Pain dazzled behind his eyes. Once more he retreated, seeking firm ground. The shale betrayed him again. He broke his fall with one elbow at the last instant. The bird-thing swiped at him with its talon. Brak hitched out of the way. The talon tore a hole in the earth where he'd been.
Lying on his side, Brak struck the bird-thing's leg, struck again. Gristle parted. Ichor glistened between stringy fibers. The monster's weight collapsed its leg.
Brak scrambled up, panting. The beak probed for his eyes. He jumped in the air. The beak shot between his legs. He came down astride it, the gray world tilting, whirling -
Conan, Kyrik, Tark, and now ... Brak the barbarian, a rangy blond warrior down from the north, locked in an endless trek for far Khurdisan. The foul wizard Septegundus has cursed him that he'll never reach his destination, and at the moment it seems the curse may prevail, for Brak is trapped in the trackless Logol wastes, an endless realm of shifting sands and the skin scouring Skulwind. Things get even worse when he rescues the weird twins Ky and Kya from a skeletal bird beast. They claim to be exiled nobility, but something about them puts Brak on edge. Soon enough they've joined with a ragged caravan ran by the trader Hadrios and his daughter Helane, and it should be smooth sailing to the city of Samarind, and then on to Khurdisan ...
And then the killing starts.
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| Alive with pleasure ... and terror! |
Author John Jakes was a prolific writer, active in SF and fantasy while also finding mainstream success with his historical epic series The Kent Family Chronicles.
This entry in Brak's ongoing adventures shows Jakes as a sure hand, ably mixing elements of horror with a solid swords and sorcery foundation. Brak is a tough customer, a tall blond fighter who wears a lion skin and a ponytail. He brooks no guff, but he's also polite enough when not tussling with assassins and brigands, and doesn't seem interested in courtly intrigue or lost treasures. He and Helane hit it off fast, and Brak proves a gentleman in his conduct with her. The supporting cast are well crafted, a good example being the "Nestorian" priest Pol who struggles with his faith even as he searches for answers to the demonic threat. Nestorianism is of course Jakes' fantasy interpretation of Christianity, just as the raiders of Quran belong to some kind of pre-Islamic Arabic city-state. Those fearsome Quran fighters all wear a red jewel in place of their left eyes, and Jakes excels at fantasy details like these. He gives us some creepy river critters too, some kind of catfish with little bug legs that take chunks out of our cast. I love this kind of swords and sorcery writing, with a fairly grounded world that is nevertheless beset by dark forces and filled with weird corners. The demon blood-eaters are a great portrayal of vampiric evil in a dark fantasy setting, and meanwhile our barbarian hero's nemesis Septegundus worships the dark entity Yob-Haggoth in an easy but effective Lovecraft pastiche that adds a cosmic dimension to Brak's struggle. When the unknown strikes, you can feel Brak and co's fear.
Jakes keeps the story moving fast, and before we know it Brak's battling the blood-eaters in the Red City of Quran, and things are looking grim indeed. The climax comes as a blend of classic peplum disaster and the apocalyptic butchery of the sci-fi/horror flick Lifeforce, as the city falls down around us and the blood-eaters are revealed in their truest horrific form. It's a nail biter down to the final page, and even then Jakes leaves us on a melancholy note.
Brak must have conquered the market, because this title has quite a few reprints with varying cover art. The Paperback Library original from 1969 (just above) is a pretty straightforward representation of elements from the story, while the 1977 edition from Pocket Books that tops this entry is in a strange, delicate style that adds generic fantasy imagery such as the alien beast that Brak's astride - in the story, everyone rides regular camels through the desert! The Sphere edition is pretty generic, while the Tower Books version at least gives us the killer bird beast (with friends!). The Sphere says this is Brak's third adventure, while the OG Paperback Library calls it number two. Oh those wacky Brits ...
Brak earns a full 4/4 in his high tension struggle against the demon blood-eaters! Get Brak'd!
Pocket Books, 1977 (original pub. 1969)
I was looking at the Wikipedia page on John Jakes and it lists all four novels in the series the last of which came out in 1978, there's also a short story collection entitled 'The Fortunes of Brak' that came out in 1980. As to if the mysterious work hinted at in the authors intro is 1978s 'When The Idol's Walked' or some other lost work is something I'd love to learn.
ReplyDelete"As to if the mysterious work hinted at in the authors intro is 1978s 'When The Idol's Walked' or some other lost work is something I'd love to learn." Me too!
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