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Date Posted: 00:32:52 06/12/02 Wed
Author: Adilbrand
Subject: Re: Worms of the Earth
In reply to: Omega 's message, "Worms of the Earth" on 21:22:17 06/11/02 Tue

Worms of the Earth is by far the best of that series, but they are similar in style. The brooding darkness that clings to virtually all of Howard's heroic fantasy characters is definitely strongest in the case of Bran Mak Morn.

He knows his race is going down into the dark no matter what he does. Unlike all his other heroes, Bran knows his people are doomed. Still, like all of Howard's characters, he refuses to submit. The difference between Bran and the others is that the doom will happen in Bran's lifetime... and he knows it.

The cataclysm that ends the Hyborian Age of Conan happens long after Conan's death. The sinking of Atlantis that kills King Kull's race happens long after Kull dies. Their attention is on their immediate survival and the creation of their empires, and they give little thought to their people's extinction, much as we give little thought to the eventual demise of the Sun. Bran Mak Morn is different. Anything he acheives is gone when he dies, and he knows it.

Howard's use of irony was strongest in the Bran Mak Morn series as a whole.

"Men of the Shadows" is not Howard's best work. Indeed, it wasn't published until after Howard's death. It should be considered part of his learning process. He crams too much information into the story, and it isn't in his strongest, most visceral voice.

"Kings of the Night" still lacks his usual voice. The story is about Bran, but he isn't the protagonist. Despite this, the surprisingly dense plots continue to pull the reader through, with explosions of action, bizarre monsters, awesome wizardry, dark and degenerate secrets...

"Worms of the Earth" is simply fantastic. You've read it, so I have little to say about it.

Howard's characters (even Conan) are descended from Odysseus, not Achilles. They can think. And this is nowhere more evident than in the Bran stories.

The Bran stories are probably the best of the "last defenders of Faerie" branch of fantasy fiction. In most fantasy fiction, the price of defeat is dire, but the hope for total victory exists. Not so in the Bran stories. No matter what, the picts are going down when Bran falls. These stories highlight doomed yet dauntless determination.

This sense of ultimate hopelessness does pervade H.P. Lovecraft's fiction, but we really see little of it in modern fantasy. It's a shame, because it really resonates with haunting power.

Bran Mak Morn is a bleak, darkness shrouded hero. You have read the best story in this short series, but, despite that, I think the others are worth checking out. Just keep in mind that Bran was, for the most part, very early Howard (Worms was the last Bran story he wrote, published a month before the publication of his very first Conan story.)

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