Men of Bronze in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Jul 21, 2008 Charles rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fiction

This is actually marketed as historical fiction but I don't have that label in my list. Besides, the book reminds me quite a bit of the historical fiction that Robert E. Howard wrote, and there isn't a large leap from that to Howard's more fantasy tales of Conan and Kull.

Oden does do a great job with the history here, though, and he has a real feel for the age of the pharaohs. His hero, Barca, is as tough a hombre as you're likely to meet anywhere in historical fiction or heroic fantasy. ...more

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Mar 02, 2020 Joseph rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Hasdrabal Barca the Phoenician is a commander of Pharaoh's Medjay, his elite (if somewhat disreputable) mercenary fighting force in the 6th century BCE. (n.b. -- I first encounted the term "Medjay" in the 1999 Brendan Fraser Mummy movie, but thought it was a mispronunciation of "Magi" that they had just made up for the movie; only years later did I learn that the Medjay were a real thing, even if their primary duties were less concerned with mummy-suppression than the film led me to believe.) Wh ...more

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Dec 25, 2018 Robin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-general

This action-packed historical fiction book is about Barca, a rage-filled mercenary working in the service of the Pharaoh and entrusted with protecting Egypt from encroaching Greeks and Persians. It reads a great deal like the swashbuckling historicals of Robert E. Howard and Harold Lamb, so fans of the action pulp tradition will find a lot to like here.

Characters are sketched in broad strokes, but the main ones are given enough nuance to keep them from seeming shallow. The pacing is brisk throug ...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Morgan rated it it was amazing

Scott Oden is one of the best of the current crop of historical novelists today. MEN OF BRONZE starts out with action and continues right on never flagging in interest. He has a mix of historical accuracy combined with an old fashioned pulp sense of action. Set during the eve of the Persian invasion of Egypt and the intrigues and then battles, you hope the hero will triumph. This book leaves you wanting more.

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