Thoughts on When Death Birds Fly by Andrew Offutt and Keith Taylor ~ Vintage Fantasy Paperback

New phone, new case of RSV, new discussion of a vintage fantasy paperback. This time it's the fifth in Andrew J. Offutt's Cormac mac Art series.
#smallbooktube #vintagepaperbacks #bookreview

[@ThePontificatingAHole]

It occurs to me that I probably should clarify the arrangements of the books, as several editions were published, with different numbering. For instance, I have a copy of The Mists of Doom numbered 4 in the series that has the author's signature on the splash page, and I have a copy of the same book numbered 1. The reason is because Offutt wrote The Sword of the Gael first, then The Undying Wizard, and The Sign of the Moonbow. After that, he published The Mists of Doom, The Tower of Death, and When Death Birds Fly. The latter three were prequels to the former three, and The Robert E. Howard collection of Cormac's adventures that started it all in the 30s was published as Tigers of the Sea. That is sort of the midpoint if you take the seven (including Howard's collection) in the following chronological order of Cormac's career:
1. The Mists of Doom (how Cormac was exiled from Eirinn and the girl he left behind)
2. The Tower of Death (eight years later after meeting Wulfhere Hausakliufr) and his adventures in Galicia
3. When Death Birds Fly (the book you review here - Sigebert and Lucanor were introduced in The Tower of Death
4. Tigers of the Sea (my edition is a Baen Books edition with a fleshed out story by David Drake) called Cormac mac Art
5. Sword of the Gael
6. The Undying Wizard (Thulsa Doom makes his appearance here)
7. The Sign of the Moonbow (something tells me that Offutt wrote this as a conclusion and Cormac is reunited with Samaire (the daughter of Leinster's king whom he had to leave as he fled Eirinn)
I have only read 1, part of 2, and 4. I have seen some spoilers in various places for the other books and read the back cover blurbs that are supposed to entice you to buy it.

[@ThePontificatingAHole]

I read The Mists of Doom first and am reading The Tower of Death now, with When Death Birds Fly next since the series arrangement has set these up chronologically with Cormac's career. The Mists of Doom explore Cormac's exile from Connachtand ultimately Eirrinn. He falls in love with the princess of Leinstet and has to leave her behind. Cormac isn't so much strong as he is wily. He is nothing like the typical warrior hero template. He is a cool-headed tactician and planner. I find Cormac to have a little more depth than you have found him. I agree that Wulfhere is a stock character, though.

[@ThePontificatingAHole]

If you read the books in chronological order by Cormac's career, you see why he is so brooding and seems aloof from the advances of the women (at least in The Tower of Death - he is still pining for Samaire and expects trouble when getting involved with the daughters of kings) who seem to throw themselves at his feet everywhere he goes.
Cormac is not as one-dimensional as you might think at first glance. He actually has a lot of depth to him, and The Mists of Doom tells us a lot about this adventurer that explains his portrayal in other novels in the series. Now, I do agree that the novels Offutt co-wrote with Keith Taylor were better, but Cormac is a little deeper than most of the templates laid out for this genre of fantasy - Conan is strong, agile, and swift. Not much is said of his skill at arms per se. The impression one gets is that he survived largely through sheer determination and physical prowess. Cormac, on the other hand, is described as wily, cunning, and one character remarks that with Cormac in Eirinn, the snakes were not driven from that isle. In the Mists of Doom, it's Cormac's left-handed problem solving that turns the tides of battle in more than one occasion, not his strength, though that is clearly touted, too. I think of Cormac as a Gaelic Alexander the Great, and I have always been intrigued by heroes who aren't just big dumb fighters (or BDFs as we used to call them on the TTRPG game convention scene).
I'm not refuting your opinion or anything. I just find Cormac to have more depth as a character than you do. To each his own.