El Borak and Other Desert Adventures by Robert E. HowardMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This collection is great fun, full of incredible action and amazing settings. I never got started on Conan, but I may have to give that a second try, because Robert E. Howard's writing here is brilliant.
Most of the stories are about an American in the Middle East who is known as El Borak, though there are a few stories with other heroes. El Borak is an admirable character--one who is fearless, capable, intelligent, and honorable (in a certain way). Most of the people in these stories are rogues and bandits, and El Borak often allies himself with them for various reasons, even if they were trying to kill him a page earlier, but he never betrays or abandons them once he's made a deal. He'll kill an enemy in an instant, but if they agree to work together he can be completely trusted.
It's "honor among thieves"--except he really has it.
Central Asia provides fantastic settings for these stories. Wide open lands, towering mountains, and hidden valleys are home to a variety of ethnicities with long histories filled with legends and mysteries. It's perfect for a sort of wild West tale told even bigger, and Howard makes the most of it. The action in his stories is intense, the characters are ambitious, and the plots are just complex enough to make it all work.
The language, sparse in action scenes but luxuriant elsewhere, is alive with color and energy, and there is so much life in these stories. It may be pulp writing, but it shows genuine genius, a skill much to be envied. He only lived to be 30--imagine if he had enjoyed a few more decades of life and writing.
(Yes, the writing is problematic in some places, as one might expect to find in pulp fiction of the era. Still--it was less than I anticipated. I found it very entertaining in spite of certain failings that probably are more awkward than offensive, but readers will judge for themselves.)
Recommended for adventure readers and Robert E. Howard fans.
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