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Bran Mak Morn
Bran Mak Morn: Legion From The Shadows
Karl Wagner wrote this pastiche of Robert E. Howard's pictish king, Bran Mac Morn during the heyday, resurgence, or whatever it was of Howard reprints in paperback. Wagner wove a tale of swords and sorcery around the very real disappearance of the Roman 9th Legion in Britain and what a tale it is. Despite his success as a writer of heroic fantasy, Wagner always considered himself more a writer of horror than of sword and sorcery. As was his trademark at the time (and predating the "splatterpunks") there's particularly shocking and gruesome scene in this book that will surprise you and stick with you. Bran Mac Morn is, unfortunately, not well known among Howard's great fantasy characters. This book was intended to be the first of a series and a second, "Queen of the Night" was written but never published in English due to it becoming entangled in the bankruptcy of Zebra Books for whom it was written (although there are rumors that it appeared in Germany). Pity. Some publisher would do us all a service by extracting "Queen of the Night" from limbo. In addition to his own novels and stories of Kane, Wagner went on to write one more Howard pastiche, a celebrated Conan novel titled "Road of Kings." And although that book is equally worth your attention, "Legion From the Shadows" ranks as an outstanding example of what a pastiche should a work true to the spirit of the original author's work while respectfully and creatively furthering the mythology of the character. If you're a Howard fan or a Karl Wagner fan and this book isn't on your self you have a gap there that seriously needs filling.
253 pages
First published January 1, 1976
5 people are currently reading
272 people want to read
About the author
Karl Edward Wagner
244 books388 followersKarl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 13 October 1994) was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into Whose Hands". He described his world view as nihilistic, anarchistic and absurdist, and claimed, not entirely seriously, to be related to "an opera composer named Richard". Wagner also admired the cinema of Sam Peckinpah, stating "I worship the film The Wild Bunch".
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 12, 2022
This might be the best Robert E. Howard pastiche novel I've read -- even better than Wagner's Conan: The Road of Kings. Mostly, this is a sequel to Robert E. Howard's story "Worms of the Earth", in which Bran Mak Morn made an alliance with terrible forces from the outer dark to take down some particularly odious Romans. Now those forces (including the witch-woman Atla) have come back to bite him (and his sister Morgain -- had we met her in any of Howard's stories?) in the butt, and Bran and Morgain will be spending a long and uncomfortable time in the tunnels and caves that the Worms of the Earth call their home.
Wagner sets the novel a few years after the story, and also, for good measure, incorporates other elements from actual history (the Ninth Legion, who, about 80 years prior to the events of the story, went marching off north of Hadrian's Wall and were never heard from again) and various other bits of Howardian faux-history, including tying everything back to those serpent men Kull was fighting in Valusia of old. And, just for good measure, occasional glimpses of some of the super-science and sorcery Wagner used to such good effect in his stories & novels of Kane.
Again, Wagner seems to get Howard and his worldview in a way that most other pastiche authors don't; and this novel makes a fine capstone to Bran Mak Morn's adventures (and it's a shame that it's been out of print for so long -- an eBook reissue would be most welcome).
Wagner sets the novel a few years after the story, and also, for good measure, incorporates other elements from actual history (the Ninth Legion, who, about 80 years prior to the events of the story, went marching off north of Hadrian's Wall and were never heard from again) and various other bits of Howardian faux-history, including tying everything back to those serpent men Kull was fighting in Valusia of old. And, just for good measure, occasional glimpses of some of the super-science and sorcery Wagner used to such good effect in his stories & novels of Kane.
Again, Wagner seems to get Howard and his worldview in a way that most other pastiche authors don't; and this novel makes a fine capstone to Bran Mak Morn's adventures (and it's a shame that it's been out of print for so long -- an eBook reissue would be most welcome).
April 10, 2025
I had high hopes for this one. The original Bran Mak Morn stories, though few in number, are some of the best Sword and Sorcery REH ever wrote. Now there's a pastiche written by Karl Edward Wagner, author of the excellent Kane series and one of the better Conan pastiches, Road of Kings? Sign me up!
