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Book ReviewsKing of the Khyber Rifles (Thorndike Classics) |
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Book: King of the Khyber Rifles (Thorndike Classics)
Written by: Talbot Mundy |
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5
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Mundy is one of the best!!!!!!!
Rating:
5 / 5
King of the Khyber Rifles (KOTKR) is just one of the great books that Talbot Mundy wrote. It was one of his first books and one of his best. This book and many of his others not only inspired other early writers like Robert E Howard but they also inspired more modern authors. In Robert Heinlein's Glory Road, Heinlein refers to Tros of Samothrace (a Mundy character). S. M. Stirling in Peshawar Lancers is obviously paying tribute to Mundy and other pulp writers of the time. Fritz Leiber (look up author on amazon.com if you are unaware of this science fiction and fantasy author's work. His "Fafhred and the Grey Mouser" series is on a par with Conan.) wrote an entire essay on how the "Tros of Samothrace" was one of his favorite set of books to read. If you haven't read any Mundy books yet, KOTKR and the Tros of Samothrace series are the best ones to start with. My comparision of Mundy and Kipling is that Kipling wrote from the typical British Colonialist's point of view. Mundy not only loved India, he "lived" India and Mundy's books reflect this. (Sidebar note of interest - Mundy hated being compared to Kipling. He preferred that his writing be compared to H. R. Haggard.) And if that wasn't enough, Mundy's chief characters (King, Jimgrim and Tros) all have a depth of intellect not seen in most of today's writing. Also many of Mundy's books have a surprising amount of mysticism and spirituality that adds immensely to the allure and intrigue of the storyline.
Like the Kyber Pass? Don't pass this one up
Rating:
5 / 5
I couldn't agree more with the earlier reviewer. Mundy is one of my favorite 'adventure' novelists, and this is one of his better works. He's almost forgotten today, but as a pulp writer he kept many on the edge of their seats 60 years ago. If you like E.R. Burroughs, Sax Rohmer or Robert E. Howard, this is one you shouldn't miss (Howard based one of his characters, 'Francis X Gordon on Mundy's King) If you liked R. Kiplings 'Kim'...imagine Kim grown up. Exotic love interest, intrique,a keen eye for native customs of 100 years ago, swords and blazing pistols, charging lancers on a path 6 feet wide, with death inches away over the edge 3000 feet to the canyon below...'King, of the Khyber Rifles' is about a British officer involved in the 'mysticism' of then-forbidden Tibet, includes frequent skirmishes with skulking mountain warriors, the old 'keeping the Khyber pass open' ploy, oh just read it. Mix up a peg of whiskey-soda, and escape the mundane last years of the 20th century. You can't go wrong with Talbot Mundy.
Wow!
Rating:
5 / 5
Imagine Kipling writing about India... now imagine the same stories as rewrittten by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but an ERB that actually sounds as if he's been in the places he's writing about. And all the detail of a George Macdonald Fraser novel... Then you throw in some mystic stuff that makes William S. Burroughs sound illiterate, add a pinch of "Boys Own Stories" or "Biggles" or whatever then light a match... this is one amazing novel, it really is.
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