That's the interesting thing about these stories. It shows that Howard can carry you through these stories with action alone and it still works. It lacks of the supernatural BUT it adds flavor through the superstitions of the environment in some of these stories. The lost cities, the cursed gems and such. If we like Howard through his fantastical elements alone, we miss a major facet of what make Howard great in the overall. You can see where these facets fit with the thing we admire in the best of pulp fiction stories.
I think the best take away from this is seeing how good Howard's action is by itself when you take away the supernatural elements in his other stories and they still hold their own in what we think of pulp action adventure.
I've never read any of these stories. The lack of supernatural elements makes them a hard sell for me.
That's the interesting thing about these stories. It shows that Howard can carry you through these stories with action alone and it still works. It lacks of the supernatural BUT it adds flavor through the superstitions of the environment in some of these stories. The lost cities, the cursed gems and such. If we like Howard through his fantastical elements alone, we miss a major facet of what make Howard great in the overall. You can see where these facets fit with the thing we admire in the best of pulp fiction stories.
So what's interesting is I didn't love El Borak, but I really enjoyed the O'Donnell stories. :)
I think the best take away from this is seeing how good Howard's action is by itself when you take away the supernatural elements in his other stories and they still hold their own in what we think of pulp action adventure.
I need to get that book.
It's worth it.