Almuric: Howard's Sword & Planet Novel
Feb 17, 2021 8:38:54 GMT -5
Post by kemp on Feb 17, 2021 8:38:54 GMT -5
Esau Cairn is the true barbarian hero, out of place in the industrial modern world, he eventually escapes to a savage world befitting his primal nature.
This paragraph briefly summarises Howard's protagonist and his world, not to mention Burroughs creative influence when it came to Almuric.
'Almuric is particularly fascinating to read if you have read a lot of Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books. It is clearly modelled closely on the John Carter books, but with the whole thing mutated through Howard's own distinctive world view. Whereas John Carter was the ultimate good guy hero, master sword fighter and clean-cut gentleman, here we find Esau Cairn, the ultimate misanthrope, a man so strong and brutish, he has literally spent his life avoiding sports (or, we may assume, any human contact) for fear he will accidentally kill someone -- a situation which isn't helped by his uncontrollable temper. This fellow definitely has issues! It is this combination of temper and brute strength which launches Cairn on his planetary adventure when, having killed a crooked politician, now fleeing one step ahead of the police, he encounters a scientist who -- lucky boy -- is just looking for someone to test his planetary transportation dohickey out on. Cairn makes the ultimate getaway and is teleported to the planet Almuric which, again, evokes Burroughs -- this time his Pellucidar books with its brutish cavemen and prehistoric wilderness milieu. The first half of the book details how Cairn gradually wins his way into the brutish hearts of the Neandertal-like Guras, and especially the heart of a definitely non-Neandertal female Gura named Altha. (The Guras seem inspired by yet another Burroughs creation -- Tarzan's lost city of Opar, whose men were apes and whose women were Eurobabes.) The second half then describes how a race of winged black men called the Yagas kidnap Altha to their nearly unreachable citadel and Cairn leads the Guras in rescuing her and wiping out the evil Yagas forever.'
www.pulpanddagger.com/conan/almuric.html
This paragraph briefly summarises Howard's protagonist and his world, not to mention Burroughs creative influence when it came to Almuric.
'Almuric is particularly fascinating to read if you have read a lot of Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books. It is clearly modelled closely on the John Carter books, but with the whole thing mutated through Howard's own distinctive world view. Whereas John Carter was the ultimate good guy hero, master sword fighter and clean-cut gentleman, here we find Esau Cairn, the ultimate misanthrope, a man so strong and brutish, he has literally spent his life avoiding sports (or, we may assume, any human contact) for fear he will accidentally kill someone -- a situation which isn't helped by his uncontrollable temper. This fellow definitely has issues! It is this combination of temper and brute strength which launches Cairn on his planetary adventure when, having killed a crooked politician, now fleeing one step ahead of the police, he encounters a scientist who -- lucky boy -- is just looking for someone to test his planetary transportation dohickey out on. Cairn makes the ultimate getaway and is teleported to the planet Almuric which, again, evokes Burroughs -- this time his Pellucidar books with its brutish cavemen and prehistoric wilderness milieu. The first half of the book details how Cairn gradually wins his way into the brutish hearts of the Neandertal-like Guras, and especially the heart of a definitely non-Neandertal female Gura named Altha. (The Guras seem inspired by yet another Burroughs creation -- Tarzan's lost city of Opar, whose men were apes and whose women were Eurobabes.) The second half then describes how a race of winged black men called the Yagas kidnap Altha to their nearly unreachable citadel and Cairn leads the Guras in rescuing her and wiping out the evil Yagas forever.'
www.pulpanddagger.com/conan/almuric.html