Some of the best sword-and-planet ever written begins with this book. I absolutely loved this series. Aside from all the obvious awesome stuff (weird...moreSome of the best sword-and-planet ever written begins with this book. I absolutely loved this series. Aside from all the obvious awesome stuff (weird alien places, even weirder alien demi-humans and monsters, hack-n-slash action, a wonderfully understated love story) there are a couple of other things I really like about the series:
-The 1st person narration is rather to-the-point, but not without the occasional bit of *very* dry humour. There is very little whiny, woe-is-me, tortured-inner-life of the protagonist stuff here. We get to know Prescot and empathise with him, but it's all very understated and I like that. The protagonist isn't overly self-involved but he does take the times to criticise his own actions and biases, which I found interesting.
-It might not be fully apparent in this first volume alone, but there is some subtly subversive stuff in here as the series progresses. The latent racism of adventure fiction gets turned on its' head more than a few times later on in the series. Class-war abounds also. He also comes pretty close to openly satirising Gor and Norman's rather reprehensible views. All of this makes for guilty-pleasure reading that's not as guilty as it might be. Make no mistake though, this isn't "literature", this is pulse pounding, kicking-ass-and-taking-names entertainment.(less)
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