Cimmerian September continues with three Kull pastiche short stories from Titan Books and their Heroic Legends series.
Kull: The Talons of the Deep by Francesco Dimitri (Titan Books, 2025)
King Kull and Brule the Spear-Slayer investigate after a mysterious village appears overnight. The villagers they meet act like they’ve been there all along and the village chief, a beautiful woman, winds up turning their questions back on them. While poking around at night they start seeing visions of possible pasts and futures.
This does a good job of channeling the fairy tale and dream-like quality of Howard’s Kull stories like “The Mirrors of Tuzan Thune” and “The Cat and the Skull,” but the action at the end is lackluster and glossed over. Especially disappointing after we discover what Kull and Brule wind up facing. What could have been an absolutely epic battle just fizzles out.
The story has two somewhat interesting revelations. One that ties into one of Howard’s stories and another that feels like a retcon but could explain why Kull does not have any women in his life after he becomes king. While I enjoyed the ethereal atmosphere and the story’s commentary on time and reality, the ending didn’t quite stick the landing.
Rating: 3/5
Kull: The Undoomed Man by Adam Rose (Titan Books, 2026)
In this story we meet a young Kull while he is still a slave and trying to earn his freedom by hunting down a beast that has been butchering local livestock. I enjoyed some of the descriptive prose but there are a number of things that happened that pulled me out of the story. One example being a bounty hunter telling Kull he no longer kills, just after attacking Kull with an ax. Twice. There are lines in which Kull contemplates reality as in the Howard tales, but here I feel they appear randomly. While the story does mix a philosophical Kull with action as in the original stories, it didn’t come together for me.
Rating: 2/5
Kull: The Heart of Piri’nach by George Mann (Titan Books, 2026)
After a warrior woman petitions King Kull for help in recovering her sister from a sinister cult, Kull, Brule, and the woman infiltrate the temple where the sister was last seen. Their investigation leads them to Kull’s nemesis Thulsa Doom and a creepy Lovecraftian creature. I loved the opening poetry, the prose, the action scenes, and the use of the creature. Kull doesn't brood as much as in Howard's stories, but this was a fun, fast paced, and engaging read.
Rating: 5/5
The first story was okay, I was disappointed with the second, and the third was fantastic. Not bad when it comes to short stories.
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