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Red Sonja #2
Demon Night
Vintage paperback
209 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
5 people are currently reading
202 people want to read
About the author
David C. Smith
110 books44 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 12, 2022
Same as the first book in the series “The Ring of Ikribu” Demon Night has all of the S&S elements. It gets going quicker than the first book and it gets darker in tone. Another quick and easy read. I’m hoping as the books go on that Sonja becomes even more badass because although she’s great it feels like the writers were holding back on her a little..that might just be me though? ⚔️
October 26, 2021
This Red Sonja story was good, but not as good as the first novel. Sonja is accused of murdering a boss who wanted to sleep with her by the actual murderer of the boss who wants to replace the boss in sleeping with Sonja. Conflict arises because Sonja is not interested, and the new boss won't accept no for an answer. Sonja therefore flees and is pursued.
This is not bad as a starting premise, but the story bogs down from there. Sonja flees to a city where she is not welcome. She escapes arrest and detention. Pursuit follows and forces Sonja to flee further. Minor characters then by and large take over the story and Sonja becomes a minor character.
The story with the city officials in conflict with the Sonja pursuers who both in turn come into conflict with a sorceror Sonya enlists to aid her is okay, but not as exciting as the starting premise. A further problem with the plot is lust and rape as the motivator for practically every male character. Its sort of disgusting and reveals a rather reprehensible view of the world by the authors. Not every man wants to force attractive women to give way to their lusts. I know; shocking revelation, isn't it?
The story is an easy read with lots of action and dialogue. It just lacks somewhat in terms of meaningful theme. Hopefully, the next installment (this is a six-part series, an expensive now out of print one at that) improves.
This is not bad as a starting premise, but the story bogs down from there. Sonja flees to a city where she is not welcome. She escapes arrest and detention. Pursuit follows and forces Sonja to flee further. Minor characters then by and large take over the story and Sonja becomes a minor character.
The story with the city officials in conflict with the Sonja pursuers who both in turn come into conflict with a sorceror Sonya enlists to aid her is okay, but not as exciting as the starting premise. A further problem with the plot is lust and rape as the motivator for practically every male character. Its sort of disgusting and reveals a rather reprehensible view of the world by the authors. Not every man wants to force attractive women to give way to their lusts. I know; shocking revelation, isn't it?
The story is an easy read with lots of action and dialogue. It just lacks somewhat in terms of meaningful theme. Hopefully, the next installment (this is a six-part series, an expensive now out of print one at that) improves.
January 17, 2020
Second book in the Red Sonja novel series, I was curious to read it after reading the first installment, _Ring of Ikribu_, I wanted to know if some of the positives of the first volume (a decent supporting cast, at least one other strong female character, Red Sonja not being sexualized, decent monsters, and decent combat scenes) continued and if some of the negatives (Red Sonja not actually essential to her own story) were remedied.
The positives continued (if anything Sonja was even less sexualized, not that she was viewed that way much at all in the first novel) but the negatives? Eh a bit, maybe.
The story got going a lot faster than _Ring of Ikribu_, pretty much jumping right into the action. Sonja is accused of murdering a commander of a fort in Zamora, a Captain Vos (who we never see or meet, as he is already dead before the book begins). Sonja has to flee in the middle of the night in the first few pages of the novel. Sonja suspects that Vos was killed by the now new commander of the frontier fort, Keldum, and makes her way east of the fort, onto the steppe, hoping to avoid being captured and killed.
Keldum won’t let Red Sonja get away and pursues her with a large number of soldiers (two hundred I believe), most of whom are faceless and nameless save two, Keldum’s second in command, Gevem (who is an important figure in the book) and Peth, a strange, perhaps not evil mercenary who can roll the bones to perform divinations.
Continuing for a few tense pages, scenes of Sonja and the soldiers chasing each other across the wide, open steppe, both wary of resting but not wanting to kill their mounts, things look grim for Sonja until she finds an unexpected city in the grassland, one where she can at least get some food, fodder for her horse, and maybe rest under shelter.
However, she understandably hesitates, for outside the city are six young women, dead, hanging outside and beaten and drained of blood. More angry than fearful over this discovery, Sonja decides she has little choice and makes her way into the city (the city of Elkad) because she does need rest and supplies (though she resolves to bring up the disgusting loss of life any chance she gets).
