Saturday, May 2, 2009

Hobbit Re-read Project



I am almost done with Bran Mak Morn By Howard, and I am getting ready to re-read The Hobbit by JRRT. I am reading the Del Rey versions of Howard’s stories, and I cannot say enough good things about them. The Del Rey team just did a wonderful job with Howard’s books, and I would recommend them to anyone. I liked Bran Mak Morn a bit better than Howard’s Conan stories, as I think that Worms of the Earth is probably one of his best works. As an aside, one of these days I plan to write up a blog on that story, as it is very good. Howard only really wrote six Bran Mak Morn tales, which is a shame as I think the main character is very compelling and I would have liked to have seen more tales written, especially if they could have as well written as Worms was. That being said, I have a soft spot for Howard’s Solomon Kane stories, and I really wish he wrote and developed Kane more. When I get back to the States, I hope to pick up Kull, which I hope is as octane heavy as Howard’s other works were.

I have probably read The Hobbit two times, compared to The Lord of the Rings, which I have read at least four times, and some sections I have read a lot more than that. JRRT remains one of my all time favorite authors, as the depth of his Middle Earth creation is nothing short of amazing. As I am reading The Hobbit, my plan is post blogs on the various sections and offer up my commentary on them. Early next week I plan to post my first blog which will represent my initial thoughts on the work as a whole, and then I will start digging in.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Worms of the Earth" is my favorite of all the REH stories I have read, and I've read quite a few:

all the Conan stories
all the Kull stories
all the Bran Mak Morn stories
all the Solomon Kane stories
at least most of the Cthulhu Mythos stories

trollsmyth said...

Kull is some of his earliest stuff and, from all I've read, seems to have the strongest Lovecraft influence in it. I just picked up the Kull book and I'm loving it.

Mr Baron said...

I have to wait until July before I can dig into Kull. I will say that I hope to have a significant Amazon package waiting for me on my return, and I am looking forward to that!