Bran Mak Morn - The Last King by Robert E. Howard

Before Conan, before Solomon Kane, and even before Kull of Atlantis, there was Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts.  In fact, Bran was the second main character ever developed by Robert E. Howard, second only to Francis X. Gordon (El Borak).  This book contains several stories about Bran as well as numerous fragments, untitled/unsold stories, essays, letters (most notably to and from Weird Tales magazine and Howard’s buddy, H.P. Lovecraft), etc. that help to define REH’s life-long interest in the Picts.

The more pulp fiction that I read, the more I have come to appreciate Howard’s work.  His historical research and in-depth understanding of history, its peoples and cultures, all led to stories that have a genuine ring of actual historical texture to them, even for those stories that are part of his imaginary history.  The Picts are a perfect example, described in this book in an authentic manner while also appearing in Conan’s Hyborian age stories.  Often, they are the enemy race and easily maligned so for Howard to create a character such as Bran Mak Morn that will lead such a people, was perhaps risky but also admirable. 

These stories were written early in Howard’s career and as such there is inconsistency among them.  I wish Howard had developed Bran more thoroughly through additional stories but alas, Conan came along and that market drove Howard’s output for several years and put an end to Bran.  A couple of the stories in this volume have very small roles for Bran himself and tend to concentrate on co-characters or take a wide-angle lens approach to the history of the era.  It seems as if Howard’s penchant for research was translating itself directly into the story, rather than developing a typical plot structure that we might expect.  This book includes those stories for the sake of completeness, even though the pulp magazines didn’t buy them. As such, while I heartily recommend this book to Howard readers (indeed, necessary reading), for others who are simply looking for another Conan-style character, I would still encourage diving into these stories simply on their own merits…just expect a different experience.