To say much more is spoiler territory, but it involves intrigue within the city, including the city’s two rulers (Hefei, a heavyset female ruler and Mophis, a high priest, “tall, cadaverous, pale as the wind”), a younger priest who seems good in nature (by the name of Sost), his semi-forbidden friend, a temple virgin and potential one day sacrifice (Tiamu; the two are obviously in love with one another and though their sect allows them to talk forbids a relationships aside from a casual friendship), and later a sorcerer/god just outside the city who may or may not be good (or his idea of good might in fact be either outright evil or at the very least rather cavalier on the idea of friendly fire and collateral casualties), oh and a prophecy that may involved a red-haired warrior (could it be a woman people ask in astonishment) and, maybe, perhaps Tiamu (spoiler, it does).
Oh and also the plot (and the prophecy) gets tied up in defeating a vague threat called the Earth-folk, unseen, evil, bloodthirsty beings the sacrifices were intended for and everyone in the city lives in fear of, giving the area a vague sense of evil that everyone, including Sonja, can feel. Can the Earth-folk be defeated? What are they exactly? Are they the real threat, or is the priesthood (or both)?
Some good combat scenes, a lot less monsters than the first volume in the series (and sorry if this is spoiler, but the Earth-folk are largely kept vague, faces in glowing red mist sort of spiritual creatures that surprisingly don’t figure into most of the novel). Lots of back and forth inside and outside the city as various characters go back and forth almost in a revolving door. Sometimes motivations could be strange (when Gevem casually murders one of the palace guards in Elkad but most of all Keldum’s Captain Ahab-esque obsession with capturing Red Sonja, an obsession that leads him to abandon his fort, see his men whittled down, pass up on riches along the way, to obtain a woman who clearly does not want him, though to be fair his obsession may be wrapped up in the prophecy involving defeat of the Earth-folk).
However, just like _Ring of Ikribu_, Sonja doesn’t kill all of the villains this time around (arguably there are more than the two of the last book, but she only kills one of them in this novel and again the defeat of one of them is completely off camera and not “seen” by the reader). If anything, Sonja once again acts as a catalyst to propel another female character to growth (in _Ring of Ikribu_ it was Tias, this time Tiamu, with Tiamu a much more fleshed out and sympathetic character, looking almost like the writers are honing their craft a bit or getting a better feel of what they want to do). Absolutely nothing wrong with advancing the growth and destiny of a secondary female character, I just find it remarkable.
I continue to find the setting sort of fantasy generic, very thin, as I struggle to remember the name of a place and to get any sense of place or local color (say in comparison to Gondor, the Shire, Waterdeep, or any of the places in Peter Brett’s Demon Cycle saga or the world of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series). Every place might vary in what horrible thing is bedeviling it, but all seem cut of the same cloth as far as arms, armor, architecture, etc. though both novels did give some sense of the natural history of the place:
“Turning, she saw one of the scrawny steppe-birds sitting on a nearby shrub, and was astonished. Those birds were so lean and bedraggled that they appeared half dead, and never had Sonja heard one sing. Yet this one was trilling a song that seemed born of true joy.”
Maybe not quite the thrush Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves encountered on Lonely Mountain, but it is a start. I would like more details like this, more of a feel that the world Red Sonja carves her way through is real and a place. That more than anything has been my main problem with the Hyborian stories I have read in comics and in novel form, that the world doesn’t feel as vivid and alive as it could be, though perhaps this is a necessary side effect of avoiding the trappings and tropes of epic high fantasy with its continent-spanning adventures and grand destinies that span whole series of books (with these Hyborian stories more akin to gunslinger Westerns; a stranger like Red Sonja riding into town, dealing with the local evil, and off to another episodic adventure, probably involving killing a sorcerer, his monster buddies, and a few treacherous swordsmen while she helps good local people).
The positives continued (if anything Sonja was even less sexualized, not that she was viewed that way much at all in the first novel) but the negatives? Eh a bit, maybe.
The story got going a lot faster than _Ring of Ikribu_, pretty much jumping right into the action. Sonja is accused of murdering a commander of a fort in Zamora, a Captain Vos (who we never see or meet, as he is already dead before the book begins). Sonja has to flee in the middle of the night in the first few pages of the novel. Sonja suspects that Vos was killed by the now new commander of the frontier fort, Keldum, and makes her way east of the fort, onto the steppe, hoping to avoid being captured and killed.
