From the Bookshelf of Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"…
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Imaro’s mother surrendered her five year old son so that he could become a great warrior of the Ilyassai tribe. His mother’s people treated him with disdain and ridicule. Through it all, Imaro grew to be the biggest and strongest of the Ilyassai children. When he reached manhood and the time had come for him to truly become an Ilyassai warrior and be accepted by his mother’s people, an evil magician strip him of that reward, spiraling Imaro’s life into a world of slavery, murderous thieves, and
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Not a Conan or an anti-Conan in concept, but it is interesting how Saunders takes the basic principle of an outcast, a warrior who has left his homeland, and made it work for him. The violence that Conan wields and Robert E Howard seems to worship is here a sour and unsettling thing, borne of anger and alienation and other psychic poison. Imaro might be a noteworthy warrior and possibly a talented leader of men, but those who follow him will eventually turn from loyalty and admiration to fear.
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Very inventive sword & sorcery set in an Alternate Africa. Virtually unique at the time it came out in introducing a hero who was black into a heroic fantasy setting. This is the first of three books in a series, although the three don't make a trilogy in the standard sense. Each book stands on its own.
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I've wanted to read these for almost a decade. I finally found copies a year or so ago. My backlog of books to read is immense, but I can go through audiobooks quickly (I have an hour to drive each way between work and home), so I nabbed this on audiobook. It is read by a pleasantly sonorous voice (Mirron Willis) who reads the narration without accent, but reads the dialogue with a wonderfully African accent. It added to the flavor immensely.
Anyway, this is like having an African Conan. Imaro is ...more
Anyway, this is like having an African Conan. Imaro is ...more
well this one is a challenge. Highly regarded author and character, very much wanted to read this; bought it and started reading it over a year ago... picked it up to continue reading about 2 weeks ago and finished strong. obviously the first half of the book did not hook me. in fact I was rather disappointed. interestingly enough, now that I finished the book and the afterword and reread the author's forward, I see it is the newest story of the collection (the one Saunders had to rewrite for mo
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Refreshingly good. This is the gold standard of African influenced fantasy. An epic sword and sorcery tale that ranks with the great classics of a bygone era. This is the first part of an ongoing series and I will be reading the next one.
I throughly enjoyed this very different take on sword and sorcery. Set in a fantasy version of Africa, the protagonist is a Conan-like warrior making his way across a magical setting, filled with monsters, wizards, dark gods, and lots of fighting. This was as good as anything I've read in this genre, and I found the change of setting to be refreshing and fun. I was reminded a bit--believe it or not--of Alex Hailey's book Roots since, at the beginning of the story, Kunta Kinte is also on the verg
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I used to think of Sword & Sorcery as the province of the Big Three: Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock. After reading Imaro I may have to make that the Big Four.
http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007... ...more
http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007... ...more
Mar 15, 2014
Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom
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May 06, 2016
Chompa
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