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Oron #1
Oron
The Original Sword-and-Sorcery Epic in a New, Author-Approved Edition! Oron the Wolf, a barbarian outlander, rises to become a commander in the army of General Amrik of Salasal. But the young fighter is meant for greatness far above military service. He is the Na-Kha, the legendary figure fated to confront an evil from the dawn of Time—the demon Kossuth. The Wolf gains a throne when he rescues Princess Desdira, the rightful ruler of Neria, from armed nobles who have turned against her. But becoming a king means that Oron must confront the brutal Amrik. The general has earned a kingdom of his own and now wishes to conquer Neria with the aid of Kossuth, who is poisoning the land with plague and darkness. To face these enemies, Oron will accept his destiny and prepare for a confrontation with elemental evil that could throw the world into anarchy. Available again for the first time since its original appearance nearly 50 years ago, this classic of the sword-and-sorcery genre comes to you in a text completely refreshed by the author. “Mythological, cosmic, and epic!”
—Jason Ray Carney, PhD
—Jason Ray Carney, PhD
264 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1980
About the author
David C. Smith
110 books45 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 11, 2017
Cult-favorite Sword and Sorcery novel! It's not as polished as his later Red Sonja books but this is a very fine, classic Sword and Sorcery tale. Mythic in style. It has everything a Karl Edward Wagner reader will want, find and enjoy. Not equal to Wagner's finest Kane stories but it will definitely scratch that itch. This is a dark story that finally charmed me in its last 100 pages. I'm very interested in reading the rest of Oron's series and finding more works by Mr. Smith.
July 14, 2020
It is as subtle as the Clyde Caldwell art adorning its cover and pages: brash, lurid, oddly decorated, and anatomically suspect at times. The kind of story where the characters make grand operatic speeches to themselves in private, and where battle explodes from the page with utter violence and a lot of shouting. The overall effect is uneven: striking action and imagery and astonishing ideas leaven unfortunately over-the-top dialog and a bit of fattiness around the midsection. I'd snooze through some indeterminable dialog only to hit Amrik's monstrous transformation and gruesome fate, or the Moorcockian apocalypse-world images of wretched devastation caused by incomprehensible cosmic malice. The introductory cosmology and history in particular does a disservice to the entire rest of the book.
I appreciated the grand and complete arc documenting Oron's rise, golden age of rule, and eventual collapse. Smith boldly beats up his protagonists, in fact the entire world, the end days of Attluna. There's a stark moment when the reader realizes that no happy ending is in sight and the sequels must be structured in some entirely new manner.
The eventual demise of the continent itself----is preceded by the very "interesting times" of war, anarchy, cults, and sorcery into a slow descent into savagery, all of which demand further stories.
I appreciated the grand and complete arc documenting Oron's rise, golden age of rule, and eventual collapse. Smith boldly beats up his protagonists, in fact the entire world, the end days of Attluna. There's a stark moment when the reader realizes that no happy ending is in sight and the sequels must be structured in some entirely new manner.
The eventual demise of the continent itself----is preceded by the very "interesting times" of war, anarchy, cults, and sorcery into a slow descent into savagery, all of which demand further stories.
June 23, 2020
Sword and sorcery is usually compressed in form, such tales more often tales told as short stories or novellas. Smith's *Oron,* however, is undeniably a novel and undeniably sword and sorcery. But this surprising "long novel" length treatment works because of *Oron*'s scope: mythological, cosmic, and epic, like the two-dimensional renderings on an amphora. This novel reminds me of listening to Gustav Holst's, *The Planets,* or looking at a Hieronymus Bosch painting. There are so many evocative elements here that activate the imagination: the deeply historical timbre of the dialog, the antique atmospherics, the bizarre and fever-dream renderings of cruel sorcery, the irredeemably evil and alien characters of Amrik and Kossuth. Consider this brief passage from an epic struggle near the conclusion (no spoilers): "The light of the throbbing moon and the rocking stars shined through the window, began to dance and circle in the chamber." Wow. Who hasn't gazed into the infinite night sky and allowed deep dreams to play about the imagination while being fully absorbed by the depths? That's a fair description of reading this amazing classic of sword and sorcery. 😊✊⚔️
January 1, 2009
First and still my favorite in the Oron series.
