Sunday 27 September 2015

Book Review#21. - Complete Soloman Kane


Once again reading seems to have fallen away from my daily routine, something I always find odd as it genuinely gives such pleasure and yet it is seemingly so easily discarded in favour of less stimulating forms of entertainment.  Fortunately for me this collected series of stories, featuring Solomon Kane, have just the right amount of clamouring excitement and are just the right length to keep even this butterfly brained reader happy!

So what can I tell you of Solomon Kane that you don’t already know?  Probably very little as I imagine that a great many of the goodly souls that frequent these pages have already dipped a toe in the pulp world of Robert E. Howard, but for me this was a revelation.  Having only recently come across the central protagonist in the movie of the same name, I was curious to read some of the original stories and even more curious as to how the writer of Conan would bring this avenging Puritan to life.  I have to say that I was transfixed from the outset, I hadn’t really understood what pulp literature was all about until this moment.  The unashamedly violent descriptions of heart pumping action see our tall, dark and grimly set Puritanical hero battle foes from this world and beyond.
In a bizarre blend of historical fiction and horror story Solomon Kane, a Puritan swordsman, travels the world of the 16th century righting wrongs and destroying evil wherever he comes across it.  Solomon is constantly tormented by the temptations of evil men or womankind and forced to make uncomfortable alliances with Godless purveyors of dark magic in order to complete his, almost, pathologically driven, quests all the time justifying the traumatic violence he administers in God’s name.

What I wasn’t expecting was that a good many of the stories would be set in Africa and given that I was reading unabridged and unedited versions of the stories some of the language is problematic using, as it does, many of the racial stereotypes and attitudes prevalent in 1920s and 1930s.  The grotesque characterisation of the villainous slavers or beleaguered tribes is clearly of its time and yet interestingly it is refreshing to see Solomon Kane’s attitude change as he becomes more tolerant and accepting of a culture that is clearly alien to him at the start of the journey, perhaps more so than the author himself. 
With adventures taking our hero from the windswept moors of England, through the Black Forest of Germany to the deepest regions of unmolested Africa there is great scope for derring-do, adventure and spine tingling horror.  Tremendous fun and from a gamers perspective so much material that could be adapted to any number of scenarios. 


If you like your adventure set at a frenetic pace, with a touch of the supernatural thrown in, then look no further than the adventures of Solomon Kane - a hugely enjoyable four crowns from me!

14 comments:

  1. It's funny I experienced the same unease reading Beau Geste. A rollocking read but I cringed when ever he dealt with anyone who was not of the British upper classes (which was most of the other characters).

    A book of it's time a guess.

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  2. Nice to see you back to the books. The attitude you mention is quite prevelant in several older tomes I have read. Luckily opinions have changed, the stories and adventure are the important thing.

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  3. Love some Solomon Kane; it's like anything else with history - you just have to be able to engage your filters and deal with it as an artefact of its time.

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  4. What an imaginative (and troubled) writer Howard was; so interesting that he hailed from Texas at the turn of the last century.

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  5. Although some of the prose is discomforting, it is important to keep it intact as written. We must be able to look back at our history with fearless honesty and acknowledge those things. If we don't understand where we've been, how can we understand where we are going.

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    1. Indeed! One of the things that irritates me most about (some) supposedly historical films or novels is when they impose 21st century, Western values and attitudes on all the characters. Some things that we now take for granted never even crossed the minds of many folks in the past.

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  6. It sounds like an interesting read. I had similar unease when reading a "jolly hockey sticks" girls' school book written by Angela Brazil while researching for a novel set in the 1920's. Like Anne wrote above, although we feel discomfort on encountering some of the values held in those days it's important to keep it intact. Judging people of the past by our own standards is fatuous and pointless.

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  7. I do think whilst those of a certain age and experience should feel unease when reading some of the less-than-pc early literature of the last century, I wonder how much a younger audience take to it.
    Even though I have never heard of Solomon Kane (yes, I do know I should get out more) you have tweaked my interest and I will be looking to read up some of Robert E. Howard's works.

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  8. Whilst I'd read all the Conan stories and was aware that Howard had written the Solomon Kane stories as well, I never got around to reading them. May have to give them a try.

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  9. Afraid I've not read any Soloman Kane, perhaps this needs to be remedied?

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  10. Many thanks for this interesting review. Until now I haven't read any of the Solomon Kane stories yet but at least know the movie which I found pretty entertaining. Not top-notch but basically alright.

    Is it a good interpretation of the books?

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    1. Dear Stefan,

      not sure that you would recognise the film from any of the stories in the book, but I did think James Purefoy was particularly good in the lead role.

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