Almuric

Originality is the insane fetish of the 20th century littarati.In the Bible we see God confronting Adam: "The womanyou gave me tempted me and I ate." The first cop out inhistory. My neighbors are just like that. The first murderin history, Cain killed Abel out of jealous envy and hatred.consult the six o'clock news.Then there is the Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, TheArgonautica and Horatius at The Bridge. I hope none ofyou have missed Macaulay's great poem. "And how canman die better than facing fearful odds for the ashes ofhis fathers and the temples of his gods?" Hey, he wasonly outnumbered 90,000 to three!Coming on down in history, there is David and Goliath,Samson and Delilah, Roland and Oliver and somegreat poetry by soldiers of The Great War, notably AlanSeeger: "I have a rendezvous with death at somedisputed barricade". And "I to my pledged word am true,I shall shall not fail that rendezvous." He didn't!Then there is "It's still the same old story a fight for loveand glory... as time goes by."I really enjoyed the fold out painting in the Berkley edition.I don't see why the artist wasn't credited.What make Almuric so good is its intense realization, thehero's knotting muscles, his bleeding wounds, his pain, hisdetermination to fight on, the clanging swords, his stoicdetermination to rescue his loved Altha and the otherwomen from an unconquerable fortress. Echoes of "still isthe story told of how Horatius kept the bridge in the bravedays of old."I regret that Howard didn't write a sequel, tying up the looseends of this story, perhaps getting into the other side of theplanet. But this is the mark of a good story, leaving the readerwanting more. 4 star because its not as good as Conan.

This is a self made copy of the original book. The seller must have made this on their computer. The copyright date is 10/2/18.I am reading the book and I noticed so many errors with this book. The most glaring error is that this book does not contain the word Almuric so far. It's like every instance of the word Almuric is omitted. It is a a little annoying but I love this story so much that I can overlook it.My suggestion would be to by pass this book and look for a true Howard rendition. You would enjoy it more.

Robert E. Howard specialized in violent, dark tales of heroism tinged with horror, and while Esau Cairn isn't as well known as some of his other fictional heroes (Conan, Solomon Kane, Kull, etc), this short novel of Cairn's epic adventures on the fantastic world of Almuric is some of Howard's finest work. From the moment Cairn sets foot on the alien planet, action and adventure of the highest order reign supreme as our protagonist must fight to survive against alien predators great and small, nearly-human savages, and ultimately the winged men known as the Yaga, who prey upon the other races of Almuric with a devil's will. Ultimately Cairn even falls in love with beautiful but restless Altha, only to have her snatched away by the talons of the ruthless Yaga and taken to the court of their diabolically beautiful and cruel queen, Yasmeena. Can Cairn unite the squabbling men of Almuric against their mutual oppressors, or will the Yaga's reign of terror endure forever? Though somewhat similar to science fiction works like A PRINCESS OF MARS and GOR, ALMURIC is blazoned with Howard's imitable literary power and is one of the most underrated adventure novels of the twentieth century. Highly recommended.

When I was about nine or ten, I found a bunch of old paperbacks in a box in a closet in our house. Among them were several of Robert E. Howard's works, including Conan, Solomon Kane and one oddly titled "Almuric." I devoured the Conan books and was quickly hooked. When I was done with those books I came back to this curious "Almuric" book, which apparently wasn't a "Conan" book, although the cover art suggested it was at least somewhat similar. Being the voracious reader that I was, even at that age, I dove in.And I wasn't disappointed. This story follows the adventures of a unique character in Howard's pantheon, that of Esau Cairn. Cairn is very Conan-like in many ways, but also more sophisticated in other ways. Like Conan, he's a powerful physical specimen, with a ruthless streak a mile wide, and the indomitable will of an ultimate survivor. Like Conan, he also has an almost innocent and genteel side - quick to anger but also quick to forgive, suffering no injustices or indignations against others. He's not an uneducated man, but neither is he a scholar. The lack of peers in physical contests like boxing or wrestling - he often unintentionally hurts his opponents in such matches - leaves him restless and prone to trouble.The story starts with a brief tale of such trouble (fleeing from the authorities after being provoked to violence against a person of some importance) that launches him on a fantastic journey to an alien world called Almuric, where he finds himself in a constant struggle for his very life. The mechanism for this journey is not described (it's of the "mad scientist" variety), nor is such an explanation necessary, because the story deftly sidesteps the need and plunges headlong into high excitement.Finding himself naked in an alien landscape, Esau Cairn battles strange beasts for survival, honing his physique to even higher levels than already imagined. After some time surviving in this strange wilderness, he sets out in search of some kind of companionship, if any can be found. Eventually he finds the massive city of Koth inhabited by strange people who at first imprison him. After some time, he earns their respect and acceptance into their tribe because of his feats of strength and combat.Later he and a girl of his adoptive tribe are kidnapped by demonic winged people called the Yaga, who take them to a menacing city where the girl is set aside to be sacrificed, while the queen of the Yaga has designs to make Esau Cairn her object of pleasure. Cairn escapes and encounters the men of Koth and some nearby rival cities about to go to war with one another. He tells them that the Yaga have captured many of their people, and they unite under Esau Cairn to attempt to free their kinfolk from the depraved Yaga. A great battle ensues, and the Yaga are defeated.Sadly, this is the only story to feature Esau Cairn and his adoptive homeworld of Almuric. In my opinion, had Howard lived to write more Almuric stories, they might have come to rival the Hyborian legends of Conan. Alas, there's only this one story, and it is regrettably too short. Like many of Howard's stories though, it combines elements of fantasy, adventure and Lovecraftian horror. If you are a fan of Howard, Lovecraft and their contemporaries, you will not be disappointed by this story.