June 26, 2017
*Minor Spoilers*
It's reminiscent of Karl Edward Wagner's 'Dark Crusade' (which is more than likely my favorite of the Sword & Sorcery genre) and compared to that it only deserves four stars, but compared to other Clonans like Kothar, Kyrik, Brak and Thongor (shudder) is far more deserving of the extra star I gave. And Oron, for better or worse, is slightly more contemplative than his literary barbarian brothers. When he slays a demon, he doesn't become Oron the Demonslayer, he recoils and becomes, in my words, Oron the Reluctant. He's overwhelmed by the supernatural and cosmic forces acting against him, where all he wants to be is a sane man in a sane world, conqueror and king, not a messiah against the forces of evil. Though Oron is the star of the tale, it does not focus just on him, as is often common with Sword & Sorcery, but maybe that is because it verges in the genre of Epic Fantasy and in the end it's a Tragedy. In his field of Clonan Sword and Sorcery, it's far more than average… (Also my edition contained quite a few typographical errors that the editor missed that I had to overlook in rating the book.)
It's reminiscent of Karl Edward Wagner's 'Dark Crusade' (which is more than likely my favorite of the Sword & Sorcery genre) and compared to that it only deserves four stars, but compared to other Clonans like Kothar, Kyrik, Brak and Thongor (shudder) is far more deserving of the extra star I gave. And Oron, for better or worse, is slightly more contemplative than his literary barbarian brothers. When he slays a demon, he doesn't become Oron the Demonslayer, he recoils and becomes, in my words, Oron the Reluctant. He's overwhelmed by the supernatural and cosmic forces acting against him, where all he wants to be is a sane man in a sane world, conqueror and king, not a messiah against the forces of evil. Though Oron is the star of the tale, it does not focus just on him, as is often common with Sword & Sorcery, but maybe that is because it verges in the genre of Epic Fantasy and in the end it's a Tragedy. In his field of Clonan Sword and Sorcery, it's far more than average… (Also my edition contained quite a few typographical errors that the editor missed that I had to overlook in rating the book.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2023
The past year or two has been my Smithisaunce and what a trip it has been.
I personally wouldn't call Attluma sword and sorcery in a strict sense. It has the same vibe and pacing but is much more dark high fantasy-akin to Berserk. It is, however, very much like sword and sorcery *films* of the 70s and 80s in its vibe and I imagined all of these set pieces and the characters in them with that shiny color saturated sheen so common in the movie posters of that time. The monsters also had a kind of rubbery and coated with goo aspect in my mind.
Whats specifically so impacting is how the narrative progresses very much one way and then really goes balls out in unexpected paths. And if you can overlook how many generals like to leave the good defensive position of a stone wall to slug it out on the plain you are in for a fun ride.
Tonally different than Smith's later writings in some ways, while Oron might lack some of the refinement and craft of later stories it makes up for this with energetic prose that practically crackles off the page like the best Howard stories do.
My personal copy of this re-release was only weeks old from printing when I got it, which is pretty cool when you consider the actual story is 50 years old.
I personally wouldn't call Attluma sword and sorcery in a strict sense. It has the same vibe and pacing but is much more dark high fantasy-akin to Berserk. It is, however, very much like sword and sorcery *films* of the 70s and 80s in its vibe and I imagined all of these set pieces and the characters in them with that shiny color saturated sheen so common in the movie posters of that time. The monsters also had a kind of rubbery and coated with goo aspect in my mind.
Whats specifically so impacting is how the narrative progresses very much one way and then really goes balls out in unexpected paths. And if you can overlook how many generals like to leave the good defensive position of a stone wall to slug it out on the plain you are in for a fun ride.
Tonally different than Smith's later writings in some ways, while Oron might lack some of the refinement and craft of later stories it makes up for this with energetic prose that practically crackles off the page like the best Howard stories do.
My personal copy of this re-release was only weeks old from printing when I got it, which is pretty cool when you consider the actual story is 50 years old.
July 7, 2013
Starts out pretty awesome and has great momentum, but then it kind of stalls and never gets running again.
Great cover, typography and in-book illustrations got it an extra star!
January 23, 2016
Average fantasy book, it wasn't good enough to tempt me to get the rest of the series. Recommended if you are just looking to try out a new fantasy book.
February 11, 2023
I loved this!
Read
January 20, 2019I paid .99cents for this book, which was .98cents more than it's worth. I love sword&sorcery, but it's a lost sub-genre in the fantasy field. Having read through all of Robert E. Howard (about 15 times), Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, and whoever else is left, I find myself thirsting for the soothing stories of warriors cutting their way across dark worlds with weird place names and endless numbers of totally hot chicks, undead wizards, and monsters.
Sigh
Sigh
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews