Started: Nov. 29
Finished: Dec. 4
Notes: I've had my eye on this series for decades now, and a while back when I ran across a couple of the books, I decided it was time to give them a try.
Mini review: An immortal warrior returns after hundreds of years to the prairie clans he founded and sets out with them on a quest to find a prophesied home. One of the not uncommon criticisms of Sword & Sorcery literature is that it seeks to hide masculine bravado behind a shield of righteous cruelty, an opinion with which I rarely agree, but here? In my experience, only the Gor novels go so far (though the Gor novels are generally more interested in sexual matters whereas here the focus is more to do with brutality), but in this case I believe even the Gor books have been surpassed when it comes to ruthless violence. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy this novel to a certain degree, but I did find it rather careless in treating with righteous vengeance and the like. The writing here is not bad, though not exceptionally good. The world building is fair and would have been considered somewhat unique at the time of publishing of this book in the mid-1970s, though today is nothing exceptional. The characters, however, are quite strong for the most part, though I felt more time could have been spent on exploring these characters. In fairness, this is a short novel, so there's not really the space to expand upon the world and characters further, so I'm glad I've another book in this series. Also found here are the common S&S themes of barbarism vs. civilization with barbarism being considered morally superior, which I personally don't necessarily agree with, not because I feel one is more morally superior than the other but that I think of the two more as historical aspects that wax and wane with each having good or bad aspects to them.
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