Charles Saunders’ sword-and-sorcery hero Imaro has been around for years, for most of my lifetime in fact. I’ve been aware of the character, encountering him in various anthologies. But until recently I’ve only scratched the surface of Saunders’ creation. With the purchase of the 2006 Night Shade edition of Imaro, I was finally able to delve more deeply, though there remains more to explore.
The book is the first of, apparently, four volumes narrating Imaro’s adventures. This one is his origin story, youthful adventures, and early manhood. It is a tragic, brutal, and bloody origin, establishing a character motivated by resentment, hate, and a desire to belong. Saunders builds a believable faux-Africa of varied topography, tribes, and civilizations. He writes vibrantly, painting vivid scenes. Imaro, in many ways a prototypical S&S protagonist, is generally a sympathetic character. He is not Conan and Saunders is not Robert E. Howard. Yet, have you seen those videos in which two different songs possess the same rhythmic structure and so the music aligns harmonically? This is similar: the music isn’t the same, but Imaro’s life (from what I’ve read so far) hits the same beats: the dangerous upbringing in a respected tribe, the early strength and youthful exploit, the joining of band of brigands, rise to its leadership, and its eventual violent dissolution at the hands of an army. All accompanied by the horrific supernatural elements necessary to sword-and-sorcery.
It’s all good stuff. And I reckon I’ll keep an eye out for book two. My only quibble — and that’s all it is, a quibble — is that I feel the stories would work better as standalones, published in magazines or anthologies, rather than stitched together in novel form. But I won’t let wishing for the perfect impede my enjoyment of the good. Recommended.
I also recommend picking up something of mine while you are waiting to get your hands on a copy of Imaro’s adventures. Perhaps Thick As Thieves also available in digital format. That one ought to keep you entertained.
4 comments
The Imaro stories feel better separately because that’s what the first book is; a collection of short stories. The other books are more cohesive, as they were written as novels. If you’re lucky enough to find them, you’re in for a treat.
That strikes me as reasonable enough. And I always like to have something to look for when browsing used bookstores.
IMARO is a fix up of stories that originally appeared in small press magazines in the 1970s. That is why it has the episodic feel.
Indeed. If only Carter and the other anthologizers of the 70s had reprinted more of them…. Well, it still works.