There is little surprise in the fact that Haggard was a friend of Rudyard Kipling. Both authors provided part of the literary culture and popular imagery that immortalized life at the edges of empire in Victorian Britain. Kipling wrote extensively about India, and Haggard made similar use of his life experiences in emerging British territories of Southern Africa to bring the characters and setting of King Solomon's Mines to life.

King Solomon's Mines is often seen as one of the founding works in the larger field of adventure novels. Haggard's role in defining this genre is evident in that many later works borrowed from the first adventure of Allan Quartermain. The novel will seem familiar to readers of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World and Kipling's Man Who Would Be King. It's pivotal role in establishing the framework for the adventure novel is further evidenced by the repeated times King Solomon's Mines was adapted into feature films. Most of them do not even begin to capture the essence of Haggard's novel.

However, King Solomon's Mines is definitely set in the late Victorian mindset, including conceptions of native populations and the impact of the British imperial presence in Southern Africa. This may make the novel less accessible to some modern readers, and it means that Haggard's novel is frequently the target of various slurs that range from bombastic imperialist propaganda to some sort of horrific bastion of dated racism. For those willing to embrace King Solomon's Mines for what it is, the novel is a brilliant piece of escapist literature providing a look at a pleasing simple world in early adventure literature when the villains are vile and the heroes are the quintessentially forces of truth and moral order of their day.