into an epic battle where bodies topple by the boatload. Robert Howard is a hard act to follow. It really is a pity he committed suicide at a young age, thereby robbing the genre of countless tales that would have elevated his reputation even higher than it is today. Somebody really out to reprint the other volumes in this series. Selling them would be a piece of cake.
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