Keldum won’t let Red Sonja get away and pursues her with a large number of soldiers (two hundred I believe), most of whom are faceless and nameless save two, Keldum’s second in command, Gevem (who is an important figure in the book) and Peth, a strange, perhaps not evil mercenary who can roll the bones to perform divinations.
Continuing for a few tense pages, scenes of Sonja and the soldiers chasing each other across the wide, open steppe, both wary of resting but not wanting to kill their mounts, things look grim for Sonja until she finds an unexpected city in the grassland, one where she can at least get some food, fodder for her horse, and maybe rest under shelter.
However, she understandably hesitates, for outside the city are six young women, dead, hanging outside and beaten and drained of blood. More angry than fearful over this discovery, Sonja decides she has little choice and makes her way into the city (the city of Elkad) because she does need rest and supplies (though she resolves to bring up the disgusting loss of life any chance she gets).
To say much more is spoiler territory, but it involves intrigue within the city, including the city’s two rulers (Hefei, a heavyset female ruler and Mophis, a high priest, “tall, cadaverous, pale as the wind”), a younger priest who seems good in nature (by the name of Sost), his semi-forbidden friend, a temple virgin and potential one day sacrifice (Tiamu; the two are obviously in love with one another and though their sect allows them to talk forbids a relationships aside from a casual friendship), and later a sorcerer/god just outside the city who may or may not be good (or his idea of good might in fact be either outright evil or at the very least rather cavalier on the idea of friendly fire and collateral casualties), oh and a prophecy that may involved a red-haired warrior (could it be a woman people ask in astonishment) and, maybe, perhaps Tiamu (spoiler, it does).
Oh and also the plot (and the prophecy) gets tied up in defeating a vague threat called the Earth-folk, unseen, evil, bloodthirsty beings the sacrifices were intended for and everyone in the city lives in fear of, giving the area a vague sense of evil that everyone, including Sonja, can feel. Can the Earth-folk be defeated? What are they exactly? Are they the real threat, or is the priesthood (or both)?
Some good combat scenes, a lot less monsters than the first volume in the series (and sorry if this is spoiler, but the Earth-folk are largely kept vague, faces in glowing red mist sort of spiritual creatures that surprisingly don’t figure into most of the novel). Lots of back and forth inside and outside the city as various characters go back and forth almost in a revolving door. Sometimes motivations could be strange (when Gevem casually murders one of the palace guards in Elkad but most of all Keldum’s Captain Ahab-esque obsession with capturing Red Sonja, an obsession that leads him to abandon his fort, see his men whittled down, pass up on riches along the way, to obtain a woman who clearly does not want him, though to be fair his obsession may be wrapped up in the prophecy involving defeat of the Earth-folk).
However, just like _Ring of Ikribu_, Sonja doesn’t kill all of the villains this time around (arguably there are more than the two of the last book, but she only kills one of them in this novel and again the defeat of one of them is completely off camera and not “seen” by the reader). If anything, Sonja once again acts as a catalyst to propel another female character to growth (in _Ring of Ikribu_ it was Tias, this time Tiamu, with Tiamu a much more fleshed out and sympathetic character, looking almost like the writers are honing their craft a bit or getting a better feel of what they want to do). Absolutely nothing wrong with advancing the growth and destiny of a secondary female character, I just find it remarkable.
I continue to find the setting sort of fantasy generic, very thin, as I struggle to remember the name of a place and to get any sense of place or local color (say in comparison to Gondor, the Shire, Waterdeep, or any of the places in Peter Brett’s Demon Cycle saga or the world of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series). Every place might vary in what horrible thing is bedeviling it, but all seem cut of the same cloth as far as arms, armor, architecture, etc. though both novels did give some sense of the natural history of the place:
“Turning, she saw one of the scrawny steppe-birds sitting on a nearby shrub, and was astonished. Those birds were so lean and bedraggled that they appeared half dead, and never had Sonja heard one sing. Yet this one was trilling a song that seemed born of true joy.”
