'Brak the Barbarian: The Mark of the Demons' – John Jakes (Tandem)

It's been a bit of a nightmare trying to get this book finished... Nothing to do with the plot or anything like that, more a case of there being two copies in the flat and I'm only ever able to find the copy that I'm not reading. Even while I'm writing this post, I've got one copy in front of me and not a clue where the other one could be. Oh well, it's a good job that I only need one copy... ;o)

I've been looking forward to reading 'The Mark of the Demons' again as it was a real favourite of mine when I was a kid. Turns out that it still is, who would have thought it? ;o)

'We go to the dark. We ride to the awful dark. A stranger leads us, a savage man, His presence brings the evil down!'

The soothsayer's grim words chilled the hearts of the travellers. Even the iron nerves of Brak the Barbarian twanged with foreboding. For in the trader's caravan as it crossed the wasteland of Logol, he was the savage, the stranger. Though his strength and swordsmanship might protect the caravan from attacks by brigands or wild beasts, even from the ruby eyed warriors of Quran, he was as helpless as any against the menance of supernatural powers.

And as first one, the another of the travellers fell prey to the horror that stalked them, Brak knew that he must find a weapon more powerful than his sword if he too was not to be discovered drained of blood and bones, a dry husk bearing the three black marks, the triangular Mark of the Demons...

I think I've mentioned it before but I came to 'Conan' the long way round and 'Brak the Barbarian' was one of the stops along the way. That being the case, 'The Mark of the Demons' was the first time that I saw how horror and fantasy can come together and make for a really compelling tale. And yep, I know that Robert Howard did it first but I hadn't got there yet. Brak may not be the most original of characters and that's still the case here, where this book really takes a big step forward for me though is how good Jakes is at bringing a little horror to the setting. Never too much, just enough to unsettle and then a little more (at just the right moment) to hit you with the big moments. It worked for me as a kid and it still works now; 'The Mark of the Demons' continues to hold my attention just like it was the first time I'd picked the book up, all because of Jakes' to carry the reader along and then smack them between the eyes with the evil that haunts Brak's every footstep in this world.

And that brings me to what I like about Brak. He may be 'Conan with blonde hair' but Jakes really works to show us how Brak is very new to the world, away from the steppes, and that while he mocked the gods of his people, the two 'top gods' of the 'civilised' world are far beyond his comprehension and he just can't get his head round that. Except that he has to because of the enemies that he has a habit of making. It makes for a good mixture of 'Sword and Sorcery' with a little hint of Lovecraft to draw your attention away from the similarities that Brak shares with his more illustrious forebear.

And there are plenty of other distractions to be fair. 'The Mark of the Demons' has a lot going on, for a book that's only a hundred and fifty nine pages long, with enough sword fights and sorcerous encounters to keep things ticking along nicely. It's those undercurrents of horror that keep me coming back though, there is definitely more to 'The Mark of the Demons' than meets the eye and it's worth checking out if you come across it.