Book Review: Kull: Exile of Atlantis by Subterranean Press

 Before the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, there was an age undreamed of. When empires lay spread across the world like shining jewels, but the greatest empire of all was Valusia. Hither came Kull of Atlantis, black haired, grey eyed, an exile, a slave, a gladiator, an army commander and finally, a king.

Welcome! To the age of king Kull, a world of heroic fantasy, magic, adventures, and philosophy. Kull, is one of the characters created by the father of sword and sorcery sub-genre, Robert E. Howard. This talented Texan author has forged many fantastical characters and adventures such as Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Conan the Cimmerian, El Borak, and Kull of Valusia, in the short period of less than two decades. Today, Robert Howard's influence in sword and sorcery genre can only be rivaled by J.R.R. Tolkien in the sub-genre of high fantasy.

King Kull is my favorite literary creation from Robert E. Howard. Not only because I am fascinated with epics about barbarian warriors dealing whirlwind like death, with battle axes and brandished broad swords, but I also prefer reading stories where the character thinks and ponders on philosophy and epistemology. Kull stories have it all! Some people say Kull is prototype Conan. I do not agree. It is true that both characters are formidable barbarians in the art of war, but the essence of these two characters are completely different. Conan is a character who lived by the philosophy of existentialism (live in the moment). Kull is a much more introspective character who wanted to build a kingdom that would last. In short, Kull is a thinking man's barbarian and a barbarian as a thinking man.

In the 1920s, early in his career, Howard wrote Kull stories. At that time, he was experimenting with different writing styles. At this stage of his career, Howard let his imagination run free. It is easy for the readers to see that Kull stories are heavily influenced and inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and writings from Edgar Allan Poe. Together with Howard's personal interest in philosophy and history. The result is epic tales of blood and thunder, philosophy, mysteries, adventures of the metaphysical and the physical. Howard's style of poetic lyricism made him a master story teller, and the Kull stories read like a combination of forgotten heroic tales lost in the sea of time, prose poems and philosophical fables. On that note, Howard's wrote his fantasy stories with a strong focus of realism. The realism of a world that Howard crafted by his imagination and typewriter.

Since 1998, the publisher Wandering Star re-published a collection of Robert Howard's writings. These high quality, hardback books are fully illustrated by artists and the contents are unabridged texts from Howard's typewriter . The objective was to expose modern readers to the creations of Robert E Howard, and treating Howard as an author with the respect that he rightfully deserves. However, Wandering star never published Howard's Kull stories in hardback format. In 2008, a small but profitable book publisher called Subterranean Press, published a glorious edition of Kull in the same style as the books from Wandering Star. This book is titled "Kull, Exile of Atlantis". This edition is  limited to 1500 copies, and contains all of the Kull stories written in Howard's life. This book is also fully illustrated with 12 color plates, and numerous black and white illustrations alongside the texts, drawn by artist Justin Sweet. I have included samples of some of color illustrations in this book.

 Disclaimer: I do not own these images, the copyright of these drawings belong to Mr. Justin Sweet, and these images are taken from http://www.justinsweet.com

   This volume collects 11 Kull stories, 3 poems an other unfinished fragments. My favorite stories are The Shadow Kingdom, The Mirror of Tuzun Thune, and Kings of the Night. The Shadow Kingdom was written in 1925, and is often recognized as the first true sword and sorcery story ever written. This story has many parallels to Shakespeare's Hamlet and HP Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos, and is regarded as the best, and the original sword and sorcery story. The Mirror of Tuzun Thune is a bizarre and fascinating story about the reality, the illusion and the relativity of space and time. Kings of the Night is a finely knitted story which blends historical fiction and sword and sorcery, with theme of time travelling. The story involves a Roman invasion, Pits, Gaels, Vikings and epic battle scenes, featuring both King Kull and another of Howard's creation, the Pictish king Bran Mak Morn. 

Subterranean Press crafted a gorgeous book here. It has top notch bindings, beautiful slip case design, dusk jacket covering, high quality paper, and thunderous illustrations that give off sparks to these unbeatable stories. This wonderful edition of Kull, Exile of Atlantis is an absolute knock out on my bookshelf.

Robert E Howard stopped writing Kull stories in 1930. His was shifting from Kull to Conan. Although Kull's world and Atlantis sank beneath the ocean, Conan and the Hyborian age were coming! Nevertheless, the saga of Kull are shining gems in the genre of fantasy fiction. The fantastic stories which feel so real that they often blur the line between fantasy and reality, lost in the winding passage of space and time.