'Brak the Barbarian' – John Jakes (Avon)

I'm not going to go into loads of detail but take it from me, yesterday was appalling. The kind of 'first day back at work after being on leave' where you have to ask yourself what on earth possessed you to take a couple of days off in the first place. Oh well, it's almost the weekend...

After all that then, all I was really good for last night was comfort eating and comfort reading. 'The Justice of Kings' is an amazing read, and I hope to tell you more about it soon, but what I wanted was a book that I knew inside out so wouldn't have to worry too much about concentrating on the words. Step forwards, 'Brak the Barbarian'...

I first came across 'Brak the Barbarian' years ago (and it really is years ago, damn I feel old) on holiday in Norfolk when I was trailing after my family, shopping, and came across the first two books on the paperback rack (well I think they were the first two, the numbering seems to change or it might just be that I'm not remembering it correctly). As a little aside, it's funny how many of my favourite reads (as a kid) were discovered while on holiday, there might be a post in that... I still had a bit of spending money, enough to grab 'Brak the Barbarian' and 'The Mark of the Demons'. It would be some years before I read any 'Conan' but for that summer, 'Brak' was all I needed :o) In the years since, I lost the original books, found replacements, lost those, found copies for my Kindle and finally, found some rather nice looking editions on Deptford Market. And it's with that edition of 'Brak the Barbarian' that I'll kick things off...

Brak the Barbarian - outcast, fortune-hunter, mighty swordsman – battles Septegundus, Amyr of Evil, whsoe very flesh was etched with humans rising in torment... Ariane, honey voiced snare of the devil... The Darter Boys, from whose finger-tips burst agonizing pain in green crimson beams... Doomdog, Fangfish, T'muk, The Thing Which Crawls...

Roaring his outrage, Brak hefted hs great battle axe and set out to make good his vow that not all the sorcery in this evil land of Yob-Haggoth would bar his way south to the golden city of his dreams.

Lets get the obvious comparison out of the way first... If all the barbarians of fiction were lined up in alphabetical order, well... That's the only way that Brak would ever come before Conan. Conan was there first and it's not unreasonable to imagine that the reason Brak went on his own quest was to share in the glories that Conan had already won for himself.

Having said all that though, Brak is his own character and as such, his tales are very entertaining for slightly different reasons (and we're talking 'Sword and Sorcery' here so 'entertaining' is the whole point really).

'Brak the Barbarian' is a collection of the barbarian's shorter stories; I'm no 'Sword and Sorcery' scholar but I suspect these stories were printed elsewhere before they appeared in this book. As such, they all follow a familiar pattern of Brak falling foul of evil and then going on to defeat it, more often than not fighting a giant monster along the way. And it's here that we realise that not only is Brak encountering civilisation for the first time (since his exile), he is also probably the unluckiest barbarian that you will ever meet. While the thrust of each story is driven by a 'monster encounter' (something that Jakes does very well, it's properly stirring stuff), it all kicks off with Brak being unlucky. He falls foul of the weather, he trespasses on royal land, he is outnumbered by bandits, the list goes on...

And I love it. Whereas Conan is a force of nature who shapes events around him, Brak is entirely the opposite; the world seems to just happen to Brak and he must fight his way out as best he can. You know how it has to turn out (because you know, 'Sword and Sorcery') but even then, Jakes is able to pull a few surprises here and there. Things do seem to just happen to Brak after all. It makes for entertaining reading, that's the bottom line, and Jakes does that well

All of this happens against a backdrop that you will have seen a hundred times before (a harsh land where only the strong and very lucky survive) but Jakes is good at handling the 'Lovecraftian Horror' elements and that's key to this book doing it's job well. The evil is otherworldly (and I still can't think of Septegundus' lack of eyelids without squirming) and so are the monsters which means that although you know Brak will win through, it feels like it means something when he does.

You may feel like you've read 'Brak the Barbarian' before, just with a different title, but you can't deny how much fun it is and that's why I ended up reading it last night. Give it a try if you ever see a copy...