Maybe not quite the thrush Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves encountered on Lonely Mountain, but it is a start. I would like more details like this, more of a feel that the world Red Sonja carves her way through is real and a place. That more than anything has been my main problem with the Hyborian stories I have read in comics and in novel form, that the world doesn’t feel as vivid and alive as it could be, though perhaps this is a necessary side effect of avoiding the trappings and tropes of epic high fantasy with its continent-spanning adventures and grand destinies that span whole series of books (with these Hyborian stories more akin to gunslinger Westerns; a stranger like Red Sonja riding into town, dealing with the local evil, and off to another episodic adventure, probably involving killing a sorcerer, his monster buddies, and a few treacherous swordsmen while she helps good local people).
February 21, 2016
I think the collaboration between the two authors was much better done in this second book than the first. The story flowed very well. In this book you find that Sonja is not the only focal point in the story but just one of many. This story is one of main ones which had stuck with me since I read it thirty years ago. There is something almost biblical in the wrath which takes place and the characters who play out their allotted parts. Even the part where Tiamu is struggling to hold up the wand reminds me of Moses and the battle he is holding up his staff for victory. Good story, worth the rereading.
May 24, 2020
Thank Mitra that a book about Red Sonja, warrior of Hyrkania, has so many men in it to get everything done! Hells, that explicitly stated fifteen year old girl wasn't going to rape herself was she?
This book was bullshit.
This book was bullshit.
July 26, 2010
I would probably never have picked these books up if I hadn't known the author from other things. The reason is that these are pastiches based upon the comic book character Red Sonja, who was based, in turn, upon the Red SonYa created by Robert E. Howard.
That meant that Smith had to labor under some tough conditions to produce these books, but he achieved a notable series of stories. There's a lot of fast paced action and the character comes through much better in these books than in the Sonja comics.
The books are very fast paced and keep you reading.
That meant that Smith had to labor under some tough conditions to produce these books, but he achieved a notable series of stories. There's a lot of fast paced action and the character comes through much better in these books than in the Sonja comics.
The books are very fast paced and keep you reading.
December 9, 2020
Tak ako sa človek trmáca vlastným životom a prediera všetkými nástrahami a nešťastiami, ktoré mu prídu do cesty, sa aj ja predieram knihami a vždy čakám, či príde ešte väčšia hlúposť, ktorú dočítať je skutočný boj.
Prejdem ale k podstate. Táto "kniha" je ten najväčší odpad, aký som kedy čítal. Každý kúsok textu je pretkaný nezmyselnými, neprirodzenými a nudnými dialógmi, ktoré dej nikam neposúvajú a postavy sa v nich 10x opakujú. Autori sa nevyhli úplne nezmyselným chybám, ako bolo napríklad to, že počas jednej scény bolo počasie slnečné a počas ďalšej (ktorá sa ale odohrávala v ten istý čas len pár metrov ďalej) bolo počasie zase sychravé. Najviac ma pobavila veta "Světlá pochodní na chodbě mizeli v temnote." Vysvetli mi niekto, ako je možné že svetlo mizne v temnote? (nejde o žiadnu mágiu, proste obyčajné svetlo a obyčajná tma). Tiamu, ktorá prvýkrát ani nevedela udržať meč v ruke, sa naučila šermovať za jeden deň? Vau, to je talent!
A hlavná postava? Rudá Sonja? Ak mám byť úprimný, je to uškriekaná, sprostá a primitívna puritánka, ktorá vo vás len spení krv. Najviac ma pobavilo, keď ju niekto oslovil "ó múdra Sonja" :D
Ale to už stačí, nechcem znieť ako ufňukané decko a sťažovať sa na každý detail (je ich ešte neúrekom)...preto to zhrniem. Odpad, ktorý nemá právo nazývať sa knihou. Tejto druhej časti som nakoniec dal nádej, ale pochybil som. Tretej sa už ani len nedotknem.
Aby bol ale môj komentár plnohodnotný, knihu som dočítal do konca a toto utrpenie dobojoval dokonca. Kto vie? Možno že bude posledných 10 strán tak dobrých, že zmením názor. Bohužiaľ sa tam nachádzali len ďalšie nezmyselné a otrasné dialógy protivných postáv. Hrôza! Hodnotenie 1*, dal by som 0, keby sa dalo...