Sigh. What we get is basically a sequel to Worms of the Earth where the proceedings are shamelessly padded by numerous allusions to that story and to Howard's history of the Pictish race as related in other stories loosely associated with Bran Mak Morn. Wagner mentions in the afterword that some of those stories were not currently in print, so maybe he felt it was necessary to summarize them for the reader. That we could possibly forgive. What can't be forgiven is bringing the antagonist of Worms of the Earth out of the shadows and fully into the spotlight, which dissolves any sense of mystery or dread that might have clung to them from the original Howard tale. As a horror writer Wagner should have been well aware that you never show your monster too clearly.
Sigh. What we get is basically a sequel to Worms of the Earth where the proceedings are shamelessly padded by numerous allusions to that story and to Howard's history of the Pictish race as related in other stories loosely associated with Bran Mak Morn. Wagner mentions in the afterword that some of those stories were not currently in print, so maybe he felt it was necessary to summarize them for the reader. That we could possibly forgive. What can't be forgiven is bringing the antagonist of Worms of the Earth out of the shadows and fully into the spotlight, which dissolves any sense of mystery or dread that might have clung to them from the original Howard tale. As a horror writer Wagner should have been well aware that you never show your monster too clearly.
January 1, 2009
To my thinking, definitely the best pastiche of a Robert E. Howard character ever written. It isn't Conan, but Bran Mak Morn. A really good book.
August 21, 2020
Legion from the Shadows is an original novel by Wagner based on the Robert E. Howard character Bran Mak Morn. Howard completed three stories about him, which were collected in a book called Worms of the Earth that Zebra released in 1975. Bran Mak Morn was a third-century hero in Howard's idea of the world of Pictdom. Wagner did not have the same sense or knowledge of history as, say, David Drake, but he tried for consistency with what Howard had created. I thought Legion from the Shadows was a very good Wagner novel, but not so convincing as a Howard pastiche. He was, in fact, better than Howard in some things, such as presenting believable female characters. I didn't think he got the mood or voice of Howard very closely, but this would have made a terrific Kane story.
March 22, 2011
Oh, those clever bastards at Zebra books. What tricksters they were! I’ve been on a Robert E. Howard kick lately and saw Legion From The Shadows at a bookstore. Snapped it up right quick. It was a no brainer. The biggest type on the cover says, “Conan Robert E. Howard Bran Mak Morn Legion Of The Shadows.” I ignored the small type, stating this book was in fact, by Karl Edward Wagner. Who’s a no brainer, now?
Of course, I read it. By the time I figured it out, I’d paid for it and it was in the house. That pretty much means a book’s getting read, in my book. Also, I remember reading Wagner’s Kane series and thinking it was pretty good.
Legion From The Shadows is pretty good, too. Wagner does well at keeping things moving along and communicating with the reader without getting bogged down in descriptive nonsense. His treatment of Bran Mak Morn and friends is believable and doesn’t stray far from Howard’s stories. His female characters are strong and deadly and can take care of themselves. And Wagner’s woven a lot of Lovecraftian Cthulisms into the story, which is fun.
Good stuff! Maybe I’ll hunt down and re-read those Kane books.
Of course, I read it. By the time I figured it out, I’d paid for it and it was in the house. That pretty much means a book’s getting read, in my book. Also, I remember reading Wagner’s Kane series and thinking it was pretty good.
Legion From The Shadows is pretty good, too. Wagner does well at keeping things moving along and communicating with the reader without getting bogged down in descriptive nonsense. His treatment of Bran Mak Morn and friends is believable and doesn’t stray far from Howard’s stories. His female characters are strong and deadly and can take care of themselves. And Wagner’s woven a lot of Lovecraftian Cthulisms into the story, which is fun.
Good stuff! Maybe I’ll hunt down and re-read those Kane books.
January 25, 2016
Wagner takes Robert E. Howard's Pictish King in new directions in this novel. A good job is done by Wagner in keeping the eerie feel of Howard's character and the setting he is in. I am not usually a fan of other writer's touching my favorite author but this time it is done right. Very recommended
February 3, 2022
As other reviewers have noted, this is a direct sequel to Robert E. Howard's seminal tale "Worms of the Earth", written by a sword & sorcery giant of the third generation: Karl Edward Wagner. As others have also noted, this is about as good as pastiche gets -- and in this case, that is very good.
