When the Heroic Legends series was announced it blew my mind that someone had opted to write an El Borak story. It was also a prospect that filled me with dread. Francis Xavier Gordon, also known as El Borak, is my favorite Robert E. Howard character occupying one of my favorite historical time periods and located in one of the most adventurous geographical regions on the planet. When talking straight Adventure with a capital A, its hard to get better than El Borak. Finally, after a year of waiting (I think? At least it seems like a year) I recieved notice that the newest El Borak story was waiting for me in my Kindle app. Was the wait worth it? Was the dread justified?
Spoiler-free review: I am not offended. Nor am I particularly impressed.
Spoilers from here on out, so beware.
One of my biggest apprehensions about an El Borak pastiche by someone not Howard is whether or not they "get" it. REH has a cadre of characters that go toe-to-toe with supernatural threats and more often than not come out on top. El Borak is NOT one of those heroes. Gordon is a Texas gunfighter dropped into the wilds of Central Asia during a period we now refer to as "The Great Game", when Britian and Russia vied for supremecy over the rugged deserts of Afghanistan, lush valleys of the Hindu Kush, and razor-edged peaks of the Himalayas. The closest thing to supernatural that El Borak gets to is finding a lost colony of Alexander the Great's descendants in an early story. The cynic in me, driven in part by El Borak's teased inclusion in the comic side of the "Black Stone Saga", knew that the author was going to throw some demon or Lovecraftian beast in there just to fit in.
I am happy to report, that is not the case.
In fact, the author appears to have done some research on the period as well; something that brought me great joy. Early on we are introduced to an Indian-descent Pundit, or spy, for the British Raj. In reality, these native agents were hired and trained by spymasters to infiltrate and survey blank spots of the map where Westerners were not allowed. They were taught to walk with precise pacing and to count miles by the modified Buddhist prayer beads on their wrist. This is all noted by author James Lovegrove. He does mention the Pundit can calculate both Latitude and Longitude, though they were only taught to do one and not the other.
Mere quibbles, mind you. From a nerd.
Something I also enjoyed from Lovegrove is that he begins the story with a date: 1903. This is placed a scanty four years before British fears of a Russian invasion of India finally ended. Interestingly, it is also two years after the publication of Rudyard Kipling's "Kim", a novel about a street urchin recruited by a spymaster to play in the Great Game. This novel popularized the term, though it was first coined in 1840 by Captain Arthur Conolly.
The setting is also unique to the El Borak stories, taking place high in Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, which was then part of Russian controlled Turkestan. Instead of parched deserts we are privy to glacial peaks and narrow trails along shear cliffs. There is even a brief encounter with Snow Leopards, those rare and elusive big cats of Central Asia.
That said, I fear I've made it sound more exciting that the story reads.
The plot clips along at a good pace and doesn't dawdle, but the thrills are tempered by the format in which it was written. The story itself is composed as a letter from Lieutenant John Stock of the 1st Punjab Regiment to the Viceroy of India.
John Stock is very much the PoV character of the story, describing his time with El Borak in broad, sweeping strokes. If tasked with writing an El Borak story, this is a strategy I would likely employ as well. Many times I have espoused that a Conan movie works better if Conan isn't the eyes through which the audience sees the world. We need to aschew the character arc and witness his force of nature. Lovegrove follows this trail well enough, with Stock describing his awe at the daring and seemingly barabric decisions El Borak makes. Stock makes it clear that this is no man of British civilization, more akin to a wild thing.
This is good.
However, as I elluded to earlier, this letter that Stock has written is only modestly exciting. It is also far shorter than all of the other El Borak stories by Howard. I don't begrudge this, but a decent amount of words are used first getting to El Borak and the to the eponymous Lamakan. While we meet the mysterious queen of this fabled (and ficitonal) land, it is but a brief encounter and I felt it insufficient to feel the wonder we were told we would feel.
I think that is my biggest issue with this short. We are told a lot of things by John Stock, but when we see them they are less than described.
Take for example, the villain, one Major Andrei Razin. We are told he is a brutal savage of a man. And while there is a brief scene in when he seemingly orders captives to be crucified, it is really the only display of brutality we get. When finally we meet the man in person, other than his bushy mustache, we aren't given anything imposing or particularly memorable and he meets his end in no particulary memorable fashion. I can't help but wonder if the PoV was closer to the action, more in-the-thick-of-it as opposed to this epistolary letter, that it'd get my heart pumping more.
Still, it is a fine story and its brevity keeps it quite readable. I will likely read it again and am happy to include it in the El Borak canon. I just wish there was....more? More.
Interestingly enough, as I read this I couldn't help but see similarities to my own story
"Honor Among Rogues" in the anthology "We Who are About to Die" by Rogue Blades. They are not one-to-one and I am in no way accusing anyone of plagiarism. I simply thought it interesting that Lovegrove and I had similar ideas.
As it stands, the story is only $1.99 plus tax. At that price, its hard not to recommend. While times are tough, a couple bucks won't likely break your bank if your interest in piqued. I have to wonder though, how many will pick this up as the character is a little more obscure and lacks that supernatual element that many Howard fans love? I feel it was a longshot that I even got one El Borak story, so perhaps I should just be grateful.
What did you think of "The Siege of Lamakan" by James Lovegrove? Would you read more El Borak? Or is the historical setting without sorcery a turn off? Did you notice any similarities with "Honor Among Rogues"?
Let me know!
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