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Summary: Foundational reading for the sword-and sorcery fan
Review: * If you're not--or not looking to become--a reader of sword-and-sorcery or fantasy tales, then you can probably skip the rest of this review and move on . . . unless you might acquire a taste for stories of a philosophical barbarian-king, whose axe or sword slays oncomers as easily as you might mosquitoes . . . *OK, now that _they're_ gone: this intriguing compilation probably merits 3-1/2 stars, but I'll give one of the genre's cornerstones the benefit of the doubt. Be warned, though, REH's writing can be quite different from that of modern writers: sometimes brooding, sometimes utterly pulp-ish in its almost garish vividness. Nonetheless, it's that very quality that makes it so fascinating and, at times, as strong and elegant as the axe of the protagonist. Speaking of whom, he is like Rodin's "Thinker" with larger muscles and longer hair. An Atlantian usurper of the throne of Valusia, he finds himself perpetually assailed by conspirators (whether domestic, foreign or, for something completely different, possessed of human bodies and serpent heads). One could thus group the stories here into a couple of categories: (1) The Conspiracies (The Shadow Kingdom, By This Axe I Rule, and Swords of the Purple Kingdom--the latter two being quite similar); (2) The Oddities (e.g. Delcardes' Cat, The Striking of the Gong and The Skull of Silence); and (3) The Unfinished (which are obvious). (So yes, be forewarned, especially if you need closure in your tales.) REH's genius shows through most clearly in the Conspiracies, where one marvels at the power of his imagination--he seems to have created this pre-Flood world out of whole cloth! As noted, the writing is often fine, and from the viewpoint of the fantasy fan, this is foundational reading. From here, it's logical to read _The Hour of the Dragon_, REH's only novel and a tale of that legendary king who evolves from Kull of Atlantis: Conan of Cimmeria.
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Summary: A KULL START
Review: ANY FAN OF HOWARD,S WORK MOST START A THE BEGINING OF HIS WORLD, AND THAT START'S WITH KULL. SO DON'T MISS THE START, OF AN EPIC HISTORY, OF HOWARD'S WORLD !
Rating: 
Summary: Flawed but ambitious writing from the Master of Fantasy
Review: As a lifelong (well, 20-odd out of 32 years)fan of Robert E Howard, I jumped at the chance to buy this book from Amazon - finally, stories of Kull, the ancestor (near enough) of Conan, the greatest of them all. And yet... I'm afraid to say I was disappointed by these stories. Most of them, if not all, revolve around the hangers-on of, and visitors to, Kull's court, (a more spoiled and childish bunch I've yet to see) and ussually include the classic "Oh, let's ask the King if we can get married because he fought with my father" plot or even worse, the classic "but why can't I marry you, even though you're a commoner and it's against the law" plot. The nice touches in this collection - Kull's mounting paranoia when he realises that his entire court may have been infiltrated by Serpent people in the guise of humans, or the climax of one tale when he breaks a stone tablet of the law, dripping with gore after a battle, and dares anyone to argue with him - are classic pulp Howard, better than 99% of the dross written in the name of fantasy nowadays. But they cannot disguise the fact that he was still finding his feet, and honing the skills that would make him such a good storyteller a few years later with Conan. Recommended for firm fans of Howard only - if you're not one, try the Conan stories - they are the real thing.
Rating: 
Summary: A promise of things to come...
Review: As the title proclaims, this book contains the Kull stories, including the fragments, by Robert E. Howard. No DeCamp, Carter, or Drake; just pure Robert E. Howard!
Out of the 9 Kull stories in this book, only two appeared in print during Howard's lifetime. The Shadow Kingdom and The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune were both published in Weird Tales in 1929. The Shadow Kingdom is a lively, fast-moving tale, foreshadowing numerous Conan stories, on Kull's battle against the Serpent Men of Valusia. In contrast, The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune is a moody tale, much more akin to some of Lovecraft's horror stories. The other 7 stories are of variable quality. The Exile of Atlantis,reads more as a fragment than a complete story. Kull is only a bystander in the The Altar and the Scorpion. While some what predictable, Delcarde's Cat is a readable story. The appearance of Thulsa Doom in the story is done quite awkwardly though. Howard presents him in as a continual rival of Kull, but this was his first and only appearance in the Kull series. By This Axe I Rule, is quite readable compared to much of the sword and sorcery fiction published today, but is not Howard's best. The Striking of the Gong,is reminiscent of The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, but instead of creating a sense of mystery, Howard only details and explains Kull's experiences. Swords of the Purple KingdomEis similar to The Shadow Kingdom and By This Axe I Rule. While enjoyable, this volume is not Howard at his best. It is clear why some of these stories didn't get published in WEIRD TALES while REH was alive, particularly when you compare them to the Conan or Solomon Kane stories. Compared to a lot of the fantasy written today though, this is great stuff! So while I may only give it 3 stars out of 5, it is still worth the cover price.
Rating:
Summary: A promise of things to come...
Review: As the title proclaims, this book contains the Kull stories, including the fragments, by Robert E. Howard. No DeCamp, Carter, or Drake; just pure Robert E. Howard!