Prejdem ale k podstate. Táto "kniha" je ten najväčší odpad, aký som kedy čítal. Každý kúsok textu je pretkaný nezmyselnými, neprirodzenými a nudnými dialógmi, ktoré dej nikam neposúvajú a postavy sa v nich 10x opakujú. Autori sa nevyhli úplne nezmyselným chybám, ako bolo napríklad to, že počas jednej scény bolo počasie slnečné a počas ďalšej (ktorá sa ale odohrávala v ten istý čas len pár metrov ďalej) bolo počasie zase sychravé. Najviac ma pobavila veta "Světlá pochodní na chodbě mizeli v temnote." Vysvetli mi niekto, ako je možné že svetlo mizne v temnote? (nejde o žiadnu mágiu, proste obyčajné svetlo a obyčajná tma). Tiamu, ktorá prvýkrát ani nevedela udržať meč v ruke, sa naučila šermovať za jeden deň? Vau, to je talent!
A hlavná postava? Rudá Sonja? Ak mám byť úprimný, je to uškriekaná, sprostá a primitívna puritánka, ktorá vo vás len spení krv. Najviac ma pobavilo, keď ju niekto oslovil "ó múdra Sonja" :D
Ale to už stačí, nechcem znieť ako ufňukané decko a sťažovať sa na každý detail (je ich ešte neúrekom)...preto to zhrniem. Odpad, ktorý nemá právo nazývať sa knihou. Tejto druhej časti som nakoniec dal nádej, ale pochybil som. Tretej sa už ani len nedotknem.
Aby bol ale môj komentár plnohodnotný, knihu som dočítal do konca a toto utrpenie dobojoval dokonca. Kto vie? Možno že bude posledných 10 strán tak dobrých, že zmením názor. Bohužiaľ sa tam nachádzali len ďalšie nezmyselné a otrasné dialógy protivných postáv. Hrôza! Hodnotenie 1*, dal by som 0, keby sa dalo...
July 8, 2025
Too little screen time for the beloved red-haired damsel warrior, overclouded by the heavy emphasis on villains and characters that were unlikable.
The amount of time invested into unfocused characters were a drag to the second half of the story. A potential Red Sonja was written into a halt without much fights bored into the story proved to be a weak decision.
I was hoping this to be as good as the first book. This second one did not surpass predecessor.
The amount of time invested into unfocused characters were a drag to the second half of the story. A potential Red Sonja was written into a halt without much fights bored into the story proved to be a weak decision.
I was hoping this to be as good as the first book. This second one did not surpass predecessor.
August 29, 2018
As with the first novel in the series, Sonja was mainly an observer; she wasn’t even at the climatic battle.
Also, her name is Sonja. She has auburn hair and a fiery temperament, thus the “Red” descriptor. “Red” is not her first name, despite the many, many characters who call her such.
Also, her name is Sonja. She has auburn hair and a fiery temperament, thus the “Red” descriptor. “Red” is not her first name, despite the many, many characters who call her such.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2021
Just isn’t as well written as REH. Entertaining it was.
October 2, 2022
Excellent. I was looking for some good old fantasy and Red Sonja delivered.
February 27, 2023
I read this book a while back, and even though I forgot to share my review on here at the time, I still remember it as one of the absolute worst books (if not the worst) I've ever read. As such, this calamity of "literature" came to mind again today, so here's my old review that I dug up from Instagram:
This is a nonsensical and unfathomably terrible read that fails in every sense of coherent storytelling. I would rather gouge my eyes out than endure it again. Literally everything was horrendous, from (spoilers coming) Sonja doing almost nothing in her own story and being the least active character to her being arguably responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents with her inactivity. Some hero. I'm angry at myself for pushing through with this despite the headaches it caused. How it got published is beyond me, and it has killed any interest I might have had in the remaining books - which I now realise I spent WAY too much money on.
Example of how agonisingly poor this book is: a sorcerer tells Sonja he is considering destroying a city (which includes killing countless innocents) while she is holed up in his cave. She barely bats an eyelid and does absolutely nothing to prevent this genocide OR stop it while it's happening. And, once the sorcerer has done the deed, she even aids him back to his cave after the toll it has taken on him, but all whilst saying that she SHOULD let him die. No shit, Sonja. You should have killed him days ago. You're meant to be the hero of this story, not an utterly useless bystander. And then, when another character turns up, Sonja then instructs him to save this genocidal sorcerer's life... and then proceeds to berate the guy for saving the sorcerer, saying the sorcerer doesn't deserve it after what he's just done, even though she JUST told him to do it?! Did a three-year-old write this nonsense?! This book should be renamed Sonja Gets Dementia and Does Fuck All in a Cave.
