If you have ever secretly wished for a life of complete freedom in which you could, yea, even were encouraged, to take whatever you wanted by the strength of your own fists and sword-arm... well, enter into this fantasy and revel in it. Unabashed and brutal, both the world of Almuric and the hero Esau Cairn, romp across the pages with a freedom that the civilised world does not have. Probably just as well, I don't think I'd like to live there, but it is fun to visit through these pages. A good escapist read.

A sword and planet adventure in the Burroughs tradition. If you like that sort of thing I am pretty sure you will like this one.

Of the protagonist:

"Esau Cairn was, in short, a freak--a
man whose physical body and mental bent leaned back to the primordial.

Born in the Southwest, of old frontier stock, he came of a race whose characteristics were inclined toward violence, and whose traditions were of war and feud and battle against man and nature. The mountain country in which he spent his boyhood carried out the tradition. Contest--physical contest--was the breath of life to him.
Without it he was unstable and uncertain. Because of his peculiar physical make-up, full enjoyment in a legitimate way, in the ring or on the football field was denied him. His career as a football player was marked by crippling injuries received by men playing against him, and he was branded as an unnecessarily brutal man, who fought to maim his opponents rather than win games. This was unfair. The injuries were simply resultant from the use of his great strength, always so far superior to that of the men opposed to him. Cairn was not a great sluggish lethargic giant as so many powerful men are; he was vibrant with fierce life, ablaze with dynamic energy. Carried away by the lust of combat, he forgot to control his powers, and the result was broken limbs or fractured skulls for his opponents."

Desperate for a place to fit in he gets himself transported to another world by a man who now recounts his story.

And a dangerous place it is to arrive with nothing.

Needless to say, he gets over that, and soon swords, warriors, winged she-devils, evil queens and more are all over the place as he gets into trouble and doing some good that Conan himself would certainly be happy to have been involved in.

There are bad, violent, torturing things to be overthrown, and Esau Cairn is the man to lead the army to do it.

Not much to say that hasn't been said, though it's worth noting that fans of Howard will especially appreciate this book as it's one of his few novellas, and with the expanded length he delves deeper into the philosophy that motivates his characters and drives his stories. The plaintive ruminations of a man trapped in a time too civilized for his spirit can be heard rumbling throughout Howard's oeuvre, but here he lays out all his cards and makes explicit the thoughts that drive his writings. Fascinating stuff from the grandfather of modern fantasy.

This is Howard's take on an Edgar Rice Burroughs style of planetary romance. Esau Cairn is a man too strong and brutal for our world. So in escaping a trumped up murder charge he mangages to get teleported to a hell-hole of a planet where he has to battle for survival every inch of the way against nature, monsters and his fellow (cave)man and loves every minute of it.
The humanoid inhabitants of this world are straight out of Tarzan's Opar. The men are brutish Troglodites and the women are barely clad Euro-Babes. In their society Esau wins honor, love and friendship by beating people half to death!
The main baddies, the winged humanoid "Yagga", are such sick evil puppies that they prove to be worthy recipients of Cairns unrestrained fury once he unleahses and cuts loose. Unrestrained is the word which describes this book. If you love enthusiastic brainless fun,action and adventure then this is the book for you. It fires away on all cylinders at a breakneck pace.It's not REH at his best. But mediocre REH still stands head and sholders above the rest. This is pure entertainment. And as entertainment I give it 2 thumbs up.

Esau Cairn is no Conan or Solomon but REH's Almuric is a still a solid adventure story of the man who did not fit in. The outcast Cairn's savage struggle for survival provides a great opening and definitely strong echoes of Jack London resonates.
The world of Almuric is a neolothic battlefield of barbarism, feuds and eldritch mysteries. The Yagga are splendidly demonic and debauched (a bit like drow on a bender).
REH provides tantalizing glimpses of this caveman's world and one almost wishes Cairn had dallied a bit more in the wilds or the ruins of these strange civilizations. While never a strong builder of character, Cairn despite a promising premise remains rather neutral with not even the glimpses of Kull's introspection or Bran Mak Morn's sense of weary destiny.
A worthy addition to REH and a fun read yet one wishes Howard had sketched out a little more for Cairn to explore.

After many years of neglecting my decades old pulp addiction, Almuric arrived on my doorstep. I was halfway through a different book, but I put it down to read this one in two days. What a refreshment! Howard's visions are just a blast to read. Mighty thews, lopping of the heads of your depraved enemies while seducing the ivory skinned fair maidens of an alien planet....this book is just plain FUN!