Thursday, August 02, 2012

Book review - "Allan and the Holy Flower" (1915) by H Rider Haggard

You get the feeling Haggard wrote this for money because it's basically rehashed ingredients from earlier Allan Quatermain adventures: an expedition to the interior with two other white men (one an aristocrat the other an eccentric) plus a really tough native with an exotic past; one of the other white men is looking for a long lost relative; visiting a mysterious civilisation; white queens (well, priestesses); brave natives giving up their lives for the whites; villainous rulers, secret caverns, treasure (in this case a flower).

For all that I still enjoyed it - the action moves along at a fair clip, there are some exciting bits and sequences (such as Hans revealing he had the gun). It's minor Haggard and he's a bit lazy but it has pace.

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