While this doesn’t collect all of the Kull stories by Robert E. Howard, I believe that it collects most of them. I feel like this nice, thick collection definitely gives you a lot of Kull to chew on and digest and honestly, this was all really solid without a dull moment to be found.
I believe that all of these stories are in chronological order to Kull’s life and not necessarily to the publishing date. They seem to be in order, anyway, as some stories have characters that connect to other stories and past situations sometimes get a mention.
Other than Kull, we do get mention of his big enemy Thulsa Doom. However, he doesn’t really have a presence here and I’m not sure how big of a presence he had in the actual short stories that Howard wrote. Doom did appear quite frequently in the Marvel comics series, though.
We also get a story where Kull meets another great Howard warrior, Bran Mak Morn. I think this story was originally written as a Bran Mak Morn tale but it was cool that it was included here, as it shows Howard sort of envisioned his stories within the same shared universe, which also exists within the realm of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. In fact, the two men were great friends and inspired one another.
For those who don’t know, Howard created Kull before his most famous character, Conan. The two have some similarities that are obvious but their personalities differ and you really get to see that, here.
Also, there is at least one story in this book that would be reworked and rewritten later as a Conan story.
For those who love Robert E. Howard’s work or are simply sword and sorcery fans, this is certainly something you’ll want to read and add to your library.
Rating: 9/10
Pairs well with: anything else by Robert E. Howard, also the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Talking Pulp 