Bran is one of Howard's most interesting characters; a Pict watching his people decay into savagery, even a subhuman brutishness. He has much of Kull's introspection, but a greater melancholia and an anger and rage at his people's eventual fate that is barely kept in check. Bran did not receive the canon of tales Conan, Solomon Kane or even Kull did, but the ones he did are *very* good and fit into a larger body of Howard's work that chronicles the constant rise and fall of the First Race of Man, and their eventual doom to retreat into the hidden places of the word, there to be remembered in stories of dwarfs and elves -- a parallel doom to the earlier Serpent Folk, the Picts' eternal foes through the long eons, and whom they drove under the earth centuries before Bran's era.
These themes of rise and fall of civilization, of physical and mental degeneration, of hidden histories -- all are baked into Howard's work, but his tales of the Picts (and Bran) range from when he was 16 until his death at 30, and when you read the stories together, there's some loose seaming in which Howard's evolving ideas and backstory don't always neatly fit. Wagner here not only writes a compelling sequel, but uses it as a chance to rectify and smooth over those bumps. In a long chapter that is straight out of Howard's beloved trope of past life or racial memory (and when we are talking about humans, serpent people and beast men, I think 'race' is a fair term!) he creates a syncretic history of the Picts and their war with the Serpent Folk that draws purely from Howard, in a way he would have written it.
So that's a nice touch, and Wagner does a great job of writing in a "Howardian" style without resulting in mimickry. His Bran also feels like Bran, and the expansion of Bran's sister, Morgaine, who is only mentioned in one tale, is nicely done.
Thus, we have some of the key checkpoints for good pastiche:
1. Does the author understand the character? Yes.
2. Does he write convincingly vis-a-vis the original material? Yes.
3. Does the pastiche have a logical place vis-a-vis canon? Yes.
Now the big one:
4. Is the story any good?
Yes! It is very blood and thunder, and fits the mood and fulfills an ominous prediction at the end of "Worms of the Earth" in a way the original author might have gone, had he continued the cycle of stories.
Some like pastiche, some don't. If you do, this is a great example of how it can be done well.
Bran is one of Howard's most interesting characters; a Pict watching his people decay into savagery, even a subhuman brutishness. He has much of Kull's introspection, but a greater melancholia and an anger and rage at his people's eventual fate that is barely kept in check. Bran did not receive the canon of tales Conan, Solomon Kane or even Kull did, but the ones he did are *very* good and fit into a larger body of Howard's work that chronicles the constant rise and fall of the First Race of Man, and their eventual doom to retreat into the hidden places of the word, there to be remembered in stories of dwarfs and elves -- a parallel doom to the earlier Serpent Folk, the Picts' eternal foes through the long eons, and whom they drove under the earth centuries before Bran's era.
These themes of rise and fall of civilization, of physical and mental degeneration, of hidden histories -- all are baked into Howard's work, but his tales of the Picts (and Bran) range from when he was 16 until his death at 30, and when you read the stories together, there's some loose seaming in which Howard's evolving ideas and backstory don't always neatly fit. Wagner here not only writes a compelling sequel, but uses it as a chance to rectify and smooth over those bumps. In a long chapter that is straight out of Howard's beloved trope of past life or racial memory (and when we are talking about humans, serpent people and beast men, I think 'race' is a fair term!) he creates a syncretic history of the Picts and their war with the Serpent Folk that draws purely from Howard, in a way he would have written it.
So that's a nice touch, and Wagner does a great job of writing in a "Howardian" style without resulting in mimickry. His Bran also feels like Bran, and the expansion of Bran's sister, Morgaine, who is only mentioned in one tale, is nicely done.
Thus, we have some of the key checkpoints for good pastiche:
1. Does the author understand the character? Yes.
2. Does he write convincingly vis-a-vis the original material? Yes.
3. Does the pastiche have a logical place vis-a-vis canon? Yes.
Now the big one:
4. Is the story any good?
Yes! It is very blood and thunder, and fits the mood and fulfills an ominous prediction at the end of "Worms of the Earth" in a way the original author might have gone, had he continued the cycle of stories.
Some like pastiche, some don't. If you do, this is a great example of how it can be done well.
August 2, 2017
I don't think that KEW hued very close to the model REH set for Bran Mak Morn as the protagonist spends the entire novel throwing tantrums and rage-monstering himself deeper and deeper into trouble with way more pride evidenced in any of the original stories... he acts more like one of KEW's characters than REH's...
Gets better when the two female leads get more page space but KEW writes Bran as if he was an one-man walking taking idiot plot.
