CORMAC MAC ART

Rating:
Summary: MAN THE OARS!
Review: Adventure on the high seas with Vikings and Irishmen. Cormac Mac Art is one of Howard's most dynamic heroes. He stands tall amongst other howardian creations such as Conan and Kull. If you like fast paced sword and sorcery with an historical flavor, this one's for YOU! Why the 9 rating? Well nobody is perfect, but Howard came awful close with this one. See you on the battlefield...

Rating:
Summary: The Howard is good, the Drake is NOT
Review: Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Drake. Later on in his career, he wrote some good fantasy. Truth is though, "The Land Towards Sunset" by Drake at the beginning of this collection, is TERRIBLE. The tales later in the book such as "Tigers of The Sea", are true Howard stories and though not all finished, will be very interesting to his fans. However, before you buy this just make sure you understand that a full THIRD of this book is not by Robert E. Howard, and little of what he did write is finished. If you're not a big follower of Howard or pulp fiction, you may be disapointed.

Rating:
Summary: The Howard is good, the Drake is NOT
Review: Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Drake. Later on in his career, he wrote some good fantasy. Truth is though, "The Land Towards Sunset" by Drake at the beginning of this collection, is TERRIBLE. The tales later in the book such as "Tigers of The Sea", are true Howard stories and though not all finished, will be very interesting to his fans. However, before you buy this just make sure you understand that a full THIRD of this book is not by Robert E. Howard, and little of what he did write is finished. If you're not a big follower of Howard or pulp fiction, you may be disapointed.

Rating:
Summary: true Art
Review: howard is forever the mater of describing battles. and in this book it's battles, battles, battles. filled with action. man slashes man. great descriptions. great writing. great......great. men fights men. blood floats.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the Baen lot
Review: I recently purchased several REH books published by Baen - Kull, Solomon Kane, Cormac Mac Art and Bran mak Morn. I am reading Bran at the moment, and enjoying it, - so this review may be a bit premature, but I enjoyed Cormac the best.

Cormac is definitely in the mold of Conan et al, and the stories are immensely readable. There is a tangible excitement expressed here for a life of danger, plunder, and guile. For those moments that you are reading, you too are living a life of adventure!

For rovers, these characters show a bit of chivalry and compassion. I enjoyed the repartee between Wulfhere and Cormac. Their relationship breathes a bit of life into what might otherwise be flat, mechanical characters. (Not that most readers of this genre expect character development.)

I highly recommend the REH stories. The 4 stars are for the book overall - DD's story at the beginning suffers from violent, irrational, cardboard characters. It was a mistake on Baen's part to put his pastiche first...

Rating:
Summary: Beware the Drake!
Review: I've read a lot of Robert E. Howard (the entire Conan series and some of the BAEN series) and Cormac Mac Art, an Irish pirate, is probably one of his best characters, although many of his stories are incomplete. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough complete material to fill this book, so David Drake (another fantasy author) took it upon himself to write a full length story in the style of Howard, as well as completing one of Howard's unfinished stories. I usually don't mind when outside authors try to finish, edit, or emulate Howard's work (as was done successfully by Carter and DeCamp with the Conan series) but in this case, the results were unsatisfactory and very un-Howard. It's almost as if the characters of an existing (and rather boring) fantasy story were re-named as "Cormac" and "Wulfhere". Even less fortunate is the fact the Drake's story is the first in this volume, and without reading the introduction one might believe that it is actually Robert E. Howard's work, and thus throw away the book before getting to the good stuff.

Contrary to what some of the other reviewers have said, there are TWO complete stories by Howard in this book. What remains is either incomplete, or created by Drake. Here's a summary which should clear up any confusion regarding this issue.

1.) THE LAND TOWARD THE SUNSET (David Drake)
2.) TIGERS OF THE SEA (Robert E. Howard, completed by David Drake)
3.) SWORDS OF THE NORTHERN SEA (Robert E. Howard, Complete)
4.) THE NIGHT OF THE WOLF (Robert E. Howard, Complete)
5.) THE TEMPLE OF ABOMINATION (Robert E. Howard, Fragment)

I strongly suggest that you SKIP THE FIRST STORY if you want to experience the real Cormac Mac Art, unadulterated by foreign pens.

Rating:
Summary: Great tales
Review: Saucy, violent and unrelenting, super great fics from REH. Tigers of the Sea nd other great works of the master abound here. Buy it. Luv it

Rating:
Summary: The Howard is good, the Drake is NOT
Review: This book is the least of Bean's Robert E. Howard series. It is pointed out in the introduction that none of these stories were actually wrote by Howard, they were abandoned and finished by someone else. The hero of these short stories is Cormac Mac Art, an Irish prince (descended for Conan, of course) turned pirate. He's a barbarian who lives by his own by his own vauge but unshakable code of honor. The best story, the most Howard of them all, is "The Land Toward Sunset", about an island full of vampires. It was completely made up and wrote by David Drake. "Temple of the Abomination" is also good, it gives the series a sense of time and place, with mentions of early Christian missionaries and King Aurthor. This isn't the best, but far from being bad. There are all first-rate adventures on the Eighth Century English coast. But the greatness really starts with Kull, the next volume.

Rating:
Summary: The weakest of the series.
Review: This book is the least of Bean's Robert E. Howard series. It is pointed out in the introduction that none of these stories were actually wrote by Howard, they were abandoned and finished by someone else. The hero of these short stories is Cormac Mac Art, an Irish prince (descended for Conan, of course) turned pirate. He's a barbarian who lives by his own by his own vauge but unshakable code of honor. The best story, the most Howard of them all, is "The Land Toward Sunset", about an island full of vampires. It was completely made up and wrote by David Drake. "Temple of the Abomination" is also good, it gives the series a sense of time and place, with mentions of early Christian missionaries and King Aurthor. This isn't the best, but far from being bad. There are all first-rate adventures on the Eighth Century English coast. But the greatness really starts with Kull, the next volume.

Rating:
Summary: Robert Ervin Howard
Review: This man's work has influenced me in all aspects of my life. I own all the books in this Baen series, and, (although they are extremely hard to locate nowadays) I have succesfully completed the collection of the ORIGINAL Conan tales.

High fantasy, wonderful imagination, and a lot of dark images. Not even the immortal Tolkien can match this man.

He is the unquestioned god of fantasy.