When I began reading this I thought "man, this feels like an extremely rushed money-grab to cash in on the name of a popular comic character," and you know what? I then learnt that THREE of these six books were released by the same writers in 1982 alone, so it looks like I might be close to the mark on that one.
Red Sonja seems to be a fantastic character in comics, but these books don't do her justice in any way, shape, or form. Demon Night gets one star, and is so far the worst thing I have ever read in all of my twenty-six years.
Fuck this book. Red Sonja deserves better.
This is a nonsensical and unfathomably terrible read that fails in every sense of coherent storytelling. I would rather gouge my eyes out than endure it again. Literally everything was horrendous, from (spoilers coming) Sonja doing almost nothing in her own story and being the least active character to her being arguably responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents with her inactivity. Some hero. I'm angry at myself for pushing through with this despite the headaches it caused. How it got published is beyond me, and it has killed any interest I might have had in the remaining books - which I now realise I spent WAY too much money on.
Example of how agonisingly poor this book is: a sorcerer tells Sonja he is considering destroying a city (which includes killing countless innocents) while she is holed up in his cave. She barely bats an eyelid and does absolutely nothing to prevent this genocide OR stop it while it's happening. And, once the sorcerer has done the deed, she even aids him back to his cave after the toll it has taken on him, but all whilst saying that she SHOULD let him die. No shit, Sonja. You should have killed him days ago. You're meant to be the hero of this story, not an utterly useless bystander. And then, when another character turns up, Sonja then instructs him to save this genocidal sorcerer's life... and then proceeds to berate the guy for saving the sorcerer, saying the sorcerer doesn't deserve it after what he's just done, even though she JUST told him to do it?! Did a three-year-old write this nonsense?! This book should be renamed Sonja Gets Dementia and Does Fuck All in a Cave.
When I began reading this I thought "man, this feels like an extremely rushed money-grab to cash in on the name of a popular comic character," and you know what? I then learnt that THREE of these six books were released by the same writers in 1982 alone, so it looks like I might be close to the mark on that one.
Red Sonja seems to be a fantastic character in comics, but these books don't do her justice in any way, shape, or form. Demon Night gets one star, and is so far the worst thing I have ever read in all of my twenty-six years.
Fuck this book. Red Sonja deserves better.
April 23, 2013
Dämonische Kräfte
Neulich in einer Forumsdiskussion bei amazon.de wurde ich als Faschist bezeichnet, weil ich glaube, dass es Leute gibt, die etwas einfach besser können als andere (in diesem speziellen Fall ging es um Beurteilung von guter und schlechter Literatur), und ich lieber von solchen Leuten angeleitet werde als von der durchschnittlichen Masse. Dieses Buch hier geht noch einen Schritt weiter: In der Welt der Roten Sonja gibt es scheinbar sogenannte "true spirits", Menschen, deren Seele nicht wie beim normalen Menschen mit dem Tod stirbt, sondern weiterwandert. Das ist nun allerdings auch für mich ein fragwürdiges Konzept, das die Menschen in hochwertige und minderwertige Wesen abgruppiert, aber in eine Fantasywelt passt sowas halt schon, eine Welt, die von Übermenschen lebt.
Den ersten Teil der Reihe, The Ring of Ikribu, hatte ich übelst runtergemacht - die totale Entkopplung der Welt "Hyboria" der Roten Sonja von dem "Hyboria" Conans ist hier nun immer noch spürbar, doch der Roman funktioniert trotzdem wunderbar: Die Autoren haben dazugelernt. Es ist immer noch keine hohe Literatur, und reicht auch bei weitem nicht an die Werke Robert E. Howards heran, aber der Roman ist doch in sich sehr stimmig aufgebaut, mit einer mitreißenden Handlung und einem äußerst spannenden, wirklich gut gemachten Klimax, in dem die Protagonisten allerdings mehr Zuschauer ist, als sich das Schicksal einer einsam gelegenen Stadt zwischen Menschenopfer darbringenden Priestern, die Stadtmauern belagernden Zamoranern und geheimnisvollen, nach Blut dürstenden Dämonenwesen entscheidet...
