Brak is going a wandering with a destination in mind. He is definitely the grim and dour sort of barbarian, and not too trusting with the ladies, unlike some others.

He has problems with servants of a Cthulhoid deity, some enslavement, Doomdogs, Fangfish, and does a queen a big favour after she saves him.

He doesn't trust himself enough with women to stay with so off he goes on his barbarian sword carrying ways.

Just not very good, this collection, with the odd amusing bit.

Brak the Barbarian : 1 The Unspeakable Shrine - John Jakes
Brak the Barbarian : 2 Flame Face - John Jakes
Brak the Barbarian : 3 The Courts of the Conjurer [The Silk of Shaitan] - John Jakes
Brak the Barbarian : 4 Ghosts of Stone [The Pillars of Chambalor] - John Jakes
Brak the Barbarian : 5 The Barge of Souls - John Jakes

"Our little acolytes of Yob-Haggoth," the mendicant spat, "are most efficient when it comes to disposing of outlanders who mock the Dark One's ways. At him, Darters!"

...

"One was just concluded," the barbarian rumbled, "and another is about to begin if you mean to quarrel. Be off, little boy, before I take this sword and whack your backside."

...

"Foul pit-things!" Brak shouted, raising his broadsword and charging forward to gut them.

...

The world was darkening. The statue of Yob-Haggoth was changing from living, undulating light back to sickly green-shot stone. From within the statue's heart came a titanic grinding.

"You barbarian filth!"

3 out of 5

One of Brak's brawny arms thrust out. He was beginning to get a bellyful once again of the civilities and courtesies of those who were, supposedly, the opposite of barbaric. Brak's powerful fingers closed around the retainer's wattled throat.

"Not one word," Brak whispered.

"Let me go," the man cheeped, wriggling.

"Yes, I will. But make any sign to reveal that I don't belong to your Lord's pack of retainers and this toy of a sword they gave me can probably slit your stomach open before it snaps."

Fangfish are also annoying.

2.5 out of 5

"Hackles on his neck crawling, Brak sliced at the feeler constricting his arm. The edge of his broadsword barely dented the pulpish surface. Clacka-clacka-clacka went the mouth. The thing had a good two-dozen legs for propulsion. And twice that many feelers, all waving and questing in the dark red air. It lumbered closer to its prey.

Brak sawed hard at the tentacles. His heart thudded in his gigantic body. Taking a firmer grip on the haft of his blade, he lifted the iron over his head, and brought it flashing down.

With a jerk and a lash, the feeler was cleft.

Its backlash struck Brak in the cheek. Drops of hot, sticky ichor dribbled down his chin. That ichor burned like a fire-heated iron. The pain was far worse than that from the tentacle coiled around his calf. With another great stroke, Brak sliced that tentacle in half.

...

"In later times, a certain wandering mendicant—called Juhad, he was, Juhad the Pit-walker—claimed to have had concourse with this master-sorcerer Septegundus. Juhad carried with him until the day he died tablets of clay, written upon with a stylus. Those tablets bore the incantation that would release the tormented souls of Chambalor and, incidentally, the treasure one day."

2.5 out of 5

"With superhuman concentration, Brak tried to be wary of the sword that was shining bright, now that Lord Hel had whipped it from its ornamented case. Yet the queen's shade was wrapping round and round Brak so that all his bronzed skin turned blotchy, purpled, and began to glisten wet beneath the funeral-white paste.

As Lord Hel slipped in for the kill, Brak saw again what he had seen in the stable of the net.

The flat of the Lord's long, wicked blade was marked half its length with some dead enemy's blackened blood."

3 out of 5

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2007/03/brak-1-brak-barbarian.html ( )

Before making his name as a writer of American historical fiction, Jakes was an associate of Lin Carter, L Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber and other exponents of Sword and Sorcery.
Brak is something of a poor man's Conan - not as much as Gardner F Fox's Kothar though - and the world he roams, which Lin Carter referred to as 'Para-Terra', is a slightly confusing mix of Hyborian locales and culture with early-Christian religion. The geography of Para-Terra is slightly confused also; 2 attempts to create maps based on Brak's travels have both resulted in 2 countries having the same name (Kopt) in order to conform with Jakes' description.

Brak's quest is to travel to Khurdisan in the south and this first Brak book gathers 5 of Jakes' short stories written in the early/mid 1960s.
Workmanlike S&S at best, one for the diehard fan.
A good Brak website: http://www.dodgenet.com/~moonblossom/... ( )