Book Review: 'Solomon Kane' by Ramsey Campbell
'Solomon Kane' (290 pp.) was published by Titan Books in February 2010 as a tie-in with the film of the same name (the film was released in Europe and the UK in 2009, but due to legal reasons, it didn't appear in the U.S. until 2012).
I don't usually review books published after the early 1990s, but I occasionally make exceptions. In this case, it's because I've previously covered the Solomon Kane franchise, particularly the comics that appeared in the pages of Marvel publications during the 1970s and 1980s.
The novel is based on the screenplay, by Michael J. Bassett, who also directed the film.
Campbell does a reasonably good job of giving the novelization a ‘literary’ coating that expands on the screenplay and, unsurprisingly for a novelization by Campbell, gives greater emphasis to the horror aspects of the story.
As the novelization begins Kane reluctantly has agreed to depart a monastery, where he has been immersed in penitence, to make his way to Axmouth, his family's hereditary estate. Kane has not been in Axmouth since his childhood, when a moment of violence led to his banishment.
But in the screenplay's setting, even a simple journey home to Axmouth will be hazardous for Kane. The initial chapters of the novelization, which are the best, introduce him into a bleak and wintry landscape where bands of cutthroats and marauders are terrorizing the populace, and Kane's pacifistic attitude does little to spare him from undergoing all manner of cruelties.
He also introduces some scenes that apparently were cut from the final script, and these give added depth to the storyline. Campbell's descriptive passages of the English landscape ably complement the 'desaturated' coloration of the film, a visual style that has become something of the status quo for contemporary fantasy feature films (Snow White and the Huntsman) and television (The Witcher).
Summing up, if you're a fan of the Solomon Kane character, sword-and-sorcery literature, or the works of Ramsey Campbell, then the novelization of the film is worth acquiring. I also recommend viewing the film (if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, it's free to watch - although you do have to sit through commercials).
1 comment:
I was pleasantly supposed by this novelization when I found it on the Dollar Tree book rack. A worthy adaptation of Howard's character.
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