Out of the 9 Kull stories in this book, only two appeared in print during Howard's lifetime. The Shadow Kingdom and The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune were both published in Weird Tales in 1929. The Shadow Kingdom is a lively, fast-moving tale, foreshadowing numerous Conan stories, on Kull's battle against the Serpent Men of Valusia. In contrast, The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune is a moody tale, much more akin to some of Lovecraft's horror stories. The other 7 stories are of variable quality. The Exile of Atlantis,reads more as a fragment than a complete story. Kull is only a bystander in the The Altar and the Scorpion. While some what predictable, Delcarde's Cat is a readable story. The appearance of Thulsa Doom in the story is done quite awkwardly though. Howard presents him in as a continual rival of Kull, but this was his first and only appearance in the Kull series. By This Axe I Rule, is quite readable compared to much of the sword and sorcery fiction published today, but is not Howard's best. The Striking of the Gong,is reminiscent of The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune, but instead of creating a sense of mystery, Howard only details and explains Kull's experiences. Swords of the Purple KingdomEis similar to The Shadow Kingdom and By This Axe I Rule. While enjoyable, this volume is not Howard at his best. It is clear why some of these stories didn't get published in WEIRD TALES while REH was alive, particularly when you compare them to the Conan or Solomon Kane stories. Compared to a lot of the fantasy written today though, this is great stuff! So while I may only give it 3 stars out of 5, it is still worth the cover price.
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Summary: King Kull and Brule the Spear-slayer fight the Serpent Men
Review: Before there was Conan, the huge, hulking Cimmerian, there was Kull--the huge, hulking Atlantean, who rose to power in Valusia when he killed the corrupt king and he made him his successor. Kull's bodyguard is a Pict named Brule the Spear-slayer, who was assigned to him by the Pictish ambassador, on orders of Tu, the King's Councilor. His official bodyguard is the Red Slayers. Their first meeting is when Kull's life is threatened by the Serpent Men of Set. Although he's never mentioned, Set plays a major role in the Kull stories, as he'll play again in the Conan stories. Whether he's battling enemies like Thulsa Doom, fending off threats on his life and throne, or gazing into the mystic mirrors of Tuzun Thune, Kull knows that the Thurian Continent will soon sink into the sea.
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Summary: Execrable prose with a hint of real vision.
Review: Between his first publication and his death by suicide, Robert E. Howard was amazingly productive, producing hundreds of stories and story fragments that, when not published in the pulp magazines of the 1920's and 30's, have almost uniformly been revived and anthologized in the many decades since. Best known for those works of fantasy that serve as the foundation for what is now called "swords and sorcery," and of course in this vein most notably for his invention of Conan the Cimmerian, Howard typically wrote of muscular, heroic figures of fearsome fighting prowess who survived in worlds of black magic and sorcery by virtue of sheer wit and brawn. Kull, an "Atlantean" of barbaric nature who somehow usurps the throne of the great and ancient kingdom of Valusia (a story Howard never managed to tell), is one such character, and the stories, fragments and poems in this book are all concerned with him. With one exception, these stories involve Kull's activities as king, not with his rise to kinghood, and as some of the other reviewers on this site have also noted, for those who approach this collection with preconceived notions of what "swords and sorcery" stories are like, the concerns of some of these tales will seem surprisingly intellectual (although there is plenty of bloody fighting as well). Enjoyment of this book, however, requires that one overcome a prose style that is ridiculously bad, from the characters' faux-arcane manner of speaking to the lazy jobs of description (just what is a "curious" sculpture, anyway?). Howard was a writer for the pulps, after all, and his prose is neither of literary merit nor anything to compare with the more polished styles of modern popular authors. That said, underneath the pulp baggage it is possible to discern ideas of (dare I say it?) mythical impact. While the description of the history of the ancient serpent people and their defeat at the hands of the ancestors of humans is difficult to get through without laughing, on some level the story does have the ring of ancient myth, or at least of convincing storytelling, and it is possible to appreciate this while simultaneously acknowledging that Howard borrowed all of his ideas from other sources in the first place. If only Howard had been a more gifted writer, or at least had taken the time to craft his stories more carefully, a collection like this one, while slimmer, might be easier to recommend. As it stands, aficionados of sword-and-sorcery fiction should at least be familiar with this stuff, since it represents the antecedents of the entire genre (along with Edgar Rice Burroughs, though his work might fall more confortably in the category of science fiction). Anyone else will find this incomprehensible.
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Summary: Gaze into The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune
Review: Conan of Aquilonia is Kull of Valusia. Robert E. Howard wrote twenty-four Conan stories of which only fourteen were published during his lifetime. Before Conan, there was Kull. I invite you to return to the Antedeluvian Age, the time before the Great Flood, when Atlantis was real and the early kingdoms, like Volusia, were real and ruled by none other than Kull the Atlantean. The Nemedian Chronicles mention Atlantis and Kull. Robert E. Howard found them and based his ten Kull stories on them. The story By This Axe I Rule tells of an assassination attmept on King Kull. Two years later, Howard rewrote it as the Conan story The Phoenix on the Sword.
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Summary: Very Good!
Review: Even better than the Conan books and some interesting references to Lovecraft's Mythos.
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Summary: Soon to be a major motion picture!!!
Review: Hollywood coulnd not resist a story this good for very long. All of the elements that made Conan great come into play in this group of tales about a usurper King who rules with wisdom and a resolve of iron. Contains all of the sword and scorcery you would expect from Howard. You must read this before Kevin Szorbo (TV's Hercules) puts his own spin on the tale
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