Gets better when the two female leads get more page space but KEW writes Bran as if he was an one-man walking taking idiot plot.
July 6, 2018
This is a great read. It follows in the vein of Bran Mak Morn that Howard started. This book is a sequel to Worms of the Earth (a Mak Morn short story collection). If you are a fan of Howardian adventure then this book needs to be on your shelf.
January 1, 2018
Loved this book. The Rolls Royce of Robert E Howard pastiches.
October 16, 2019
At the end of Worms of the Earth Bran Mak Morn is warned that he has awakened a deep horror and that there will come a reckoning, and we're left not knowing whatever became of this prophecy. Here we have our answer. Mak Morn is still fighting the Romans, once again setting up a major battle to once again gather the Picts as a single nation. This time he gets an unwanted ally, as the worm people want to join forces, strengthened by the degenerate descendants of Roman Legio IX, in driving the Romans out of Britain. Since Mak Morn is hesitant to join up with hellspawn demon people they try to sweeten the deal by kidnapping his sister. This does not bode well for the stability of the alliance.
A full novel, this story gives a much more detailed view of Bran Mak Morn than any of REH's works. He has a sister, we find out about his father and grandfather, but otherwise he remains unchanged. He still hates Rome, still despairs of every leading the Picts out of barbarity, still considers himself above the average Pict in all ways, regrets his deal with the worms, and cannot be reasoned with once he makes up his mind.
While this is a good rendition of Bran Mak Morn, the story overall is much less like REH than like H.P. Lovecraft. It is basically a horror story, much of it taking place below ground in total darkness, with snake-eyed people, shapeless monstrosities, and tentacles. Double bonus kudos for the scene with the eyeballs.
A full novel, this story gives a much more detailed view of Bran Mak Morn than any of REH's works. He has a sister, we find out about his father and grandfather, but otherwise he remains unchanged. He still hates Rome, still despairs of every leading the Picts out of barbarity, still considers himself above the average Pict in all ways, regrets his deal with the worms, and cannot be reasoned with once he makes up his mind.
While this is a good rendition of Bran Mak Morn, the story overall is much less like REH than like H.P. Lovecraft. It is basically a horror story, much of it taking place below ground in total darkness, with snake-eyed people, shapeless monstrosities, and tentacles. Double bonus kudos for the scene with the eyeballs.
March 20, 2023
Esta novela hace varias cosas bien. En primer lugar, es respetuosa con la obra de Howard sobre el rey picto Bran Mak Morn, especialmente con la obra maestra "Los gusanos de la tierra", de la que puede considerarse una secuela. Además, el autor muestra un buen conocimiento del contexto histórico en el que se ambienta, que no es otro que el imperio romano en el Reino Unido durante los primeros años del siglo tercero.
En lo que se separa un poco de REH es en la estructura del texto, que es más parecida a Burroughs, el creador de Tarzán, sobre todo en esos cliffhangers finales con la aparición sorpresa de un personaje y la narración en el siguiente capítulo de cómo ha llegado allí.
No sé, le ha faltado un toque de brillantez, un poco de magia y de la intensidad y el ritmo del maestro Howard. Me da la impresión de que con poco el libro habría sido mucho mejor, aunque como está ya es un digno pastiche.
Lo recomiendo para los enamorados del personaje y para quien quiere una solvente novela de fantasía y aventura.
En lo que se separa un poco de REH es en la estructura del texto, que es más parecida a Burroughs, el creador de Tarzán, sobre todo en esos cliffhangers finales con la aparición sorpresa de un personaje y la narración en el siguiente capítulo de cómo ha llegado allí.
No sé, le ha faltado un toque de brillantez, un poco de magia y de la intensidad y el ritmo del maestro Howard. Me da la impresión de que con poco el libro habría sido mucho mejor, aunque como está ya es un digno pastiche.
Lo recomiendo para los enamorados del personaje y para quien quiere una solvente novela de fantasía y aventura.
December 28, 2023
A sequel to Robert E. Howard’s “Worms of the Earth”?! You betcha! And what better author to give this concept a try than the horror/sword-and-sorcery master Karl Edward Wagner? What a great tale! Highly recommend!
November 18, 2018
Not his best
February 18, 2013
It was ok. KEW did a good job of following some of REH's themes like racial memory but like most pastiche it's fairly unremarkable. Wagner's original work on his mystic swordsman Kane is much more memorable.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews