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Tarra Khash: Hrossak! (Tales Of The Primal Land) by Brian Lumley
01/04/2007 . Source: Neale Monks 
pub: TOR/Forge. 256 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US). ISBN: 0-765-31075-9. Buy Tarra Khash: Hrossak in the USA - or Buy Tarra Khash: Hrossak in the UK  check out website: www.tor-forge.com and
Though marketed as 'classic Lovecraftian horror' by its publishers, Brian Lumley's compendium of short stories draws its inspiration as much from the 'Dreamlands' cycle of stories as the better known Cthulhu Mythos. Rather than being tales of horror and suspense, the stories that make up this second volume of 'Tales Of The Primal Land' are works of fantasy that were originally published as free-standing adventures of their own.
Together, they chronicle the journey of barbarian hero Tarra Khash across the legend-filled realm of Theem'hdra. Along the way, he acquires and loses treasures, encounters monsters and wizards, makes remarkable friends and dangerous enemies and generally does all the things heroes in sword-and-sorcery novels are supposed to do. Nothing in the book is intellectually challenging but light, unpretentious and easy to read.
'Tarra Khash: Hrossak!' is divided into six chapters, each a short story that had previously been published elsewhere. They are set on the island continent of Theem'hdra, which is rather attractively illustrated on a two-page map at the start of the book.
Containing deserts, mountains, forests and all the other habitats required for satisfying adventures, Theem'hdra may be an original creation but will feel instantly familiar to any reader of fantasy fiction. For the most part, the characters that inhabit this world are familiar too: cunning wizards, avaricious barons, bloodthirsty bandits and so on.
If any of these characters have a history or motives for their actions, not much is revealed. Only a few characters have any great depth. Most notably the strange humanoid Amyr Arn who Tarra Khash encounters early on in the book and then again towards the end and Orbiquita, an apparently demonic being of a type known locally as a Lamia.
Tarra Khash himself is never really filled out as a person and there's no trace of character development neither. He's pretty much the standard issue hero of the Conan or Hercules type, using a mix of brains and brawn to overcome the odds. He's likeable and apparently willing to err on the side of good nature - something that ends up saving his life on more than one occasion.
Having made the point that the book isn't deep and not particularly original, it would be easy to condemn the stories as derivative or overly-imitative. Even worse, by dipping into the Cthulhu Mythos, Lumley could have ended up with something that was little more than pastiche. In fact, the book works rather well and the stories are engaging and the background attractive. There's enough said about the history and myths of Theem'hdra that the reader can suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the stories from beginning to end. Stories tangential to the main narrative are told by characters Tarra Khash meets, while visual clues to connections with the Cthulhu Mythos invite to reader to speculate on the connections between the tales Lovecraft has told with those that Lumley presents here.
What is particularly nice for the aficionado of the fantasy fiction of the 1920s and 30s is how elegantly Lumley balances honours those older works while keeping the sensibilities of the stories firmly in the modern age. So the titles of some of the chapters are pure pulp fiction: 'Treasure Of The Scarlet Scorpion' and 'In The Temple Of Terror' for example. Lovecraft would have been proud of such names! But there's no trace of the vaguely racist or misogynistic themes often found in works by those earlier authors. It's all firmly post-modern in its tone, with the outsiders more likely to be the heroes as those who conform to the heroic stereotypes (Tarra Khash himself excepted, of course).
The characters all talk to one another in Standard English without any of the flowery language often common in older fantasy novels. On the other hand, though, there are lots of exotically named things, like cities are rivers, peppering the book, and most of these names share the same sorts of spellings and phonetics as Lovecraft liked to use. So we have the mysterious Suhm-yi and opulent KlŸhn to give just two examples. Point and counterpoint, the book is both a homage to the past and modern fantasy fiction.
Although the short stories do hang together as a complete novel reasonably well, there is still a vague shadow of the 'reset button' between them. Tarra Khash has to keep losing the wealth he made in the previous tale if he is going to have any motivation revenge or further adventure in the next tale and little of what he does in one tale has any repercussions later on. Though cunning when plotting to overtake his enemies, Tarra Khash seems to be implausibly dumb in the gambling den scene.
On this occasion, at least his stupidity seems to be forced onto him by an author who wants the character to end up in a specifically awkward predicament that allows a character from an earlier tale to return - slightly deus ex machina - and save the day. On the whole, though, the stories do flow into each other logically enough and the rapid pace at which things happen prevents the reader from tarrying overlong on the sometimes contrived plot devices and excessively convenient coincidences.
Though Brian Lumley is perhaps better known as a writer of horror fiction, 'Tarra Khash: Hrossak!' clearly shows he understands the fantasy literature as well. 'Tarra Khash: Hrossak!' is lively, entertaining and above all great fun.
Neale Monks
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