Das Ace-Paperback weist bereits nach 30 Jahren extreme Vergilbung auf, das kommt davon, wenn man am falschen Ende, hier halt am Papier, spart. Eine passende Illustration (ich glaube, das ist Vallejo oder ein Vallejo-Imitator) wertet das Buch allerdings etwas auf - auch wenn sie Red Sonja etwas auf Ihren Körper reduziert, was ihr in den Geschichten ja aber auch dauernd passiert.
Nun bin ich sehr gespannt, ob die Reihe mit Band 3 so gut weitermachen oder auf die Stufe von Band 1 zurückfallen wird.
Neulich in einer Forumsdiskussion bei amazon.de wurde ich als Faschist bezeichnet, weil ich glaube, dass es Leute gibt, die etwas einfach besser können als andere (in diesem speziellen Fall ging es um Beurteilung von guter und schlechter Literatur), und ich lieber von solchen Leuten angeleitet werde als von der durchschnittlichen Masse. Dieses Buch hier geht noch einen Schritt weiter: In der Welt der Roten Sonja gibt es scheinbar sogenannte "true spirits", Menschen, deren Seele nicht wie beim normalen Menschen mit dem Tod stirbt, sondern weiterwandert. Das ist nun allerdings auch für mich ein fragwürdiges Konzept, das die Menschen in hochwertige und minderwertige Wesen abgruppiert, aber in eine Fantasywelt passt sowas halt schon, eine Welt, die von Übermenschen lebt.
Den ersten Teil der Reihe, The Ring of Ikribu, hatte ich übelst runtergemacht - die totale Entkopplung der Welt "Hyboria" der Roten Sonja von dem "Hyboria" Conans ist hier nun immer noch spürbar, doch der Roman funktioniert trotzdem wunderbar: Die Autoren haben dazugelernt. Es ist immer noch keine hohe Literatur, und reicht auch bei weitem nicht an die Werke Robert E. Howards heran, aber der Roman ist doch in sich sehr stimmig aufgebaut, mit einer mitreißenden Handlung und einem äußerst spannenden, wirklich gut gemachten Klimax, in dem die Protagonisten allerdings mehr Zuschauer ist, als sich das Schicksal einer einsam gelegenen Stadt zwischen Menschenopfer darbringenden Priestern, die Stadtmauern belagernden Zamoranern und geheimnisvollen, nach Blut dürstenden Dämonenwesen entscheidet...
Das Ace-Paperback weist bereits nach 30 Jahren extreme Vergilbung auf, das kommt davon, wenn man am falschen Ende, hier halt am Papier, spart. Eine passende Illustration (ich glaube, das ist Vallejo oder ein Vallejo-Imitator) wertet das Buch allerdings etwas auf - auch wenn sie Red Sonja etwas auf Ihren Körper reduziert, was ihr in den Geschichten ja aber auch dauernd passiert.
Nun bin ich sehr gespannt, ob die Reihe mit Band 3 so gut weitermachen oder auf die Stufe von Band 1 zurückfallen wird.
March 15, 2012
Red Sonja's second prose adventure has the Hyrkanian on the run from charges of murder. She encounters an isolated city in the wilderness that has its very own religion, involving quite a lot of human sacrifices...
As good as the first book is, the second work by Tierney and Smith shows them getting the hang of their unique protagonist. With Red Sonja established, they have room to make the story is a but more complex, and the supporting cast are a lot more complex. You actually start caring for some of them and cheering them on.
A good read and the resolution at the end feels really good.
As good as the first book is, the second work by Tierney and Smith shows them getting the hang of their unique protagonist. With Red Sonja established, they have room to make the story is a but more complex, and the supporting cast are a lot more complex. You actually start caring for some of them and cheering them on.
A good read and the resolution at the end feels really good.
September 14, 2014
A nice quick read that is fairly entertaining with several classic Fantasy elements of the genre.
I did enjoy that this tale showed Red Sonja as simply a tool within a prophecy rather than her just on some random adventure. Her actions act as a catalyst for several characters introduced in this story for them to finally fulfill the prophecy.
The only weak point that I didn't find satisfying was the motive of the human antagonist that is hunting Red Sonja.
I did enjoy that this tale showed Red Sonja as simply a tool within a prophecy rather than her just on some random adventure. Her actions act as a catalyst for several characters introduced in this story for them to finally fulfill the prophecy.
The only weak point that I didn't find satisfying was the motive of the human antagonist that is hunting Red Sonja.
January 10, 2008
many strange things about life
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